Featured Apartment:
Dallas-Turtle Creek - 1277
sq feet, a big balcony, 1 bedroom and 2 baths (1 marble bath), entry foyer, 5
big closets, 2 parking spaces, a health club and pool in the building, and a
grand lobby and social room. There is 24 hour concierge service.
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Turtle Creek Information
Turtle Creek is the name of a neighborhood in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas,
Texas. But really, it is the name of an idea. In terms of physical places, it is
the name of an actual creek that has its headwaters in the township of Highland
Park, Texas, which is landlocked within the city of Dallas. It then runs in a
southerly, then westerly direction through the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Lawn
until it becomes culverted at Reverchon Park. It re-emerges partly where Oak
Lawn Avenue meets Interstate 35, then it is culverted again under the West
Dallas Design District where it flows into the Trinity River Meanders (also
culverted).
The Meanders are the original path of the Trinity River through Dallas, but for
flood control purposes, they were culverted in the early 20th century, and a
redirected path of the Trinity was dug to the west, engineered with levees and
pumps, opening up an industrial district which thrives to this day.
Turtle Creek is also the name of a thoroughfare which runs through the same
neighborhood, generally alongside the creek of the same name. The street has
been broken up by dedication of Reverchon Park and by construction of the
interstate, but its continuation through the Design District provides a hint of
the culvert creek running beneath the streets.
Turtle Creek Boulevard shares a single block along the creek with Cedar Springs
Road, a vestige of earlier times when natural urban growth converged the two
streets. There is also a Turtle Creek Plaza, a largely private drive on the
opposite bank of the creek from the boulevard where fancy homes have stood. Some
stand no longer, though with gentrification of the neighborhood, land values are
appreciating. The neighborhood has changed rapidly, becoming much more densely
populated (it ranked as the fastest growing neighborhood in the U.S. in 2001-02
in terms of new dwelling units) and new, expensive homes have begun to be built
along this secluded section.
Turtle Creek has also become an adopted nickname for the Oak Lawn neighborhood,
though never an official one. The nickname also sometimes applies to a spillover
of the Uptown area, which has become the official moniker for the area between
downtown Dallas and Oak Lawn beginning in the 1980s.
The name Turtle Creek also graces a number of business and real estate
properties in the area, many of which have addresses away from Turtle Creek
Boulevard. There is even a Turtle Creek News which is published twice weekly and
circulated in Uptown, Oak Lawn and Highland Park.
But throughout much of the 20th Century, the mention of "the Turtle Creek area"
has brought visions of majestic oaks and lush greenery, manmade waterfalls along
the creek (built for drainage), ripples over the white rock, mother ducks with
their young following behind, a sense of escape from the Texas summer, the
luxury high-rises along the boulevard, and, yes, even sightings of the turtles
for which the creek was named. It was at one time, the home of the exclusive
Dallas Athletic Club before it moved eastward to Mesquite. To this day, the
downhill drive on any street that crosses Turtle Creek imparts a brief sense of
ease and relaxation.
In more recent decades, the neighborhood became the favorite of the gay
community, seeking a refuge, or ghetto, in the "buckle of the Bible Belt". In
truth, it was Oak Lawn and Uptown more broadly for which this was true, but the
inclusion of Turtle Creek and its bend along Lee Park and Arlington Hall
provided some romance for the renaissance the gay and lesbian community would
bring to a neighborhood that had become blighted by the 1960s and 70s.
In 1980, following a national tour by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, which
included a stop in Dallas, a group of men determined that Dallas needed to have
its own men's chorus, and so began the Turtle Creek Chorale. After humble
beginnings, the Chorale has risen to considerable renown, having performed for
HRH Elizabeth II, among other dignitaries.
Today, the Turtle Creek Chorale is among the foremost members of the Gay and
Lesbian Association of Choruses with over 200 singing members, upward of two
dozen recordings, and committed to the cause of building bridges between the
GLBT community and other communities locally and around the world.
And so, Turtle Creek is more than just a neighborhood. With no real official
status (the real neighborhoods are called Oak Lawn and Uptown, and Highland Park
is an incorporated township), Turtle Creek has become elevated to the status of
an idea, a mythical neighborhood with no real boundaries, but one which Dallas
leaders are proud to showcase before the global community as demonstrative of
the city's diversity.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.