When nobody was looking, McKinney became cool. Not to be mixed up (by Dallasites who rarely venture beyond city limits) with McKinney Avenue, the northern suburb has always had its charm: an old prison that once housed Jesse James' brother and a Charles Manson follower, antique shops, boutiques and mom-and-pop restaurants. But now it's actually cool. McKinney has a female-owned record store with Red Zeppelin, a comic book store and a spot called Mom and Popcorn. The city's square is now also surrounded by far more bars than we remember and has specialized shops selling guitars, pies or tobacco — all under strings of lights that sparkle in the night time.