Fort Worth

What does that mean- "two ageing boys"-- you are 50s?

48 and my partner is 53. I work online so can do it anywhere. He has been offered a position at TCU.

Texas Christian? Now what would you expect?

Sounds godawful.

I like Fort Worth much more than Dallas. It's a nice medium sized city, well cultured. I have no idea about the institutional culture at TCU. That could be a problem.

Find out if your partner has to sign some kind of "christian morals affidavit" to get the position. Does the job come with a beard?

Texas politics are horribly regressive and you'll be surrounded by Trump-fellating faux Christian deplorables. SURROUNDED.

Also, if you've lived in southern California for many years, you've forgotten what severe weather is like. North Texas today is hit with extremely violent thunderstorms and tornadoes on a regular basis. The heat in the summertime is far more oppressive than it is in California, plus you'll be subject to ice and snow in the winter.

In southern California, hop in your car and you're a few hours away from alpine mountains, gorgeous beaches, scenic desert, national parks and gay meccas like Palm Springs. You'll have NONE of that in Fort Worth. There's n nothing but flat prairie for hundreds of miles in any direction. Unless a friend is having a party, prepare to be bored on weekends.

You will however, have a lower cost of living, and larger, far less expensive housing. And good steaks. Plus, Ft. Worth has some good art museums. And that's about all you'll have.

Thanks you guys. I am hesitant my my husband really wants the position. Is the weather really that bad there?

All the gays I know like Fort Worth, especially in comparison to Dallas. There are great museums and lots of money. The weather is hotter than hell, but everything is air-conditioned. You can get used to it.

TCU is all about basketball. Go Horny Frogs!

We could buy this with cash.

It’s better than Oklahoma. Not a fan of DFW at all - least favorite Texas city. Would be a harsh adjustment from CA. It for a few years, could be alright. As long as it’s a really strong relationship of many years and you are used to being alone together. Life is life wherever you are. But you will really miss CA attitudes, weather and beauty. Basically no natural beauty anywhere close.

Go watch some old episodes of COPS, and get an idea of your neighbors.

TCU? OP do they know you partner is gay?

You will be surrounded by Trumpers. At least Dallas country voted for Hillary.

Fort Worth is a beautiful city and the TCU campus is lovely. The city is growing and changing rapidly. It's not at all like it was just 10 years ago.

People from all over the U. S. are moving here in droves which is changing the political makeup. (Beto O'Rourke flipped Tarrant County in his Senate bid.)

The weather is weird but Fort Worth is one of the very few big cities that isn't hellish.

[quote]It’s better than Oklahoma.

So is hell.

TCU isn't fundie—it's Disciples of Christ, which is a pro-gay mainline denomination. The school has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation.

Ya’ll would like it. I moved to Dallas from LA in the 90’s, and I love it here. I would never go back to California.... there are to many natural disasters, fires, and the cost of living is ridiculous

I find Ft. Worth possibly the friendliest city in Texas. I'm from Houston and lived in Dallas several years. The museums are quite nice. They had a great Matisse/Picasso exhibit that was on tour in the late 90s or early 00s. It is more conservative politically, but I've always enjoyed visiting. My SIL the landscaper liked the botanical garden there. And you can take the train to Dallas if you don't want to bother driving.

The terrifying traffic. Terrifying.

I visit the DFW area a few times a year but I refuse to drive myself on that fucked up network of roads. I have too many “close call” stories that involve my time in cars in the region. It’s not the drivers, it’s the roads themselves.

I love the crosswinds, though, especially on a warm summer night.

But Jesus told us to discriminate gently and keep it only on the downlow, R18. So OP better not try to be too much of that 'homa-seks-shull' around us.

Be Blessed!

Come and visit for a weekend! Fort Worth is a fun town. Less uptight and rigid than Dallas is. People there like to have a good time. Traffic isn’t nearly as bad as it is in LA.

Dallas here. Fort Worth always gets hit by the big storms, that have sizeable hail. If you do decide, make sure you have some kind of covered parking. . TCU is in the "expensive" area. Many pretty nice houses, and overall you get a lot for your money there compared Dallas. I-30 is always under construction, with abrupt lane endings from time to time. A lot of bad traffic and accidents. Id rent over buying, the property taxes are very high in the "nice" areas. Fort Worth also has a good number of nice restaurants, but for every one there are 20 chain restaurants. Be prepared to meet A LOT of culturally ignorant, and unworldly people. Nice people, but something that always threw me when meeting new people.

