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Okay I'm 46 and looking to relocate to Austin with my daughter who will be attending college there. I am single, liberal (so not so sure I would fit in outside of Austin), teach yoga, love music. Since I just registered today..I was wondering how to begin my own post with questions. Can anyone help? Thanks. Suzanne
More info please But first, to quell this over hyping of Austin being a liberal oasis in a sea of intolerant monster people, if you venture outside of Travis County you will not be attacked by crazy conservatives. Yes, suburbs of many cities tend to be conservative but once you're here you'll discover that there are quite a few liberals who reside outside of Travis County. Personally, I'm conservative but I have quite a few friends here who aren't. My next door neighbor is liberal, Some of the people at my daughters school are. Austin and the surrounding areas are very "live and let live", a phrase you will hear quite often.
I would say that Austin used to be a college town but really isn't anymore. It's much larger than it used to be and the economy is very diverse. It is still a "young" city but hardly revolves around UT like it did in the past.
Exactly. The number of students here hasn't grown but the overall population has tripled since I moved here. I rarely notice students here because I don't spend my time in the relatively confined areas where student life is dominant.
It feels like a fairly normal city to me. But if someone wants to experience Austin as though it's a college town, they can do so by spending all their time between 38th, I35, MLK and Lamar, plus some excursions to Red River and Sixth around the youth party/music districts. Warehouse district is more like a non-college town entertainment district. Actually, college students don't seem to have much presence anywhere downtown except for certain bars on Sixth. The Red River live music scene is much more "townies" in my experience.
Finding work here will be the first concern. Contrary to all the publicity, Austin does not have an excess of jobs - there simply was not as much loss as in some areas of the country. You'll be competing with over 100,000 students from UT, A&M, Texas State, and several other schools. Not to mention many, many transplants from DFW, LA, etc.
I've noticed that nobody has posted about Raleigh, so here goes! I currently live in Fayetteville, NC so when we go to the "city" we either go to Raleigh/Durham or Charlotte. I am 34 and have friends who are both younger and older. We all agree that Charlotte has so much more to offer. Whether you are in to cultural events or the great outdoors Charlotte wins.
May I also suggest Wilmington, NC? A great coastal town if you enjoy the ocean. Lots to do there also and also has that sense of "quirkiness".
Asheville, NC is also a wonderful town in the mountains bordering TN. An absolutely beautiful city with a strong art scene and LOTS of outdoor activites.
Those are my suggestions for the NC area. Hope that helps
No worries...although liberal... I also have conservative friends. I am mostly interested in finding out if I will have ample opportunity to network with others of my age group (46)...friendships, dating, etc...I am a very independent spirit..just don't want to fell isolated. I will be visiting Austin with my dauther in a couple of weeks. Since I will only be there a couple of days, I would like to have an idea where to look for an apartment. (price range 800 to 1100) for a 3 bedroom. Priority is safey, then age group for me, daugther will commute to ACC the first year, love trees, want to be within 20 min.of the arts and entertainment district, shopping and restaurants. If there is anyplace near to a nice lake or on the lake that is affordable that would be great too. I truly appreciate any ideas or thoughts you may have to offer. Thank you.
I'm single and 51. I absolutely loved the youthful culture of Austin when I moved here in 1990 and I was healthy. Now that my health is failing me and all my friends are 20 years younger and busy with toddlers and such, I feel completely out of place. You can definitely have a great life here as a middle-aged or elderly person, but you have to get a better start than I did. I was involved in two occupations (grad school and a modeling business) that created lots of friendships with people in the 18 to 30 age range. And most of the older ones moved away, so I'm stuck with a group of friends who are all in their late 20s to early 30s and have families, so I feel like some kind of weirdo with my single lifestyle and old age.
Your question is an important one and the demographics here are highly favorable to people in their 20s and 30s. Keep researching this issue because it's a serious one. It's not just that it's a college town, because it's so much more than that. But everything else about Austin seems to be youth-oriented, such as high tech, video game development, the music scene, the film industry, the night life, the highrise condos geared to trendy rich young people... it's hard to be older and disabled here, that's my feeling. I'll probably move away because I feel so alienated here. Look at the demographics on this website to see just how skewed the age range is.
This is all very promising for you, because I do know HEALTHY people who really enjoy the music scene here and I could even hook you up with the drum community (if you're talking about ethnic drumming, drum circles, etc.) --- if that's what you're looking for then shoot me a PM because I was part of that before my body fell apart. Also, there are a lot of music venues where you'll see people in their 60s and 70s boot-scootin' next to kids with mohawks. It's not like there's age discrimination here, my problem is just with my inability to maintain the lifestyle that I got myself into here, and I need to adapt or leave. But if you start out with a set of friends who are older then you'll be much better connected to a community that will be lasting, rather than the ephemeral transient world of Austin's youth culture.
Good choices and good observations. Austin is a very friendly place. If I were you, I think I'd keep Austin and Denver on the short list, add Portland, Seattle, Boise and Salt Lake City, and drop the Research Triangle. But that's just my opinion and it might not be useful to you.
Yet Austin is on just about every Best place to Retire List one can find. So were talking well over 50 years old. Yet Austin is suppose to be majority young. Who writes these publications and Lists? As far as Portland, it is a youth magnet city and thats an understatement. Someone over whatever age could very well be out of place in this town, without a real support group of peers in their age group. Hard to find.
I see enough cool looking over 40 people kicking around, you see them at music shows too. I've noticed that live music events come on at two times. Some shows start at about 7pm, and end 8ish, then around 10pm the later shows come on. For the early shows the crowd has quite a few late 30's and older people attend.
As far as a college town.......centralized Austin feels like a college town to me. You can kind of ignore that stuff most of the time, but where it gets really annoying is at apartment complexes. The one I live in is party central Fri-Sat night till 3am, and when school is off its party central all the time. Recently I've been looking around for a new apartment, one that is less college and more quiet, but the few that I had looked at I have heard reports that they are anything from quiet. Just something to think about if you do head here, picking the place to stay me be very important.
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But first, to quell this over hyping of Austin being a liberal oasis in a sea of intolerant monster people, if you venture outside of Travis County you will not be attacked by crazy conservatives. Yes, suburbs of many cities tend to be conservative but once you're here you'll discover that there are quite a few liberals who reside outside of Travis County. Personally, I'm conservative but I have quite a few friends here who aren't. My next door neighbor is liberal, Some of the people at my daughters school are. Austin and the surrounding areas are very "live and let live", a phrase you will hear quite often.
