Visible disorder is less, but crime is actually higher. Dallas' homicide rate is much higher than NYC, though the suburban cities are often safer.
People who actually live in DFW don't really care that it might take 5 minutes to drive to get food. I've never heard of anyone being concerned about this. People are far more worried about commute times to work. After all, people can often just pick up groceries on the way back from work or another activity. And if you're willing to spend a little bit more money grocery delivery services are available. Walmart now has drone delivery in the DFW area.
The kind of people who choose to live in McKinney are probably extremely selected for car-orientation. They don't perceive their lives as worse than anywhere else, and probably think it's great they get to have big houses with yards in a safe place in an economically growing metro area. In Texas towns the local social scene is often centered around the high school (football games etc.) as the kinds of people who live in McKinney tend to have kids. Also there is historic downtown McKinney. It's nothing particularly amazing, but it does have stores and restaurants in historic-looking buildings on tree-lined streets as well as events like Oktoberfest. There are quite a few golf courses and parks as well. Also, it's fairly common to go hang out in a different city from the one you live in as off-peak traffic is low. Plano is only about 10 minutes away.
DFW now has distinctively many variable toll "TEXPress" lanes, which means you can get to where you want to go and skip freeway traffic as long as you pay the variable toll. It remains to be seen if this is a good thing or creates a class divide. DFW has lower measured commute times and congestion than what you would expect from a metro area of that size. People forget that only a tiny fraction of the employment is in Dallas CBD.
People tend to not walk around for utilitarian reasons, and people do it more as a leisure or social activity in nature and/or in their neighborhoods.
Pros: 0% state income tax, good incomes relative to the cost of living, reasonably priced property, diversified economy, accessible flights (HQ of both American Airlines and Southwest), comparably family oriented, pro-entrepreneur, good diverse food, some solar+wind energy, often really nice suburban school buildings like at Prosper
Some thoughts as someone who grew up in DFW:
Visible disorder is less, but crime is actually higher. Dallas' homicide rate is much higher than NYC, though the suburban cities are often safer.
People who actually live in DFW don't really care that it might take 5 minutes to drive to get food. I've never heard of anyone being concerned about this. People are far more worried about commute times to work. After all, people can often just pick up groceries on the way back from work or another activity. And if you're willing to spend a little bit more money grocery delivery services are available. Walmart now has drone delivery in the DFW area.
https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/01/09/sky-high-ambitions-walmart-to-make-largest-drone-delivery-expansion-of-any-us-retailer
The kind of people who choose to live in McKinney are probably extremely selected for car-orientation. They don't perceive their lives as worse than anywhere else, and probably think it's great they get to have big houses with yards in a safe place in an economically growing metro area. In Texas towns the local social scene is often centered around the high school (football games etc.) as the kinds of people who live in McKinney tend to have kids. Also there is historic downtown McKinney. It's nothing particularly amazing, but it does have stores and restaurants in historic-looking buildings on tree-lined streets as well as events like Oktoberfest. There are quite a few golf courses and parks as well. Also, it's fairly common to go hang out in a different city from the one you live in as off-peak traffic is low. Plano is only about 10 minutes away.
DFW now has distinctively many variable toll "TEXPress" lanes, which means you can get to where you want to go and skip freeway traffic as long as you pay the variable toll. It remains to be seen if this is a good thing or creates a class divide. DFW has lower measured commute times and congestion than what you would expect from a metro area of that size. People forget that only a tiny fraction of the employment is in Dallas CBD.
People tend to not walk around for utilitarian reasons, and people do it more as a leisure or social activity in nature and/or in their neighborhoods.
Pros: 0% state income tax, good incomes relative to the cost of living, reasonably priced property, diversified economy, accessible flights (HQ of both American Airlines and Southwest), comparably family oriented, pro-entrepreneur, good diverse food, some solar+wind energy, often really nice suburban school buildings like at Prosper
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/public-high-school-opened-one-154400569.html
cons: less intellectual culture, urban crime, car-oriented, variable weather compared to California, no beaches or mountains