Anyone want to vent about Austin? (Houston, Round Rock: apartment, crime, neighborhood)

[NeedMoreSunshine]

Not that I want to hear negative things about Austin, but would like to know what the negatives are so that I could compare cities. My husband and I would like to move and are considering Austin and Phoenix. However, reading through the threads in both forums, there seems to be a lot more negativity coming from the Phoenix forum.

[plaidmom]

I read the title of your post and thought "Ok, I'll be brave..." (no one ever says anything bad about Austin, LOL).

However, my reasons for leaving Austin:

Heat
Lack of four seasons
Traffic
Sprawl

probably don't apply to you since you're comparing the city to Phoenix.


Good luck with your choice!

[Trainwreck20]

Lack of four seasons

Why, there is a four seasons up at the arboretum!

Anyhoo...complaints (can't really call them rants):
- the city/region has no comprehensive mass transit system and will not for quite a while. (see no. 2)
- Austin is growning too fast to realistically keep up. City (and state) government can only plan/react so fast, despite best intentions. The city is growing faster than that threshold.
- I don't mind the heat (grew up in this area), but almost everyone considers that a negative.

Gotta think, I am sure there are more.....

[AustinGuy]

Here is a repost of my "cons" from a pros & cons Austin thread a week or so ago. You can look for it if you want to see my "pros"

Cons:
- Property taxes
- Poor road infrastructure: the traffic in Austin seems like it is mostly due to lack of proper government planning.
- Weather during late July-October
- Too many texmex restaurants/not enough variety & quality in other restaurant choices
- Lack of direct flights
- Lack of nice movie theaters (Alamo drafthouse is great, but why can't we have an Arclight?). Regal stinks.
- No ocean
- No mountains/no skiing
- Panhandling problem has gotten much worse here since 2000.
- More zoning in some areas would be nice. Austin isn't Houston but some areas do look like it.
- Peet's coffee closed up shop and left. :^(
- Too much hype which is impossible for Austin to live up to.

[NeedMoreSunshine]

Thanks for all of your replies! For the most part, it seems like people just love Austin.

[jenks9]

I don't live in austin, but have vacationed there and have been to pheonix a few times. Austin's traffic is bad but no more so than most cities, pheonix has more crime and higher cost of living and there is no greenery at all. I would go with austin way before pheonix.

[jwb123]

I replied to this last night, all long and drawn out - and my stupid laptop ate the post.

Anyway - I don't really have any vents and rants about the place... and take with a grain of salt that I am a total newbie AND I am in Williamson County (Round Rock) and not IN Austin...

My areas of "annoyance" I guess are....

- Everything is freakin' spread out!! You have to take 2 different freeways (and those freeways are known by at least 2 different names) to get somewhere. Trips to Costco aren't an every weekend thing, like they are for any self respecting suburban family living in the suburbs of Seattle It's so far out, we go once a month. That sucks!

- Williamson County is perpetually under construction. And, it has been that way for at least the last 6 years that I have noticed, when I came out for visits with family.

- Property Taxes to high, and zero justification for them being so high. There are no other amentities or perks here that you couldn't get anywhere else.

- Lack of good asian food! Teriyaki and good, authentic and inexpensive sushi places are in every strip mall in WA - like Starbucks. We miss it. We do love Tex-Mex though, and there is a lot to choose from here - which we couldn't get good Tex-Mex, or straight Mex, in WA.

- No snow. I did miss it this winter - and LOOOVED the icey storm we had here. I would like just a little

- Lack of concern for environmental conservation. At least in Williamson county. I am the ONLY person in my neighborhood that recycles, and when I called to sign up for it, they actually tried to persuade me against doing it, based on their tone, and telling me it would cost an extra $4 a quarter, and blahblahblah. I am also dismayed that there are no HOV lanes, or push for ride sharing and reduction of cars on the road. I am also told that public transportation is basically useless here.

Now, I would say that some of the negatives other people mentioned, like traffic, is based on perception. I have experienced bad traffic in the Seattle area - like soul killing, I may get out of my car and puncture everyone's tires, sort of traffic... and Austin is nothing to compared to that.

Another positive is that I do feel "safer" here and I think that crime is lower than most places.

[Trainwreck20]

Lack of concern for environmental conservation. At least in Williamson county. I am the ONLY person in my neighborhood that recycles, and when I called to sign up for it, they actually tried to persuade me against doing it, based on their tone, and telling me it would cost an extra $4 a quarter, and blahblahblah. I am also dismayed that there are no HOV lanes, or push for ride sharing and reduction of cars on the road. I am also told that public transportation is basically useless here.

Heh...that is SO Williamson County. The City of Austin automatically delivers a recylce container to all customers and picks it up each week. Austin also has one of the highest (if not highest) percent of land inside the city limits that is designated as park or greenbelt.

[jwb123]

You should see my puny little recycling bin they gave me! Seriously, I fill that in a matter of days.

In Seattle, we got a HUGE rolling one - like the kind that we get here for trash - and they took EVERYTHING. There is no glass recycling here and only take "some" plastics - what the heck!?!?

[deeptrance]

AustinGuy hit a lot of the key negatives already.

Anyone who says we don't have seasons is high. I mean, I was trapped in my apartment because of an ice storm a few weeks ago and in summer it will be 95+ every day. Seasons much? And in between it's paradise, spring and fall are normally gorgeous.

You won't get much more from me to convince you about why Phoenix would be better because I absolutely HATE Phoenix. But I don't like deserts. Austin is humid and is NOT a desert. If you like dry blistering heat and easy access to mountains then choose Phoenix. We don't have "dry" most of the year, and we sure don't have "mountains" unless you label our cute little "Hill Country" as "mountains."