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Even if you don't take "family-oriented" to mean the above, it usually means "Dozens of children constantly running around with no supervision".
There are a lot of people who value and relish the idea of going to a restaurant, or a movie theater, or moving to a neighborhood, where there are...NO...children. It doesn't make them bad people. It's perfectly normal if you don't have children to not want to be around children. Or to not want to live in a neighborhood or town where it's CONSTANTLY about the local football team, or tons of kids knocking on your door trying to sale you crud from their school fundraisers, or going to your local grocery store and not being able to walk up and down the aisles because there are 80 screaming kids there running around while their mothers pretend not to hear or see them.
I have to admit, that's why my current neighborhood holds a lot of appeal. If I weren't childfree, I suppose that many of the "far-flung burbs" (e.g., Steiner, Lakeway, Cedar Park) would probably be first on my list, because that comes with a certain type of lifestyle that supports this tradition. My poor S.O. lives in one of these burbs. There are not a lot of venues that cater strictly to adults (e.g., opera, theatre, clubs, music). We deliberately avoid going to restaurants during "family hour" as to not deal with the noise and commotion that comes part and parcel with little kids.
Living closer to downtown, I very rarely experience this.
I'd have to say in the apartments/condos/whatever-they-ares in The Domain.
I went there over the weekend, and while it's a fun place to shop, I cannot imagine anything worse than actually living there.
I mean, seriously—? It would be like living on top of an outside shopping mall with a nice view of ... well, a bunch of people shopping. I dunno. Something about that is really depressing.
And then there's the elevator music that blasts out of the loudspeakers while the place is still open. Can't the residents hear it inside of their homes?
Wouldn't ever live there, even if it was the cheapest place in Austin (which it definitely is not).
What's wrong with a place that is "family-oriented"? Tell us really how you feel about Hutto!
If you have a family I'm assuming it is a big plus. For me not so much. It is strange going, to say Avery Ranch, where everything is designed for families. Bill Maher and I would both hate it, but it does make perfect sense if you are looking for a good school district.
Steiner Ranch isn't a "boring suburb"? No offense, but it kind of is. It is a master planned community akin to Avery Ranch albeit a bit more sprawling. Many Austinites do consider Steiner to be a far flung, bland suburb even if it has an Austin address.
I've never met another Austinite that doesn't like Steiner Ranch, at least someone who doesn't recognize that it is very appealing for certain people. Believe me, as someone raised in Henderson, Nevada I know what bland is, and Steiner Ranch isn't exactly interesting but it's far form the conformist, "stepford" feel that some of the more ignorant Austinites on this forum may suggest. Take it from somebody who lives here.
FreewayTitan, I'm an Austinite who is not particularly fond of Steiner Ranch. Part of that, of course, is being able to remember when it really WAS Steiner Ranch and how beautiful it was out there for everyone. The people who had lake houses in Apache Shores long before anyone actually lived out there except for, well, ranchers, now have a lovely view of Steiner Ranch houses rather than the natural beauty that was there. So part of it can be written off as simply regretting lost beauty for everyone.
However, what really took me aback was when I took an out of state client out there to look at a new build and the salesman for the builder, who lives in Steiner, made it quite clear that what was so desirable about it was that your kids wouldn't have to go to school or play with or mix with riff raff. Given that the nice Asian professor from California was looking for a community with diversity that would welcome his mixed-heritage children, we left as soon as we gracefully could and nothing more was said about purchasing in Steiner.
So, while it may not define the community, it's there enough for someone who is making their living selling the community to consider it a desirable selling point to be casually expressed to potential buyers.
FreewayTitan, I'm an Austinite who is not particularly fond of Steiner Ranch. Part of that, of course, is being able to remember when it really WAS Steiner Ranch and how beautiful it was out there for everyone. The people who had lake houses in Apache Shores long before anyone actually lived out there except for, well, ranchers, now have a lovely view of Steiner Ranch houses rather than the natural beauty that was there. So part of it can be written off as simply regretting lost beauty for everyone.
