“We don’t need no stinking sidewalks”

One of the differences here is that large portions of Dallas residential neighborhoods don’t have sidewalks.  This is often true even on the major streets.  It means that people walking or running are on the streets, which tend to be broad enough for that to be safe. 

I did however see an odd effect in a different part of Dallas.  A woman in a motorized wheelchair was zipping along in the right lane.  I’m not sure of their top speed, but it was both faster than I expected and slower than traffic flow.  She didn’t have a helmet, a flag to make her easier to see, or any other safety equipment. 

I can just see the dichotomy of how this is viewed in TX vs CA.  Texans might expect that she should get a faster wheelchair.  CA, especially Los Angeles, would have tried to get the entire neighborhood to put in wheelchairs for equal access.  In KY where I grew up, they would probably just give her free rides in the paratransit vans.

MalibuRenter - 21 July 2009 03:26 PM

Despite the lack of In N Out here, there are several Potbelly locations in Dallas, a very good sandwich shop.  It’s one of the things which also makes Midway airport better than O’hare.

All of the Carl’s locations are out in the boonies.

So they aren’t called Hardies out in Texas?

MalibuRenter - 28 July 2009 05:54 PM

CA, especially Los Angeles, would have tried to get the entire neighborhood to put in wheelchairs for equal access.

Nah… true Cali natives would get a bond measure on the ballot to subsidize upgrading the wheelchair Jesse James style. Come on now… you haven’t been in Dallas that long to forget we love to subsidize the unnecessary entitlements of Cali residents… or have you been there long enough to forget this?

MalibuRenter - 28 July 2009 05:54 PM

“We don’t need no stinking sidewalks”

One of the differences here is that large portions of Dallas residential neighborhoods don’t have sidewalks.  This is often true even on the major streets.  It means that people walking or running are on the streets, which tend to be broad enough for that to be safe. 

I did however see an odd effect in a different part of Dallas.  A woman in a motorized wheelchair was zipping along in the right lane.  I’m not sure of their top speed, but it was both faster than I expected and slower than traffic flow.  She didn’t have a helmet, a flag to make her easier to see, or any other safety equipment. 

I can just see the dichotomy of how this is viewed in TX vs CA.  Texans might expect that she should get a faster wheelchair.  CA, especially Los Angeles, would have tried to get the entire neighborhood to put in wheelchairs for equal access.  In KY where I grew up, they would probably just give her free rides in the paratransit vans.

Sorry, I meant “equal access for wheelchairs”, e.g., sidewalks with ramps not exceeding certain slopes, plenty of clearance, marked blue paths of no more than a certain slope going from the handicapped parking to the store. 

Now that I think about it, in CA it seems like those handicapped accomodations are more common in commercial shopping areas than at gyms or farmers markets.  I’ve seen people in wheelchairs at my gym fairly frequently.  Guess they are doing fine without those paths marked for them.

graphrix - 29 July 2009 12:27 AM

MalibuRenter - 28 July 2009 05:54 PM

CA, especially Los Angeles, would have tried to get the entire neighborhood to put in wheelchairs for equal access.

Nah… true Cali natives would get a bond measure on the ballot to subsidize upgrading the wheelchair Jesse James style. Come on now… you haven’t been in Dallas that long to forget we love to subsidize the unnecessary entitlements of Cali residents… or have you been there long enough to forget this?

I’m trying to think of any entitlement which the budget crisis has completely gotten rid of in CA.  Anything come to mind? 

One of the entitlements which surprised me was an interpreter for a defendant who had been caught on videotape committing her alleged offense.  It was quite apparent that she spoke english well.  I’m sure there must have been a bilingual attorney who could have taken her case, and translated the occassional technical term she might not have understood.  Jury duty is always an education.

Providing access to handicapped people (cutouts in sidewalks, for example) is required by Federal law.  If reasonable accommodations are not provided, a handicapped person can sue in Federal court.  At least in theory, there should be no difference in said accommodation from one state to another, since it’s a Federal issue.

Geotpf - 29 July 2009 06:57 AM

Providing access to handicapped people (cutouts in sidewalks, for example) is required by Federal law.  If reasonable accommodations are not provided, a handicapped person can sue in Federal court.  At least in theory, there should be no difference in said accommodation from one state to another, since it’s a Federal issue.

