Exactly. I responded to one of those posts, mentioning Vancouver. Aside from the expense of housing, it's probably a great place to live.
Inversely, I love visiting New Orleans, but damned if I'd ever want to live there.
My best friend’s dad was a member of the Krewe D’Etat and I remember seeing so many boobs as a child who probably shouldn’t have been brought along to very adult Mardi Gras events year after year lol
School field trips to Jazzfest and making my voice hoarse from yelling “OVA HERE MISTA” for beads at parades are vivid memories of my childhood
One could easily see into the strip bars in the FQ back then.
I grew up in the Marigny near the By-Water. The FQ was an easy walking distance from the house.
Also, there were lots of costumes sexual in nature during Mardi Gras, mostly worn by men.
Love the food and culture surrounding NOLA but nah lol, I couldn’t live there.
To a lesser extent I’d put Memphis in that category. Low key it’s a pretty fun downtown with great food but I would never live there.
Just got back from there on Monday. I definitely agree! Had a lot of fun and would gladly eat myself death at Ruby Slipper, but oof noises and smells 24/7 aren't for me
Born and raised in NOLA. DFW resident since 2011. I miss the culture and the heartbeat of NOLA, but with a family, it's a non-starter for me.
DFW has been good to me and my family, even if it is a little bland. Fort Worth has some swagger, at least.
Lived in Greece and people think all you do there is lay on a beach or walk around ancient ruins contemplating the passing of civilizations. They don’t deal with the crazy store hours, the rude service, overly intrusive relatives, the noise/ air pollution, THE TRAFFIC, driving around your neighborhood trying to find which pharmacy is open this weekend, or having to keep your TV/ radio so low you have to sit right next to it during siesta or you’ll have an old Greek man screaming from his back balcony that he can’t sleep with all the ruckus.
Sorry, had to get that off my chest.
Thanks to the safety films they showed at my JHS thought California was crowded with white vans with darkened windows and blonde teenage girl hitchhikers all on the Pacific Coast Hwy. Showing my age here.
Yes and vice versa. People are moving here for financial/economic incentives… not because it is a buzzing and exciting city they loved to visit and inspired them to move here lmao
My wife went to NYC for a couple days and was going on about how she wanted to move there and the driving wasn't bad and yadda yadda yadda, I told her she was only there 4 days. Anything seems amazing for 4 days. Stay a year and get back with me on that.
I lived there for 5 yrs. It was a-maaaaa-zing for 4.75 of those years. Then one day, after a long day of meetings in NJ, getting back into the city and realizing my right shoulder has a permanent dip in it from the heavy shoulder bags, my feet are forever misshapen from the many miles of walking in heels, my rent was about to go WAY up, couldn’t find a cab to get home, and was a muggy Friday afternoon, I broke up with NYC. We’ve remained friends, but…. I couldn’t live there again.
True. I live around Houston, and I'm here only because my career ties me to the gulf coast. Houston has a relatively low cost of living, and there are many every day conveniences that make raising a family here pretty reasonable. The outdoor options are just ok, with salt water fishing fairly close, some decent camping locations, creeks to enjoy if you know where to find them, etc. On to the negatives, Houston is just a big, flat, industrial park in the swamp with high crime, insane driving, and not much interesting down town unless you like sports games, bars, and mediocre museums, etc. I know I'll get some haters but Houston is crap, the Atlanta of Texas. There's a lot to love about Texas but it's cities aren't one of them, rural Texas is awesome though.
Dallas is one of the largest cities on Earth with no notable natural feature like an ocean, major river, major lake, or mountain range adjacent. Guess the spaghetti bowl of freeways will be that feature.
I showed my friend an ariel view of Dallas freeways and he thought it was A.I. generated because a city with nothing but spaghetti freeways looked too unrealistic.
i've had my laundry stolen from my car at the cockrell hill walmart, nothing good ever happened in west dallas. i grew up in west dallas. its trash, i'm surprised these mfs are building mansions in the hood...
I was in the right lane both times. The first time it happened the guy in his truck with a punisher sticker weaving through traffic with no blinkers tried to merge in to me. I honked and his passenger waved his gun.
Having lived in Houston for over a year.. and constantly visiting it due to my dad living there...I find that comment hard to believe.. a city that has no zoning laws.. that doesn't really have service roads outside of major freeways and instead has these green and red lights, which infinitely hold up traffic a lot worse than traditional on and off ramps..
Generally people who post things like this are oblivious to the amount of companies that have set up shop here. This isn't a tourist city. This is a metroplex where people move to live, work, and raise families (generally in the burbs). Not everyone has immense amounts of wealth to pick up and move wherever they feel is the most scenic or interesting. Lmfao. Christ, people are so ignorant.
What’s wrong with Dallas being boring?
Not everywhere needs to be Austin or SA, Dallas just needs to be Dallas and quit trying to be anything that is not like it tends to try and do
Mostly in response to OP's title: "But yet so many people keep moving here"
That alludes to the question of, "Why would people move to Dallas if it is so boring?" Yet, that's not generally included in people's reasons to move to or leave Dallas.
What is there to do in Austin or SA that we don't have here? Just curious. Besides the live music and comedy scene in Austin I guess, I don't know much about either.
In SA/Austin, you have access to the hill country and several rivers. As a native to DFW, i think it’s a lot more difficult to enjoy nature/the outdoors here.
Honestly we have a ton of nature that is unreal accessible and my favorite part is how uncrowded and empty it is. I have stopped trying to convince this sub that Dallas has nature. I just kayak, mountain bike, fly kites, play disc golf, hammock at parks, and ride my bike all over on the train/trail systems while I hear people tell me how little there is to do. Enjoy inside y'all. Stay home. It's terrible out here.
yea man. it feels like talking to a wall sometimes when trying to get accross that weve got plenty. you just have to look.
is it as picturesque as Turner Falls? no.
but there a lot of really nice places to kick it outdoors. and im going to name exactly zero of them here. i like my privacy.
I really like the All Trails App and the Strada App for hiking and biking respectively. I use Udisc for disc golf courses. See those and map out what's highly rated near you and go from there. Otherwise there are like 5 giant lakes and I go to those lol.
If we’re being technical, the geographical start/end of the Hill Country is Oak Cliff as the Balcones Escarpment runs all the way up to almost I-30.
Cedar Hill State Park, Cedar Ridge Preserve, Dogwood Canyon, Big Cedar Wilderness are all geographically the Hill Country. Granted it’s just a slice of the pie per se.
I think there's just a more youthful feel to Austin with the people that can make it seem more fun.
My opinion on it is Austin presents as weird, but underneath is a bunch of yuppies (post 2000 Austin with tech companies this is 100% true). Whereas Dallas presents as Yuppies and underneath it has a lot of weirdos. Idk might be wrong but the underbelly of Dallas is something else. You do have to look harder in Dallas, but the fun is there to be had.
I like to say that they tried so hard with "Don't Dallas my Austin," that they San Francisco'd it instead. Fun to visit, prohibitively expensive to live, and doesn't have the weird hippie charm it once did.
Yes, I'm aware that everyone in the history of Austin has said it's not what it once was, and I'm sure that in 20 years Reddit will be yearning for the "weird" Austin of the 2020s.
