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I moved to Austin with my wife 8 months ago from Los Angeles. I lived in Los Angeles for 1 year and I'm originally from Brooklyn, NY.
Ok, so with out of the way, I signed up to this site to clear up some information for you city people. I'm a little pissed about the false information people are spewing so it's time to drop some knowledge
If you're moving to Austin, here's what you need to know:
WHAT SUCKS
1) The food sucks. Cheeseburgers here are no better than cheeseburgers anywhere. It's a CHEESEBURGER. If you're lucky enough to find some good Cajun food, the place will probably be closed by 10pm anyway. There is little diversity. There are a few gems here or there, but it's nothing close to what you can get in LA, Chicago, NY, Philly, or DC. My best experience with food here was a French restaurant that's $100 per person... and it wasn't as good as a tiny French restaurant in LA.
Often times you will find yourself having to do a lot of research to find a good place to eat... and given the state of the economy I'm guessing you can't spend a ***** ton of money on food. This is not like New York or Los Angeles where you can pick a popular street and find some ecsquisite restaurants. In Pasadena my restaraunt life was constrained to a single zip code... and I didn't even visit half of the places I wanted to.
90% of the stuff you'll find here is restaurant chains: Mexican, Steakhouse, Italian... that's about it. There are some nice places around downtown but nothing special.
Austinites tend to label things as special in Austin when those things aren't that special at all. Don't know why they do that...
2) Texans think that Texas is a country. Have you ever seen someone with the shape of the state they live in tattooed on their body? Have you ever seen someone from LA with a tattoo of the state of California on their body? Me neither, until I moved to Austin. And frankly I can't figure out why.
LA has hollywood, celebs and beautiful sunsets
NY has statue of liberty, the italian mob, the yankees and true diversity
TX has... cowboys, mexicans and...?
3) Drivers in Ausin, Texas are worse than drivers in LA
If you currently live in LA, you will understand how horrible this is I'm not even going to elaborate here because I'd end up writing a whole essay about this.
4) When they say Austin is liberal, they mean it has a bunch of college kids. In other words, most adults over the age of 35 that you see will not be liberal. There are a few social groups here like any city (goth.. really nice ppl btw, musicians, etc) but when you roll it up as a whole... it's Texas. It's the southern region. This is not a golden city in the middle of a swamp if you know what i mean.
Since I'm on the topic if people, I've seen a great deal of uptight people that act like that have a stick up their ass. In fact just last week I was lounging on the outside of a cafe I really enjoy in North Austin and some... person... came up to me, interrupted my conversation and reminded me that I shouldn't smoke with 50ft of the entrance. This cafe literally has 3 tables and people regularly go there to smoke, drink and have interesting conversation. I wish that sob was worth flattening but of course he wasn't. People like only cause you grief no matter how many times you punch them in the face.
I've had atleast 10 instances like the above in the past 8 months. Oh and I still haven't gotten used to everyone saying hi to me.
5) There is nothing else to do besides eating, shooting guns at the range and watching movies. We've exhausted every possible option of doing something interesting. We've headed North/South/East and found nooooooooooooooothing. West is the only option where you will find Fredericksburg. You can only really go there for the food because the quaint little town has been so commercialized that it's nothing but gift shops and restaurants. The food is WORTH IT though!!!
6) There are people here that were born in Texas, lived in Texas their whole lives and will probably die in Texas. They have never been out of the state. Just keep that in mind.
7) It's expensive city. If you're looking to move to *any* non-city environment, you should atleast consider a few others first. This city is damn expensive in comparison to other small cities.
8) ALLERGIES. Many people that move here suffer from Cedar Fever in their first year. It really depends on how well your body handles allergens. Once you get it... you'll know it... and you'll hate it. Google for "Austin allergies" or "Cedar fever" and enjoy the read. Also this page covers it simply:
AroundAustin.Com: Achoo! Austin Allergies (http://www.aroundaustin.com/2004/01/achoo_austin_al.html - broken link)
9) Public Schools Sucks. Basically my theory is that republicans run this state which is why they it's not bankrupt right now. They're good with business but they suck with social programs. The result is one of the largest high school dropout rates in the country, terrible conditions of the public schools, teachers that abuse their students, etc. If you have a kid between the ages of 8 and 16 and you're planning to move here... start looking for a private school or some sort of way to home school your child.
WHAT DOESN'T SUCK
1) If you live out in North Austin, it's very peaceful. The crime rate is very low, rent isn't expensive and it's pretty scenic. North Austin is like 90% white people. If you're wanting to relax a little and do your own thing, this is the place to do it provided you can find yourself a descent job (covered below).
