If you're planning to move to Austin (especially from a bigger city)...

[jobert]

I bet alot of the people who stayed behind in CA did so because they knew which side their bread was butterd on. In a state ruined by payouts and benefits, the ones receiving the benefits have little to lose by staying. Anyone moving to CA should automatically be assigned a welfare recipient to take care of - this would eliminate all that pesky paperwork.

yep, CA is screwed

[Chocolate Waffle]

Originally Posted by eepstein

Yes I completely agree with you. The city council is among the worst in the nation and they completely ignore the growth of this city. I can't seem to figure out which city council member has an IQ greater than 10. Whats very interesting is that what people consider to be unique in Austin, both Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio could beat hands down. But before I get into those things, with the exception of the new toll roads, the road system in austin is simply archaic. I fully believe the road system in Waco is more advanced. Here are some oddities that Austin "claims".

1.) To be a green city and use more natural resources!

This from a city who has residents with more registered gas guzzling trucks and SUV's than any other comparable city in the nation. Not to mention the CAPITOL of the state that emits more carbon pollutants into the air than both Pennsylvania and California COMBINED with NO PLANS to change it. Yes, that is NOT a typo. Yes, thats a place concerned with the environment.
[/quote]

Since you're bringing up comparisons between the big cities, we will use them all. First of all Dallas is a horrible example if you want to talk about green cities, the first thing that should be noted is dallas has an atrocious water supply/source. For goodness sakes the water source tested positive for methamphetamine's, birth control, and other various drugs which can be harmful to others.
Houston, come on... This city has been in a losing battle with pollution...
San Antonio is your one city that has fair argument.
I've heard really nothing negative.

2.) Live music capital of the world

I would bet that Dallas, Houston, and yes even San Antonio has more music venues than Austin could ever dream of. True, these are all bigger cities, but the fact remains that Austin likely comes in 4th with actual number of bars and nightclubs.

Hahaha You can have more music venues, but the fact alone is Austin texas has more musical acts and live bands playing than all of these cities combine. Other then that The city brings internatinal bands and bands from across the united states. Which has a big variety for music lovers, but you're right dallas, houston, and san antonio have bigger venues. Congrats on Bringing in soulja boy... Other then that dallas tried to compete with austins south by southwest and it was a joke... Seriously you had this disgusting transexual as your highlight
[quote[
3.) Very bicycle friendly city.

I find this laughable. The city refuses to build any bike lanes or any bike trails worth a crap within the city limits. Im guessing that Austin proper likely has less than 6 miles of actual bike trails. Um lets see, Sacramento has 95 miles of trails, Portland OR 155, and Denver around 105. THat BIKE trails ONLY. All progressive cities who go out of the way to make sure that we encorage bike riding to cut down on pollution. I cant tell you how many die hard bike riders in this town are FORCED onto the dangerous 360 shoulder because they are forced to because they have no other choice.[/quote]

Woo you finally got one.

4.) Austin is a very laid back and HIP town.

I also find this rather amusing. This is because it has a large college population? So I guess Madison, WI would also fall under this catagory?? They too have a large university! And Austin is laid back because it has a lot of artists and musicians who will mostly never amount to anything?? This is unique?? People who really want to make it big DON'T come to Austin. They goto Chicago, Dallas, New York or L.A.

No one goes to any of those cities to make it big, you go where casting calls and other auditions are at.Which can be at any city at any given time. I went to waco's hilton for a modeling casting call.( btw i got it )

5.) Austin is a beautiful city

Well I guess that depends on what you are comparing it to. Compared to Michigan I guess you could say Austin is a pretty place. I think it all depends on what you have to work with. Texas as a whole is SO visually unappealing and overall ugly, I guess when you have some hills on the westside of town with tall bushes (some people call them trees) people get all excited. The HILL COUNTRY, THE HILL COUNTRY!!! OMG!!! I have news for you people. I lived in Kansas City for several years of my life and it is hillier than most of austin. Tulsa is hillier, Nashville is hillier!! It's just amazing that people get all excited about something that would be considered so SUBPAR to most any other place outside TX.