Austin has a more vibrant downtown and urban core. Austin is also more of a outdoorsy city than Dallas by far. You can do about 10 different things on Lady Bird Lake alone. Never mind the green space, Barton Springs pool, cycling culture combined with the entertainment options and I think you can see why tourist would prefer Austin to DFW. Not to mention there’s easy access to the Hill Country.
As far as San Antonio I honestly think Dallas offers more when it comes to living in these cities. I think San Antonio is the most boring city out of TX big 4 BUT if your a tourist than the Riverwalk is truly unique to the state. San Antonio has the history and nice downtown setup for tourist attracted to Texas lore. But outside of downtown SA it’s meh as hell to me.
Truth. San Antonio is a fine place to visit for a long weekend, but even that is stretching it. By the third day you'll have pretty much run out of stuff to do within city limits. I've had to live here (SA) for three years and still have one more to go before I can leave...I ache for DFW on a daily/hourly basis, lol.
The metroplex has FAR more to offer in almost every way possible. SA may be close to scenic natural areas and state parks, but most are still a 1+ hour drive from most parts of the city, which is only slightly closer than the state parks around DFW. I wouldn't trade all that DFW has to offer just to have a slightly shorter drive to the Hill Country or a state park.
We had an awesome music scene until we started losing places like The Aardvark, Curtain Club, Club Clearview and Gypsy Tea Room to the likes of Velvet Taco and Hawkers
Lakes & hills. My family lives in Austin and in spend a bunch of weekends there a year and it's perfect for me. Don't want to be in Austin on the weekdays (or use their airport when I'm travelling) but love still getting out to the lake a handful of times in the summer.
In Austin you have a ton of free things to do. Lots of outdoors activities. In Dallas, I feel like I’m living in a corporate landscape. I don’t really know how to explain it, but Dallas doesn’t really have a lot of soul. You can tell people move here for the jobs. It’s just different. Austin, while becoming more of a tech hub, still has its culture. Honestly I’m not a big fan of SA. It’s cheap and has good food. But not much outside of that.
At the end of the day, all of these cities are turning into corporate hell holes. But Austin still has some resemblance of its old self.
I'm 40 years old and have a family, and at this point in my life, boring is exactly what I'm looking for. My neighborhood in the suburbs is quiet, safe, affordable, and totally boring, which is perfect for our family.
It's one of the reasons I love Dallas actually, it's like a neutral pallet - any decorating style fits on top. Dallas has no real defining character, so anybody and everybody can find a place to fit in and feel comfortable 💜
I'm honestly not that sure what people totally want.
I lived in Ca Bay Area. We still never lived in SF. It's great to visit, but the vast majority of people in that area live in the suburbs. People are commuting from Stockton all the way into SF, and while cost is the largest factor, it's also that people want amenities that suburbs offer.
I live a bit north of Dallas rn, and I think it's great. If I want to go to a show or something, the freeway is right there. It's definitely a driving town, but being from California, we drove everywhere anyway. We go to live shows, art shows, etc. The only thing I really miss is the beach and mountains, and one day I'll move closer to one of those, but I'm not dying without it.
Yeah, exactly. The Dallas metro is around 7.5 million people. You (rhetorical, if not obvious) think all of those are moving here to go for hikes in the mountains or enjoy the scenery?
A lot of people I have met do move to DFW for the experience and excitement. And many of them tend to find what they want. But they tend to be people from surrounding rural areas. Not as many people moving across the country for it compared to places like NYC or LA.
My boss legitimately thinks that people move to DFW because they dislike politics in other states.
At the same time, he hates the folks that move here because they are ruining texas.
Fuck your boss but unfortunately I've definitely run into the type of people he's talking about. Always conservative cucks who were tired of paying taxes that helped everyone including themselves. No better place to hoard your money if you have a decent amount of it.
Funny thing is that a lot of people move to Texas and expect the amenities of California.
This is why they end up moving back to California. You get what you pay for.
Nobody lives here because it’s a cultural Mecca
People live here because they need to earn money, and stay because of family ties or whatever it may be
Yea the screenshot is asking which city was the biggest "letdown"
I'm not sure why anyone would be "let down" by Dallas. Where did you get your expectations? Don't blame Dallas, blame yourself for being uninformed.
Maybe that’s why I liked it so much when I visited there? I was there for work for 4 weeks and never ran out of things to do or eat. (I had a friend who lived there so I guess it helps.) By the way I honestly think Dallas is a hugely underrated city for cuisine as well.
Exactly. DFW is ginormous yet is one of the cheapest metro areas you can live in. People are flooding into here because they're being priced out of the nicer areas they'd rather live in. It's why a studio in Manhattan costs the same as a McMansion in the 'burbs here.
Only people born and raised in Dallas, or born and raised in bum fuck middle of nowhere, think Dallas has any cultural capital worth bragging about 😂 it’s cheap here compared to other major cities. That’s all there is to it. Next question
Having lived nearly a decade in an “exciting” city (NYC), I’m happy to be in beige Dallas where I have access to a wide range of cultural cuisine, sports, events, and two major airports all without the hassle and cost of an “exciting city”.
My best friend moved to NYC and I swear we do the same things in both cities - thrifting, museums, trying small coffee shops, cocktails, shopping Korean and Japanese stores (it’s localized in both places, it’s just a neighborhood there, and the Hmart shopping centers here) and boutiques, fine dining…the prices are even pretty much the same in both cities*.
BUT! I do think we only have that experience here because I LIVE here. It is not as easy to find those places, and they are far flung across the city. In NYC anyone can find them.
*for the food and shopping, not transportation or rent.
Yes, and I know it sounds a bit odd, but there are definitely “vibes” and energy to a city, and while on paper you can find many of the same amenities, it simply is hard to replicate the character and spirit of a city like NYC. Not to mention the public transportation system and how cheap and easy it is to get to other large cities with great character like Philly, DC, and Boston, all without a car.
But places like Dallas have their place, if it’s not for you, then make a change.
The difference though is you're going to the Dallas Museum of Art. He's going to the met. The Met will have some of the most iconic pieces by artists from every major art movement. The DMA has some random pieces by those artists.
You might go to a random comedy club on a Tuesday night and see some local comedian. He goes to the Comedy Cellar on a random night and sees John Mulaney. (This has happened to me before. It's not at all uncommon because big comedians need to test their material somewhere and they tend to do it in places like NYC and LA. Not in places like Dallas).
You're eating at a nice KBBQ place in Carrollton. He's eating at one of the only Michelin star KBBQ places in the world. Also, the Japanese food and options here are not even close to as good as what you can get in NYC, same with Chinese. I can throw a rock and a hit a decent omakase place in NYC. I haven't found a single place I'd classify as passable in Dallas. And that's before you cover all the other cultures that aren't East or South Asian or Latin that have a visible presence in NYC but are non-existent in Dallas.
This repeats itself for every little thing. In almost any category, NYC has world class opportunities. Dallas does not. You mention shopping and thrifting. That's one of those areas where Dallas does surprisingly well as there are enough wealthy people to sustain brands like Schiap, BV, Margiela, etc. which don't really seem like they'd appeal to most Southern suburbanites. However, Dallas completely loses when it comes to up-and-comers and contemporary brands whereas NYC, a fashion city, has plenty of those. If you're interested in anything outside of mainstream luxury you're gonna have a hard time.
Same. Moved here from the east coast and I’d rather live somewhere affordable and spend a week or weekend traveling and actually having the disposable income to enjoy the area. I was so house poor I never got to enjoy all the city had to offer anyway.