I am not from Texas, we came here in 2011, to look after my partners aging parents. (He grew up here) The second they are gone, we are out of here. I dont feel like I will ever adjust to being here, but that is just me.

Oh, and if you can afford it, make sure you get a place with a pool. The Texas sun is no joke.

Yes, for the DFW area you need covered parking due to hailstorms.

[quote]All the gays I know like Fort Worth, especially in comparison to Dallas.

I don't know what gays you hang around, but I've never met a gay person who prefers Ft. Worth over Dallas. Dallas is glamorous, Ft. Worth is a cow town. The city of Dallas votes Democratic, Ft. Worth Republican, although Ft. Worth did vote for Beto over Cruz, which was the first time the city went Democratic. Still, Ft. Worth is the only major Texas city that regularly votes Republican.

there are some beautiful neighborhoods in the vicinity of TCU.

What r27 said. I lived in Texas for a few years and know some people who still do. Dallas is the gay friendly one, a gayborhood and many gay bars. Fort Worth is way more redneck and right-wing.

If you're a classical music fan, Fort Worth is the location of the Van Cliburn competitions. Very glamorous event.

Some of you are painting a very nice portrait of it.

How far is Dallas from Ft. Worth? Could OP live in Dallas instead and commute? Are they really two separate cities or is it more like Minneapolis, where St. Paul is its own thing, but they're all just Minneapolis?

Exactly R32 . People are talking like they are different cities. It’s called DFW metroplex for a reason. Traffic sucks but no need to live in Fort Worth instead of Dallas proper. Except maybe because it’s cheaper.

Minneapolis and St Paul are only 12 miles apart. Dallas and Fort Worth are 32 miles apart. It's a commute.

I'm in the Dallas area and I have a pool. By mid-July the heat and unrelenting sun make it all but unusable. Never meant to stay here this long (since 2007). It's kind of pain and I don't think I want to have a pool again, just my opinion.

Fort Worth is more cultured, for sure.

Never understood pools in Texas Do you really want to bake outside in the ridiculous summer heat? Made sense before air conditioning but now I just see it as a huge expense and maintenance - all to take a big bath every once in a while. Just get a hot tub.

I wouldn't want to drive from Dallas to Ft. Worth twice a day, five days a week. Look at the mid-cities area: Arlington, Grand Prairie, etc. That would be an easier commute.

What do you get when you mix a cow patty with LSD? A trip to Fort Worth.

Dallas traded with the Indians. Fort Worth fought with the Indians.

Fort Worth is a great town to go on a drunk.

Fort Worth has some cultural places of interest, but you can run through them pretty quickly. Plenty of folks are friendly, but so many are so backwards it is hard to relate to them. For example, it's not uncommon to meet folks who have never left the area. Not for a vacation. Not even to explore other parts of the state. They're always weirdly proud of this fact. Which leads to another point, it takes forever to get anywhere else because you're landlocked in the middle of the country. Their are some direct international flights from DFW to be sure, but it's a hassle compared to living on the coasts where it is so much easier to hop a flight anywhere.

It sounds like a nice place.

DFW tries to be cosmopolitan and in certain parts of flashy Dallas, you can actually forget you’re in the South. But then someone asks you “what church you go to” with that southern drawl and you remember exactly where you are.

Dallas isn’t a bad place, and it’s attractive to companies relocating from expensive business-hostile states like California. But it just has this backwards feeling to me whenever I go back (from Plano).

I lived in southern california a long time and spent a couple of years in Houston after. Houston is more liberal and bigger city than Dallas or ft worth. I was really offended at all the right wing crap and the blatant christianity everywhere and was appalled and offended all the time. I left due to the political, moral and religious fanaticsm.......

I have a close friend that lives in Plano and he doesnt seem to have any trouble with the right wing environment even tho it isnt his beliefs....... so if you have a high coping mechanism for hypocrites and right wing religious zealots you could make it work. The weather didnt bother me.

Well, I said yes to my partner so Fort Worth it will be. thanks for chiming in you guys!

I was born and raised in Fort Worth and lived there for the first 34 years of my life before moving to the east coast in 2000. It's a wonderful place and I will love it always and it'll always be a part of me. I am very happy, however, to not live there anymore and hope to never live there again. I'm happy to visit every now and then (my family still lives there) but that's as far as it goes.

