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Downtown would be the only classically urban neighborhood in Austin in terms of density, walkability, mixed land use between residential, commercial, entertainment and institutional. It's very pricey for Austin, highest rents and price per square foot in the Austin MSA. If you want an urban life, by FAR the best place to live in Austin.
West Campus is also a true urban neighborhood but is mostly populated by students.
There are however a bunch of what I would call suburban urban neighborhoods - they lack the density and amenities of true urban neighborhoods, being comprised of mostly single family homes, but you could walk to a grocery store, a couple of bars, a live music venue or two, some non-chain retail, coffee-houses etc. Best is a subjective term, but I would characterize them as follows.
Best yuppie suburban urban neighborhoods - Old West Austin and Clarksville - historic architecture Boho charm, great restaurants, walking distance to downtown and the Ladybird Lake hike and bike trail. Followed by Rosedale, can kinda walk to Central Market and the retail and restaurants along Burnett, but less urban and sleepier than Clarksville or Old West Austin.
Best mixed income suburban urban neighborhood: Hyde Park - the closer to 43rd and Duval the better. Some students, more faculty, some rundown apartments, some exquisite Victorian Mansions, mostly beautiful oak lined streets. Well-served by public transportation - such as it is in Austin- proximity to great restaurants and food stores, not much retail.
Best hipster gone yuppie suburban urban neigborhoods - immediately south of the river- South Congress, Bouldin Creek and South Lamar. Tattoos with cash and some old hippie holdouts. What most people think of when they hear "keep Austin weird." Excellent restaurants, music venues, second-hand stores etc. In danger of becoming a parody of itself. Magnificent food-trailer scene. Still pretty fabulous.
Best hipster suburban urban neighborhoods: Central East Austin south of Manor - difficult gentrification politics, but largest concentration of artists and musicians in the city - still relatively cheap but changing fast. Home to best cocktails in the city along with downtown. Home to the majority of Austin's independent live theatre, best Mexican/Tex-Mex mom 'n pop restaurants in the city. Walking distance to Ladybird Lake hike and bike trail. Currently home to what's left of Austin cool. Minimal retail in walking distance, but many bars and nightclubs. Little Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the Colorado.
North Loop - a little less edgy and less racially diverse than Central East Austin, but a great independent bookstore, excellent coffee- houses, some superb restaurants and to my mind some of the best dive bars and quirky music venues in Austin. No walkable grocery-store.
Best family friendly suburban urban neighborhoods -French Place - mostly quiet and sleepy until you get to Restaurant Row at the Southern End- probably highest concentration of PhDs in the City. Fully gentrified - quaint, but a little dull. Schools still a little iffy, but many moms pushing expensive strollers to Thunderbird's or Cherrywood for coffee in the morning. Barton Hills- more suburban than urban but close enough to SoCo, SoLa, downtown to have a more urban feel. Crestview and Allandale are other suburban urban pockets.
East Riverside and Far West are also urban suburban places in terms of the built environment, but are student -heavy and mostly mausoleums at night.
There are also 3, to my mind, repulsive, fake urban suburban neighborhoods in Austin of varying degrees of architectural grotesquerie; The Triangle - terrific farmer's market on Wednesdays, the closest thing that Austin has to an Italian deli, a bunch of mediocre restaurants and more tedious retail, close to Hyde Park and North Loop, but otherwise a shrunken version of Addison Circle north of Dallas. The Mueller development - a parody of new urbanism - some big box retail, no restaurants worthy of the name, a little slice of the exurbs in central Austin with no yards - walkable but to what. The Domain - an upscale version of Mueller without the single family homes, as Ed Hardyish as Austin gets. No grocery store, but a nice Nordstorms and a bunch of middle-brow chain restaurants - a drive by version of urbanity!
Like most sunbelt cities, 80% of Austin is suburban sprawl, but if you took a map of Austin and a drew a 3 mile circle with Congress and 6th at the center - anywhere within that you would be in a pretty good urban or suburban urban neighborhood. There are also some extremely charming historic downtowns in the small towns, now exurbs of Austin, where you could lead a sort of walkable life, but they are very compact indeed. The town square of Georgetown and surrounding blocks are most charming, with excellent restaurants and a very nice restored theatre. Downtown Round Rock is nearly as cute, with some urban amenities, but is smaller and ditto for the even more tiny historic downtown of Pflugerville. They roll up the sidewalks at 10pm.
Austin has pretty good urban neighborhoods for Texas, but NYC, Chicago, SF, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, we are not. Many rustbelt cities also have better "urban" neighborhoods than Austin, but there are compensations here. And few cities outside of California are going to have "Nature" and "urban" living so closely integrated.
Why does everyone jump on people regarding jobs who ask about moving here? The person could be independently wealthy for all you know or may be considering moving here for school. At any rate, in another thread the poster was already lectured about jobs and responded that he or she is being transferred within his/her company. But does it really matter? It doesn't really affect the question of what neighborhoods provide for urban living.
Downtown would be the only classically urban neighborhood in Austin in terms of density, walkability, mixed land use between residential, commercial, entertainment and institutional. It's very pricey for Austin, highest rents and price per square foot in the Austin MSA. If you want an urban life, by FAR the best place to live in Austin.
West Campus is also a true urban neighborhood but is mostly populated by students.
There are however a bunch of what I would call suburban urban neighborhoods - they lack the density and amenities of true urban neighborhoods, being comprised of mostly single family homes, but you could walk to a grocery store, a couple of bars, a live music venue or two, some non-chain retail, coffee-houses etc. Best is a subjective term, but I would characterize them as follows.