And if there are no sidewalks at all?

MalibuRenter - 29 July 2009 01:08 PM

Geotpf - 29 July 2009 06:57 AM

Providing access to handicapped people (cutouts in sidewalks, for example) is required by Federal law.  If reasonable accommodations are not provided, a handicapped person can sue in Federal court.  At least in theory, there should be no difference in said accommodation from one state to another, since it’s a Federal issue.

And if there are no sidewalks at all?

Isn’t that’s what the street is for?  Btw, how’s the weather been out in Dallas the past few weeks???

usctrojanman29 - 29 July 2009 04:05 PM

MalibuRenter - 29 July 2009 01:08 PM

Geotpf - 29 July 2009 06:57 AM

Providing access to handicapped people (cutouts in sidewalks, for example) is required by Federal law.  If reasonable accommodations are not provided, a handicapped person can sue in Federal court.  At least in theory, there should be no difference in said accommodation from one state to another, since it’s a Federal issue.

And if there are no sidewalks at all?

Isn’t that’s what the street is for?  Btw, how’s the weather been out in Dallas the past few weeks???

Beautiful thunderstorm last night.  Not terribly windy, but lots of lightning.  I have a somewhat unusual dog.  Unlike the lab in Marley, he likes thunderstorms.  He sits next to the window feeling the cool moist air come in, watches the lightning, and wags his tail at the thunder.

MalibuRenter - 29 July 2009 01:08 PM

Geotpf - 29 July 2009 06:57 AM

Providing access to handicapped people (cutouts in sidewalks, for example) is required by Federal law.  If reasonable accommodations are not provided, a handicapped person can sue in Federal court.  At least in theory, there should be no difference in said accommodation from one state to another, since it’s a Federal issue.

And if there are no sidewalks at all?

If something doesn’t exist, handicapped accommodations are not required because the something doesn’t exist. :p

Perhaps the lower amount of regulation in TX has something to do with there being fewer lawyers.

TX has 71,000 lawyers, CA has 145,000.  http://www.abanet.org/marketresearch/2007_Natl_Lawyer_FINALonepage.pdf

CA has 36% more lawyers per capita.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.  Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind. (Five Man Electric Band)

In Los Angeles, sign clutter is caused by state and local governments.  Dallas has far fewer parking, road, and “you can park here only on tuesday’s between 3 am and 5 am” signs.

However, especially in more expensive neighborhoods, Dallas has a lot of private sign, on people’s yards.  The overwhelming majority are friendly signs, not the “stay off the grass you middle class tourist” signs you might see in Beverly Hills.

The Dallas signs fall into several groups.  1. Signs showing what school their kids go to, usually private schools.  Some are traditional crests and shields like for http://www.cambridgedallas.org/ , and http://www.ursulinedallas.org/ .  Some of these make me wonder if perhaps their son studies knight erranty.  There are signs in plaid, and a rather nice one which is a very big pawprint.  2. University signs, commonly where the owner went to school.  Lots of “Texas Exes” and SMU signs.  3. White crosses with “He is risen” written in blue.  There must be a large number of churches distributing these.  They come in two sizes, and are a corrugated plastic that seems pretty durable.  4. “Great pyranees lives here” and other dog breed signs.  5. “Yard of Distinction”.  I don’t know who came up with these, but they rotate around between the manicured lawns.  5. “If your dog poops, please scoop”.  Courteous, but to the point.

Of course, there are also a large number of big empty lots with “will build to suit” signs.  The high end teardown and build spree ended sometime in 2008.  These lots are usually extremely well cleaned of signs of ever having a house on them.  Many of them look like manicured pocket parks.

One of the interesting things about most of these signs is that they are telling you about who lives there, what they belong to, or what their faith is.  There are very few signs telling you what not to do, like “keep off the grass”.

Thanks for keeping us posted on your stay in Texas, Malibu. I’m curious - are you leaning one way or another yet on whether you would like to buy there or come back to California? Or, do you think you will need to stay longer to decide (i.e. live through all of the seasons first / a year.)

