Howdy Ags! If you are an upcoming Aggie grad thinking of a move to Uptown Dallas in the next 12 months, I wrote this article JUST FOR YOU!
Without a doubt, the area that is most popular for recent grads of all schools, and that includes Texas Aggies, is the Uptown Dallas and surrounding areas near it. Uptown Dallas has the highest concentration of recent grads of any area in Dallas/Fort Worth and it’s not even close ! And the feel is very trendy yet chill too, which is also a huge plus. It’s seriously kind of like Aggieland 2.0 there, like the next best thing to living near campus in College Station! Living in Uptown Dallas is kind of like having the convenience of University Drive, Texas Avenue and Northgate, all rolled into one area that you can either walk to or use the free trolley to get to (see more on that below)!
Let’s start with describing more of what makes Uptown Dallas unique and worth your attention for living at or nearby!
KEY FEATURES OF UPTOWN DALLAS
Some of the key features of Uptown Dallas are:
– Easy Access throughout: You can either walk, use the free Uptown Trolley, or even use the Katy Trail to get around to so much of Uptown. It’s really well designed for quick access using one of those three methods.
– Lots of Outdoor Patios: Many of the restaurants and night spots have open patios outdoors. This makes is so easy and fun to meet people and/or people watch!
– Uptown Trolley: I mentioned the Uptown Trolley already. That is a fantastic and FREE (donation based) public transportation that runs seven days a week. It starts in the West Village area of Uptown and uses McKinney Avenue to go through Uptown and then ends up in Downtown Dallas. For many grads, that’s where they work, so they can use the Trolley to get to work without paying for expensive parking downtown!
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The Katy Trail: The
Katy Trail is a running trail that actually starts in the Victory Park area. It is about 3.6 miles of trails that grads use ALL THE TIME. You can bike on them, walk on them, even maybe scooter (check on that!) and definitely skate on them too! It’s a great way to get exercise but it’s also a huge social scene. You can literally get on the trail almost anytime and soon you will see other professionals on it, including many recent grads. The Katy Trail actually runs at night too and it has safety features to make it usable at night.
– LOTS of restaurants, night spots and shops! There’s so many places to check out in Uptown Dallas. Great food, places to relax at night and interesting boutiques…and also some of your favorite chains as well. I love the amount of more local and regional brands here. It’s not just all the same national brands we see. It’s kind of like combining Century Square and Northgate, but multiply it and spread it out throughout Uptown!
– Huge Concentration of Grads: Already mentioned it, but there’s no question that parts of Uptown have the highest concentration of recent grads. It makes sense because it’s super close to Downtown, where many of the most high profile employers of recent grads are.
Does that give you all you need to know, Ags? Uptown Dallas should be TOP on your list for where you want to live when you move to Dallas for that dream job! Uptown Dallas has it all, the fun, the walkability and plenty of recent grads (including Aggies!). Now, let’s explore the neighborhoods of Uptown Dallas (and nearby)!
NEIGHBORHOODS OF UPTOWN DALLAS
Uptown Dallas actually has several mini areas, small pocket neighborhoods! I’m going to start from the most North side and go SOUTH to describe the areas for you. This won’t cover every single area, but it definitely will cover the most popular ones!
Knox Henderson
Technically, this is NOT an Uptown Dallas area. It’s actually just North of Uptown! But it has a feel that is so similar to Uptown I need to include it here. In addition, where the West Village of Uptown ends, this begins shortly afterwards!
Ags, Knox Henderson is a very prosperous area with pristine shops, boutiques, great restaurants and more. It’s going to have some of your favorite places to shop that you know, like Starbucks. lulumon, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie and more. But then throw in a lot of great boutiques and very unique restaurants and night spots! And incredible walkability!
Frankly, and this is just an opinion, but I FEEL safe walking around here. Everything is so clean and well kept. And you can kind of feel the prosperity of the area. There’s a reason for that…it’s right next to Highland Park, which is where the the prosperous families of Dallas live. Complete with gorgeous housing and mansions and more. To put it in Aggie terms: It’s kind of like Pershing Avenue in College Station next to campus is becoming…haha!
