What's it like living in Dallas, Texas?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 22:25:43 -0500

Response by SSG Robert Webster made Feb 7 at 2017 12:15 AM

SSG Robert Webster — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 00:15:09 -0500

It depends on what part of town you live in. It also changes over time. An example would be parts of the Oak Cliff neighborhood, and changes over the past 40 years have noticeably changed both for the better and for the worst and back again.

Response by Cpl Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 7 at 2017 12:40 AM

Cpl Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 00:40:40 -0500

It really depends where you want to live and how disciplined you are. Are you young and still want to party, what's your income level (rhetorical, but depends because the amount of people moving to the area is drastically changing the housing prices), do you prefer downtown living or bedroom communities, or do you prefer apartments or a house. I personally prefer the burbs.

Response by SFC George Smith made Feb 7 at 2017 1:00 AM

SFC George Smith — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:00:57 -0500

depends on where you live in Dallas ... and who the neighbors are...

Response by SFC Derrick Harris made Feb 7 at 2017 2:25 AM

SFC Derrick Harris — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 02:25:21 -0500

I live in Mesquite I love the areas Dallas is always changing

Response by SPC Erich Guenther made Feb 7 at 2017 2:32 AM

SPC Erich Guenther — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 02:32:35 -0500

If your in Tech, Dallas is the place to be in my view because. 1. Flights out of DFW are cheap, 2. Cheap cost of living compared to other large cities (houses very affordable still), 3. Proximity to College Campus to further your Technical Education. Gets hot in the Summer but Winters are mild for the most part and short.

Response by SGT David Ewers made Feb 7 at 2017 8:16 AM

SGT David Ewers — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 08:16:47 -0500

I live in Plano, North of Dallas. I love this area because there's always something to do or go see. Out door activities (when the temp is not 115 degrees), indoor museums, art and fun places to get together with friends. I'm originally from Portland, Oregon, moved to Dallas after I left the Army out of Fort Hood. Probably the best thing I have to say about Dallas (or North Texas in general) is the economy is great, although housing costs are starting to climb it's still cheaper than any place I looked at.

Response by SFC A.M. Drake made Feb 7 at 2017 11:46 AM

SFC A.M. Drake — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 11:46:39 -0500

I was born and raised in Big D! Plano, Richardson, Lewsiville, and Duncanville, Red Oak, Glenn Heights and Desoto....any questions?

Response by MSgt Richard Randall made Feb 7 at 2017 2:32 PM

MSgt Richard Randall — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 14:32:28 -0500

The DFW area is getting Californicated to a degree. Most job opportunities are in the North Dallas area and surrounding suburbs, i.e. Plano, Richardson, Allen. There is also strong growth along the Alliance corridor north of Fort Worth. Depending on where you find employment I would recommend staying in the northern part of the Metroplex. Also, keep in mind, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country. Only New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago metropolitan areas are larger.

I worked the technology business there for almost 25 years before I retired and left the area. As a recovering techno-geek I would suggest studying up on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare as well as the Unix varieties (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, etc.) running on the big iron. A lot of folks can run Linux varieties on Intel centric servers but it takes fairly specialized training and experience to be able to slice up a petabyte SSD array.

Response by PVT Kobie Babatu made Feb 8 at 2017 11:57 PM

PVT Kobie Babatu — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 23:57:10 -0500

Unless you live downtown...
It is like living in the suburbs of NYC,or Chicago...
The cost of real estate is still relatively cheap, but is going up... I personally enjoy NOT being cooped up as most things are spread out due to the still vast living spaces...

Response by SPC David Hannaman made Feb 9 at 2017 1:34 PM

SPC David Hannaman — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 13:34:29 -0500

Dallas/Fort Worth is (in my opinion) a little slice of Heaven (having lived in multiple states and countries) there's a good economy, inexpensive housing (compared to other metropolitan areas) and diverse cultures.

Yes, the North and East sections of the metroplex leans Liberal/Democrat, yes, there are some super Conservative/Republican people, but you don't generally hear about people getting in physical altercations because of their lifestyles and beliefs.

People tend to think "Cowboys and Rednecks" and forget that the integrated circuit (the basis for all computers) was invented in Fort Worth, and there's booming tech, aerospace, and manufacturing industries.

Even taxes are much lower than in other places in the country, no income tax, reasonable sales and property taxes (again, compared to other places) there's a good Highway system (you can get to just about anything you might want in less than an hour), although there seems to be a trend of building toll roads lately, that if you use them a lot can get expensive.

There are some nice lakes for boating and such, and there are a lot of "indoor activities", Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Six Flags, Rock climbing, the list goes on and on, there's even rumors that indoor snow skiing is coming.

Downfalls are there's basically no public transportation system (except in downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth), so you're going to have to drive just about everywhere. And it's flat, really flat, so if you like the mountains or the beach, it's going to be a weekend trip.

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2017 1:49 PM

SGM Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 13:49:27 -0500

SGT Private RallyPoint Member Dallas is my hometown, although I took a job at Ft Hood. I'm a Solaris administrator, but I've been doing Linux as well for the last decade or so.

Is your clearance still good? If so, Raytheon is your best choice. Raytheon likes to get people straight out of school and keep them poor, but they are desperate for Linux admins with a clearance.

Texas Instruments and the FBI are the only other two outfits that seem to want cleared personnel in Dallas. Ft Worth has General Dynamics, and that's a good choice. Otherwise I think you'd be better off in San Antonio.

If you want to slide me a resume, I don't mind passing it aroud the organizations I know of.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 11 at 2017 10:41 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 22:41:59 -0500

Great cost of living is low in DFW. I am currently stationed their.

Response by PV2 Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 15 at 2017 4:30 PM

PV2 Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 16:30:05 -0500

its a nice area I'm from fort worth which is part of the same metroplex, just like any city it has its downsides, however i strongly believe that its positive outweighs the negative. Dallas is rich with history and has limitless activities to do there is something for every kind of person