SoCal78 - 02 August 2009 12:49 PM

Thanks for keeping us posted on your stay in Texas, Malibu. I’m curious - are you leaning one way or another yet on whether you would like to buy there or come back to California? Or, do you think you will need to stay longer to decide (i.e. live through all of the seasons first / a year.)

For about two months, neither my wife nor I had a distinct opinion.  Now she prefers to go back to LA.  I’m not as convinced.  She doesn’t like the heat, and doesn’t seem to have the same view of whether it’s such a bad thing to be in LA when the riots occur.  She also doesn’t see the same continuing crash in westside real estate that I do.  She thinks it might have another 10-15% left to drop.  I think it has another 40%.

Beware of turtles in the road.

Dallas has a large number of places where it has placed steel lane separators about the size and shape of turtles (when they retract into their shells).  They are about 3 inches high and 6 inches in diameter.  In CA, you would see Botts Dots used for similar purposes.

The Dallas turtles are painted yellow, and can probably flatten a tire if you hit one going pretty quickly.  Many are older, and the yellow paint has rubbed off.

This is another example of how Texas does things differently.  In CA, you wouldn’t be able to use such things, because someone would get a flat tire, pretend to have horrible indirect injuries, and sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In Texas, they would just be accused of being an idiot not paying attention while driving.

Does anyone know the real name for the turtle things?

MalibuRenter - 31 August 2009 05:44 PM

Does anyone know the real name for the turtle things?

“Bott’s dots.”

This was one of many trivia questions I learned while driving across the country with my family when we were kids.
We’ve driven from West Coast to East Coast more times than I can remember, each time taking a different route.
Lots of fishing, sightseeing, and memory-making with my parents and grandparents. Will hope to do this with my
boys when they get a bit older.
-IR2 (a.k.a. Slumdog Millionaire)

P.S. I checked snopes and found some confirmation here.

IrvineRealtor - 31 August 2009 06:25 PM

MalibuRenter - 31 August 2009 05:44 PM

Does anyone know the real name for the turtle things?

“Bott’s dots.”

This was one of many trivia questions I learned while driving across the country with my family when we were kids.
We’ve driven from West Coast to East Coast more times than I can remember, each time taking a different route.
Lots of fishing, sightseeing, and memory-making with my parents and grandparents. Will hope to do this with my
boys when they get a bit older.
-IR2 (a.k.a. Slumdog Millionaire)

P.S. I checked snopes and found some confirmation here.

Like so many other things, the ones in Texas are bigger.  They aren’t Botts Dots.  There is a slang term for them, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Texas Titties
“Texas Titties  
Noun - The oversized speed bumps/lane markers used in Texas intersections. Origin presumably comes from the shape and size of the bumps, which are large enough to do severe tire damage at high speeds - each one is roughly the size of half a volleyball. Color varies from White to Orange.”

What part of Kentucky?

no_vaseline - 01 September 2009 10:16 PM

What part of Kentucky?

Louisville

I was in Dallas for a few days last week and stopped by some new home developments in Frisco and Lewisville.  Most of the two story floorplans have master bedrooms on the first level, while in California most two story floorplans have the master on the second level.  Have you noticed that in other Dallas tracts, and do you know why the preference to put the MBR downstairs?

I lived in Dallas for 9 months about 15 years ago. I was working for Citicorp in Richardson and I lived in Plano. I found it to be a really bizarre place. For example I remember seeing my upstairs neighbor coming down the stairs in a mink coat with a walmart bag O.o.. Also I used to wake up in the middle of the night scared stiff because the guy in the next apartment was yelling so loud and beating the crap out of his girlfriend, it sounded like they were in my apartment. After calling the police multiple times and her refusing the press charges I asked to be moved to another apartment.

One morning I was driving to work early around 5am, and about to turn onto the road where my office was. Some dick in a giant GMC suburban didn’t think I was going fast enough, passed me, then pulled diagonally in front of me and parked. I had to brake really hard to avoid hitting his truck. He got out of the truck, came up to my car and ripped the door open and tried to drag me out of the car by the neck. I was wearing my seatbelt so he couldn’t but all the same it scared the hell out of me. I was able to close the door and get away but this guy? He looked like someones 55 year old dad.

I found this weird violence right under the surface there, this crazy anger that was inexplicable. Im probably not articulating it well but it was definitely something I could feel.