This is sort of the way I view Steiner Ranch, too. I remember it way-way back in the day before it was all built up. And yes, it was lovely. I had friends whose families had weekend vacation homes there. Lakeway also fell prey to the same thing although to a lesser degree.
If "secluded and cloistered away from people different from you" fits your bill, there's really nothing wrong with Steiner. It just strikes me as being extremely homogenized, like the neighborhood in "Edward Scissorhands." So does The Hills near Lakeway.
On the subject of homogenization, how 'bout those peeps in Bee Cave?
There are hipsters DT, but they certainly don't live in the Austonian, Spring, 360, etc. The under 35s that live in those places are in high tech, entrepreneurs, or some other elite class that probably wouldn't associate with hipsters.
I have to to say for me personally Hutto would be the worst. Bad commute, bad walk scores, family-oriented, one grocery store, no movies, no bowling, no UT, no real DT, no Dim Sum, no drafthouse, no music/arts venues of note, no bike shops, no food trailers, no lake, no lake-side trail, no off leash dog parks, no natural springs swimming holes, no great BBQ, no great vegetarian places, all the homes are generic, and the whole landscape is very flat and unappealing (and please correct me if any of those are wrong, its been awhile since I last visited). All of this is typical of what I term "bedroom community desolation." I'd take RR or Pf over Hutto any day of the week. I'd even take Manor over Hutto now that I think about it.
Oh and the soil s**ks, which can be costly for homeowners given the need for foundation repairs. And who wants to pay all that money every month to water their home's foundation? Would it have been cheaper to have had soil remediation in the first place? Then their is the home appreciation or lack thereof. Better to rent than buy in Hutto unless you get a 2% loan.
Oh and I have a friend that used to work for the city of Hutto and the office politics was something he was glad to leave behind.
On the upside the hippo mascot is cute and there is a nice breakfast place, Mario's Mexican Restaurant, in the old part of town.
In Austin proper the worst place is probably east Oltorf or Rundberg. And yes believe it or not my part of East Austin, the Holly area, is worlds apart from the Riverside/Oltorf part of town.
Well, lets see what I can reply as far as this goes, since I happen to live in Hutto. Sorry it took a while to reply, it's been crazy busy in my world lately
Bad commute in Hutto: Honestly, it just depends on where the person is commuting to. It's honestly a mixed bag among the people I know here. I have one neighbor who works at the Hyatt downtown and quite a few others who work in N. Austin, not really further than Braker and environs. Several others I know work in Hutto, Pflugerville, Round Rock or Taylor or even as far as Temple. A couple work from home and I know yet others who don't live here but commute into Hutto from as far as S. Austin (some of my coworkers and some of the teachers at my daughters school). One of my coworkers lives in Jarrell and some of them live in Central Austin. My boss lives downtown in one of the highrises. Many of the people out here that I know LOVE the toll roads and also know how to get around fairly quickly by back roads.
Bad walk scores: It's a small town, we're working on it Improvements in parking and sidewalks in our little downtown area have been made, we have a small trail (hike and bike system) with more planned in the future to interconnect with other trail systems. I can walk or bike to nearly everything in Hutto from where I live here, but no, it's not easy to do that from many other neighborhoods around here because most of them aren't located as close to the "action" as mine is.
family oriented:Like others have said, this isn't a negative for me since I have a kid.