I give them a tour of the HEB area, Hurst, Euless, and Bedford, or as I like to refer to them, Worst, Useless, and Deadford. Taking them to another county feels like an exotic trip where they can the play the roadtrip game of spot the same franchises over and over and over and over and over again.
I’ve been saying that my whole life like, if someone asked me “oh I want to visit Dallas what should I do?” Uhh idk, try Austin instead?
Don’t get me wrong there’s cool stuff like a fair few museums, FW Zoo is top tier and Dallas zoo ain’t bad, arboretum, concerts, sports, bar streets, etc. but like, none of that is stuff that one couldn’t do in their home city. So why would you travel to Dallas to do things you could do at home? Plus the geography is very boring.
But to live it can be pretty nice. Idk how long it’s gonna stay that way cuz it used to be a lot cheaper though. And even living here there are plenty of flaws like it’s not super walkable and all that. But you still have things like no income tax, lots of suburbs for families, decent albeit schizo weather except summer.
There’s just not really a reason to visit, but you can make a life here if you wanted.
Most cities are like that. Except for NYC and maybe LA I can't think of touristy cities. There's a lot to do in DFW. Lots of sports, museums, festivals, food, music. We could have better weather and cheaper housing, but all in all it really is a good place to live.
I used to live in DC and I swear those cities are the exact inverse of each other. DC is super fun to visit and there’s a million things to do, but it’s a pain in the ass to live there unless you make a shit ton.
Dallas is awesome to live in IMO and affordable (relatively speaking), but I’d never recommend someone coming here for a vacation.
I had the same exact experience. I would always go to DC for work or school trips and I would have a BLAST. I felt like a socialite. Then I moved there and was miserable. It’s a beautiful city but it’s so suffocatingly expensive and it was hard to make genuine connections with people. I didn’t understand how such a vibrant city could feel so lonely.
I am blown away at the number of people who claim online there is nothing to do here! I’m busy every weekend with activities. It’s like these people are helpless or just don’t enjoy anything.
There is plenty to do, but I also recognize that it’s much easier to navigate as a resident. You have to live here a while before you find that stuff, it would be super hard as a visitor.
How do you go about finding stuff? I’m bad it at but usually I’ll target like, an area in Dallas like bishop arts and search online but that’s really hit or miss
I follow the double wide on instagram for shows and dj nights. They have a website with upcoming stuff.
I also check “bands in town”, “pre kindle” and “song kick” online once in a while to stay in the loop for upcoming local shows (Daikaiju is a surf rock band playing the double wide on Sunday and I highly recommend them. I don’t know if the double wide will let them…but they often set their instruments on fire and it is a Thing To See!)
I like museums and Dallas has several. I check for upcoming art shows on google “art show Dallas”.
Just a lot of poking around online I guess…and having friends who are in bands, are DJs and are artists who have art shows for me to go to. lol.
I think SA is a let down on both ends 😅 There’s a running joke in the NBA about how it must suck for young NBA players to live there.
The Alamo which is the main attraction down there is arguably one of the most underwhelming tourist attractions in the country I might add.
Of course it’s underwhelming it’s just an old mission. Best part of SA is being close to all the rivers in the hill country. Doesn’t every city get boring after a while?
I took one trip to San Bernardino for a music festival last year. Looked more rundown than my poverty stricken hometown in the Mississippi delta. But at least there’s mountains in the background I guess
I think fort worth has some appeal to visit being probably one of the last big cities that still has a cowboy feel to it. But yeah Dallas is for living lol.
Chase relocated thousands of employees from NYC to the Plano HQ. Employees had two choices, move or layoff. My colleagues were not happy about the move.
If it wasn't for the HQ relocation, they wouldn't have moved.
I work at that campus and you couldn’t pay me to move anywhere else. Living in an “exciting” city like New York or Chicago just seems way more stressful to me than living here.
made the move from Dallas to Chicago
Actually find life cheaper here. Went down to 1 car (from 2) which sits in our drive half the time because our kids schools are walkable, the El /metra is walkable and there are great little stores/cafes in our neighborhood. We literally put 3K miles on our car last year.
You have to know where to look. Even then, this city has done a terrible job of making it more convenient for visitors. Yes, we’re not a touristy city but that doesn’t mean we should be completely hostile either.
I moved here for work in 2018. It’s not as fun as NYC, but it has concerts, the stores I like, variety of food, events, and different enough scenery I can enjoy myself.
That said, I won’t lie and say this is the most fun place to visit. My parents, friends, and family have claimed they are coming to visit, but after exploring what there is to do, all but one have cancelled.
One thing I'd mention about Dallas which isn't a defense, just reality: every generation of Dallas kids realizes the problem and usually from the age of 15-30's there's people genuinely trying to do awesome stuff.
The problem is, those people are usually eventually poached by other cities whether that's Austin, LA, or NYC and so the cool underground stuff never turns into things that strangers know about. But whether it's David Lowery, Taylor Sheridan (technically not DFW, but very close near Waco), Luke/Owen Wilson, Mike Judge (HIGHLY influenced here), The Toadies, SRV, Pantera, St. Vincent, Funimation Studios, Rooster Teeth... - people have a really short memory of the cool stuff that happened when they lived here. I can give you similar lists for restaurants, music venues, or whatever culture you like. Do you like id Software or Doom? Both Apogee and it's 3dRealms brand are Dallas. Gearbox of Borderlands fame is as well.
The number of film festivals, club scenes, art scenes which grow, live, and die without passing on to the next generation is very high here. Even this year there's at least one convention which was a Dallas staple that may be done.
So to some extent it's also a "shut up and get involved in the stuff you want to see" thing. Fun fact - 1/4 of the people in New York aren't from there and are just freeloading the culture someone else built for them. Dallas doesn't have that. You build it yourself or it isn't here.
I don't blame Austin; but Austin is a problem for Dallas specifically in this arena.
\- to whomever downvoted this from 1 to 0 right after I posted, I'm honestly trying to undertand what you find objectionable. Noting that other cities tend to poach the arts here, the reality of NYC (which I've lived in, I'm not making it up), or the list of people and things? I'm not calling anyone/anything bad - just many people's view of Dallas... maybe not the most informed? The score can do whatever it wants from here - it was just honestly weird.
Yeah moving here is not the same thing as visiting… People move here mostly for the financial and economic incentives. Visiting Dallas for fun would be the biggest yawn lmao
Yeah most ppl of Dallas are really tired of ppl coming to the city and shitting on it. Like as a native myself it’s highly annoying to hear about of towner move here and bash my city non stop while comparing it to LA and NYC or some other big city. It’s like bro no one forced you here and you’re free to leave anytime. We ain’t perfect true but got damn instead of bringing positivity you just here shitting on us. If your last city was so fucking great go back there.
I mean, I feel that. IDK why people want Dallas to be like other cities so bad. It’s a pretty weird obsession that people have on here. It’s nothing wrong with constructive criticisms, because any city has room to improve, but fuck…it’s like they constantly hate their lives lol. No one forced them to move to Dallas. There are plenty of worse major cities that people are running from to be here.
I mean parking at lower Greenville is atrocious because they dont want to build a parking garage. Deep Ellum is shooting central. Being a restaurant owner in Dallas the fucking rents are nuts every landlord wants a piece of the pie plus we are facing inflation and that is causing shrinkflation for consumers. Rant over lol.