There was nothing to do there, but go shopping, or watch sports on tv and drink beer. And if you want to drink beer you had to have a unicard. I don’t know if Texas is still functioning under the blue laws but it was then, and again it was bizarre.

There is only one place liked less than Texas and that was Atlanta. And that was a whole other can of worms. I came to realize that I am not fit to live in places that are land locked. I don’t visit the beach much, as I am very fair skinned and burn, but I love the water and feel better just knowing its there.

fumbling - 08 September 2009 10:37 PM

I was in Dallas for a few days last week and stopped by some new home developments in Frisco and Lewisville.  Most of the two story floorplans have master bedrooms on the first level, while in California most two story floorplans have the master on the second level.  Have you noticed that in other Dallas tracts, and do you know why the preference to put the MBR downstairs?

It’s easier to keep the bedrooms cool in summer if they are downstairs.

GraceOMalley - 09 September 2009 09:01 AM

I lived in Dallas for 9 months about 15 years ago. I was working for Citicorp in Richardson and I lived in Plano. I found it to be a really bizarre place. For example I remember seeing my upstairs neighbor coming down the stairs in a mink coat with a walmart bag O.o.. Also I used to wake up in the middle of the night scared stiff because the guy in the next apartment was yelling so loud and beating the crap out of his girlfriend, it sounded like they were in my apartment. After calling the police multiple times and her refusing the press charges I asked to be moved to another apartment.

One morning I was driving to work early around 5am, and about to turn onto the road where my office was. Some dick in a giant GMC suburban didn’t think I was going fast enough, passed me, then pulled diagonally in front of me and parked. I had to brake really hard to avoid hitting his truck. He got out of the truck, came up to my car and ripped the door open and tried to drag me out of the car by the neck. I was wearing my seatbelt so he couldn’t but all the same it scared the hell out of me. I was able to close the door and get away but this guy? He looked like someones 55 year old dad.

I found this weird violence right under the surface there, this crazy anger that was inexplicable. Im probably not articulating it well but it was definitely something I could feel.

There was nothing to do there, but go shopping, or watch sports on tv and drink beer. And if you want to drink beer you had to have a unicard. I don’t know if Texas is still functioning under the blue laws but it was then, and again it was bizarre.

There is only one place liked less than Texas and that was Atlanta. And that was a whole other can of worms. I came to realize that I am not fit to live in places that are land locked. I don’t visit the beach much, as I am very fair skinned and burn, but I love the water and feel better just knowing its there.

Odd.  I had similar experiences in Woodland Hills, CA.  However, the idiot in the truck wasn’t able to catch up to my car.  Note to SUV drivers: threatening and then trying to catch a Mercedes with supercharger and a skilled driver on the curves of Topanga is a good way to have a single car rollover accident. 

My neighbors in Dallas range from quiet to very friendly.  I’ve only met one nutcase here.

Can we talk about religion?

I have been trying to figure out why Dallas and LA seem so different in religion, despite many things appearing very similar.

Here are some things which are extremely similar:
1. Virtually the same percent of people in both counties refer to themselves as religious adherents.  “adherents” include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services or participate in the congregation.  See http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/RCMS_Notes.asp
2. There are the same percentage of Muslims.  1% in each county.
3. There are similar percentages of Christians, 43% in Dallas, 46% in LA.  Yes, more in LA.

Now for the differences:
4. Many more people in LA are Jewish, 6% vs 1.7% in Dallas.
5. Many more of the Christians in LA are Catholic, 40% vs 22% in Dallas.
6. Fewer of the Christians in LA are Protestant, 6% vs 21% in Dallas.
7. Southern Baptists are 13% of the population in Dallas, but about 1% in LA.
8. In both cities, the average Catholic congregation is far larger, usually about 10,000 people.  This may help explain the larger number of services at Catholic churches.  For Protestant churches, in LA they have about 300 people.  In Dallas, a little over 500.

Following longstanding tradition, the Census Bureau does not collect data on religion.  This data comes from http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/RCMS_Notes.asp , The Association of Religious Data Archives.

The real question is which group practice their religion outside of church.  I would guess a higher percentage in Dallas than LA.