2) If you're a people person and enjoy the energy of others around you I promise that you will find the people here socially retarted and they will bother the hell out of you. Most people that I've come across don't understand basic etiquette. Sorry
HOWEVER (the reason its in the positive section), this also means that you can easily detatch yourself from the general population and enjoy things that you wouldn't normally do on a regular basis, such as do some photography (there's plenty of nature/sites to go around here), have a picnic, read a book, focus on your personal work and ambition for a while, mellow out and don't do much of anything, go horseback riding, go shoot a gun at the range (tons of fun), etc.
3) THERE IS NO INCOME TAX!!! There are some things that are significantly cheaper than other cities. Car insurance will probably be cheaper. The big one is income tax. If you live in a state that enforces its own income tax (ie: california, new york, etc) -- this will be a real pleasure for you. You'll find that some products will be cheaper for you than before (can't remember which, but I do remember saying "oh that's much cheaper than LA or NY"). Ah, gas is one of them. Texas gas is very cheap!
4) If you're a single guy, you will find alooooooooooot of available tang here... but only if you're looking to get married. There are boatloads of single women here. I see them everyday... no rock on their finger... and they're all pretty trendy.
The market for good men in this town is horrible for them. I've been told this on more than one occasion and it doesn't surprise me in the least. Sof if you know what it's like to be a traditionally self respectful man, have a fair amount of money in your pocket and know how to treat a woman -- you could easily find "the one" here. If you just want to get laid, you won't have trouble with that either
5) The job market is still alive. It sucks, but it's better than NY and LA. You'd be able to find something here pretty easy if you are a "motivated self-starter" bla bla bla
6) Austin will make you appreciate the places you lived before.
I have a friend who lives in Brooklyn. She's originally from Cali and spent a big part of her life in Texas. She tells me there is very little similarity between any of them and if you come expecting it to be like anything in NY, you will be sadly disappointed.
1)Food: Of course you don't have the same selection. Two completely different regions and Austin isn't a port city so you don't have the giant mix of cultures you would get there. Houston is better for this as far as Texas goes. Chains. Hmmm...I've been to New York. They have chains too. I think McDonalds in Manhattan is about as prolific as Starbucks is in some places. I agree, restaurants are spread out around here and you do have to travel around to find some unique non chain places. Some people find that part of the fun, learning about new places. It's not unusual to label things special to an area. That's just a personal opinion talking. New Yorkers and Californians do it all the time.
2) Texas WAS a country. Study the history. Have you ventured anywhere else outside of downtown Austin? Some people have a problem with Texan Pride, just put some cotton in your ears. Who in their right mind would want to tattoo California on their body? It's going down the tubes in a lot of ways. You don't understand Texas or Southern Pride because you didn't grow up here. We have a good friend in Houston who grew up in Philly. Still has an extremely strong Philly accent. I think people from there have tons of pride in their city too, noones just thought to tattoo it on themselves. Hollywood can keep the celebs. What a bunch of out of touch idiots half of them are. New York can keep the mob. But Texas has MS-13/Latin Kings and Chinese Mafia which I wouldn't put down as a point of pride. New York has more diversity because, again, it's a very old city, a point of entry for many different cultures and a port city. Houston, in Texas, isn't an old city, but has more diversity culture wise because it's a large port city.
3) Can't argue with that.
4)No, it's not liberal like New York or East Coast or San Francisco. It's a little more libertarian or live and let live. I don't find that a minus. Actually, if people spent any amount of time in any of the other cities in Texas or even some of the small towns in the state, they'd find that many of them are actually this way too. I won't argue with the uptight people. We have more of them than ever before, especially from the out of state transplants. I hate busybodies too, though. When we lived in Denver, we were out at a show (live music) and it was a smoking venue and some tard came up to my husband and tried to preach to him the horrors of smoking. It was really annoying and his friends had to physically drag him away. The people saying hi thing is just how people are here. They aren't out to get you or rip you off. My friends husband is a native New Yorker and he's been to Texas with her on visits several times and he's just now getting over his wariness of it.
5) Yes, you do have to do a little traveling, but have you gone tubing on any of the rivers yet? How about shopping New Braunfels or Wimberly or Salado? Have you done any boating or any other water sports on the Lakes? Horseriding? Been to Innerspace Caverns in Georgetown? Seen the bats? Gone to any other town besides Fredricksburg? Did you try a game at Dell Diamond? Any Festivals, Museums, Theatre? Done any community gardening?
6) And you don't find people in any of the other States in America who have done the same thing?
7) true
8) true
9) I disagree. Texas does have some very good schools. Who cares if they aren't hotbeds of liberal indoctrination like in California and New York.
pros:
1) true. But other areas are peaceful too.
