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I live in and love Dallas. It has the perfect balance and you can absolutely find whatever community you're looking for here. Austin would tell you that they own the tech and music scene in Texas. But I'd rather live around and work in Deep Ellum, home of the biggest IPO of the dot com boom (Broadcast.com), and damn good music/nightlife scene. We've got our own nice little "silicon valley" growing here, in the same spot where we ruled the dot com era.

I forgot to add that Houston is fine to pass through, but unless you're a big fan of mosquitos, pollution, and humidity, I'd say stay North/inland of Houston.