M Streets, Oak Lawn, Uptown, Bishop Arts all are walkable-ish, in the sense that you can arrange it to have one grocery store, one pharmacy, a couple of coffee shops, and a few boutiques, restaurants and bars in walking distance. Get close to a Dart Rail station, and you can add a handful of other small entertainment districts surrounding developed stations, but all of this will simply reduce your need for car-based transportation, not eliminate it. Then factor in that while walking a few blocks in Texas heat is nothing like impossible, doing so while remaining hygienic starts to be. If you plan well, and if you’re going to be busy at work all the time anyway, you might pull it off with walking, transit, biking, and Uber, but I would suggest that you get living arrangements that could accommodate a car even if you try to go without at first.

Google Maps with Street View is your friend when looking at this stuff. See if the sidewalk goes all the way from the house/apartment to the cool pub you saw. Check your commute and set the departure time to when you’ll actually be commuting. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume schools are not an issue, which will help a lot with finding something kinda cool while still being halfway affordable.

Also, get your spice tolerance up. If you can’t handle some jalapenos on your nachos or basic white-people-compatible Indian food, no one will respect you, LOL. 🤣

Finally, remember that as fucked as Texas politics can be, it’s only about 5:4 crazies to sane, and in your professional community in the middle of Dallas it will be better, but be ready for the 5.