2) I personally find some New Englanders provincial and narrow minded and I find that terribly annoying. They are worse than Californians when it comes to complaining. I'd rather have laid back Californians surrounding me than stuck up New Englanders. I can't imagine that you must be hanging around native Southerners, as they usually have exceptional etiquette. I guess you could be hanging out with teenagers who's parents didn't teach them any better, which I find is a national problem, not a Texas problem specifically.
You sound like you loved LA and maybe didnt want to leave it. I personally am looking for a good place to raise my children, as Cali is proving more and more not the place to do that. I didnt hear you mention you had children. My decision on moving there is based on what's best for my kids. Night Life and restaurants- is something I am not putting as a priority unless I didnt have kids of course. As far as schools, I already have my kids in private and plan on keeping them in private regardless of where we are at. The schools here are BAD. SEVERAL failed school districts as I am sure everyone has heard. So thanks for your post I did take it all into consideration, however reading it seems like its more of a single or someone with no children would consider important issues.
5) There is nothing else to do besides eating, shooting guns at the range and watching movies. We've exhausted every possible option of doing something interesting. We've headed North/South/East and found nooooooooooooooothing.
Well, I think you've discovered that staying home and ranting on city-data can be a fun activity to do in Austin.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I found it funny being from LA that you had a problem with people with a stick up their a--...come on now, you got to laugh at that!
A lot of what you say is true. I would only hope that if the negatives outweigh the positives for you there was a way you could leave. I would also hope that people planning to move here would realize before they come that a lot of what you say is true.
1) The food sucks. Cheeseburgers here are no better than cheeseburgers anywhere. It's a CHEESEBURGER. If you're lucky enough to find some good Cajun food, the place will probably be closed by 10pm anyway. There is little diversity. There are a few gems here or there, but it's nothing close to what you can get in LA, Chicago, NY, Philly, or DC. My best experience with food here was a French restaurant that's $100 per person... and it wasn't as good as a tiny French restaurant in LA.
Often times you will find yourself having to do a lot of research to find a good place to eat... and given the state of the economy I'm guessing you can't spend a ***** ton of money on food. This is not like New York or Los Angeles where you can pick a popular street and find some ecsquisite restaurants. In Pasadena my restaraunt life was constrained to a single zip code... and I didn't even visit half of the places I wanted to.
90% of the stuff you'll find here is restaurant chains: Mexican, Steakhouse, Italian... that's about it. There are some nice places around downtown but nothing special.
No, it doesn't. It's likely not exactly like what you're used to having, or in the quantities (that's what makes it special, of course), but there's some quite good food here if you pay attention. Do we have the numbers and variety of a city the size of LA or NYC? No, we don't - because we're NOT a city of that size. Try comparing apples to apples here.
Austinites tend to label things as special in Austin when those things aren't that special at all. Don't know why they do that...
Perhaps because they're special to them? Much the way people in other places do?
2) Texans think that Texas is a country. Have you ever seen someone with the shape of the state they live in tattooed on their body? Have you ever seen someone from LA with a tattoo of the state of California on their body? Me neither, until I moved to Austin. And frankly I can't figure out why.
It was a country, on its own. Try reading a little history.
LA has hollywood, celebs and beautiful sunsets
Austin has celebs and beautiful sunsets (REALLY beautiful sunsets - I see them quite often from my front porch, covering the entire sky). The celebs that live here (and there are many, from, guess where, Hollywood) like it here, they say, because we don't make a huge hairy deal about them and treat them like regular people, allowing them to keep a low profile and have a life. We're just not that impressed that they're celebrities and more impressed with what kind of people they are. Guess that might be a bad thing in your book? But they seem to like it - at least, they keep buying houses and moving here.
NY has statue of liberty, the italian mob, the yankees and true diversity
TX has... cowboys, mexicans and...?
You haven't gotten around much in eight months, have you?
3) Drivers in Ausin, Texas are worse than drivers in LA
If you currently live in LA, you will understand how horrible this is I'm not even going to elaborate here because I'd end up writing a whole essay about this.
Haven't driven in LA recently enough to comment on this one.
4) When they say Austin is liberal, they mean it has a bunch of college kids. In other words, most adults over the age of 35 that you see will not be liberal. There are a few social groups here like any city (goth.. really nice ppl btw, musicians, etc) but when you roll it up as a whole... it's Texas. It's the southern region. This is not a golden city in the middle of a swamp if you know what i mean.
Nope. They mean that Austin has a more live and let live atmosphere, not that it's screaming blue politics is the only thing in the world that matters.
But, you're right, it's not a golden city in the middle of a swamp, a lot of other places in Texas are just as live and let live. Now, if you get in our faces, we will accept the challenge (which perhaps you consider to be "not liberal"), but for the most part (with some exceptions, but we don't like them too much, either), we're perfectly happy to let you believe and live your life the way you please.
