South Dallas

Understand

Oak Cliff is an area that has retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of "Dallas' older, established neighborhoods", and is often called "The Cliff." It was a separate town up until 1903, when it was annexed by Dallas. Oak Cliff has turn of the century and mid-20th century housing, many parks and remarkably close proximity to the central business district of downtown Dallas without the heavy vehicular traffic or higher cost of housing commonly associated with Dallas' northern neighborhoods.

The boundaries of Oak Cliff are roughly Interstate 30 and the Trinity River on the north, Interstate 35E on the east, Camp Wisdom Road on the south, and Cockrell Hill Road on the west. In practice nearly every neighborhood south of the Trinity River (excluding west Dallas) is called Oak Cliff, though much of it was never part of the original town. For example, the South Oak Cliff neighborhood which generally includes neighborhoods south of Illinois Avenue, was never part of the original town of Oak Cliff, just as the Arcadia Park area was once its own municipality.

West Dallas usually refers to the tiny part of the Western part of Dallas just south of the Trinity River, a gentrifying area of the city with several gritty parts. It features the one-of-a-kind Belmont Hotel, which still boasts a decent view of downtown even with newer buildings around it. West Dallas is well connected to the Oak Cliff area, and is in the midst of re-development thanks to the Trinity River Project and the construction of the Santiago Calatrava-designed Hunt-Hill Bridge across the Trinity. West Dallas can also refer to the area around the I-35 corridor bordering Irving, a largely low-income industrial area home to a Koreatown and a row of strip clubs.

Get in

By road

• From Downtown Dallas to Oak Cliff – Take either 45 or 35E South and cross the Trinity River (both freeways cross the river as they proceed westwards)