What are the burbs of Austin like? (Houston, Dallas: hotels, houses)

[FaceInTheCrowd]

Originally Posted by ybflady13

I'm curious about the burbs of Austin like when you go 5 minutes out of the city. Would you still feel like you're in Austin, encounter weird things and people in the burbs? Will you still find young people or does it become more family? Are people just as 'liberal' in the burbs as they are in the downtown area? Not that it matters..Are there things to do in the burbs as opposed to things to do in DT. Any interesting places to check out? I'm curious..

People here can beat around the bush all day long, but the short answer is 'no'. The suburbs are not like downtown.

You'd think with all the real estate boosters on these forums they'd remember the Golden Rule of Real Estate: Location, Location, Location.
And, of course, in fairness...I'd be hard pressed to find suburbs anywhere that are as 'weird, 'youthful', and liberal as the downtown core...of any city.

[supernaut112]

Originally Posted by FaceInTheCrowd

People here can beat around the bush all day long, but the short answer is 'no'. The suburbs are not like downtown.

You'd think with all the real estate boosters on these forums they'd remember the Golden Rule of Real Estate: Location, Location, Location.
And, of course, in fairness...I'd be hard pressed to find suburbs anywhere that are as 'weird, 'youthful', and liberal as the downtown core...of any city.

Okay, yes and no on this. If we're referring to the distinct towns and cities (e.g., Round Rock, Del Valle, Taylor, Granger) that aren't really Austin suburbs, then no. These places are nothing like Austin at all. Neither are the exburbs — areas that are as far away from Austin as you can get that are still incorporated by the city. Here, the coyotes howl ...

The REAL suburbs of Austin do feel like Austin. Allandale (North Austin) might be a little slower in pace, but it still has that "vibe" going on, and it's only about 15 minutes from downtown when there's no traffic. Ditto Hyde Park, Tarrytown, Pemberton Heights, SoCo, Travis Heights, etc. You get the idea. THESE are Austin suburbs.

Anything outside of the city limits is NOT a suburb. It's called the City of Round Rock, the City of Taylor, etc. precisely because it has nothing to do with Austin other than Austin is the nearest big city on the map.

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by supernaut112

Okay, yes and no on this. If we're referring to the distinct towns and cities (e.g., Round Rock, Del Valle, Taylor, Granger) that aren't really Austin suburbs, then no. These places are nothing like Austin at all. Neither are the exburbs — areas that are as far away from Austin as you can get that are still incorporated by the city. Here, the coyotes howl ...

The REAL suburbs of Austin do feel like Austin. Allandale (North Austin) might be a little slower in pace, but it still has that "vibe" going on, and it's only about 15 minutes from downtown when there's no traffic. Ditto Hyde Park, Tarrytown, Pemberton Heights, SoCo, Travis Heights, etc. You get the idea. THESE are Austin suburbs.

Anything outside of the city limits is NOT a suburb. It's called the City of Round Rock, the City of Taylor, etc. precisely because it has nothing to do with Austin other than Austin is the nearest big city on the map.

Suburbs are not only neighborhoods inside of a large cities city limits. In fact the term suburb is more often used when referring only to areas outside of the large city they commute to. They refer to areas that commute, including towns and cities that originated on their own later became bedroom communities (or Exurbs) as Round Rock and Pflugerville was before becoming suburbs. Exurbs can be suburbs, but aren't always. However in some of the cases y'all are talking about what you are calling exurbs are in fact more suburbs now. The urban sprawl has reached and passed many of those commuter towns and cities in Williamson County. They are not exurbs anymore. Heck, even on Round Rock's wiki page they refer to it a couple times as a "Super Suburb". (a reference by the publisher of Williamson County Sun).

The "REAL subrubs" you are talking about are not modern suburbs. What you are talking about is more like the Streetcar Suburbs of the North East US. Hyde Park was one in Austin. Where the guy who developed Hyde Park started a street car line from Congress Ave to Hyde Park in the early 1890's. There were others as well. But it is no longer 1890. We have cars and buses now. Austin was a small town of 14,000 at that time. It is now a large metro with almost 2 million people. Most of the areas you mentioned are streetcar suburbs, not suburbs by today's definition.

That they came to be one their own, and that they are their own towns and cities doesn't matter. That they are outside Austin's city limits is irrelevant. Commuter pasterns are, and the fact there is not longer any green space between it and Austin.

[TexasHorseLady]

The publisher of the William County Sun should know better. (They're also in Georgetown, by the way, not Round Rock, that has its own paper, the Round Rock Leader. The Sun is more of a Georgetown paper than a true Williamson County paper.)

The Austin Monster, lovable as it is, coming out and surrounding those pre-existing towns does not make them into Austin suburbs, no matter how much some folks might want that to be true so they can say they live in Austin.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by supernaut112

A suburb is Allandale, Brykerwood, Tarrytown, Travis Heights, etc. I live in Clarksville, which is also a suburb that's very close to downtown.

