M Streets

Bar owners, restaurant owners, older families, medical professionals working at Baylor downtown, SMU business school and graduate students, artists, professors, and successful young professionals live alongside large hispanic families who spend weekends barbecuing and playing music outside. The median age of a resident here is 34.

As mentioned before, this is THE place for lots of young people on the weekend. The Arcadia (which burned down a few years ago) will be re-opening in 2009 as a business park with retail and restuarant slots along the ground floor; Zubar, Moosh, Whisky Bar, Libertine, Winedale Tavern, the Dubliner, Service Bar, The Cavern... bars are literally opening and closing every month, but these seem to stick around. You can find anything from a sports bar to an "ultra lounge" where valet is mandatory and bottle service is offered to dark, loud pubs that have just about anything on tap and a dart board to keep you busy. Zubar and Moosh in particular draw in the house, techno, electro, mashup and hip-hop crowd, while a few venues actually book live bands (but must be careful due to the noise ordinances about playing outside). Plenty of amazing restaurants offer everything from sushi (Teppo, rated one of the best in town) to middle eastern food (Sevan), Chinese (New Big Wong) to authentic New Orleans-style cooking (Dodie's Seafood Cafe). The Grape, a little dark haunt just north on Greenville, is consistenly voted the most romantic restaurant in Dallas. Right across from it, Terilli's offers amazing Italian. You will NEVER go hungry or in search of a pint (or a shot, or a drunken girl to down it with you) in this area. 

Rental prices have skyrocketed in this area recently due to all the development and the desirability of the neighborhood. You can still rent a small apartment in a multiplex in the $600 range... or you can rent a home for anywhere between $1100 and $9,000. However, you get what you pay for in the M Streets. Some of the older houses that are more affordable still have window units and no central heating; others need various repairs. It's wise if you're going to rent a home here (as I did, in two different locations) to try everything at the walk-through; try every switch, check the water, put a marble on the floor and see if it rolls until it hits the wall... does the place have good wiring? Washer/dryer hookups that WORK? Is there a security system? If not, it's worth it to install one yourself. Definitely don't think about living here without rental insurance. However, it's also nice to ride your bike to Starbucks, or to the Blue Goose for some killer hangover enchiladas.

If you live here, parking isn't a problem. The majority of streets have either now converted to resident-only parking, which means you and your roommate/significant other will be issued a parking pass; you might also have a driveway that will fit a couple of cars in it as well. However, if your friends are visiting? Problem. Now, just at the top of the M Streets area is Mockingbird, and throughout the neighborhood, there are many, many bus stops. It's extremely easy to ride the bus to Mockingbird Station and commute to downtown or north to Richardson, Plano, or east to Garland. The neighborhoods that lie further out from Greenville itself (for example, closer to Tietze Park on the east side and 75 north on the west side) don't have the resident-only parking signs up, so there may be more ample street parking for visitors there.

Again... you get what you pay for. Research the rental company you're about to use online and see what their reputation is like; some companies own several homes and multiplexes in the area and may have a bad reputation. Others are great, including everything from free lawn service with your monthly payment to deducting your security alarm fee from your rent. It really just depends. Make sure any detached garages have a lock on them and motion-detector lights to deter theft; get renter's insurance, even if you're parking inside a gated area and renting a swank condo.

Pets seem to be universally welcome here; there are often pet adoption fairs throughout the area on Sundays in particular, and some local bars and restaurants with patios will let you bring your dog with you (Starbucks, Blue Goose, Aw Shucks, etc.). depending on how well-behaved they are. Because the neighborhood is so pedestrian-friendly, you'll often see people out jogging and walking their dogs or playing with them in Tietze Park.

There is virtually nothing you can't do here. Whether it's pool, karaoke, dancing, live concerts at the Granada, darts, or even old-school video games at the newly-opened Barcadia... there's something for you here. J. Pepe's has a pool where you can drink margaritas and swim and eat at the same time. The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is quite literally Dallas' own Mardi Gras. There are countless neighborhood block parties and fundraisers thrown throughout the year, which make it easy for you to get to know your neighbors. Run up to Mockingbird Station and you have tons of shopping, the Angelika Theater for films, and even more dazzling taverns, gelato shops, West Elm and even custom-made jewelry. Across the street is Premiere Video, a Dallas institution when it comes to renting movies. You can find the latest foreign DVD release on region-free video there and for the same price of the rental, they'll throw in the region-free player. You can't beat that! Renting a movie that's just now released in the theater in an arthouse run (for example, REC or Sunshine) makes Premiere the best in town.

Having lived as close to Greenville as is humanly possible, I don't know if I would recommend it unless you are working at one of the establishments there and are walking or biking to work. North of Martel and all the way east to Abrams is nice, as well as the area bounded to the south by Monticello and to the north by Winton all the way to the 75 service road. If you have small children or pets, quite a few of these streets have been installed with speed bumps to keep people from flying through the neighborhood.

Right now there is a Whole Foods open in the main shopping center at the cross-streets of Belmont and Greenville, and a Sunflower Supermarket is about to open in the old Carnival location close to Henderson, so there will always be healthy stores around. Just north to Mockingbird and you've got the Flagship Kroger, which has practically anything anyone would ever need. Across the street from that is a 24-Hour Fitness that really is 24 hours and two stories. There are several Bank of America locations as well as a Compass Bank.

Public: Stonewall Jackson Elementary School, Robert E. Lee Elementary School, James B. Bonham Elementary School, Ben Milam Elementary School, Armstrong Elementary School; Maynard Jackson Middle School; Highland Park Middle School; McCulloch Intermediate School; North Dallas High School. Private: Lakewood Montessori School, St. Thomas Aquinas School, Lakehill Preparatory School, and St. Christopher Montessori.