We used to live in far south Richardson, right next to the junior college. Also lived in Garland one year. Bought my first centerfire pistol at The Bullet Trap, a Colt 1991A1 that, after some work by Ned Christiansen, is still one of my favorites. When we lived there 1986-1990, North Dallas/Richardson was a great place to live. I went back with the wife a couple years ago and it had gone down a bit. Still, Richardson proper and Plano seemed like a decent place to live.
Interesting story for guitar/music buffs - Pantera used to live in the apartments on the east side of Abrams just north of 635. I met them and an unknown at the time Black Crowes and some british band whose name I can't remember at the moment. Also the guitarist Eric Johnson worked at one of the local guitar shops and I used to hang out and talk with him all the time. He was so amazing even back then. One year at the big guitar show, they were demoing a CD player thing that allowed you to remove two tracks of a specially coded CD. So there was Eric Johnson playing Crush of Love by Joe Satriani.
And for academic types, the first person that ever got a perfect score on the SAT and the ACT went to my high school - Lake Highlands Senior High.