Choosing to live in Dallas mean more than finding an apartment and a job; it also means enmeshing yourself in a proud, eclectic culture, with diverse neighborhoods and big business rubbing elbows, with nightly entertainment and celebrated culinary destinations. Itâ??s all here. But before you decide to move, you should know a little bit more about this big city.

Dallas is extremely spread out, covering nearly 400 square miles. Traditionally, most people have worked in the downtown central business district and commuted to their homes in residential districts primarily north and east (but also south and west) of the city. New business attracted to the city has resulted in many more offices in outlying areas, particularly the corridor from Richardson to Plano, north of Dallas along U.S. 75 (Central Expwy.) and west of the city in Carrollton and Irving/Las Colinas.

The West End Historic District, financial center, and Arts District are all downtown, just west of Central Expressway (though Deep Ellum, also part of downtown, is on the east side of U.S. 75). Central, in fact, divides east and west Dallas. LBJ Freeway, or I-635, runs through far north Dallas. It connects to I-20, which runs a loop south of the city. Irving, Grand Prairie, and Arlington are all due west, between Dallas and Fort Worth. I-30 leads directly west to Fort Worth.

Dallas has a lively nightlife scene, with enough in the way of performing arts and theater to entertain highbrows and more than enough bars and clubs to satisfy the young and the restless. If you’ve come to North Texas to wrangle a mechanical bull, you may have to drop in on Fort Worth, but there are a couple of sturdy honky-tonks in Big D where you can strap on your boots and your best Stetson and do some two-steppin’ and Western swing dancing.

In Big D, shopping isn’t merely a mundane chore necessary to outfit yourself, your kids, and your home. Shopping is a sport and a pastime, a social activity and entertainment. Dallasites don’t pull on sweats and go incognito to the mall; they get dolled up and strut their stuff. Having grown up in North Dallas, I know all too well that locals are world-class shoppers. Every time I return home, I initially have a hard time even finding my way around — retail outlets, mostly national chain stores, seem to continually reproduce like a computer virus, blanketing all four corners of every intersection in the bedroom communities that envelop Big D. The Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau likes to tout that there are more shopping opportunities per capita in Dallas than any other city in the United States. So if you’re a shopper, and come from a place less rich in retail mania, you’ve got your work cut out for you.

If you need to focus your shopping attention, incline it toward Western duds (especially Texas-made cowboy boots) and upscale clothing and accessories (this is the home of world-famous Neiman Marcus, after all). Texans aren’t fond of taxes (there’s no state income tax, still), but there is a state sales tax, and it’s one of the highest in the country: 8.25%.

So there you have it; Dallas has a lot to offer. If you are planning to move there soon, Promove is a rental company that offers renters insights into the city as well as plenty of apartment information and rental services.