So if you can afford it, this should be at the top of your list. It’s EXTREMELY desirable to live here! I’d recommend grabbing a roommate to keep costs lower and then moving to this fantastic area! Oh, and you can use the Texas Hangout for Aggie Trads Facebook Group to request a Aggie Recent Grad Roommate! TWO AGGIE THUMBS UP!
West Village | Uptown Dallas
West Village is another very popular area of Uptown Dallas! It’s just south of the Knox Henderson area I mentioned above. What really defines this general area is the super large West Village Shopping Center. That’s essentially two huge blocks of shops, restaurants and few night spots. It’s also a popular tourist destination. And come time for the annual OU/Texas game, this place gets packed because of the nearby Cotton Bowl.
You can either live IN the West Village or nearby the West Village. Living inside the West Village means a lot of fun but also a lot of noise and business! You have to really love people and maybe not love sleep!) if you live here. But it’s probably not a great place if you need your sleep at night to live RIGHT at the West Village!
A lot of recent grads I have helped with my free service will live somewhat nearby the shopping center. That’s because you can still quickly drive and even walk to the West Village from there, but then you get more of a noise separation at night to sleep and get privacy.
Overall, the area is fun! Two Big Aggie Thumbs Up!
The Pearl
There’s another area that is the most south part of Uptown Dallas. It’s called The Pearl! That’s because of Pearl street which runs through there but also goes into Downtown Dallas. The advantages of living in the Pearl are:
- Very luxurious feel
- Higher end buildings
- Close to Downtown
- Has a high “safety” feel (but always check each building’s safety record!)
The Pearl has typically high rises. If you like high rise living, then you might consider this area as well. It’s a THUMBS UP for this area, Ags!
Victory Park
This is a stunning area of high rises with a great location right next to Uptown Dallas. This is like a grown up version of Uptown Dallas, which we just talked about! It’s essentially an entirely new area that was just flat ground before. It was created from the ground up to be a hot spot for business professionals.
The key features of this area are the American Airlines Center. Think Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars games! And also think an uncountable number of concerts from the world’s most popular performers. But then add in a super cool area of restaurants, night spots and more. And everything is VERY NEW feeling, because it IS ! Finally, this is where the KATY TRAIL starts that I mentioned above.
The only thing I would say that is you need to love excitement! There are parts of it that are quieter, but this is a high action, high fun area. AGGIE TWO THUMBS UP!
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Specific Areas to NOT LIVE in Uptown!
Don’t Live Near the Bars in South Uptown
I would not recommend living in the southern part of Uptown that is near all of the bars. Ags, it’s kind of living next to Northgate in CSTAT. Living near Northgate may mean convenient fun, but it also means huge crowds, noise and potential crime. Kind of sketch living! It’s the same way in the southern part of Uptown, particularly along McKinney Avenue before you get to the PEARL area. So many bars are here and bars always mean lower safety!
Try to live OFF McKinney Avenue, not on it
If you live in Uptown proper, I recommend to live near McKinney Avenue, but not on it. It’s easy to live at a place where you can quickly walk to the cool stuff on McKinney but also maintain your privacy and have less noise in your apartment to contend with.
NEXT STEPS
Ags, I’ve helped new grads with Uptown Dallas Apartments for over 10 years. I want to help you find that perfect and safer place in Uptown for your perfect life and career in Dallas! I want you to
text me anytime with any questions. And I want you to
sign up for my free service. You will LOVE the Aggie specific immediate help and attention you always get with me and with Howdy Texas Apartments!
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Summary: I hope you have enjoyed this brief overview of some of the best areas of Dallas to consider for your new apartment here, Ags! It’s my goal to help you find that perfect place! I will be writing additional articles to further explore Dallas and its suburbs. Reach out to me
anytime by text for questions. And sign up for our free, Aggies-Only housing service anytime for immediate, Aggie-friendly help in your search:
Free Signup – Gig ’em!
Howdy Texas Apartments is an Aggie Owned and Operated service that takes care of Aggie Upcoming Grads moving to their new Texas cities. They are based in College Station, TX.
