Will everyone please stop saying Austin is diverse! (Houston, Dallas: home, to buy)

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by rickc007

As of right now ... you have 3 posts total
Your location says NYC (New York City)

And all 3 of your posts are about Austins lack of diversity ?????

Don't forgot, OP started this back in 2007! He is not coming back.

[rickc007]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Don't forgot, OP started this back in 2007! He is not coming back.

Oh ... Good

Get rid of another whiner

[llmrkc07]

Originally Posted by favoredj

Ok you guys are frightening me, lol. I am suppose to relocate at the beginning of the year from Hot-lanta. I have lived all over GA from Alpharetta(prdominately white) & Sandy Springs (diverse), Decatur (the hood), & Newton (prejudice, prejudice, prejudice.) I am trying to decide whether to move to Austin or Houston TX. My 1st pick was Austin, however after reading all of the comments, I am uncertain if Austin is the move for me. I do realize that Texas is a southern state & also know that I will experience certain prejudices everywhere I go. I do not want to have similar experiences after leaving Newton, GA where many of the white people would look at me or my kids like we were filthy trash when we were more kempt than them??? I mean while searching for an Academy for my kids to attend, I would enter schools, walk up to the counter, & the directors would glance up at us & look away. They never acknowledged us. This happened at more than 1 location. I just don't want to move to Austin & have the same mess happening. I do not choose to live in an all any race area, I prefer diversity. Should Austin be removed from my options? I don't need more segregated bull & I don't have all the time in the world to go stay at several different counties to do research before making a move. Opinions please.

Austin is a nice medium size city, Im AA and I enjoy going visiting my friend at UT and Huston Tillotson (which is a Historically Black College). Austin is diverse but its not a very large city either so I wouldn't expect it to be to diverse. They have a ok size for a black population (8.1%), that's just there city limits not the metro, im sure there metro is higher. Most of my friends that live there like it, and I really like it as well. But it just never struck me as a place to settle down. If you want diversity you might want to try Houston or Dallas. I live in Houston and Its very diverse and cheaper in terms of living. Austin seemed a little pricey but its much nicer looking which makes up for it. Also please get it out your head that Texas is racist, NOW im not saying that it is not, I understand our pass, but I think its just like elsewhere. Ive only experienced it here a few times but it was so pitty to that it was not even important. Once again im not saying that it does not happen, but as a native I haven't really experienced it much and Im from East TX. TX is a cool state, I'm AA and proud to be a Texan and I think which ever city you choose you will like. ITS ALL IN WHAT YOU MAKE IT

Overall Austin is cool and diverse in its own way. Its also a growing city so it will probably get more diverse in time.

Houston is the City of Texas. Its the only city in the state that is a real city (culture, arts, entertainment, beach, skyline etc.). But then again Austin is a beautiful city.

Good Luck!

[Westerner92]

Austin is fine. It's not incredibly diverse like Houston, LA, or New York, but it's not monochromatic either. Since I'm a student, I'm around campus a lot, and it's not uncommon to be walking down the street in West Campus and hear four or five different languages spoken within the span of a few minutes. Just yesterday, I walked by three people talking on their phones: one was speaking French, the next Japanese, and the next was an African language (possibly Yoruba?).

[micmac99]

I am an African-American male. I lived in Austin for six months in 2010, trying to escape the horrible economy of Phoenix, AZ where I was the previous five years, and eventually moved to Houston where I live now. Primary reasons: 1) EXTREMELY competitive job market, the worst I have ever experienced, and meager prospects for starting a business (I was planning on starting a graphic design business in Austin and just could not justify it with the recession not letting up) and 2) got a little uncomfortable with the "hipster" aspect - although if I had secured a good job in Austin (one that didn't involve telemarketing or fast food and paid more than $8/hr), or if my business had taken off and I got clients right away, I would still be there today.

Austin is a somewhat relaxed, comfortable town which I tremendously enjoyed being in - there is a degree of ethnic diversity, but the city is deeply segregated largely along economic lines. Wealthier residents seem to live north and west of downtown, while the poorer residents (and most of them Black and Hispanic) live south and east. Parts of East Austin I felt like I was in rural Georgia or South Carolina. The "Keep Austin Weird" contingent tends to be clustered in the central, central-north and central-south parts of the city.

The outer suburbs (my ex-wife and son live in Williamson County, another major reason I tried to relocate there in 2010 from Phoenix) are a completely different story as most of those places have been built within the last 20 years. My ex-wife's subdivision in Hutto is so new portions of it aren't even in Google Street View. It is VERY racially diverse - Black, White, Latino.

I am glad I moved to Houston - you can't deny that the opportunities are better in America's #6 metro area. It's still close enough to Austin for a day trip. Houston is bigger, louder, more crowded - but if you need to be in city where you can find work, consider Houston before Austin unless your skills are in demand in Austin (mine were not).

[llkltk]

Houston before Austin? I've been to Houston many, many times. Most people would prefer Austin.

[rickc007]

Originally Posted by llkltk

Houston before Austin? I've been to Houston many, many times. Most people would prefer Austin.

Ya, I agree.
I lived in Houston, liked it, but like Austin better.

My family in Houston wants to relocate as well.

Don't know anyone in Austin that actually wants to move to Houston,
but you can argue that it's cheaper.
But don't think the traffic is any better, or that Houston is less hot in the summer.

[testmo]

What is the reason about Houston? The only reasoning I have been told is because Houston has a lot of black people. I won't go into the merits or sophistication of that comment but that is the only thing I've heard. Other reasons I've heard is traffic (um Dallas and Austin, hello?) and it being a Texas city...

Plenty of people love Houston too. Just wondering what the stereotype of Houston is for Austin residents

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by testmo

What is the reason about Houston? The only reasoning I have been told is because Houston has a lot of black people. I won't go into the merits or sophistication of that comment but that is the only thing I've heard. Other reasons I've heard is traffic (um Dallas and Austin, hello?) and it being a Texas city...

Plenty of people love Houston too. Just wondering what the stereotype of Houston is for Austin residents

I have never heard racial stereotypes about Houston. I like parts of Houston very much, but these are the negative stereotypes that circulate - flat, ugly, humid, petrohaze and bad air quaiity, strip-mall hell, no-zoning, full of fat, sedentary people. It is impossible to generalize a city as big and diverse as Houston, but I would say the above are the other Texas cities' prejudices about Houston. It is even more prevalent nationally and internationally, where the phrase "Houston, we have a problem" no longer just refers to the film Apollo 13, but is the phrase that has come to signify the nation's childhood obesity issue. I think Houston is under-rated as a city, but the above factors account for its generally bad image, also it is very tourist unfriendly: its attractions are very spread out, the highways in from the airports are some of the worst-looking in the U.S. The interesting nightlife districts are not downtown, but that is where many business travelers end up staying. Europeans, in my experience, are particularly horrified by Houston.

[G Grasshopper]

In response to the OP, my 18 month experience with Austin is that it is very diverse, in many different ways. It does not have a huge AA population, so if one defines diversity by that yard stick, I would understand the feeling. But I think of diversity much more broadly, and I see and interact with people of many different backgrounds, culturally, racially, religiously, etc. The place I have seen the least diversity is in the churches (where you would think the doors would be wide open), but I think that is gradually changing, too.