Many of these topics came up in the "Observations on Dallas' Scene" that I linked earlier in this thread but I will re-iterate some things I mentioned there in this thread. I highly recommend "Observations on Dallas' Scene" for anyone who has interest in the mating environment in Dallas.
Dallas up until recently is a very poor city in terms of meeting people organically. Very little walkability. It has slightly improved in the last 5 years or so.
This greatly limits your capacity for meeting women. Parks, outdoor activities, daygame, becomes almost impossible. Additionally, it is a southern city, so top quality women are more likely to be in relationships at a younger age and be locked down younger. Probably marry and have kids younger. This obviously works against you as an older man.
Dallas is more walkable than the common perception of its walkability. Almost all US cities that developed after the rise of the automobile are limited in terms of walkability. It is possible to survive without a car in Dallas but it is far more challenging.
I have done daygame at city parks and on the two main walking paths in Dallas (Katy Trail and White Rock Lake Park). While there's enough foot traffic on the paths and a couple of the parks, the overwhelming majority of women go out of their way to avoid being approached by using earbuds. Additionally, on the walking paths, women are moving and not still, which is another inhibitor to making an approach. Depends on the path, the best ways to approach are either at natural resting points or parking lots to enter the path. Occasionally, you can make an approach while walking and see a fellow walker who is open to being approached. One example of this is when I got an instant date on one of the paths because a woman was wearing a t-shirt from the university where I graduated from as an undergrad.
I've also done daygame at grocery stores, malls, and bookstores, which can be done in other cities as well.
You're correct that this greatly limits the capacity for meeting women organically.
At 39, I am considered an older man. I arrived in Dallas at 28. Even when I arrived at 28, I wasn't considered that young but certainly younger. Dallas is a cosmopolitan city but historical marriage rates and child bearing rates are younger here. I know where to find single women closer to my age in person in Dallas, but finding single, childless 30 something women isn't that easy even for men skilled in seeking late 20s + women. It's unlikely that I am perceived as wealthy enough or good looking enough (I'm around a 7) to get women in their 20s at this point.
It also does not have good universities, so education of the native population will be somewhat poor.
Southern Methodist University (SMU) and Texas Christian University (TCU) are solid, local private universities. University of Dallas is a local Catholic university, but its women are devoutly Catholic. Probably good women for LTRs but not likely to have sex prior to marriage.
A lot of the adults in Dallas went to either a public Texas university (University of Texas, Texas A&M, or Texas Tech) or a Texas private (SMU, TCU, and Baylor are the most common from the privates). Then, there is a smattering of women from random universities across the USA.
The majority of the women I meet have bachelor's degrees or higher but I'm tending to run game in more bougie/yuppie parts of Dallas. I've met few women in Dallas that had less than a bachelor's degree while I've been doing my approaches over the years.
Even if it was more walkable, the summers are oppressively hot to even allow for outdoor activities.
The heat is oppressive from the end of May until the end of September. Other parts of the year are better. I have daygame outdoors from June 1-September 30 before. There are even random days in May and October that are uncomfortably hot.
All in all, it is a way too car-centric, transplant-oriented city with poor climate and poor suitability for meeting new people.
The transplant-oriented nature of Dallas is a significant problem.
Because there are so many transplants, social circles here are weaker. That has consequences.
A good portion of the transplants are married couples with families who settle in the suburbs. That won't affect most singles unless you feel like hunting for bored married women, which isn't easy to do.
Because social circles tend to be weaker, people aren't closed off here. Stranger approaches are usually at least cordial and there isn't any hostility to outsiders, unlike some other areas of the USA. The rootless nature of a lot of transplanted to Dallas adults leads to a lot of app-based dating, which puts men in a more difficult position. The better play is to approach strangers and join in on whatever in-person events that you can attend.
The weak social circles do contribute to Dallas' pretentious reputation. Because a lot of people are meeting strangers, there are no consequences for bad behavior. When there's no attachment, women can be as superficial as they please. Dallas has also had some fashion industry influence historically (Neiman-Marcus started here as an example) and fashion can be superficial. Southern California transplants have also added to the pretentiousness and superficiality.
Getting into one of the social circles with Dallas natives with strong roots isn't that easy to do. It's a lot like getting into a top fraternity at a university. Most transplanted adults to Dallas won't get into those or they will be on the fringes of them. Additionally, a lot of the Dallas natives who go to local high schools, then possibly go to some unversity within Texas (maybe even Southern Methodist or Texan Christian locally) and then settle in Dallas as adults tend to get married earlier in life, settle into the suburbs, and have children. Some of those people might be your co-workers but you won't be spending your leisure time with them.
There are a lot of apartments in Dallas with transplants in their 20s and 30s so that'll help with finding friends. They probably won't help you with finding dates though if you're pleasant to women in your building/complex, they might introduce you to their friends/acquaintances who don't live in the same building/complex. You generally don't want to get romantically/sexually involved with a woman in your own building/complex because that's shiiting in your own backyard. You could do it with a woman in a complex that's within walking distance and that's acceptable.