Best yuppie suburban urban neighborhoods - Old West Austin and Clarksville - historic architecture Boho charm, great restaurants, walking distance to downtown and the Ladybird Lake hike and bike trail. Followed by Rosedale, can kinda walk to Central Market and the retail and restaurants along Burnett, but less urban and sleepier than Clarksville or Old West Austin.
Best mixed income suburban urban neighborhood: Hyde Park - the closer to 43rd and Duval the better. Some students, more faculty, some rundown apartments, some exquisite Victorian Mansions, mostly beautiful oak lined streets. Well-served by public transportation - such as it is in Austin- proximity to great restaurants and food stores, not much retail.
Best hipster gone yuppie suburban urban neigborhoods - immediately south of the river- South Congress, Bouldin Creek and South Lamar. Tattoos with cash and some old hippie holdouts. What most people think of when they hear "keep Austin weird." Excellent restaurants, music venues, second-hand stores etc. In danger of becoming a parody of itself. Magnificent food-trailer scene. Still pretty fabulous.
Best hipster suburban urban neighborhoods: Central East Austin south of Manor - difficult gentrification politics, but largest concentration of artists and musicians in the city - still relatively cheap but changing fast. Home to best cocktails in the city along with downtown. Home to the majority of Austin's independent live theatre, best Mexican/Tex-Mex mom 'n pop restaurants in the city. Walking distance to Ladybird Lake hike and bike trail. Currently home to what's left of Austin cool. Minimal retail in walking distance, but many bars and nightclubs. Little Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the Colorado.
North Loop - a little less edgy and less racially diverse than Central East Austin, but a great independent bookstore, excellent coffee- houses, some superb restaurants and to my mind some of the best dive bars and quirky music venues in Austin. No walkable grocery-store.
Best family friendly suburban urban neighborhoods -French Place - mostly quiet and sleepy until you get to Restaurant Row at the Southern End- probably highest concentration of PhDs in the City. Fully gentrified - quaint, but a little dull. Schools still a little iffy, but many moms pushing expensive strollers to Thunderbird's or Cherrywood for coffee in the morning. Barton Hills- more suburban than urban but close enough to SoCo, SoLa, downtown to have a more urban feel. Crestview and Allandale are other suburban urban pockets.
East Riverside and Far West are also urban suburban places in terms of the built environment, but are student -heavy and mostly mausoleums at night.
There are also 3, to my mind, repulsive, fake urban suburban neighborhoods in Austin of varying degrees of architectural grotesquerie; The Triangle - terrific farmer's market on Wednesdays, the closest thing that Austin has to an Italian deli, a bunch of mediocre restaurants and more tedious retail, close to Hyde Park and North Loop, but otherwise a shrunken version of Addison Circle north of Dallas. The Mueller development - a parody of new urbanism - some big box retail, no restaurants worthy of the name, a little slice of the exurbs in central Austin with no yards - walkable but to what. The Domain - an upscale version of Mueller without the single family homes, as Ed Hardyish as Austin gets. No grocery store, but a nice Nordstorms and a bunch of middle-brow chain restaurants - a drive by version of urbanity!
Like most sunbelt cities, 80% of Austin is suburban sprawl, but if you took a map of Austin and a drew a 3 mile circle with Congress and 6th at the center - anywhere within that you would be in a pretty good urban or suburban urban neighborhood. There are also some extremely charming historic downtowns in the small towns, now exurbs of Austin, where you could lead a sort of walkable life, but they are very compact indeed. The town square of Georgetown and surrounding blocks are most charming, with excellent restaurants and a very nice restored theatre. Downtown Round Rock is nearly as cute, with some urban amenities, but is smaller and ditto for the even more tiny historic downtown of Pflugerville. They roll up the sidewalks at 10pm.
Austin has pretty good urban neighborhoods for Texas, but NYC, Chicago, SF, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, we are not. Many rustbelt cities also have better "urban" neighborhoods than Austin, but there are compensations here. And few cities outside of California are going to have "Nature" and "urban" living so closely integrated.
I found myself shaking my head, affirmatively, to pretty much your entire post (I think there are a handful of cities that combine urban and nature beyond California--from Seattle to Minneapolis, Vancouver to Pittsburgh). But most importantly, this is one of the best break-downs of central Austin I've ever read! Nice work!
Why does everyone jump on people regarding jobs who ask about moving here? The person could be independently wealthy for all you know or may be considering moving here for school. At any rate, in another thread the poster was already lectured about jobs and responded that he or she is being transferred within his/her company. But does it really matter? It doesn't really affect the question of what neighborhoods provide for urban living.
Sure it does, if it's out of his/her budget then why suggest neighborhoods out of their range. Plus I didn't see their other post. A lot of people move to Austin thinking that's where all the jobs are at or that it's easy to find one quickly..
Sure it does, if it's out of his/her budget then why suggest neighborhoods out of their range. Plus I didn't see their other post. A lot of people move to Austin thinking that's where all the jobs are at or that it's easy to find one quickly..
I do think we're a bit obsessive about the whole job scenario. I think we should start asking if they are bringing any women with them instead. That seems to be a more pressing social issue.
i do think we're a bit obsessive about the whole job scenario. I think we should start asking if they are bringing any women with them instead. That seems to be a more pressing social issue.
Homeinatx-- that was a very helpful post, thanks! Which are the cheaper of the neighborhoods?( I ask because sometimes the more gentrified place is actually cheaper than the more run-down one which may be closer to downtown or the university.)
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