The start of Cowtown is 4 miles from WeJo's house. So no
The start of Cowtown is 4 miles from WeJo's house. So no
wejo wrote:
Yes commuting FW to Dallas would suck (I HATE that drive) but so would sending his kids 45 minutes to school each way and having them live far from their school mates.
There are a half dozen very good private schools in Dallas between Oak Cliff and St. Marks that have a significantly shorter commute. Also, St. Marks is pretty much a rich kid school. Your kid may come home asking why you don't have a private jet like the other kids' dads have.
wejo wrote:
I grew up in Dallas and went to St. Mark's.
Oak Cliff now does seem like a trendy place. I'm sure you can find a cool home to live in and it is very different than the rest of the nicer parts of Dallas.
I don't know but assume that no one who can afford it sends their kids to public schools there. They only go there out of necessity. It's sad that's how things work but is the reality. Might be some magnet schools your kids could get in but my impression is unless its Highland Park or the suburbs North of Dallas very few people send their kids to public schools unless they don't have any other choices.
I went to St. Mark's. Great school. Obviously single sex so if you have daughters they'll have to go somewhere else. One thing to factor in is the commute. Oakcliff to St. Mark's can't be easy in rush hour and I doubt a lot of your sons classmates will live in Oak Cliff. Just something to factor in.
Or you could move to Fort Worth. More affordable than Dallas. Kids in my neihborhood go to public (Lilly B Clayton, Paschal) and private schools. And then you could be the one who commutes. Maybe the train and uber isn't really feasible each day but something to consider if you don't want to drive.
But your kids slogging 30 minutes to school each day can't be good. Actually I just put it in google maps and it says at 7:30 am it can take 25-55 minutes to get to St. Mark's. Is that what you want for your kids?
I can see how you'd want to live in Oak Cliff. Less of the mcMansion or suburban feel of a lot of Dallas, but for kids and their education I'm not sure it is for you.
Thank you very much. We are now considering the area close to the south-west corner of WRL. Fort Worth is also an option as we have an office there. I have heard non stop about how bad the public schools are in Dallas, so it seems that OC is not the best place to raise kids.
I realize this thread is two years old -- I stumbled upon it while Googling about tracks in North Oak Cliff. Even though your decision about where to move in Dallas has long been made, I wanted to speak up in defense of Oak Cliff.
We have lived here with our child (now six) for four years, and we couldn't be happier -- contrary to what most of the respondents said to you (do they live in Oak Cliff, I wonder?), this is a wonderful place to raise a child. (We moved here from the M Streets area in East Dallas.) On our block alone there are three other families with small children, and they all run in and out of each other's houses in the afternoons. Our local elementary school, Rosemont, is beloved and embraced by the community, and there are several other local elementary schools with increased middle-class buy-in and support. There are wonderful parks, lots of places to run, and restaurants where kids can run around and be loud. There is an early childhood PTA (RECPTA) that connects parents in Oak Cliff, and the opportunities for getting together and building community are manifold. This is the kind of place where you get to know your neighbors because you see them on the playground, in the grocery store, in the coffee shop, and out to eat. Neighborhood associations here are thriving, and people care about things like historic preservation. Crime has not been an issue for us in the least, but housing prices are steep and getting steeper -- there are not very many bargains to be had anymore in North Oak Cliff. With that said, the larger neighborhood is diverse -- our daughter's elementary school is 87% Hispanic, which enables a flourishing dual language program and means that she makes friends with people who hail from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, which we believe is important.
Your child must now be entering the 7th grade, and I hope that you've found a wonderful neighborhood here in Dallas that suits you and meets your needs. But you should come and do a run in Oak Cliff sometime -- check out Dash for the Beads, a community race held during the first weekend of Mardi Gras every year. It will give you a good taste of Oak Cliff, its diverse and friendly population, and its appetite for fun! Plus you'll get to see some beautiful houses and landscape along the route. Coombs Creek Trail (more like a path) is a great, flat route that you could also try. It goes through two of the most gorgeous neighborhoods in Dallas, Kessler Park and Stevens Park.
Assuming your a male. No way your wife could run alone on Coombs Creek.
True, better than East Dallas which appears to have morphed into the US center for dead dog dumping .
*you’re-hate this phone.