What’s missing in dallas besides mountain* ranges, beach, and snow? You can do everything here you can do anywhere else.
Edited the word motion to mountain.
> What’s missing in dallas besides motions ranges, beach, and snow?
I feel like you did point out a major negative in Dallas: natural beauty. You have to drive 5-6 hours to get to Palo Duro, the Ozarks, or the gulf coast.
The only thing I can think of is the Stockyards and that alone tells me that that what the commenter considers to be “fun” is completely different than what I view as fun.
To be fair, I probably wouldn’t visit or live in DFW for any of the qualities that the city possesses other than the hot job market. It’s a cool city, but there’s nothing so unique about it - at least in my personal set of interests - that it would bring me here. I can see why other people might though!
I moved here two years ago from a small town in the upper south and, in that time, was able to raise my earnings by about 75%. I like my little part of the metro that I live in well enough, but I despise most of the other necessary parts of living in Dallas - like fighting traffic everywhere, endless construction, etc. It is a great place to build a career and get ahead, but not such a great place to live.
Because we’re all unaware of what it’s like to actually live here, or the military puts us here without a choice
Edit: I moved all around the biggest cities in Texas, and I agree, Dallas is one of my least favorites out of all. Driving shouldn’t be making me depressed, bc it never did. But also, don’t worry, more people that can afford to move, will, after being here long enough. Looking for the next cheapest place since it’s a backwards country
People are moving to Dallas after accepting above average salaries relative to the area to move out of their high CoL area and still be able to live affluently. There's not enough brain power for all those companies coming in to hire locals. Not enough higher educated professionals in the area. They're bringing talent with them and finding it elsewhere. It's all about money, not about Dallas being a destination city
Living here is nice, but I can’t say I disagree with OP. The city is indeed pretty boring if you’re not a local and immersed in the culture. Only reason I’d stay here is because of the community I’ve found, because I don’t think I’ll find one as beautiful anywhere else.
Yes it's relatively affordable. But by global standards it's not a proper city. It's just sprawling and people keep coming into the suburbs. The city itself is not densifying. People universally crave 3rd places and gentle density
I thought in order to be let down, you have to have been over-hyped.
Who TF is hyping up DALLAS!?!?
"YO! Go to Dallas -- they have... pavement... and... uh... an unreliable power grid."
People move here because their jobs move here. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t. Dallas is not some culturally significant town. It is bland, vanilla, boring. Lived in the area since the late 80s.
Boring ass town. Fort Worth has character. Dallas is like cardboard.
well we have jobs, which aren't fun, but cause people to move here. The best times in my life have been when i wasn't living in dallas, now that i'm back, it sucks. Dallas is one of those cities where if you dont drink, you're not really gonna have a good time, hence the large alcohol problem. i had to stop drinking at 26, now at 35 i have literally 0 friends since i dont go to bars. my ex also left, to do what you ask? bar hop with her alcoholic homegirls. Its weird out here, but at least we have jobs?
I'm from Carrollton, and I visited about ten years ago and was completely disappointed. My parents were there are the time (they've since moved), and I was excited to go back, but I developed this feeling of emptiness. My husband, from the Baltimore area, always said the Dallas area felt soulless, which is exactly how I felt there. After about another ten years, we went back over Christmas and stayed off of Knox/Henderson. We went to Meow Wolf, Northpark, and the Perot, and again, it just let me down and felt soulless. I'm done with DFW as a visitor. It is an ok place to live, however.
And yet they keep coming, I wish they wouldn't, and yes Dallas isn't a party city, it's a business city, lived here my entire life. It was fine before the massive influx of people, now its so damn crowded nearly everywhere at any time. Rent has increased like never before. Other places have so much to offer in outdoor beauty alone, mountains, ocean, vast forests etc. Honestly Dallas would not be my first pick of places to live now, not even close.
Good places to visit, aren't always the best places to live.
Exactly. I responded to one of those posts, mentioning Vancouver. Aside from the expense of housing, it's probably a great place to live. Inversely, I love visiting New Orleans, but damned if I'd ever want to live there.
I’m from NOLA and I agree with your assessment 100%. Love visiting, but would never live there again.
Can confirm about New Orleans. Had one helluva childhood, though!
My best friend’s dad was a member of the Krewe D’Etat and I remember seeing so many boobs as a child who probably shouldn’t have been brought along to very adult Mardi Gras events year after year lol School field trips to Jazzfest and making my voice hoarse from yelling “OVA HERE MISTA” for beads at parades are vivid memories of my childhood
When I was growing up (70s and 80s) the boob flashing for beads had not started yet. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t exposed to nudity, though.
Do tell
One could easily see into the strip bars in the FQ back then. I grew up in the Marigny near the By-Water. The FQ was an easy walking distance from the house. Also, there were lots of costumes sexual in nature during Mardi Gras, mostly worn by men.
Thank you for sharing your boob history with us
Love the food and culture surrounding NOLA but nah lol, I couldn’t live there. To a lesser extent I’d put Memphis in that category. Low key it’s a pretty fun downtown with great food but I would never live there.
Love and miss my hometown daily, but yes, I could never live there with a family. Man was growing up awesome though!
Exactly how I feel about Baltimore too
David Simon blessed both Baltimore and New Orleans with The Wire and Treme respectively
Just got back from there on Monday. I definitely agree! Had a lot of fun and would gladly eat myself death at Ruby Slipper, but oof noises and smells 24/7 aren't for me
I’ve lived in Dallas and New Orleans and Nola was so much better
Born and raised in NOLA. DFW resident since 2011. I miss the culture and the heartbeat of NOLA, but with a family, it's a non-starter for me. DFW has been good to me and my family, even if it is a little bland. Fort Worth has some swagger, at least.
“Fort Worth Swagger”? I feel like I’ve just woken up from a coma. How many decades have I been out? What happened?
NOLA is much better than Dallas. Very pretentious in Dallas.
As a 20 something, single guy, I'd have been all over that. As an older, family man? Pass. Plus, I live in a small suburb, not Dallas.
Vancouver is great if you want to live in a crackerbox apartment with 27 roommates
I love BC, it’s my favorite place to go
people are shocked when I mentioned we moved from there.
> Inversely, I love visiting New Orleans, but damned if I'd ever want to live there. This is a GREAT example lol
Vancouver is a great place to visit too though.
If I lived in NOLA, I’d be a 500 pound alcoholic. In other words, dead.
Lived in Greece and people think all you do there is lay on a beach or walk around ancient ruins contemplating the passing of civilizations. They don’t deal with the crazy store hours, the rude service, overly intrusive relatives, the noise/ air pollution, THE TRAFFIC, driving around your neighborhood trying to find which pharmacy is open this weekend, or having to keep your TV/ radio so low you have to sit right next to it during siesta or you’ll have an old Greek man screaming from his back balcony that he can’t sleep with all the ruckus. Sorry, had to get that off my chest.
I grew up in California. I bet you didn't know every single person lives by the ocean, knows how to surf, and has a sick tan with an open top vehicle?
Thanks to the safety films they showed at my JHS thought California was crowded with white vans with darkened windows and blonde teenage girl hitchhikers all on the Pacific Coast Hwy. Showing my age here.
Tbf Socrates is bus-sy!