Kansas has tree's?
Well shoot, those are the biggest bushes i've seen ever, but everythings bigger in texas

6.) Building tall skyscrapers for an appearance of a larger city

Once again, Austin is going in the wrong direction. Why are we focusing on moving all of the rich people downtown and pushing the middle class further out into the faceless burbs?? Put the money into helping people WORK in the city, don't try to drive them out further while rolling out the red carpet for the rich. Tall skyscrapers that are ONLY residential aren't gonna fool anyone. Austin hasn't built an actual OFFICE skyscraper since Frost (2004). To my knowledge there are no plans to build anything but more condos. What a joke. Try spreading the wealth around a little. Sheeesh. But you can thank the idiot city council once again for approving all these rediculous shotty Houston and Dallas imitators. They are spending hundreds of millions to build these things. Ever thought of trying to improve the road system and actually help MIDDLE income people? Actually get them out of traffic and improve their lives?? The Austin city council doesnt give a damn about anyone but the rich. Pretty sad.

Inmitators? So how does one imitate what most cities have been doing for the past centuries? Are we all mimicking Tokyo? **** the japanese set the standards for us all to follow again!

You know I respect that people like it here which is fine. But the city of Austin needs to get it's head outta it's ass if it wants to continue to attract businesses that matter. And for those who think Austin, ISNT trying to be Dallas, its too late. Have you been to Cedar Park, Round Rock, Leander?? Georgetown. SPRAWL SPRAWL--No freeway expansion, no HOV lanes, no traffic flow message signs, and please don't even get me started on the kiddie Cap Metro "light rail". The media forgot to tell you the city council voted to allow 1st graders to operate the trains.

All I can say is enjoy your treeless cookie cutter homes 5 feet from your neighbor in Hutto and Round Rock. Hmmm, treeless cookie cutter homes in Katy and Brookshire,,,hmmm, cookie cutter homes in Frisco and Allen.....hmm, i'm seeing a pattern here, but I KNOW that metro Austin doesn't wanna be like Dallas or Houston. YEAH!!

We get it you love the meth capitol of the world.
Well one things for sure, enjoy the floods while you're living in houston.
San antonio is the only city worth anything in the state then comes austin. After that dallas and houston noc honestly.

[hoffdano]

Chocolate Waffle - good points overall. Tulsa? Land of Oral Roberts?

I'll add that Fort Worth is an up and comer in Texas. The more Fort Worth and less Dallas, the better.

[lothartheterrible]

Originally Posted by inthecut

Or earth could get hit by another asteroid, like the one that killed the dinosaurs in the Jurrasic era. If that happens, which isn't improbable, we all fry.....earth isn't anthropomorphic, and really doesn't care about man, space even less so.........what are we but just little blips in evolution anyway, earthquake or not......flying around in space, clinging to a big "rock" with magma in it?

Think about it!

Of course it is. But, the odds of a cataclysmic earthquake affecting the greater LA or SF Metropolitan areas within the next 25 years is substantially higher than the Earth being struck by an asteroid during the same period. The last major slippage of the San Andreas Fault was in 1906 during the Great San Francisco Earthquake (the '94 Northridge quake was triggered along a blind fault, and the '89 Loma Prieta quake was triggered by another subsidiary fault of the San Andreas), and the Pacific plate rotates at 2-2.5 in. per year. This means that the San Andreas fault has traveled approximately 10-12 feet since the last catastrophic slippage. Something has got to give, and it might give very, very soon.

I'm not trying to turn this into a geology lesson, nor am I trying to convince anyone that you are wrong and I am right about anything; that's the beauty of it all, both Texas and California benefit from their respective locations within a free country. My point is, parts of California are very dangerous places to live in, and far from the Utopia that its (current and former) residents paint it to be. Are there bad things about Texas? Of course there are: the weather sucks sometimes, it's a bastion of conservative bigotry and our sales tax is ridiculous. However, we Texans are indeed proud of our state, and I do not see how that's so different than a person from California (or anywhere else for that matter) crowing about how much our home state sucks and theirs does not. Remember, we did not ask you to come here; you made the choice.

We don't crap in your back yard, please don't crap in ours.

Oh, and it was the Triassic Era, not the Jurassic.

[Trainwreck20]

Totally off-topic...