Dallas might be my least favorite large city that I’ve been to in the US (and I’ve been to a lot of them, though Dallas is the only one of the Texas cities I’ve been to). Phoenix has a lot of similar problems, but AZ has spring training, the Arizona Fall League, and a better foodie culture. So I guess I’d pick Phoenix, but I’d have to be ridiculously well compensated to consider a move to either one.
But it’s a DRY heat. 
Is the salary the same in either location? How does the cost of living compare? Affordable housing near the office? Commuting issues?
No lack of same in Phoenix. I had a scorpion in the medicine cabinet. Ever open the medicine cabinet paying only a little bit of attention as you reach for the floss, and see Mr. Scorp sitting there, and how the hell do you kill the bastard in the medicine cabinet? I had to knock him out of there, praying he wouldn’t fall on me; knock him into the sink and chase him around with the rubber mallet. Which I keep in every single room for the sole purpose of killing these bastards.
Add the geckos and small snake, which while they won’t hurt you, can startle the hell out of you.
Creepy crawlies being equal, I say Dallas. And I’ve lived in Phoenix over 30 years.
Never been to Phoenix, so I can’t offer a comparison, but Oaky and Amberleia bring up a good point: most public transportation in Dallas sucks donkey balls, to put it delicately and in technical terms. The DART system is (slowly) improving, but Dallas has astonishing sprawl so depending on housing preferences and car access, some folks can have a 2- or even 3-hour commute (one way) which is my idea of a personal hell.
Betcha the BBQ is better here, though.
“I understand why lizards live in sunny Arizona.
Why people do, and call it home, I’ll never understand.”
- Robert Earl Keen
I like Dallas. I like Dallas itself a lot more than I like the Metroplex, and that is a meaningful distinction.
It’s also worth knowing what you think the next few years will be like–are you married and raising kids? Are you single and hoping to get married? Are you single and hoping to hang out and have lots of fun? Are you married and childless and want to hang out with other couples?
And what kind of money are we talking about? Like, I’d rather be poor in Dallas than poor in Chicago, but I’d rather be rich in Chicago than rich in Dallas (a lot of this has to do with my relationship with the cold).
Same donkey balls in Phoenix. They build a so called “light rail” system, but it’s useless unless you’re working downtown and living in maybe 2 select neighborhoods, or you’re an ASU student. Nothing goes where you need it to. And sprawl is just as bad, one end of the Valley to another.
And yeah, it’s hotter than a furnace fan.
Meet in the middle and call it Phallas.
I am an east coast native (primarily NYC and coastal NC) who now lives in Dallas and my opinion is “eh, I could take it or leave it”. This might be because I lived in Oklahoma City for 6 awful years before this, and that place is a shithole. It would be really helpful to know where you live now, so we could give some meaningful comparisons.
-No state income tax, but county and city taxes are high for the region, but still low compared to, say, New York. Lower taxes are partly responsible for the flight to the vast suburbs. I live in Dallas (Lakewood neighborhood) and property taxes are equal to about half of my mortgage.
-Summer is hot, with frequent multi-week runs over 100 degrees and almost no rain. This year has been surprisingly nice.
-Winter is mild, but there are occasional below-freezing weeks and 1-2 ice/storms annually.
-Except for a few weeks around April and October, it is always dry. I don’t know where people get the idea it is humid. Houston, Atlanta, heck even Manhattan, are humid, by comparison. The whole place looks brown on final approach to DFW airport.
-Bugs are a non-issue compared to anywhere in the southeast US. Mosquitos are the most significant pest and we have the nation’s highest incidence of West Nile Virus, but things have improved greatly since the third-world level clusterfuck two years ago, when the city’s complacency and inaction led to quite a few deaths.
-It’s pervasively super conservative and super evangelical Protestant. The city of Dallas votes Democrat, because the poor people are concentrated here. The surrounding suburbs are heavily Republican, and in the typical corporate environment, that’s where your coworkers are likely to live and how they are likely to think. Whether that’s good or bad depends on you, I suppose.
-By and large, regular Texans are proud, friendly, histrionic, and kind of full of shit. Just nod and smile and they will treat you like a buddy, including busting your balls over your funny accent and lack of horsemanship. While they might say nasty things about this or that group, they are typically downright friendly to individuals.
-Good food is easy to find at any level of fanciness/price. Not Pacific NW level, but above the average US city and light years ahead of Oklahoma, which is a shithole. There’s plenty of bad tex-mex to avoid, and good east Asian food is a little scarce.
-Lots of night life: Uptown, Knox-Henderson, Deep Ellum, Bishop Arts.
-Congestion is bad, but nothing like New York or even Houston. It all depend on where you live. I commute 20 miles and it typically takes 35-45 minutes. Public transportation is terrible and an option of last resort.
-Wretched excess and conspicuous consumption are rampant among certain groups: Uptown 30 thousand dollar millionaires, suburban McMansion mommies, and Park Cities people (who really are rich). On one hand, this means unecessary valet parking everywhere and snobbish attitudes from self-important phonies. On the other hand, there are a lot of really nice cars sitting in traffic and very fancy shopping, if you are into that sort of thing. If you don’t fit the mold, they will treat you like the hired help. The rest of us laugh at them.