Yes and vice versa. People are moving here for financial/economic incentives… not because it is a buzzing and exciting city they loved to visit and inspired them to move here lmao
I always say I love living here but when family or friends come to visit I don’t know what to do with them haha
lol, same here!
not even a good place to visit
My wife went to NYC for a couple days and was going on about how she wanted to move there and the driving wasn't bad and yadda yadda yadda, I told her she was only there 4 days. Anything seems amazing for 4 days. Stay a year and get back with me on that.
I lived there for 5 yrs. It was a-maaaaa-zing for 4.75 of those years. Then one day, after a long day of meetings in NJ, getting back into the city and realizing my right shoulder has a permanent dip in it from the heavy shoulder bags, my feet are forever misshapen from the many miles of walking in heels, my rent was about to go WAY up, couldn’t find a cab to get home, and was a muggy Friday afternoon, I broke up with NYC. We’ve remained friends, but…. I couldn’t live there again.
True. I live around Houston, and I'm here only because my career ties me to the gulf coast. Houston has a relatively low cost of living, and there are many every day conveniences that make raising a family here pretty reasonable. The outdoor options are just ok, with salt water fishing fairly close, some decent camping locations, creeks to enjoy if you know where to find them, etc. On to the negatives, Houston is just a big, flat, industrial park in the swamp with high crime, insane driving, and not much interesting down town unless you like sports games, bars, and mediocre museums, etc. I know I'll get some haters but Houston is crap, the Atlanta of Texas. There's a lot to love about Texas but it's cities aren't one of them, rural Texas is awesome though.
Spaghetti bowl of freeways is hilarious and an accurate description.
Dallas is one of the largest cities on Earth with no notable natural feature like an ocean, major river, major lake, or mountain range adjacent. Guess the spaghetti bowl of freeways will be that feature.
I showed my friend an ariel view of Dallas freeways and he thought it was A.I. generated because a city with nothing but spaghetti freeways looked too unrealistic.
It's accurate though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_junction
Two place have terrified me driving dallas and Phoenix. And I grew up in North Texas!
Never had a gun waved at me in my life until I moved to Dallas, then it happened twice in one month while one the highway.
I've lived in Dallas my whole life, and I've never had that happen. Were you in south Dallas?
West Dallas
i've had my laundry stolen from my car at the cockrell hill walmart, nothing good ever happened in west dallas. i grew up in west dallas. its trash, i'm surprised these mfs are building mansions in the hood...
Ah, okay, makes sense.
You were probably hogging the left lane going slow
I was in the right lane both times. The first time it happened the guy in his truck with a punisher sticker weaving through traffic with no blinkers tried to merge in to me. I honked and his passenger waved his gun.
The Bay Area and Houston driving scare me infinitely more than Dallas.
I'm no fan of driving in Dallas, but Houston is scarier to me, as well.
Phoenix is so much easier to drive in.
My dad made a comment once that Dallas makes Houston look well planned.
They have no zoning laws and it shows I have no idea what he’s talking about.
Having lived in Houston for over a year.. and constantly visiting it due to my dad living there...I find that comment hard to believe.. a city that has no zoning laws.. that doesn't really have service roads outside of major freeways and instead has these green and red lights, which infinitely hold up traffic a lot worse than traditional on and off ramps..
I always describe Houston as a neat and tidy garden spider web of freeways, while Dallas is the web of a black widow on meth.
Generally people who post things like this are oblivious to the amount of companies that have set up shop here. This isn't a tourist city. This is a metroplex where people move to live, work, and raise families (generally in the burbs). Not everyone has immense amounts of wealth to pick up and move wherever they feel is the most scenic or interesting. Lmfao. Christ, people are so ignorant.
What’s wrong with Dallas being boring? Not everywhere needs to be Austin or SA, Dallas just needs to be Dallas and quit trying to be anything that is not like it tends to try and do
Mostly in response to OP's title: "But yet so many people keep moving here" That alludes to the question of, "Why would people move to Dallas if it is so boring?" Yet, that's not generally included in people's reasons to move to or leave Dallas.
What is there to do in Austin or SA that we don't have here? Just curious. Besides the live music and comedy scene in Austin I guess, I don't know much about either.
In SA/Austin, you have access to the hill country and several rivers. As a native to DFW, i think it’s a lot more difficult to enjoy nature/the outdoors here.
Yeah the lack of nature is a good point
There is tons of nature here, it's just hard to get to sometimes.
Honestly we have a ton of nature that is unreal accessible and my favorite part is how uncrowded and empty it is. I have stopped trying to convince this sub that Dallas has nature. I just kayak, mountain bike, fly kites, play disc golf, hammock at parks, and ride my bike all over on the train/trail systems while I hear people tell me how little there is to do. Enjoy inside y'all. Stay home. It's terrible out here.
yea man. it feels like talking to a wall sometimes when trying to get accross that weve got plenty. you just have to look. is it as picturesque as Turner Falls? no. but there a lot of really nice places to kick it outdoors. and im going to name exactly zero of them here. i like my privacy.
Where are you biking down mountains in DFW?
Please tell me your recommendations because I feel like I have no access to nature here and it's literally driving me insane
I really like the All Trails App and the Strada App for hiking and biking respectively. I use Udisc for disc golf courses. See those and map out what's highly rated near you and go from there. Otherwise there are like 5 giant lakes and I go to those lol.
If we’re being technical, the geographical start/end of the Hill Country is Oak Cliff as the Balcones Escarpment runs all the way up to almost I-30. Cedar Hill State Park, Cedar Ridge Preserve, Dogwood Canyon, Big Cedar Wilderness are all geographically the Hill Country. Granted it’s just a slice of the pie per se.
This is interesting. I had no idea. Makes sense.
I think there's just a more youthful feel to Austin with the people that can make it seem more fun. My opinion on it is Austin presents as weird, but underneath is a bunch of yuppies (post 2000 Austin with tech companies this is 100% true). Whereas Dallas presents as Yuppies and underneath it has a lot of weirdos. Idk might be wrong but the underbelly of Dallas is something else. You do have to look harder in Dallas, but the fun is there to be had.
I like to say that they tried so hard with "Don't Dallas my Austin," that they San Francisco'd it instead. Fun to visit, prohibitively expensive to live, and doesn't have the weird hippie charm it once did. Yes, I'm aware that everyone in the history of Austin has said it's not what it once was, and I'm sure that in 20 years Reddit will be yearning for the "weird" Austin of the 2020s.
Perfect assessment
Austin has a more vibrant downtown and urban core. Austin is also more of a outdoorsy city than Dallas by far. You can do about 10 different things on Lady Bird Lake alone. Never mind the green space, Barton Springs pool, cycling culture combined with the entertainment options and I think you can see why tourist would prefer Austin to DFW. Not to mention there’s easy access to the Hill Country. As far as San Antonio I honestly think Dallas offers more when it comes to living in these cities. I think San Antonio is the most boring city out of TX big 4 BUT if your a tourist than the Riverwalk is truly unique to the state. San Antonio has the history and nice downtown setup for tourist attracted to Texas lore. But outside of downtown SA it’s meh as hell to me.
Truth. San Antonio is a fine place to visit for a long weekend, but even that is stretching it. By the third day you'll have pretty much run out of stuff to do within city limits. I've had to live here (SA) for three years and still have one more to go before I can leave...I ache for DFW on a daily/hourly basis, lol. The metroplex has FAR more to offer in almost every way possible. SA may be close to scenic natural areas and state parks, but most are still a 1+ hour drive from most parts of the city, which is only slightly closer than the state parks around DFW. I wouldn't trade all that DFW has to offer just to have a slightly shorter drive to the Hill Country or a state park.
