Here's your (serious) copycat thread: What can you tell me about Dallas?

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

My husband has been offered a job there, and we'll be moving (or at least HE will) when he gets his Texas medical license. I want to stay in Pittsburgh to do my third year of law school and then move. There are provisions for me to do third year elsewhere and still graduate from Pitt, but I really love my school, and I've come this far and I don't want to do the last year away from my friends. Besides, the tuition will still be lower here than it would in Texas, and we have to sell our BLASTED house.

I've been to Dallas several times for soccer games and to visit my late sister who lived in Fort Worth, but I've never lived there. I have worn my 49ers jacket there and not been killed; I also wore an anti-Bush t-shirt at a local mall and had several people come up to me and WHISPER, "I like your shirt!" Are there pockets of Democratic sanity which we'd want to embrace and infestations of Repugs which we'd want to avoid?

Because my husband is a physician, we are fortunate enough to be able to afford a good-sized house. We'd like to live close enough to Southwestern to avoid long commutes, but want to live in an open-minded area in which he won't be shunned because he's Pakistani.

I'm excited about this move because we have family and friends in the area and because I'll be closer to my hometown of Wichita, but I am somewhat apprehensive about the "I support Bush 110%/don't mess with Texas" mentality (not to mention the loathed "HOW 'BOUT THEM COWBOYS!"). Any advice on good places to live and go for entertainment would be much appreciated!

[mourningdove92]

1. Not all Texans are Bushites. More and more are falling

away everyday.
Now, about the "how bout them cowboys" thing. You can get away with wearing an Anti Bush tee shirt, and a Pakistani husband, but watch out for anti cowboy remarks.
We take our "boys" seriously here. Now, if you are a fan, you can criticize all you want, especially if the subject is Jones.
hehehe

[Gothmog]

2. Dallas is an interesting city

I live and practice law in Houston but go to Dallas a great deal. Dallas is more conservative than Houston. Gore actually carried Harris county. The biggest complaint that I have about Dallas is that the business community is very inbred. When I was coming out of law school, I interviewed with several Dallas firms and the main question was what was my contact or link to Dallas and I got the impression that Dallas prefers people born and raised in Dallas.

Dallas has a nice mass transit system (by Texas standards) and some nice neighborhoods to live in. There are a couple of outstanding public and private schools that my kids run into at tournaments from time to time. Dallas has more cold weather than Houston and people in Dallas do not know how to drive on ice or snow.

BTW, my son is going to SMU next year and so will be in Dallas also.

[SmileyBoy]

3. I've heard that Dallas is heavily polluted, sprawling and hot.

The average high in July is 96 degrees. I guess it doesn't get below 100 for a long time in the summer. I couldn't live like that.

[Wright Patman]

4. Dallas is THE WORST

city in Texas. While I wouldn't say "Dallas killed Kennedy," and they had to live down that slogan for 20 years after it happened, certainly the climate of right-wing hate represented by H.L. Hunt and others existed with enough magnitude to kill him.

And I daresay it still exists with enough ferocity to this day to kill any Democratic Party presidential nominee who were to ride through Dealey Plaza in an open -air motorcade.

There was an extremely vitriolic full-page anti-JFK ad taken out in the Dallas paper by Hunt or a front group financed by him on the very day JFK's brains were blown out.

There are pockets of sanity in Texas, but you are moving to the wrong place to find them. Ironically, Dallas is what I would call one of the least "Texan" of our major cities because of all the corporate relocations which brought Midwesterners and others down there in droves, but there must be something in the water because they all turn rabidly right-wing after living there for a while.

I think one reason for that place's bad attitude is that Dallas has no scenery. Way too much concrete, steel and asphalt, which means in July and August, it is routinely 115 degrees in the city from the "heat island" effect.

Because the suburbanites do not believe in water conservation and waste it on their lawns and pools, they are trying to commandeer the water resources of East Texas, whose environment has already been raped by the creation of at least a dozen artificial reservoirs to feed Dallas' H2O addiction. But it's never enough. They are now agitating to build another huge reservoir in Northeast Texas to destroy more bottomland forests and habitat.

Hey, that's it. There IS something in the water. It comes from East Texas, which might as well be Mississippi in a lot of ways.

