Best Places to Live and Launch 2008: No. 9, Fort Worth
Charles Darwin is not welcome in Ft. Worth. For horse and buggy types, who believe that global warming is a hoax and Tom Delay will make a comeback, it’s a great place to live. Liberals need not apply.
I moved to Fort Worth over 4 years ago. Within the past 2 years the cities leadership has opened the floodgates to money hungry gas companies that have snatched up any one acre lots all across tarrant county within the city limits as well as outside. the hungry gas companies as well as the city leadership have no concern for the safety or satisfaction of its residents as the gas wells are dangerous, noisy, polluting the ground water not to mention all the heavy equipment running up and down the city streets causing large pot holes and more noise and traffic than ever before.
I have been living in Fort Worth for 30 years. It was a great town and had the cow town atmosphere.The population has exploded and the traffic during anytime of the day is horrible. Now I hate the traffic specially during the rush hour because of poor planning. It is going to get worse.The travel time has more than doubled. I wish that my home is closer to my work.
Fote Woerth is where you get your money’s woerth owt of yer cowboy boots! Yeehaw.
I ******* hate it here.It’s the worst place to live.
Texas is the best place to live. Much better than Oregon – so move to Texas. Dallas Cowgirl fans never cry or complain about anything – at least not as bad Okie fans. I heard wages in that state are up to $5.00 / hr now. Oh, and one more thing, all the cowboys are real cowboys.
Fort Worth has no leadership in their city government, the workforce is poorly educated and I can not wait to get out of here.
I have lived near Fort Worth for almost 30 years (my whole life)and I have lived in Fort Worth for 3 years. My mother was born in Fort Worth and my husband’s mother and her parents were born in Fort Worth. It is a GREAT place to live and is a GREAT place to raise a family. The people are nice and laid back. And, I think that it is amazing that they still have a cattle drive every day!!!!
I have lived in Ft Worth all my 23 yrs & I enjoy it every bit. There is nationally recognized museums, zoo’s, golf coursess, & corporations. It’s a city on the rise that is changing with the tide. I & a lifetime long friend are thinking of opening a new business & trying spread our knowledge to others. I think there are some areas that need to be worked on just like an another city, but hey you have to start somewhere & we are doing a pretty good job!
I’ve lived here since 1987. It’s a good place to live. If Fort Worth could improve their traffic light system to allow better traffic flow, traffic wouldn’t be an issue. The traffic system tends to leave you sitting at a light with no crossing traffic and doesn’t change until the back traffic has caught up to you. There’s not much you can do about rush hour traffic since most of us all go and get off work at the same time.
While I live in Keller (north east of Ft Worth) and work in West Ft Worth, I absolutely love Ft Worth over any of its neighbors. When I first moved to the metroplex in ‘84, I lived in Irving and partied in Dallas. Since those days, I have learned that Ft Worth is much better than Dallas and the pompous people that live there. If you like down home living, very affordable living and excellent night life and arts, then Ft Worth is the place to be.
fort worth sucks as far as living is concerned. The areasaround fort worth especially to the southeast and north are much better to live
Bill,
I have lived in Fort Worth for 50 1/2 years of my 52 years. It has friendly people, lots of great businesses, both large and small. There are lots of great grocery stores, and many, many restaurants. Some neighborhoods have sidewalks and are quaint while others are more up scale and modern. There are several city parks with bicycle/jogging paths and the large Trinity Park near the Trinity river. We are also near Benbrook Lake, Eagle Mountain Lake, Lake Worth, and Lake Grapevine. I would find it hard to leave Fort Worth, it’s my home. For higher education there’s TCU, Tarrant County College, and nearby Univ. of Tx at Arlington (where I went). We also have a very good library system here, a central library, 3 regionals, and about ten branches. I think that you would be happy here.
I have lived in Fort Worth all my life, except for a three year stint in North Dallas. Down Town Fort Worth is so much better than Dallas in every way. I live outside of Down Town by about 10 miles and it takes me just 15 minutes on average to get to work in Down Town F.W.
Sure there are a lot of things I hate, but you have to look for the balance.
I’ve traveled the world, but I call Ft. Worth home. It is a beautiful city with amazing entertainment features. Business is booming and if you are in IT then you are in luck because right now finding employees that can do programming is hard to find because they are so in demand.
The weather is hot, and yes, the city needs to work on public transportation (but to be fair many people voted the idea down a few years ago when gas prices weren’t that bad). However, despite those few drawbacks (and what city doesn’t have a couple) Ft.Worth is one of the great places to live.
I love Ft.Worth.
I actually live in the mid-cities – but Love Ft.Worth. I have worked in San Fran; Boston; LA… and have been forced to commute to Dallas.
Ft.Worth has everything one would want And as for the comments about parking rates, traffic — really – there is no comparision. Traffic / parking / – everything is better in Ft.Worth. The main reason I like it – you can walk everywhere downtown Ft.Worth; and it only takes 20 minutes to get out the mid-cities – even in traffic.
I have lived in Fort Worth my entire life, with a small stint in New Mexico, and I wil never leave. I live just outside of downtown on the Trinity River, it is a beautiful area right in the middle of everything. All my shopping, dining and recreation is done with in the immediate area (mostly small businesses), I love it, I recommend it to anyone with a small town sense and a big city desire.
