re: What is so great about Dallas, TX

A few neighborhoods are better than nothing, but it isn’t the same as a full city where you can easily get around without a car. And it isn’t just some hard-on for transit…I simply prefer a more dense community. I moved to Seattle from Dallas in 2014, and then to SF in 2020, and for most of those years I haven’t owned a car.

The OP just wants a big pissing match of Houston vs Dallas. They have their differences, but not enough for one to be light years better than the other.

Saying that, didn’t like Houston. Live in Florida now and love it. In central Fl because the work is good, but when my project is over in 2025 I’ll probably move to St Pete.

quote:

---

I’m nut saying it’s bad, but for the size of the city, the skyline is small and extremely disappointing.

---

It depends on one's perspective. From afar, it's not that impressive, but I think the skyline looks great approaching downtown from one of the highways going roughly North or South.

There are many tall buildings immediately north of downtown near I-35E, US 75, and the DNT. The DNT in particular has an impressive skyline in the North Dallas area. DFW Skyline Photographer Twitter Joseph Haubert takes wonderful pictures of the downtown Dallas skyline.

Austin's taller buildings also seemed spread out rather than densely packed.

For an unimpressive skyline relative to a city's population or prominence, see Fort Worth.

At least San Antonio has great cultural and historical reasons for its downtown skyline being limited, i.e. buildings aren't supposed to cast a shadow over the Alamo.

No one lives in a city because of a skyline…what an absolutely worthless measure.

Dallas is easy living for any stage of life. That’s what is appealing about it. You have the access to the amenities of one of the largest cities in the country, lower COL, and an area of town that fits any age demo and lifestyle.

The infrastructure is great, zoning is well done, schools are solid, housing is abundant, crime is low in most areas, etc….the list goes on with standard SOL questionnaire bingo where DFW excels.

The entire country has rising rents and SFH prices. Relative to other metroplexes, Dallas remains very affordable, especially on housing. Comparable cities are the likes of NYC, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, DC, San Francisco…Atlanta and Houston are the only two even remotely comparable COL.

quote:

---

But there are only a handful of big cities where you could live without a car and I like the idea of living without a car so I get where you are coming from. I guess the trade off is those cities are way more expensive than even Dallas is. As it is, I have a 2 year old truck and only have 9000 miles on it and probably 1/3 of those miles are from going on road trips.

---

I hear you. It was an intentional decision I made to move someplace where I wouldn’t be car dependent, but let me ask you this: what’s your total cost of ownership per year for that two year old truck that only has 9k miles on it? Maybe $10k/year after payments, registration, insurance, and gas? My transit pass in Seattle was ~$100/month and covered 90% of the places I wanted to go. On the occasion I rented a car for a day (usually to go hiking), it was never more that $80 or so all in. Ultimately it was a lifestyle decision that worked for me…but I realize that isn’t the case for everyone.