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Thoughts on living in Grand Prairie?
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My job is downtown & I don’t mind making the commute. The apartment I’m looking at is about a 22-30 min drive from work. Would like to know what the area is like and if it’s worth moving to. I was looking at apartments near downtown, but almost every review I can afford mentions car break ins, theft and other safety issues. Im thinking about moving more to the surrounding suburbs.
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I live in south GP. I really like it. It’s not overcrowded and there’s a lake, state park and terrific hiking trails close by.
Relocating to GP. Is it really as bad as people say?
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Got a sweet job offer in GP however from talking to everyone I know, nobody really had anything good to say about GP. Is it really as bad as people say it is? What are some pros for a young couple?
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Honestly, I don’t know why GP isn’t growing way faster than it is. I think it’s a great place for a young family. Plenty of great paying jobs and low cost of housing. Not many places in Canada left where a family can, on 1 income, buy a house, save money, and have enough leftover for for some fun. Its got the airport, college, new hospital (one day will be fully staffed I hope), and way more commercial businesses than you’d guess for a small town.
Is Grand Prairie really that bad?
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I always hear people talk crap about it.
We are considering moving there. Fiancé works in Farmers Branch and I WFH, but go in to Westlake at least 3x/month.
We drove through the area a couple times and I thought the neighborhoods were cute! (South of i20)
Anyway, we live in Princeton and really hate it. Not to mention, it’s 50 miles from Westlake.
We are looking in other areas too, but GP is on the table. My dad says it’s a terrible idea, but when I ask why, he can’t give an answer lol
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They still haven't caught that cobra... Just sayin.
Thoughts on Grand Prairie?
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I moved to GP 2 years ago and tbh it's been amazing. However, I often notice on this sub that it gets a bad rep. $802/month rent. No issues with neighbors. Police seem chill.
I've heard that because it's a minority-majority city that people just look at it and think in stereotypes.
Thoughts?
Top Comment: I moved to GP 2 years ago and tbh it's been amazing. However, I often notice on this sub that it gets a bad rep. $802/month...
Grand Prairie?
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Hi everyone! I'm moving to DFW next year for a job in downtown. I'm considering living in Grand Prairie, West of Beltline Rd, right off of I20. I have a dog who I need to be able to walk morning & night so safety is important to me. Any personal experiences living in this area as a young 20-something (who will mostly be working haha & doesn't care about night life all that much) and how awful that commute will be? Google says 25-35 minutes at peak times but not sure if I trust that 🤔 Thanks in advance everyone!
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25 minutes is with zero traffic - assuming you don't wanna be late you'll have to allow 45-60 minutes to get to work .... accidents all the time. Start at 9:00a - out the door by 8:00a - finish at 5:00p - home by 5:45p most days.
South of DT is much better than north, traffic wise - but you could do much better probably as a single guy. If asked I don't think anyone that lives here would go - "How about GP !!"
Why does Grand Prairie get such a bad rep? Rent's cheap. Relatively safe. Very friendly, southern feel to it.
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Where does all the hate come from? I see it get bashed a lot in this sub. I have lived in GP for 2 years. It's so affordable, I've had no issues as far as safety, car theft, etc. Everyone is very nice and welcoming I feel. There is a large Hispanic population which is fine as long as you're not a racist fuck and can learn a little Spanish. I took it in college so it's been no issue for me. Like the rest of Dallas, it's a concrete jungle but hey, Cedar Hill State Park and Joe Pool Lake are within a 5-10 minute drive.
I moved here from Balch Springs so maybe that's why it seems so much better.
Thoughts?
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Husband and I lived off of Beltline and Falcon. Within a year our house was burglarized 3 times, even after lights and cameras were installed. The last time the robbers were caught mid-robbery and arrested in the home. We got the call from the cops and came home to discover our house was completely ransacked. Im talking flipped every furniture upside down, tossed clothing, just did everything they could to destroy the home. they were under 21 and was caught with our liquor in his hands, as well as attempting to steal our small gun safe. they apparently lived 11 houses down from us, as we had to retrieve our TV from his backyard. They were arrested, went to trial, and sent to god knows where.
Less than 2 months after that, we were crawling into bed when we heard taps on our back door. ANOTHER set of guys were trying to break in, but husband scared them off while I was on the phone of 911. I slept during the day and stayed up at night for a solid month out of pure fear of retaliation.
This doesn't include the knocks at 11pm on the front door and seeing people attempting to hide in the bushes, or the people who went through our trash less than a minute after it was set out.
I'm never returning to GP ever again.
What’s the locals’ scoop living in Grand Prairie?
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Hi there! My husband and I are possibly relocating to GP in the next month for work. No matter how much you read online, it’s never the same as living there and having the local “scoop”. So what’s the one thing you would share with a newcomer relocating to GP?