That said, I was incredibly shocked last May when I visited for my nephew's graduation and stayed in a hotel downtown (I had not been home in many years since my beautiful mother passed away). I could not fucking believe how much downtown has changed -- all of the restaurants and places to shop just totally blew my mind! I can remember a day when downtown Fort Worth essentially died after 6 in the evening; there was absolutely nothing of interest to do after the sun went down. But now, now there is something on every corner! It was such a wonderful thing to see and I hope there is even more to come.

By the way, when I still lived in Fort Worth, both of my apartments were out in the Hulen area not far from TCU. I always thought that was also such a beautiful part of town.

r-46 when you say you are happy you do not live there exactly why do you feel that way? Can you share a little more?

I just mean that I'm very happy living in my very liberal bubble here in NYC and would never have any interest in going back to live in Fort Worth, even though it's come light years from what it used to be many years ago (i.e., culturally vacant and hopelessly conservative). But now just knowing that Beto beat Cruz (in Tarrant County of all places!), I do feel there's some hope, plus more people like you moving there, OP, can only make it that much better.

By the way, I do like to think Fort Worth isn't quite as conservative as it used to be. I say this when thinking about city councilman Joel Burns, who made a bit of splash nationwide a few years ago thanks to his beautiful anti-bullying speech:

I love Fort Worth. I had to leave a few years ago because I got a job offer I couldn’t refuse, but if I could get a good gig in FW again I’d go back in a flash.

There are plenty of enlightened, liberal, cool people there. Yes there are nuts who go to megachurches but you don’t have to hang out with them.

[quote] But then someone asks you “what church you go to” with that southern drawl and you remember exactly where you are.

Funny.

Fort Worth here I come.

Not a place you choose - a place you end up stuck in. But there are worse.

If you move there, join a garden club and find the ladies who lunch. This will be your new social circle.

Do explore the state. There are quite a few interesting places to "road trip" to. The hill country in Austin is really nice, and there are a lot of wineries located there. Also Enchanted Rock, is a nice spot to hike. Its about a 3 hour drive south from Fort Worth.

To the west, you have Marfa, The McDonald Observatory, and Big Bend, all pretty cool places. Big Bend is the one place in the US, that you can see constellations in the Southern Hemisphere. The night sky out there is beautiful. An 8 hour drive west, but doable.

To the east you have Dallas, which is very close. Nice to explore when you finish Fort Worth. Past there you get into a lot of farmland, then you hit "The Pine Curtain". East Texas while scenic, is VERY conservative. Not the place you want to advertise your gayness. Its not all like that, for the most part yes.

You will also be within a drive-able distance to New Orleans, and the Gulf coast. About an 8-9 hour drive.

Enjoy Texas OP.

Big Bend may as well be in another state. Did the drive once - fine but it is a trek with absolutely nothing but driving through flat Texas country for hours.

Depending on your budget, OP, I would definitely look at houses/apartments in the TCU/Camp Bowie area or perhaps even downtown. The southwest side of town (around where Hulen Mall is located) is quite nice, too. Arlington is also very nice and would put you more or less halfway between Fort Worth and Dallas (if you work in one and want to play in the other).

R41 It takes longer if you are traveling internationally to Europe, etc. but if you are traveling to either I’ve always found it nice that you’re right in the middle. It’s three hours to California, three hours to New York max.. sometimes it’s even less.

There is no zoning in Arlington so it can be a little weird, but properties can be extremely reasonable as far as price is concerned. The neighborhood by Shady Valley country club is pretty in Arlington with lots of trees. There are some GORGEOUS neighborhoods in Fort Worth too.

This is happening a lot. Jobs and investment are leaving NY and CA and going to Texas, Utah, Tennessee, etc in droves. I’m a Dem voter usually but the far Left has really fucked us all in the coastal states. Taxes, regs, and union bloated costs are now driving companies to lower cost states even for highly paid technical and professiona positions. I was just told to move half my team to Dallas by mid 2020. NYC is over, AOC and De Blasio can go fuck themselves, as much as I disliked him, we need Bloomberg again.

Make sure to get friendly with Anne Bass and hope for an invitation to lunch at her incredible Paul Rudolph house.

Although she’s rarely in Ft. Worth these days and spends most of the year between NYC, the place in South Kent, and her amazing new villa on Nevis.

Will the Bass brothers invite me to lunch if I moved to Fort Worth?

cheaper housing, yes.....but you wake up inFort Worth!

Agree R61 - I never get why people go crazy about cheap housing as a solution to their problems. I’ll take my 1BR apartment in a vibrant city over a 2,000 square foot house in a place I don’t want to live. Life happens outside your house - not in it.

Are the stockyards still there? Do they stink?