Dallas is located on a blackland prairie. It is pretty well flat with a few trees which would be called overgrown shrubs east of the Mississippi. When you live in such a sterile environment, making money becomes your raison d'etre. There used to be a commercial for a major Dallas bank called Republic National Bank (long since defunct) narrated by Orson Welles. He would intone, "Dallas is money!" and "Republic National Bank IS Dallas."

Okay, other than all that, Dallas is just peachy!

[Speck Tater]

5. Debbie did it. n/t

[The Lone Liberal]

6. Trying imagining a place where eight months out of every year

The temperature hovers around the same temperature that lead melts, that is Dallas. Add to that every element in the known world that is capable of inducing deadly allergies, that is Dallas. As a topper you have the experience of dining at a four star restaurant where the sommelier suggest the latest vintage RC Cola to accompany your gourmet diner, that is Dallas.

[Buns_of_Fire]

7. But they DO have WhatABurger!

And an interesting "underground" Dallas, if you're into wandering from edge to edge perusing overpriced trendy shops. Believe me, in summer, underground is the place to be. Trust me on this one...

But, I must admit, DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) is fairly decent, and you can save your tickets to make dandy bookmarks.

[jburton]

8. Check out Lakewood/White Rock Lake area

Whatever you do, stay out of the 'burbs. This is my general rule in every city I've lived in, but Dallas even more so. Not only for political reasons, but Dallas burbs lack mature trees, which is terribly ugly IMHO.

[bratcatinok]

9. I was born in Dallas

and have lived there twice as an adult. Matter of fact I moved from Dallas 2.5 years ago to Oklahoma.

There are all sorts of wonderful places to eat. Everything from fast food to fine dining (with excellent wine cellars). Most of Dallas is dry which means most clubs/dining establishments that serve alcoholic beverages will be considered private clubs. You won't have to buy a membership, you'll simply have to join.

There are pretty areas of Dallas. Oak Cliff is pretty and is in the process of being revitalized as is downtown Dallas. North Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Carrollton, Farmers Branch are part of what I consider to be N. Dallas. The scenery in that area is boring since it's basically suburbia. Highland Park is a very nice but pricey neighborhood with excellent schools and there own police department.

http://www.dallascityhall.com/

http://www.dallasobserver.com/

http://www.dm-art.org/

http://www.dallas-zoo.org/home/home.asp

http://www.dallassymphony.com/

http://www.dallasopera.org/

The State Fair is held in Dallas every October and is the best state fair to be found anywhere.

Killer heat in July, August and into September. Not as humid as Houston but 100-110 is hot no matter how you cut it. Texans do NOT know how to drive in ice. We're made fun of by people who are used to driving in snow but whose cities also shut down because of ice. Normally there are a couple of days each winter when the city is paralyzed by icy roads. The ice doesn't have to get very thick before you're taking your life in your hands to venture out onto the freeways.

[Buns_of_Fire]

10. Tell me about killer heat!

When I worked downtown, and lived off of Greenville Highway, I used to park my car at the nearest DART stop. One summer evening, I returned to find that my rear-view mirror had melted (yes, I said MELTED) off the windshield.

(And be sure to check out the "Deep Ellum" area...!)

So far as driving on ice is concerned, I spent one winter assigned to Omaha (after living in the deep south all of my life). After a few days, I discovered a truism: People who live in the northern climes can't drive any better than we southerners can in the ice and snow! (We're just more flamboyant about it!)

[Gothmog]

11. Dallas is hot but we know how to use air conditioning in Texas

The heat can be bad in Dallas. Two or three years ago, they had something like 60 or 75 days above 100 degrees. However, Dallas is not that humid. We know how to use air conditioning here in Texas and the heat is not that bad if you watch what you are doing.

Your husband will be inside most of the time and so the heat is not an issue. If you practice law in Dallas, you will be indoors a large part of the time. Some days, you are only exposed to the heat in the parking garage and when you get to your house.

Good luck on your move.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

12. Thanks, everyone

I lived in Kansas from birth until age 37, so I'm used to heat (maybe not as many as 65-70 days over 100, but Kansas does get exceedingly hot too!) I've also driven on ice and snow all my life, so that will be nothing new for me, but I know they can have some nasty ice storms in Dallas and other drivers don't know how to handle it.

Tell me about DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit). I didn't even know they had it!