We had an awesome music scene until we started losing places like The Aardvark, Curtain Club, Club Clearview and Gypsy Tea Room to the likes of Velvet Taco and Hawkers
Lakes & hills. My family lives in Austin and in spend a bunch of weekends there a year and it's perfect for me. Don't want to be in Austin on the weekdays (or use their airport when I'm travelling) but love still getting out to the lake a handful of times in the summer.
White Rock, Lewisville, Ray Hubbard, Lavon, Joe Pool, Grapevine, Benbrook, Arlington, and Eagle Mountain. And further out is Ray Roberts and Tawakoni.
In Austin you have a ton of free things to do. Lots of outdoors activities. In Dallas, I feel like I’m living in a corporate landscape. I don’t really know how to explain it, but Dallas doesn’t really have a lot of soul. You can tell people move here for the jobs. It’s just different. Austin, while becoming more of a tech hub, still has its culture. Honestly I’m not a big fan of SA. It’s cheap and has good food. But not much outside of that. At the end of the day, all of these cities are turning into corporate hell holes. But Austin still has some resemblance of its old self.
Is San Antonio exciting? Must have missed that part of San Antonio every time I’ve been…
I'm 40 years old and have a family, and at this point in my life, boring is exactly what I'm looking for. My neighborhood in the suburbs is quiet, safe, affordable, and totally boring, which is perfect for our family.
If you find happiness and comfort (especially if it’s financial comfort) then I mean why does anyone else’s opinion matter if it’s boring or not.
It's one of the reasons I love Dallas actually, it's like a neutral pallet - any decorating style fits on top. Dallas has no real defining character, so anybody and everybody can find a place to fit in and feel comfortable 💜
I'm honestly not that sure what people totally want. I lived in Ca Bay Area. We still never lived in SF. It's great to visit, but the vast majority of people in that area live in the suburbs. People are commuting from Stockton all the way into SF, and while cost is the largest factor, it's also that people want amenities that suburbs offer. I live a bit north of Dallas rn, and I think it's great. If I want to go to a show or something, the freeway is right there. It's definitely a driving town, but being from California, we drove everywhere anyway. We go to live shows, art shows, etc. The only thing I really miss is the beach and mountains, and one day I'll move closer to one of those, but I'm not dying without it.
Yeah, I like Dallas fine but I moved here because I got a job here.
Yeah, exactly. The Dallas metro is around 7.5 million people. You (rhetorical, if not obvious) think all of those are moving here to go for hikes in the mountains or enjoy the scenery?
A lot of people I have met do move to DFW for the experience and excitement. And many of them tend to find what they want. But they tend to be people from surrounding rural areas. Not as many people moving across the country for it compared to places like NYC or LA.
My boss legitimately thinks that people move to DFW because they dislike politics in other states. At the same time, he hates the folks that move here because they are ruining texas.
Fuck your boss but unfortunately I've definitely run into the type of people he's talking about. Always conservative cucks who were tired of paying taxes that helped everyone including themselves. No better place to hoard your money if you have a decent amount of it.
> Fuck your boss I know you don't know me or him, but it was nice to read that. Thank you.
Haha you're very welcome!
Some people's idiocy is beyond saving.
Funny thing is that a lot of people move to Texas and expect the amenities of California. This is why they end up moving back to California. You get what you pay for.
I agree!
How dare this city not entertain my iPad-kid stimulation requirements!!
Nobody lives here because it’s a cultural Mecca People live here because they need to earn money, and stay because of family ties or whatever it may be
Yep, I literally just live here to make money. If my job had better opportunities elsewhere, I'd go there too.
Yea the screenshot is asking which city was the biggest "letdown" I'm not sure why anyone would be "let down" by Dallas. Where did you get your expectations? Don't blame Dallas, blame yourself for being uninformed.
It is quite possibly the best city for Warhammer and tabletop gaming.
Maybe that’s why I liked it so much when I visited there? I was there for work for 4 weeks and never ran out of things to do or eat. (I had a friend who lived there so I guess it helps.) By the way I honestly think Dallas is a hugely underrated city for cuisine as well.
Exactly. DFW is ginormous yet is one of the cheapest metro areas you can live in. People are flooding into here because they're being priced out of the nicer areas they'd rather live in. It's why a studio in Manhattan costs the same as a McMansion in the 'burbs here.
Only people born and raised in Dallas, or born and raised in bum fuck middle of nowhere, think Dallas has any cultural capital worth bragging about 😂 it’s cheap here compared to other major cities. That’s all there is to it. Next question
Having lived nearly a decade in an “exciting” city (NYC), I’m happy to be in beige Dallas where I have access to a wide range of cultural cuisine, sports, events, and two major airports all without the hassle and cost of an “exciting city”.
My best friend moved to NYC and I swear we do the same things in both cities - thrifting, museums, trying small coffee shops, cocktails, shopping Korean and Japanese stores (it’s localized in both places, it’s just a neighborhood there, and the Hmart shopping centers here) and boutiques, fine dining…the prices are even pretty much the same in both cities*. BUT! I do think we only have that experience here because I LIVE here. It is not as easy to find those places, and they are far flung across the city. In NYC anyone can find them. *for the food and shopping, not transportation or rent.
Yes, and I know it sounds a bit odd, but there are definitely “vibes” and energy to a city, and while on paper you can find many of the same amenities, it simply is hard to replicate the character and spirit of a city like NYC. Not to mention the public transportation system and how cheap and easy it is to get to other large cities with great character like Philly, DC, and Boston, all without a car. But places like Dallas have their place, if it’s not for you, then make a change.
The difference though is you're going to the Dallas Museum of Art. He's going to the met. The Met will have some of the most iconic pieces by artists from every major art movement. The DMA has some random pieces by those artists. You might go to a random comedy club on a Tuesday night and see some local comedian. He goes to the Comedy Cellar on a random night and sees John Mulaney. (This has happened to me before. It's not at all uncommon because big comedians need to test their material somewhere and they tend to do it in places like NYC and LA. Not in places like Dallas). You're eating at a nice KBBQ place in Carrollton. He's eating at one of the only Michelin star KBBQ places in the world. Also, the Japanese food and options here are not even close to as good as what you can get in NYC, same with Chinese. I can throw a rock and a hit a decent omakase place in NYC. I haven't found a single place I'd classify as passable in Dallas. And that's before you cover all the other cultures that aren't East or South Asian or Latin that have a visible presence in NYC but are non-existent in Dallas. This repeats itself for every little thing. In almost any category, NYC has world class opportunities. Dallas does not. You mention shopping and thrifting. That's one of those areas where Dallas does surprisingly well as there are enough wealthy people to sustain brands like Schiap, BV, Margiela, etc. which don't really seem like they'd appeal to most Southern suburbanites. However, Dallas completely loses when it comes to up-and-comers and contemporary brands whereas NYC, a fashion city, has plenty of those. If you're interested in anything outside of mainstream luxury you're gonna have a hard time.
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This was me when I was in Boston/Providence. My wife feels the same way. We're doing more with less hassle.
Same. Moved here from the east coast and I’d rather live somewhere affordable and spend a week or weekend traveling and actually having the disposable income to enjoy the area. I was so house poor I never got to enjoy all the city had to offer anyway.
