Last week, we asked our followers on Instagram and Facebook which Dallas suburbs were the worst. As one might suspect, we received a massive array of answers listing a massive array of reasons why a specific spot is worse than the others around here. We did something similar a few months ago when we asked readers to name the most overrated restaurants in Dallas. Some people voiced their displeasure at us simply asking the question, but our goal wasn’t to start a war with any one specific place or to sow division.
From McKinney to the north to Grand Prairie to the south, and from Mesquite in the east to Irving in the west, no two suburbs are the same after all. So, no, we weren’t looking to engage angry keyboard warriors. We were simply curious how readers and social media followers would answer the question and why they answered it the way they did.
For some, it was a personal choice. A chosen ‘burb was the worst because their ex lives there. Fair enough. For others, heavy traffic and a lack of grocery stores or public transportation factored into their votes.
Some simply listed Fort Worth, an opinion we certainly do not agree with. In fact, we see plenty of cool things to appreciate about each of the five suburbs that our social media followers chose as the worst.
✭ April 11th ✭
— Dallas Cowboys Old School (@CowboysOld) April 12, 2023
On this day in 2010, Texas Stadium was imploded. The Cowboys called this home from 1971-2008. #TexasStadium #70sCowboys #80sCowboys #90sCowboys #70sCowboys #DallasCowboys #AmericasTeam #DC4L #CowboysNation pic.twitter.com/vj1QTu7Ksn
5. Irving
Once world-famous for the stadium with a hole in its roof, Irving is now mainly known as a place where a big hole remains where the stadium once stood. Texas Stadium hasn’t been around for 15 years now, and the city is still trying to figure out how best to use that prime plot of land nestled near where State Highways 114 and 183 meet up with Loop 12. A few years after the Cowboys left town, the city’s other prime sports attraction took off when the PGA’s Byron Nelson golf tournament departed Las Colinas in 2017. The city hasn’t managed to replace what it lost from the two marquee sports draws, and we’ll never recover from Crystal’s Pizza and Spaghetti closing down in 2013, but the office-dominated Las Colinas district has grown and diversified in a pleasant way over the past several years. What was once seemingly home to only corporate offices and chain restaurants has welcomed new development, bringing the Toyota Music Factory and its cadre of A-list concerts and plenty of worthy new bars and restaurants to an area that was starved for them not all that long ago.
4. Frisco
Several of our social media commenters suggested we hate suburbs because, in their words, none of us here at the Observer ever ventures north of Uptown. That, of course, is simply not true, but we suspect that the people hating on Frisco may not have spent much time there, or perhaps they simply view the bustling ‘burb as one big paint-by-numbers IKEA store. For those who aren’t fans of Frisco because of its display of suburban sprawl, we can understand that. The average cost of living there isn’t terribly low compared to much of North Texas, and the home of the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters is certainly not known for its wealth of geographically and architecturally unique neighborhoods. Gleaming new buildings housing new shopping and newer corporate headquarters dominate the city, which has a ways to go before it stops feeling so stinking new, although Frisco is far from new.
But we have to ask all of you who voted for Frisco in this category: Have you never had the Texas Twinkie from Hutchins BBQ?
3. Garland
Although Garland dwellers have easy access to Lakewood Brewing and beloved East Dallas locales including White Rock Lake, the Dallas Arboretum and Lower Greenville Avenue, the eastern ‘burb managed to snag a few votes in our poll. Garland’s crime rate is a bit above the national average, with violent and property crime specifically being higher than average, according to everyone’s favorite neighborhood spying app, NextDoor. Perhaps the main gripes against Garland lie in what is not. It’s not one of the glitzy, emerging suburbs like Allen or Prosper. A good chunk of town has a tendency to look old and out of date, but that doesn't necessarily mean the entire town is rundown. But as a working-class city with a racially diverse population, some of the reasons people are happy to live there aren’t visible from nearby Interstate 635. In 2023, Garland ISD was recognized as one of the state’s most outstanding districts by the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards.
DEFUNDING DART: Dallas Area Rapid Transit would have to refund millions of dollars to its 13-members cities - after Plano and others complain they pay for more transit than they receive. It's in committee this week. #txlege
— Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) April 20, 2025
STORY: https://t.co/A0jolP5D4w pic.twitter.com/mxzxa3KwiX
2. Plano
Sometimes referred to as “Plain Old Texas,” Plano was the easy choice as the worst suburb by many of our readers. One of them blamed Plano’s discussion of decreasing its DART funding for their vote. But we all know that Plano has a bad rep for being an overly white, cookie-cutter concrete jungle north of Dallas that seems built for the upper-middle class and higher, even if that isn’t really the case all the way around town. Plano is a much more racially diverse city than perhaps most people likely understand. That, along with an admirably low crime rate, is a combo we think is great for young families. Now, with an average house cost of more than $520,000, it certainly isn't necessarily affordable for all young families, which gives a bit of fuel to the haters, but it’s not the most expensive address in North Texas either. And to be clear, it’s not just Plano residents who dig their environs. Forbes recently reported that Plano was named as one of the top few places to live in the U.S. thanks to good schools, low crime, a high supply of jobs and much more.
Terri Boyette, a homeowner in Mesquite, Texas, spent over a year trying to get a squatter out of her house. When the squatter was finally removed she discovered her house in complete disarray and all of her possessions gone. #txlege pic.twitter.com/tLjjaE5aLZ
— Texas Public Policy Foundation (@TPPF) March 24, 2025
1. Mesquite
No other Dallas suburb garnered more social media votes than Mesquite. However, those who chose Mesquite didn’t give us many reasons why they voted that way. Similar to its neighbor to the north, Garland, NextDoor reported that Mesquite’s crime rate is a bit higher than the national average, so there’s that. But generally speaking, it’s not a stretch to suggest that Mesquite’s less-than-awesome reputation amongst those who haven't lived there typically aligns with that of almost any other suburb. Complaints about underfunded schools, prevalent potholes and aging infrastructure can be found when folks complain about most suburbs. To that point, Mesquite’s infrastructure often doesn’t necessarily feel super updated when you drive around town, but the city council has budgeted millions of dollars in recent annual budgets dedicated to improving roadways and other aging infrastructure elements.
Although Mesquite’s leaders have resisted some affordable housing efforts in recent years, the city can still claim to be an affordable place to live. Zillow says the average home price in Mesquite is $267,939, a 3% decrease from the previous year. On top of all that, we found a killer burger joint there that also avoids breaking the bank. How bad can Mesquite really be?