Ahhh my home town…what I would give to move back there from San Diego…I could pay 2 months, almost 3 months rent for what I pay out here in San Diego. I can’t wait for my husband to get out of the Marines so I can go back HOME!
I own a business with annual billings of 35mm and I chose Ft. Worth over Dallas.
I am living at Malden, MA and I wish to move to Fort Worth please comment on my this idea.
Traffic? Really? I am a realtor in the Fort Worth area and traffic is the least thing on my mind when I venture out. With the exception of a few bottle-necks at rush hour, it’s very easy to get around in Fort Worth. There are many ways around that don’t take you much out of your way & you find out quickly that you don’t get on northbound 35 from downtown at evening rush hour!
Awesome place to live….I moved here from Houston and there is no comparison. Theatre, Museums, Music/Bass Hall, Architecture, Major Horse Events, the Historical Stockyards, and of course Cuisine.
You were kidding about traffic, I hope.
There is traffic from Ft. Worth to Dallas, but not much heavy traffic locally except for 7-8 a.m. and 5-6 p.m. Certainly nothing like Dallas, Houston or Austin! A great place to live with great live theatre and music, excellent restaurants and still some nice affordable housing.
I can’t argue that Fort Worth is not a good place for business. Too good in fact. Our city leaders care more about lining their buddies’ pockets than the quality of life of average residents. Many of our elected officials are politicians, not public servants.
The city is poorly managed and has been reactive rather than proactive to the issues that population growth creates. They’ve been late to start assessing impact fees on developers, they sign away large sums of money i.e. their outsourcing of negotiating leases of city land to energy companies drilling in the Barnett Shale, they have accounting issues that are stalling road development projects, and are generally asleep at the wheel i.e. allowing a child curfew ordinance to expire and having to pay back $36,000 or so in fines, only to have city council have to vote on the ordinance again to put it back into effect.
Perot Jr. has too much control over the development of North Fort Worth. That’s a whole other story for another time.
I’ve lived in Fort Worth for decades and unfortunately city leaders have no vision of the future. As an example, they allowed a free downtown subway that connected to a 5,000 space parking lot to be destroyed in 2002.
Parking rates hvae since tripled downtown.
I grew up in Fort Worth. I’ve lived in Des Moines, Boston, Lowell (MA), Reading (MA), and now I’m in San Francisco. The city that I’ve always called home is Fort Worth – you just can’t beat the prices, the community, the friendliness, or the houses. People always look at me funny when I say prices – I can feed my entire extended family in Fort Worth for what my wife and I spend on a small dinner for 2 in San Fran. I miss Texas dearly and will move back there when I get the chance.
Of all the big cities in Texas, Ft. Worth is one I could live in. Having grown up in a small Texas town of 800, the big city life doesn’t appeal to me. However, there are good jobs that pay well. I live and work in Killeen and my wife lives and works in Ft. Worth. I am curreently looking for a job there since she has had no luck finding employment around here for a year and a half.
Absolutely, Ft. Worth is a booming area. Especially when you consider the surrounding areas just North of Ft. Worth. I live just ten miles outside the city limits, near Alliance Airport (Ross Perot’s baby) and the Texas Motor Speedway. An article just came out that this area (North Ft. Worth area) is set to gain 10 million people in about 15 years.
So, yes the economy is exploding. Not only that, the people have the $$$ to spend here. Let me just tell you I am a stockbroker who owns my own business; my neighbor on the right is a plumber with his own business; and my neighbor to the left is a landscaper with his own business. And, things are good for all three of us. My town had about 600 people just a few years ago. Now we are hovering at 40,000+. Unfortunately the landscape is getting torn to hell with all the development, but of course business is BOOMING. Don’t believe me????
Come and took and look for yourself. North Texas is the place to be IMHO.
I love Fort Worth. Dallas is dirty and far too crowded. Fort Worth has the big city amenities, particularly with Dallas nearby, but it still has that smaller-town sort of feel to it. Still, the traffic isn’t great and neither is the smog. But living just outside in the suburbs is easy enough if you don’t travel at rush hour, or if you use side streets. I’m hopefully about the Trinity Rail Passenger train expansions…
The only good thing about Fort Worth is it’s next to Dallas. The workforce is much better in Dallas, but then again, it’s a quick drive for workers from Dallas over to Fort Worth.
Dallas has a thriving and growing transit system and they are linking Dallas and Fort Worth Together now. This will make things better in Fort Worth. But, stick with Dallas if your opening a biz!
Have you found the town supportive of local businesses?
-
In a tough economy, more business owners are bartering for the stuff they need. More
-
In Oregon, the Recovery Act is paying for a local small business to protect nearby communities from wildfires. More
-
Smart entrepreneurs are now doing deals in 140 characters or less on Twitter. More
-
As more customers choose - or are forced - to fill prescriptions by mail, independent pharmacies are struggling to survive. More
-
A Texas hospitality company considers where to invest and where to cut back to weather the recession. More
-
How 7 innovative companies are inspiring workers and boosting the bottom line. More
-
42 startups duked it out in the world's most lucrative business plan competition. We trailed one team to the bitter end. More









I love fort Worth ,I lived in it for 6 years, I was on my own and was able to build a good life many were still trying to get for many years.people are nice,friendly and kind.Un lucy me to leave Fort Worth and move to California.The only thing is better is the weather.