one grocery store: Believe me when I say that it is way better to have one little mom and pop operation than to have nothing at all besides the dollar store, walgreens and some convenience stores. As bad as we want ANYTHING larger, they just can't get them to come here. The answer we get is that there are stores that are too close to us for them to want to put something here, which I think is BS
no movies: This would be fine with me too, but it's really not a pain to hop on the toll road and go to the new theatre in Pflugerville or even to the 2 screen Howard Theatre in Taylor. We even have 3 redboxes No bowling, hmmmm...well, there is Mel's in Georgetown but if there are any entrepeneurs out there, we're a clean slate for sure. No UT, but UT can't really be all over Austin and area. We do have the Hutto Higher Education Center. Right now, granted, it's in one of the unused Elementary Schools, but won't be long before it's in a big shiny new building off the toll road. No real swinging, giant downtown but we make what we can of it and it is home to the Texan Cafe. One of the buildings there is actually converted into a house. It's pretty good sized and was for sale at one time as a combo business/residence. No Dim Sum....can't argue there (another good entrepreneurial idea ) No drafthouse but we do have the Howdy's place (which isn't Howdy's anymore as it has new owners and a new name but similar concept and it's always busy) and our little bar Snuffy's. My husband wants or wanted to open a little drafthouse downtown but he didn't know if there were enough beer snobs here yet to keep it open. I personally LOVE the idea and wish Hutto would support it. We don't have any art or music venues but they do want to put a little amphitheatre on the co-op property for shows and bands and I hear tell that they'd like to do a music festival again since they had such a good turnout for the centennial show. We're having a Crawfish Festival which I hope does well because I think it'd be a great addition to the old times festivals (summer and Christmas) we already have. No, we don't have any bike shops and that's one of the things you have to go to Austin for, possibly RR. Not true no food trailers....Rockabilly's shaved ice is VERY popular around here and is housed in an airstream trailer with restored cars in the lot. Of course a few more varieties of food wouldn't hurt Hmmmm....although it's a gigantic stretch, we do now have a 1 mile trail around our small Lake Hutto. Lake Pflugerville isn't too very far away with a 3 mile trail around it. No off leash dog park, true. I take ours to Round Rock for that. Or the backyard....he's such a happy dog when he has his toys he thinks it's the park probably No natural Springs/swimming holes, but hey, a DO remember about 2 summers ago during one of our horrendous droughts that people (and I mean a lot of people, because cars were lined up along 685 farther than usual) went swimming and splashing around in Brushy Creek! People also swim at the swimming hole on the San Gabriel River. No vegetarian and generic homes, yep there, although there are vegetarians who live here but they grow and cook their own foods, or go to sprouts and farmers markets (We have a community garden here now). No great bbq, but Louis Meuller's is up the road a bit and so is the Taylor Cafe and Salt Lick (Not the original, but I like it).
Hutto is only flat straight along 79. If you've traveled any of the back roads, you'd know they can be quite hilly. It doesn't matter if you travel the back roads just around the outskirts of Hutto or any of the roads going to Georgetown, Pflugerville, Round Rock and even some of them into Taylor, Elgin, etc....It's not the Rocky Limestone Hills of West Austin or even quite the height but they can be very pretty rolling hills, especially when there is green grass and lots of wildflowers That this entire area is board flat is a common misconception. You must get off of the main thouroghfares to discover this.
Soil being hideous (not your words, I know): There was only one neighborhood in Hutto that had foundation problems that got widespread attention as well and now people thing every house here has issues, which isn't true. Ours never has had any problems. I grew up near the Texas Gulf Coast, which has the same type of soil and it was never a major deal there either, but there are things you can do to prevent problems. Just educate yourself is the best advice I can give.
I WILL NOT argue with you about office politics around here. There are some major good old boy networks around here for sure. This is just a recent observation of mine, since apparantly I was blind to this before. We vote out one batch of buddy buddy city council people who try to do who the heck knows what to this town Just to find out that the new bunch we vote in does the same thing. That's just one of the bonuses of living in a small town where everybody knows everybody. They seem to do things that will benefit only them and their circle of friends. I'm going to post as a disclaimer though, that this is my opinion.
Austin is the ultimate white flight city. People from places like chicago LA NY phillie are tired of living in cities where they sre only 25% of the pop and shrinking. They look for undiscovered white cities and then move to the whitest places possible like steiner ranch dripping or circle c. If they are willing to move avross the country to escape diversity then they consider it failure to live in anyplace that isnt white. This is why the people west of mopac h-a-t-e everything and everone east of them. They blame those people for ruining the places they came from. There is no easy way to gauge diversity so an arbitrary metric - longitudinal coordinates - are used unstead. You live east of a white person and they will assume you are inferior even if you live in a million dollar house in mueller and they live in a trailer in oak hill. Its engrained in everyone because of white flight transplants and the bigotry they brought to austin.
Wow great timing RVgirl. Did you read the post directly above yours? Specifically the part about people in trailers.
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