"Good" sides and "bad" sides of Dallas? I've never been to Dallas (newbie) (move to, Hispanics)

[marvinljohn]

Originally Posted by jgn2013

Sounds like the OP is a white Mexican that wants to avoid brown Latinos and blacks. Just stay north of the Trinity and avoid certain hot pockets like Forest/Audelia/i-635, and you'll be fine.

If you want a more 'bleached' experience, go with Highland Park or Preston Hollow.

This!

[J800]

Originally Posted by marvinljohn

This!

I wish he would've just came out and said that instead of trying to be politically correct.

[UbbyJuice]

Just wondering, for a cross-state move what's a good "rule of thumb" for asking for a salary increase in the event a local company expresses an interest in hiring me? Ask for how much increase? 5%? 10%? Etc? How have you guys handled it in the past when moving cross-state?

You guys are right, "get a local job first" seems to be the smartest course of action. I'll begin testing the waters immediately. In fact I'm browsing job listings in the other tab right now to scope out the local market.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by UbbyJuice

Just wondering, for a cross-state move what's a good "rule of thumb" for asking for a salary increase in the event a local company expresses an interest in hiring me? Ask for how much increase? 5%? 10%? Etc? How have you guys handled it in the past when moving cross-state?

You guys are right, "get a local job first" seems to be the smartest course of action. I'll begin testing the waters soon. I'm browsing job listings in the other tab to scope out the local market.

There is no "rule of thumb". You may get a large increase if you're moving from rural Kentucky, no increase if moving from Houston, and possibly a decrease if coming from NYC.

Glassdoor.com is a good resource for researching salaries by position in many companies. You can even drill down to salary by locstion and position if there is enough data.

[UbbyJuice]

What part(s) of Dallas is where most of the Mexicans are at? Just wondering.

Is it one part of town over other areas? Or are they fairly spread out etc?

[ChristieP]

For the most part, they are pretty spread out. Dallas proper is majority Hispanic.

I would guess that the highest concentration would be in the southeast quadrant, AKA Pleasant Grove.

[jgn2013]

Originally Posted by UbbyJuice

Who are the "usual suspects" in Dallas as far as crimes go? Is it whites, hispanics, blacks, etc? Not a racist question, I'm just wondering. I'm currently in Littleton co so haven't experienced crime in a while. Littleton suburbs are very quiet with little crime.

I'm a mestizo so a Latino or white neighborhood would suffice for me, a simple 1-bed and I would be happy. I'm not so sure I would fit in in a black neighborhood. I'm mostly a nerd that rarely leaves the house outside of work and running errands, so to be honest "petty" street crimes don't really concern me or affect me. It's not like I'll be taking walks around the neighborhood or talking to people, I spend much of my days indoors glued to my computer.

I'm also a tall guy, so that acts as a sort of "passive deterrent" to street crimes. I'm not really concerned for these reasons, as long as it's not gunshots-being-heard-in-the-distance i think I can live with a semi-sketchy area. I don't have any kids or pets either, so school system etc also does not concern me.

Any particular neighborhoods in North and East i can Google for more info? Any recommendations? Based on what you guys have told me, it would seem North and NE area of Dallas is a good place to start my homework.

Rural areas and smaller towns = generally where you see larger pockets of poor white people. The criminals are almost exclusively white. However since the police force in these towns is small (and mostly white), there probably aren't nearly as many arrests as their should be. If the police force in these areas was larger, they'd bust people doing all kinds of crap.

Big cities = black and brown people that are poor are easier to find here. Poor white people don't congregate in big cities especially in the Sunbelt. The street-level crime is more likely to be black/brown. Mostly tied to the drug trade though. Cops don't spend as much time going after meth/pills/coke (white crime). If my goal was to catch a bunch of white kids drinking, selling drugs etc., it would be fairly easy. Police can catch anyone doing anything if they really want to. You won't see them running stings at SMU.

[aggie972]

Originally Posted by jgn2013

Rural areas and smaller towns = generally where you see larger pockets of poor white people. The criminals are almost exclusively white. However since the police force in these towns is small (and mostly white), there probably aren't nearly as many arrests as their should be. If the police force in these areas was larger, they'd bust people doing all kinds of crap.

Big cities = black and brown people that are poor are easier to find here. Poor white people don't congregate in big cities especially in the Sunbelt. The street-level crime is more likely to be black/brown. Mostly tied to the drug trade though. Cops don't spend as much time going after meth/pills/coke (white crime). If my goal was to catch a bunch of white kids drinking, selling drugs etc., it would be fairly easy. Police can catch anyone doing anything if they really want to. You won't see them running stings at SMU.

I doubt that underage drinking is the type of crime OP is asking about. Most prospective homeowners would be primarily concerned with felony violent crime first, property crime second, and then underage drinking, people smoking weed, and small time drug deals between friends to a much lesser extent.

[UbbyJuice]

In a similar vein, in what parts of the city are the poor/financially distressed generally located? I'm starting to get a vague "big picture" of the city, but of course there's no such thing as too much information when comparing different cities you're thinking of moving to. I'm mainly talking about low income folks behind on their bills, have sub-prime loans, etc as those parts are likely to also have crime/drugs.

Any "general" areas of the city to watch out for in this regard? From what i've gathered so far the North side is generally affluent/safe compared to the Southern side, but i'm wondering if it branches off from there into particularly bad "poverty pockets" etc.

[Gaylord_Focker]

So OP is a Hispanic guy trying to avoid Hispanics? Good luck with that in Dallas.