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Well, for me it's been a good place to work when I could, with that I found it kinda hard to make good friendships and my struggles with people my own age lately I think can be directly attributed to being older, but I digress...
It has a decent night life, there's some great bars in town, nothing too dance friendly or club like, aside from Madhatter's I guess. For live music, the place to go is Better Than Fred's, amazing food, the owner is great and he hires really great staff. As far as things to do, there's always things in the summer to do in Muskoseepi, it's a nice area to walk and just hang out in the grass. I think I've been desensitized to the homeless problem, which there is, but for the most part they aren't aggressive types but that's just my experiences and if you see Yellow Boxes around town, probably safer to stay away and watch where you walk as they are needle drop offs and sometimes the needles don't make their way inside.
I try to support local as much as far as restaurants go, but we have quite a great ethnic scene food wise. For Thai Food, the best Pad Khee Mao in town is easily Canadian Thai behind Liquor for Less, the most bang for your buck for Lebanese is Tito's, it's literally the best Shwarma I've ever had in my life and they pile it high also the location downtown has poetry readings and accoustic acts and things of this nature, very great spot, Gregan's makes hands down the best Fried Chicken and Wild Rose makes the best Poutine, but really there's no bad poutine (unless they use shredded). As for Commercial, we have Boston Pizza, Montanas, Carls Jr, Pita Pit, Opa! and a boat load of Tim's....
Groceries are getting kinda expensive here, but Co Op Pharmacy has the best Pharmacy Staff I've encountered, Safeway has great Produce and Freson has a great East Coast section. Butcher shops are really good here, great products from each. Europa has some amazing Deli stuff, Beaverlodge Butcher's Staff are 2nd to none and have some great products and Blackman's is Excellent as well.
We have Gym's in every section of town, all are pretty good from what I've seen. Trails are all over and I'm sure expanding soon, really great place to walk but the area around from Staples and Walmart area could be a little more pedestrian friendly, but if you face traffic so you have time to dodge the distracted drivers from running you over you're about 50/50 to walk away unscathed.
I think for the most part, people are nice but there's a certain amount of negativity comes with the people who earn decent incomes and I get that I was once one of those people too, I think the whole mentality of working in the patch, people have this expectation that, "I need it now and I need it yesterday" and it reigns to be a true way of kinda describing some of the people here. You will occasionally see a dressed up woman treating people in stores not all that well as she walks her cart of groceries over to her husband's lifted Denali, or a guy in coveralls talking down to a convenience store worker because of his accent. But not everyone is an entitled racist and people are like that everywhere, the pandemic has been hard and people are worn out everywhere.
As far as roads too and from, well they're being worked on... Heading into town from Edmonton is pretty fun, you can catch air off of the frost heaves in a loaded body job and there's a lot. Leaving GP, heading South, there's highway 40... I haven't been so scared in my life traveling down that road and I've had a stroke before... Especially with the amount of welding trucks doing a buck 60 and passing on blind turns or service trucks randomly pumping the brakes because they're almost going to miss their turn into a lease road for work. Let's not forget the bridge in the wintertime, that hill leading to town gets hellishly slippery and for the most part unkept after a thaw and freeze cycle, even when it was booming, so drive safe!
There's some good fishing out at Sturgeon, as far as Pickerel goes... Loads of Greenhouses, Dunvegan is really nice and there's a hidden gem out towards Wembley that's really great. If you're into picking berries, there's some great Saskatoon picking down across the highway from Wembley...
Other than that, rent is fairly expensive for what you're getting and if you're renting and moving out, don't pay for carpet cleaners because you'll get charged for it anyways and be adamant at going over damages as even though you'll move into a place with something like a clogged drain, if you get it worked on while you are living there, you will be charged for repairs, etc... If you want a building with more than a washer and dryer per 50 people, I'd stay away from Boardwalk, if you want consistent radiant heat in the winter, avoid Boardwalk... And if you pick anywhere else, expect to pay incredibly high... As far as Utilities and what not, for my fridge and computer to run and occasionally the stove, I'm paying about 150 a month for a one bedroom.
As far as public transport goes, cab companies are great but be specific and tell them where to go because they will intentionally take the longest routes to get an extra couple bucks and I think most of their machines require you to tip ontop of a buck 90 atm fee, but most of the guys aren't all that bad. There's even one that offers you a toke of his joint, really generous but sometimes he gets pretty blasted to your location so he sometimes drives past your stop. The buses are great, they run throughout the week and the drivers get you too and from at a timely manner, sometimes they even let you sit down before pulsing the gas, even if you have mobility issues.
That's about all I can think of for now, but if you need specifics send a reply and I'll give you the scoop.