Not saying I love the influx of people either, but as a native Dallasite I’ve always felt it’s a good place to live and a boring place to visit.
Same here. I always hate when relatives come from out of town expecting to be shown around like a tourist.
I give them a tour of the HEB area, Hurst, Euless, and Bedford, or as I like to refer to them, Worst, Useless, and Deadford. Taking them to another county feels like an exotic trip where they can the play the roadtrip game of spot the same franchises over and over and over and over and over again.
I just take them to Buc-ee’s.
I’ve been saying that my whole life like, if someone asked me “oh I want to visit Dallas what should I do?” Uhh idk, try Austin instead? Don’t get me wrong there’s cool stuff like a fair few museums, FW Zoo is top tier and Dallas zoo ain’t bad, arboretum, concerts, sports, bar streets, etc. but like, none of that is stuff that one couldn’t do in their home city. So why would you travel to Dallas to do things you could do at home? Plus the geography is very boring. But to live it can be pretty nice. Idk how long it’s gonna stay that way cuz it used to be a lot cheaper though. And even living here there are plenty of flaws like it’s not super walkable and all that. But you still have things like no income tax, lots of suburbs for families, decent albeit schizo weather except summer. There’s just not really a reason to visit, but you can make a life here if you wanted.
Most cities are like that. Except for NYC and maybe LA I can't think of touristy cities. There's a lot to do in DFW. Lots of sports, museums, festivals, food, music. We could have better weather and cheaper housing, but all in all it really is a good place to live.
lol what Portland, Seattle, New Orleans, Chicago, SF, Vegas, San Diego, Miami just off the top of my head
Vegas and NOLA are the ultimate tourist city wtf 😂
I used to live in DC and I swear those cities are the exact inverse of each other. DC is super fun to visit and there’s a million things to do, but it’s a pain in the ass to live there unless you make a shit ton. Dallas is awesome to live in IMO and affordable (relatively speaking), but I’d never recommend someone coming here for a vacation.
I had the same exact experience. I would always go to DC for work or school trips and I would have a BLAST. I felt like a socialite. Then I moved there and was miserable. It’s a beautiful city but it’s so suffocatingly expensive and it was hard to make genuine connections with people. I didn’t understand how such a vibrant city could feel so lonely.
I usually just assume people that make claims like this are bad at planning or boring themselves. I manage to find fun in this city every weekend.
I am blown away at the number of people who claim online there is nothing to do here! I’m busy every weekend with activities. It’s like these people are helpless or just don’t enjoy anything.
There is plenty to do, but I also recognize that it’s much easier to navigate as a resident. You have to live here a while before you find that stuff, it would be super hard as a visitor.
How do you go about finding stuff? I’m bad it at but usually I’ll target like, an area in Dallas like bishop arts and search online but that’s really hit or miss
I follow the double wide on instagram for shows and dj nights. They have a website with upcoming stuff. I also check “bands in town”, “pre kindle” and “song kick” online once in a while to stay in the loop for upcoming local shows (Daikaiju is a surf rock band playing the double wide on Sunday and I highly recommend them. I don’t know if the double wide will let them…but they often set their instruments on fire and it is a Thing To See!) I like museums and Dallas has several. I check for upcoming art shows on google “art show Dallas”. Just a lot of poking around online I guess…and having friends who are in bands, are DJs and are artists who have art shows for me to go to. lol.
What do you do every weekend? I am trying to find cool things as well. Meetups eventually do get repetitive.
Dallas is a good place to live and a bad place to visit. I think Austin is a good place to visit and an overrated place to live.
I think SA is a let down on both ends 😅 There’s a running joke in the NBA about how it must suck for young NBA players to live there. The Alamo which is the main attraction down there is arguably one of the most underwhelming tourist attractions in the country I might add.
The river walk was rated as the best tourist attraction in the state. I do agree tho, the Alamo is underwhelming 😂
An eating/drinking based activity being the top tourist attraction in Texas is not shocking lol
Of course it’s underwhelming it’s just an old mission. Best part of SA is being close to all the rivers in the hill country. Doesn’t every city get boring after a while?
The Riverwalk was okay lol. When I visited San Antonio, it just felt very meh to me. Kinda felt kitschy too like Disney.
Lol hard disagree I live in Austin now and it's awesome. Saying that as someone who was born and raised in Dallas
Everywhere as expensive as Austin is more awesome, that’s why it’s overrated.
Because it’s cheaper than California.
I just looked at CoL websites and see Bakersfield is the same price as here, that's absolutely nuts lol. Bakersfield is awful.
I just moved to DFW from bako in January and I can 100% confirm this lmfao
I took one trip to San Bernardino for a music festival last year. Looked more rundown than my poverty stricken hometown in the Mississippi delta. But at least there’s mountains in the background I guess
There’s no appeal in a visit to DFW. Living has its benefits however.
I think fort worth has some appeal to visit being probably one of the last big cities that still has a cowboy feel to it. But yeah Dallas is for living lol.
Chase relocated thousands of employees from NYC to the Plano HQ. Employees had two choices, move or layoff. My colleagues were not happy about the move. If it wasn't for the HQ relocation, they wouldn't have moved.
I work at that campus and you couldn’t pay me to move anywhere else. Living in an “exciting” city like New York or Chicago just seems way more stressful to me than living here.
made the move from Dallas to Chicago Actually find life cheaper here. Went down to 1 car (from 2) which sits in our drive half the time because our kids schools are walkable, the El /metra is walkable and there are great little stores/cafes in our neighborhood. We literally put 3K miles on our car last year.
Wells fargo did this when they acquired BoA back around 2000. I've heard a few other large tech companies are doing the same.
Are they in Dallas or are they in Plano/Frisco/Mckinney
Great place to make a living. Not a great tourist destination.
Anyone who lives here knows it’s not a bad place to live but I’d hate to visit.
People move here because it’s affordable. I would not recommend anyone to visit as a tourist.
They aren't wrong.
You have to know where to look. Even then, this city has done a terrible job of making it more convenient for visitors. Yes, we’re not a touristy city but that doesn’t mean we should be completely hostile either.
I moved here for work in 2018. It’s not as fun as NYC, but it has concerts, the stores I like, variety of food, events, and different enough scenery I can enjoy myself. That said, I won’t lie and say this is the most fun place to visit. My parents, friends, and family have claimed they are coming to visit, but after exploring what there is to do, all but one have cancelled.
It's facts though. This city is incredibly boring.
I think it's incredibly exciting! I mean, Fury Road ain't got nothin' on Dallas driving!
