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Walking / Transportation
Dallas-Fort Worth is spread out, with a total area of 9,286 square miles covering 12 counties. Dallas proper has a total area of nearly 400 land-locked square miles. The city of Seattle has a total area of 184.5 square miles, and 83.9 miles (or over 41%) of that area is made up of water.
That said, a lot of people near downtown Seattle judge distance by how many blocks away something is or how many minutes it’ll take to walk there. When we first moved, it was a tad mind-blowing to us that no one described distance by how many miles away or how long it would take (by car) to get there.
From First Hill (our neighborhood), there are 3 restaurants / bars within 4 blocks - it takes 10 minutes or less to walk to any of them. Back home in North Texas, there is no walking to a bar. Or, at least, that was my experience (although I never lived in downtown Dallas). Our favorite local bar in the Dallas area was the Flying Saucer in Addison, which was 20-30 miles from our place in Denton. 58% of Seattle residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above, while only 12% of Dallas residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above. First Hill has a walk score of 94%. The negative with having such a rockin’ walk score is that there are always a ton of places you could go and spend money… making it easier to spend more than you really should.
Ah, and cars. If you don’t have a car in North Texas, it means you probably don’t have enough money to own and/or maintain a car. There’s a certain stigma to it. In Seattle, you’re smarter than everyone else if you can manage not to burden yourself with a car. They’re a pain to keep in the city (see parking below), they’re expensive, and more times than not, walking or riding a bus will get you where you want to go faster.
Lastly, parking is a luxury not a right in Seattle: not all apartments come with designated off-street parking for their residents (including ours). If that option is available, apartment complexes usually charge their own residents an additional $100-$200 per month for a spot in the parking garage that’s beneath their feet. I lived in a handful of apartments in Texas, and every one came with a designated, usually covered, always FREE parking spot. It’s ‘cause there’s so much space in Texas!
