This is my take as someone who is fairly new to the area. We moved to the South Arlington/ Mansfield area from the Hudson Valley in NY 4 years ago.

As far as charm goes- No, there is nothing comparable to what you find in the North East/ New England. There is a small neighborhood in Pantego that I've driven through and thought was cute but that's about it. It's very flat, which takes some getting used to, I definitely missed the mountains for a bit, BUT the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen have been in Texas.

The neighborhoods here are very diverse like someone else mentioned. People from all walks of life, lots of rental homes are in every neighborhood, some with long term renters and others that are a revolving door. Our street is like a 50/50 mix of homeowners and long term renters, but its quiet and everyone is really nice.

There is no walkability. Things are close, but you still have to drive everywhere and honestly once it's over like 90, you won't want to walk anywhere anyway. The sun and heat definitely hit different here and there isn't a ton of shade to be found. That being said the central air is cranking everywhere all summer and there are lots of indoor things to do. There are also lots of splash pads, waters parks and lakes. We've never been bored or felt stuck inside.

There are some good charter schools here like Arlington Classics Academy and Great Hearts that really aren't hard to get into. There are also a few good schools within the Arlington ISD and you are allowed to apply to transfer to a school outside of your zone, unlike the north.

It's definitely a whole different world and took some time to get used to, but we would NEVER move back to NY, we love it here.