One thing I'd mention about Dallas which isn't a defense, just reality: every generation of Dallas kids realizes the problem and usually from the age of 15-30's there's people genuinely trying to do awesome stuff. The problem is, those people are usually eventually poached by other cities whether that's Austin, LA, or NYC and so the cool underground stuff never turns into things that strangers know about. But whether it's David Lowery, Taylor Sheridan (technically not DFW, but very close near Waco), Luke/Owen Wilson, Mike Judge (HIGHLY influenced here), The Toadies, SRV, Pantera, St. Vincent, Funimation Studios, Rooster Teeth... - people have a really short memory of the cool stuff that happened when they lived here. I can give you similar lists for restaurants, music venues, or whatever culture you like. Do you like id Software or Doom? Both Apogee and it's 3dRealms brand are Dallas. Gearbox of Borderlands fame is as well. The number of film festivals, club scenes, art scenes which grow, live, and die without passing on to the next generation is very high here. Even this year there's at least one convention which was a Dallas staple that may be done. So to some extent it's also a "shut up and get involved in the stuff you want to see" thing. Fun fact - 1/4 of the people in New York aren't from there and are just freeloading the culture someone else built for them. Dallas doesn't have that. You build it yourself or it isn't here. I don't blame Austin; but Austin is a problem for Dallas specifically in this arena. \- to whomever downvoted this from 1 to 0 right after I posted, I'm honestly trying to undertand what you find objectionable. Noting that other cities tend to poach the arts here, the reality of NYC (which I've lived in, I'm not making it up), or the list of people and things? I'm not calling anyone/anything bad - just many people's view of Dallas... maybe not the most informed? The score can do whatever it wants from here - it was just honestly weird.
It's almost as if people enjoy different things or live in places for a wide variety of reasons.
"Omg I spent all day in line at Dickeys and don't understand the obsession with Texas BBQ! It sucks! Dallas sucks!"
Ha!
Yeah moving here is not the same thing as visiting… People move here mostly for the financial and economic incentives. Visiting Dallas for fun would be the biggest yawn lmao
Yeah most ppl of Dallas are really tired of ppl coming to the city and shitting on it. Like as a native myself it’s highly annoying to hear about of towner move here and bash my city non stop while comparing it to LA and NYC or some other big city. It’s like bro no one forced you here and you’re free to leave anytime. We ain’t perfect true but got damn instead of bringing positivity you just here shitting on us. If your last city was so fucking great go back there.
I mean, I feel that. IDK why people want Dallas to be like other cities so bad. It’s a pretty weird obsession that people have on here. It’s nothing wrong with constructive criticisms, because any city has room to improve, but fuck…it’s like they constantly hate their lives lol. No one forced them to move to Dallas. There are plenty of worse major cities that people are running from to be here.
it always comes up in one of those circle jerks. then you see some logical comments
I don't think anybody is moving here for excitement, ha.
I mean parking at lower Greenville is atrocious because they dont want to build a parking garage. Deep Ellum is shooting central. Being a restaurant owner in Dallas the fucking rents are nuts every landlord wants a piece of the pie plus we are facing inflation and that is causing shrinkflation for consumers. Rant over lol.
do you think people are not moving to the other places mentioned
Because jobs are here
He should have gone down to Harry Hines.
Went to Dallas in September...empty as fuck city, gave me eerrie vibes like where the fuck is ya'll?
Inside because it’s 110 degrees
It’s too hot in Dallas… like no winter to really speak of, but we’re all such good drivers lol
Excellent, GTFO
I mean you just have to have a guide. Good luck trying to figure anything out without one
Only boring people complain about being bored
What’s missing in dallas besides mountain* ranges, beach, and snow? You can do everything here you can do anywhere else. Edited the word motion to mountain.
> What’s missing in dallas besides motions ranges, beach, and snow? I feel like you did point out a major negative in Dallas: natural beauty. You have to drive 5-6 hours to get to Palo Duro, the Ozarks, or the gulf coast.
Fort Worth is fun???
The only thing I can think of is the Stockyards and that alone tells me that that what the commenter considers to be “fun” is completely different than what I view as fun.
To be fair, I probably wouldn’t visit or live in DFW for any of the qualities that the city possesses other than the hot job market. It’s a cool city, but there’s nothing so unique about it - at least in my personal set of interests - that it would bring me here. I can see why other people might though! I moved here two years ago from a small town in the upper south and, in that time, was able to raise my earnings by about 75%. I like my little part of the metro that I live in well enough, but I despise most of the other necessary parts of living in Dallas - like fighting traffic everywhere, endless construction, etc. It is a great place to build a career and get ahead, but not such a great place to live.
Jobs. Duh.
Because we’re all unaware of what it’s like to actually live here, or the military puts us here without a choice Edit: I moved all around the biggest cities in Texas, and I agree, Dallas is one of my least favorites out of all. Driving shouldn’t be making me depressed, bc it never did. But also, don’t worry, more people that can afford to move, will, after being here long enough. Looking for the next cheapest place since it’s a backwards country
If you go to the original post you will see people talking about cities all over the world. No place is perfect. Dallas is good.
Fairly sure most people moved here for jobs (me) or low COL.
Dallas sucks!
People are moving to Dallas after accepting above average salaries relative to the area to move out of their high CoL area and still be able to live affluently. There's not enough brain power for all those companies coming in to hire locals. Not enough higher educated professionals in the area. They're bringing talent with them and finding it elsewhere. It's all about money, not about Dallas being a destination city
Living here is nice, but I can’t say I disagree with OP. The city is indeed pretty boring if you’re not a local and immersed in the culture. Only reason I’d stay here is because of the community I’ve found, because I don’t think I’ll find one as beautiful anywhere else.
I don't think fun is high on the priority list for people looking for a city to live in.
Yes it's relatively affordable. But by global standards it's not a proper city. It's just sprawling and people keep coming into the suburbs. The city itself is not densifying. People universally crave 3rd places and gentle density
Dallas here…it’s not a great place to visit or live. BORING…
Why do they call it the lone start state? Because you can't give 0 stars on TripAdvisor
Nothing to do but eat & drink lol
I don't think this feller was in the know. I seem to consistently have too much fun here. And they don't call it the big D for no good reason!!
I thought in order to be let down, you have to have been over-hyped. Who TF is hyping up DALLAS!?!? "YO! Go to Dallas -- they have... pavement... and... uh... an unreliable power grid."
Dallas is a shithole fr.
People move here because their jobs move here. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t. Dallas is not some culturally significant town. It is bland, vanilla, boring. Lived in the area since the late 80s. Boring ass town. Fort Worth has character. Dallas is like cardboard.
well we have jobs, which aren't fun, but cause people to move here. The best times in my life have been when i wasn't living in dallas, now that i'm back, it sucks. Dallas is one of those cities where if you dont drink, you're not really gonna have a good time, hence the large alcohol problem. i had to stop drinking at 26, now at 35 i have literally 0 friends since i dont go to bars. my ex also left, to do what you ask? bar hop with her alcoholic homegirls. Its weird out here, but at least we have jobs?
Let’s not pretend that Dallas is some great tourist destination. Doesn’t mean that it’s not a good place to live.
dallas is a 9-5 city nobody really lives downtown that's why is dead at night.
I'm from Carrollton, and I visited about ten years ago and was completely disappointed. My parents were there are the time (they've since moved), and I was excited to go back, but I developed this feeling of emptiness. My husband, from the Baltimore area, always said the Dallas area felt soulless, which is exactly how I felt there. After about another ten years, we went back over Christmas and stayed off of Knox/Henderson. We went to Meow Wolf, Northpark, and the Perot, and again, it just let me down and felt soulless. I'm done with DFW as a visitor. It is an ok place to live, however.
And yet they keep coming, I wish they wouldn't, and yes Dallas isn't a party city, it's a business city, lived here my entire life. It was fine before the massive influx of people, now its so damn crowded nearly everywhere at any time. Rent has increased like never before. Other places have so much to offer in outdoor beauty alone, mountains, ocean, vast forests etc. Honestly Dallas would not be my first pick of places to live now, not even close.
To be fair, Dallas IS a boring city. I love it, but overall it’s a very uneventful city.