No, sorry, those are all really incorporated urban areas now, what we call neighborhoods, and not at all what most people mean when they talk about "the burbs."

Yes, they were suburbs many decades ago... Hyde Park was a suburb in the early 1900s, at the end of the street car lines... but they've long since been absorbed into the fabric of the city proper. And they all have more "city" on the other side. Those are the "nabes," not the "burbs."

Suburbs are residential areas at the outskirts of a city, predominantly consisting of single family housing. They may fall within the city limits, and be governed by city government, or outside the city limits, where they are governed by county government. They primarily serve as bedroom communities for people who commute into the city for employment.

Exurbs are independent towns with their own government on the periphery of a large city. They typically have, or have had, an economic or business driver. Many of the exurbs of Austin were or are farm towns, primarily serving agricultural activity in the surrounding area.

As the sprawl continues to grow, former unincorporated areas get annexed and drawn into the purview of city regulation and city services. And then new suburbs are developed on the new outskirts. That's the cycle of urban growth in most American cities.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by supernaut112

Okay, yes and no on this. If we're referring to the distinct towns and cities (e.g., Round Rock, Del Valle, Taylor, Granger) that aren't really Austin suburbs, then no. These places are nothing like Austin at all. Neither are the exburbs — areas that are as far away from Austin as you can get that are still incorporated by the city. Here, the coyotes howl ...

The REAL suburbs of Austin do feel like Austin. Allandale (North Austin) might be a little slower in pace, but it still has that "vibe" going on, and it's only about 15 minutes from downtown when there's no traffic. Ditto Hyde Park, Tarrytown, Pemberton Heights, SoCo, Travis Heights, etc. You get the idea. THESE are Austin suburbs.

Anything outside of the city limits is NOT a suburb. It's called the City of Round Rock, the City of Taylor, etc. precisely because it has nothing to do with Austin other than Austin is the nearest big city on the map.

What about the fact that the main reason they have any sort of significant population because of their proximity to an urban core? Are you really going to claim that Pflugerville would still be 50,000 in population without Austin? What about Cedar Park's 60,000? Yes, they were established before Austin grew out toward them, but now they are basically bedroom communities, and apart from their small cores, they aren't differentiable from Austin's outskirts other than the mailing address. People would live out there to commute to Austin whether a town was there already or not. That's what makes them suburbs.

[TexasHorseLady]

Interestingly, a lot of unincorporated communities around here are incorporating (have been over the past decade or so) specifically to protect themselves from being gobbled up by nearby expanding larger communities.

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

The Austin Monster, lovable as it is, coming out and surrounding those pre-existing towns does not make them into Austin suburbs, no matter how much some folks might want that to be true so they can say they live in Austin.

By definition it is a suburb.

That is not to say it is not it's own city with its own history and flavor. Just like those streetcar suburbs he mentions in Austin like Allandale, Terrytown or SoCo are their own neighborhoods with their own distinct flavor. But when they were streetcar suburbs in the early 1900's Austin had 20-30,000 people. Austin grows by that much every quarter now. And it is going to continue to grow. And as long as the NIMBY and neighborhood associations continue to try to fight growth in Austin the 'Austin Monster' (I like that term ) will continue to swallow up more and more of the wonderful commuter towns outside of Austin and turn them into huge suburbs. Or "Super Suburbs." lol Quickly eating away and destroying those towns and the Hill Country. The areas outside of the reach of the neighborhood associations in the city.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

What about the fact that the main reason they have any sort of significant population because of their proximity to an urban core? Are you really going to claim that Pflugerville would still be 50,000 in population without Austin? What about Cedar Park's 60,000? Yes, they were established before Austin grew out toward them, but now they are basically bedroom communities, and apart from their small cores, they aren't differentiable from Austin's outskirts other than the mailing address. People would live out there to commute to Austin whether a town was there already or not. That's what makes them suburbs.

No, that's what makes them exurbs.

Otherwise, you'd just call them small towns.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Interestingly, a lot of unincorporated communities around here are incorporating (have been over the past decade or so) specifically to protect themselves from being gobbled up by nearby expanding larger communities.

Soon after we moved to Brushy Creek in 1995, the state lege allowed unincorporated areas like ours to vote for changing from one city's ETJ to another. BC promptly voted to remove ourselves from Austin's ETJ to Round Rock's.

Kinds funny, we are now surrounded on the south, west, and north sides by the Austin City limits, and on the east with Round Rock. And half of Brushy Creek is in Zip Code 78717, which is an Austin mailing address.
Pretty confusing when most of our friends know we live right next to Round Rock way up here in Williamson County north of 620.

Even though we are unincorporated with about 22,000 inhabitants, I think we are better off with the status quo. Austin cannot annex us and Round Rock won't (because of the large MUD debt). Several years ago some local do-gooders said something about "let's incorporate" at a meeting, but were quickly shouted down.

We have a very good fire department, system of parks & pools, and have no complaints about the Wilco Sheriff's Department protection - but no bloated city bureaucracy.