-Municipal water is of middling quality, not nearly as good as New York, but far better than the shit in a bucket of algae taste of Oklahoma water.
-The public schools largely suck. This includes most of the supposedly excellent schools in the suburbs. Those tend to have very nice facilities with lots of fancy tech BS and a lower level of violence, don’t actually offer a superior education. It’s mostly a way to keep one’s kids away from “those people”.
None o’ those in Phoenix, nosiree!
Missed the edit window. I completely forgot about the surrounding region. There is nothing to see for hours in any direction. Forget about taking a walk in the woods or hills after work, because there ain’t any. The closest thing to outdoor recreation is going out to the lake house, which sucks because these aren’t real lakes. If you like bass fishing and driving back and forth on a jet ski, drunk, it might be for you.
-Galveston is 5 hours away and the beach is crappy compared to pretty much anywhere on the east coast. Decent beaches start around Corpus Christi, which is 6 hours away.
-Austin and San Antonio are 3 and 4 hours away, and are good for a couple days at most. The appeal of the hill country eludes me.
Beyond that, it’s 10 or 12 hours to the nicer parts of Colorado and New Mexico, with nothing but ugly between here and there.
I live in Phoenix and have lived here for about 12 years now. I’ve also visited Dallas at least three times in my life.
It’s tempting to say “Phoenix” because I’m a bit biased, but I wasn’t really that impressed with Dallas, to be honest.
As some others said in here, Dallas has more things to do and is in an area that has more choices, people, areas of note, etc… Phoenix is where you come to relax and get away from other busier places. Where you can enjoy vacation time (because it’s usually always sunny here).
Overall, I guess I’d have to go with Phoenix, although from the looks of this topic, Dallas may win.
I didn’t hate it…I just, didn’t love it.
One thing, though…the drive from New Mexico to Dallas was one of the MOST BORING trips I’ve ever taken. It’s miles and miles of just…nothing. Much more desert in between those two spots than ANYTHING Phoenix has.
I live in Dallas (well, a suburb, but I work in Dallas). I’d describe it as a nice place to live but I wouldn’t really want to visit here. Of course there are the stereotypical blowhards but there are enough people here that I’ve found my niche of very close friends. As others mentioned there are very good restaurants - my favorite for the best restaurants is Uptown, Bishop Arts, and the Design District. I can always find things to keep me entertained as far as evenings go. There are biking and running clubs which I have taken part in in the past and swear I’m going to join again in the future! Sports are plentiful. If you don’t want to pay the high price for the professional teams there are a number of minor league teams that are fun to watch and I think a better value. Up in Frisco there’s a really nice minor league ball park, and soccer is becoming popular thanks to a new professional soccer stadium.
The metroplex lacks the character of some of other large cities but it does have a charm of its own and has plenty to offer. Whatever it is that you’re looking for you’ll be able to find somewhere so if you pick Dallas start a new thread asking for suggestions on where to live and what to do.
Dallas. Close to a very varied lot of places. Drive four or five hours and you can be at the beach, a forest, a desert, a historic town, a river ride, etc, etc…
Plus, it actually has seasons most years.
I don’t know about Dallas, but if you like temps of 115° fairly often in summer Phoenix would suit you.
People say this as a joke but I don’t get it. To make it makes all the difference. I grew up in the desert and can (and have) easily handled 110 degree weather. Honestly, once it gets past 98 it’s just “hot.” But I went to Georgia in the summer once. Man, I wanted to shoot myself in the face. Not only was it Georgia but that humidity was miserable. Same with New Jersey. I’d much rather handle Baghdad summer than any humid summer.
I had to go to Dallas for work. I could not find any decent Mexican food. I was surprised.
Do you remember the names of places you went? I’m just curious.
The only place I remember off the top of my head is Fuzzy Taco, or something like that.
Yeah, that’s a chain. There are some really good “authentic” places near where I live. Fuzzy’s has good queso (IMHO), but not much else.
Also, there are a considerable amount of places that are made much better when accompanied by a margarita.
Clearly you’ve never lived anywhere humid or flat. Dallas is neither. It may not be super-dessicating dry like Phoenix, but someone from New Orleans or Houston would laugh their asses off to hear you say that Dallas is humid. Same thing about flat- there are actual hills in Dallas, even if they’re fairly gradual. Houston, on the other hand, is so flat that to do a soapbox derby, they actually have to shut off an overpass, since there are no actual hills to use.
And… Austin sucks, mostly because it’s been dubbed as “cool”, and everybody there is either asshole posers who came because of the “coolness”, or they’re the same Texas people from everywhere else. At least Dallas has something going for it beyond people from elsewhere proclaiming that it’s “cool”. Plus, Austin has assholes playing shitty music EVERYWHERE. You want to buy groceries? Get ready to listen to some whiny bitch with a goatee and tight pants play a cover while you do it. Want to sit in the airport waiting on your flight? Same thing.