Move to Austin: questions about Triangle, SoCo and Downtown (Riverside: apartments, city hall)

[naumanac]

Hi folks,

I am planning to move from New Orleans to Austin in about a month's time. I will be coming to Austin to look for apartments next week.

I am a single male in my late 30's. My budget is around $1600. I have got a general idea about the neighborhoods - from a previous visit in 2004 and online research. I really like to walk to different places (restaurants, coffee shops, etc.) and have got a good idea of walkability of different Austin neighborhoods (from the Walk Score website that some kind soul posted a link to on the forums).

Based on online search, I am planning to check out the following properties. Some specific questions follow. But also if any of you have comments about the property, its management, neighborhood, safety (of the location as well as the property), noise, etc., I would appreciate that information.

a. Triangle (on 4600 Guadalope W).

b. AMLI downtown (201 Lavaca) Question: is this area noisy?

c. 300 North Lamar. Question: this property is right next to the train line. Is this really noisy?

c. Riverside Place (300 East Riverside Drive). Question: how safe is this area?

d. The Crescent (127 East Riverside Drive). Question: again, how safe is this area?

Thanks for any help.

[centralaustinite]

Okay, I am a completely different demographic from you but I do have few insights for what it is worth.

a. Triangle (on 4600 Guadalope W). Great new development, Farmer's Market there every wednesday, stuff in the immediate development to walk to, near funky N. Lamar and close to UT. Probably not overrun with students, maybe too quiet and not near the action enough for you.

b. AMLI downtown (201 Lavaca) Question: is this area noisy? Probably, it is in the middle of everything though, walk to Town Lake and the trails, walk to City Hall, it is downtown, if you want something vaguely urban, this is about as close as you can get! Minutes to SoCo, minutes to UT. Ask about soundproofing, etc.

c. 300 North Lamar. Question: this property is right next to the train line. Is this really noisy? The trains run fairly often, how much it bothers you, I don't know.

c. Riverside Place (300 East Riverside Drive). Question: how safe is this area? Yay, it is safe. Pretty much everywhere in Austin is safe and I lived off E. Riverside for 7 years (and I'm still close) and never had a problem, some minor petty crime in the area, and of course, stuff happens. But it is nothing like "rough" areas of other cities. BUT this is an older complex slated for a complete re-do (demo and rebuild) by 2010.

d. The Crescent (127 East Riverside Drive). Question: again, how safe is this area? (Edited because I got confused and forgot for a minute that E/W in Austin is marked by Congress and not I-35, yes, I live right in between Congress and I-35 and I still get confused). The Crescent is still under construction, at least the section on the south side of Riverside, they are making incredible progress but I don't imagine that anything would be available for a 6 months at least. There might be some units (re-done not new) on the north side of the street that is part of the complex, not sure. Most of SoCo will be uphill from here, and you are across the river from downtown, there is a nice coffeeshop near by and much more up the hill and downtown, but walking in the summer would be hot (but doable), pretty close to the Lake and trail. I'd guess that this would be the quietest complex but the new units are directly on Riverside. You could walk to event at Auditorium Shores (even shorter walk from the AMLI)

If you like nightlife and lots going on, you want AMLI downtown, if you want a quieter older crowd, more small city than city, then the Triangle, close to downtown but closer to SoCo, then the Crescent. I'd imagine the other three choices are all cheaper.

Hope this helps, I go by all these complexes weekly, if not daily.

[crl826]

I can't help all of you with all of them, but I do have several friends that live at the Triangle and AMLI.

The triangle does have a lot of grad students...more of a party atmosphere than you might think. They recently raised rents quite a bit and many of them are moving out so it may calm down

The AMLI is loud if you live on the side facing 2nd Street. If you are on the other side it isn't that bad. If you have 1600 you could check out the new AMLI a little over a block away. Its nice and you shouldn't have noise issues. That is just a guess, I haven't heard either way.