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Re-locating from Asheville, NC
Hey ladies ~ Not sure how active this board is but I figured I could start here. Haven't been on the Nest in quite a while so bear with me - I probably don't know all the lingo/abbreviations/etc. anymore.
We are a professional couple w/ no kids, looking for a cool, hip, but safe area to live. Renting to start w/ a monthly budget around $1200 or less. Good grocery stores, a gym, and outdoor recreation opportunities are high on our priority list. We love running, cycling, disc golf, small outdoor music festivals, food events, etc. We are big foodies and have been spoiled in Asheville - hope to find a similar community in Dallas.
I am a school counselor so I'd love to know more about working in the schools around Dallas...if I stay in the education field I'd love to be at a school with motivated students. I've been working with the at-risk population for a while now and I'm ready for a change. I also am licensed to practice private therapy so I'm curious to know about the mental health world there as well.
Any info you can help me out with would be much appreciated! TIA! 
Re: Re-locating from Asheville, NC
I would start looking in Uptown for living space. They are mostly apartments but most are fairly new. The Katy Trail has lots of places for recreation. You could also consider looking around White Rock Lake as they have a pretty big recreation are there as well. Grapevine has two food and wine festivals a year and that would probably be about 45 minutes from the Uptown area. I love Grapevine and Southlake. Grapevine has some good recreation areas as well, but only within walking distance if you live closer to the lake. There are lots of great restaurants in nearly every area of DFW and most of the suburbs have some small restaurants as well that are pretty good as well. A great up and coming neighborhood is the Bishop Arts District.
As for education, I am a teacher and we are having a pretty severe budget crisis across the whole state (like my district cut $8 million last year and we have to cut another $8 million this year; salary for employees is the biggest expense so that is what is getting cut). Lots of teachers, counselors, aides and principals being laid off so the market is flooded right now. While some don't agree, I do think that DISD is a good district but you are going to see many students who are considered at-risk in many neighborhoods (Renee, correct me if I'm wrong on that). If you are really looking to move out of the at-risk population, you're going to have to go to the northern suburbs (Plano, Allen, McKinney, Frisco--and those districts do have at-risk kids but it is not as big a percentage of the population) and that could end up putting your drive--depending on where you two decide to live--upwards of an hour or more each way contingent upon weather and traffic. If you decided to do Grapevine/Southlake, there are many excellent school districts in the Northeast Tarrant County area (Grapevine-Colleyville being my personal favorite).
Uptown is great for condos/apartments. This is an area I would consider both cool and safe, with great restaurants, a park and the Katy trail. The one downside is there is alot of traffic, but that is everywhere I guess. Addison is another popular area for single and couples, but I don't know much about it other than it's another popular area with shopping, restaurants and bars. These are the two areas of Dallas proper that are probably the most recommended.
There is also the North Dallas area off the Tollway--cheaper rent, but still with lots to do. I personally don't care for North Dallas, but some people love it. My sister lives there since the rent is cheaper and it's also close to both the tollway and George Bush so if you wanted to work in Plano for example (again, like my sister does), this would be a good area.
With All the Trimmings
Just do it!