Since I'm on the topic if people, I've seen a great deal of uptight people that act like that have a stick up their ass. In fact just last week I was lounging on the outside of a cafe I really enjoy in North Austin and some... person... came up to me, interrupted my conversation and reminded me that I shouldn't smoke with 50ft of the entrance. This cafe literally has 3 tables and people regularly go there to smoke, drink and have interesting conversation. I wish that sob was worth flattening but of course he wasn't. People like only cause you grief no matter how many times you punch them in the face.
I'm almost willing to bet good money that that was not a local, but someone who moved here from, oh, say, California, and wants to make Austin over into a replica of that fair state.
I've had atleast 10 instances like the above in the past 8 months. Oh and I still haven't gotten used to everyone saying hi to me.
Being friendly and polite is a negative to you? Go figure.
5) There is nothing else to do besides eating, shooting guns at the range and watching movies. We've exhausted every possible option of doing something interesting. We've headed North/South/East and found nooooooooooooooothing. West is the only option where you will find Fredericksburg. You can only really go there for the food because the quaint little town has been so commercialized that it's nothing but gift shops and restaurants. The food is WORTH IT though!!!
Again, don't get out much, do you? There is a LOT to do in this area. Now, it takes more effort than stepping out your door or turning on your TV, true, but my biggest problem with Austin has always been that there's so much to do that I have a hard time making a choice and might end up just sitting in a daze or feeling bad that I missed something because I was doing something else.
6) There are people here that were born in Texas, lived in Texas their whole lives and will probably die in Texas. They have never been out of the state. Just keep that in mind.
I will also be willing to bet that there are people that were born in California (or LA), lived in California (or LA) their whole lives, and will probably die in California (or LA). This is different from any other state how? (By the way, I was born in Texas, have lived in Texas my entire life except for a brief stint in Seattle, will probably die in Texas, and have been many places outside of Texas. What's your point?
7) It's expensive city. If you're looking to move to *any* non-city environment, you should atleast consider a few others first. This city is damn expensive in comparison to other small cities.
Did you do any due diligence before moving here? This kind of information is pretty readily available.
8) ALLERGIES. Many people that move here suffer from Cedar Fever in their first year. It really depends on how well your body handles allergens. Once you get it... you'll know it... and you'll hate it. Google for "Austin allergies" or "Cedar fever" and enjoy the read. Also this page covers it simply:
AroundAustin.Com: Achoo! Austin Allergies (http://www.aroundaustin.com/2004/01/achoo_austin_al.html - broken link)
Yes, it's true, we're one of the allergy capitals of the world - that's been common knowledge since before I moved here 40 years ago, Austin is famous for it. Information that is very readily available to anyone doing any research before moving somewhere.
9) Public Schools Sucks. Basically my theory is that republicans run this state which is why they it's not bankrupt right now. They're good with business but they suck with social programs. The result is one of the largest high school dropout rates in the country, terrible conditions of the public schools, teachers that abuse their students, etc. If you have a kid between the ages of 8 and 16 and you're planning to move here... start looking for a private school or some sort of way to home school your child.
Some public schools suck. Others don't. It's not particularly educated to paint an entire state's varied and numerous school districts with one brush - especially after having been here for all of 8 months. How many schools have you personally examined or had your children in? Wait. Do you have children?
WHAT DOESN'T SUCK
1) If you live out in North Austin, it's very peaceful. The crime rate is very low, rent isn't expensive and it's pretty scenic. North Austin is like 90% white people. If you're wanting to relax a little and do your own thing, this is the place to do it provided you can find yourself a descent job (covered below).
This (peaceful, and the option to relax and do your own thing) covers a great deal of the area, not just North Austin.
2) If you're a people person and enjoy the energy of others around you I promise that you will find the people here socially retarted and they will bother the hell out of you. Most people that I've come across don't understand basic etiquette. Sorry
This from the person who does not understand the basic etiquette of acknowledging the existence of the person in front of you by saying hello?
HOWEVER (the reason its in the positive section), this also means that you can easily detatch yourself from the general population and enjoy things that you wouldn't normally do on a regular basis, such as do some photography (there's plenty of nature/sites to go around here), have a picnic, read a book, focus on your personal work and ambition for a while, mellow out and don't do much of anything, go horseback riding, go shoot a gun at the range (tons of fun), etc.
I thought there was nothing to do here? (See #5 above under what sucks.)
I'm from Philly, and I agree with a lot of this. But I sort of knew that going into it. What really drives me nuts is that people from here refuse to believe that it's not the most liberal, diverse, coolest place in the world. It's really not, honest.
But I will disagree with you about it being expensive. There are not ANY properties available in my old zip code (which was comparable in proximity to downtown, lifestyle, etc) for what my house is worth. None. Not even a one bedroom condo that needs work.
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