Just try and convince me NOT to move to Austin! (Houston: transplants, job market)

[The_Fairfaxian]

From what I'm reading on this post about Austin (and most of Texas in general), the more I dive into it, the more breath-taken I am at the state in general. I know that no state or place is perfect, but from what I'm gather about Austin (and also Houston in that case), it's almost everything I'm looking for:

-A strong and steadily growing job market
-A very affordable cost of living
-A lot of young college-grad professionals (in order to assure an active social and dating life)
-People who are genuinely friendly, laid-back, and believe in the live-and-let-live philosophy instead of being intentionally arrogant, overtly anal, and uber-pretentious
-Young college grads who are open to meeting new people based on personality and interests and not based on "who they grew up with," "inside connections," or their "political power"
-A christian and church-minded place where people don't waste their time shoving down the Bible in peoples' throats but use that energy to live by example of the Bible's lessons and commandments
-A more progressive and libertarian-minded lifestyle (people are neutral/indifferent to a person's political affiliation, skin color, religion, etc.)
-The women are beautiful in many forms, from the southern belle the Latina señorita and everything in between.
-A strong gridiron football culture (Friday Night H.S. Football, Saturday College Football, Sunday Professional Football...something I can definitely get used to)

Now I know not everyone in Austin and Texas aren't like this, but if there are some things that I misstated, some things that I should be aware of, or things I make sure to do before making the move, I would welcome the comments.

And as for the humid weather and lack of mass transportation, I can handle those problems. I can (and plan to) get a car, and as for the weather...well if all of the things I gathered about Austin are true, lets just say everything has a price

[artsyguy]

Worst place I ever lived. Rudeness, conniving attitudes, or self absorption seem to be the norm there. Also very capitalistic in a Mao Zedong kind of way and full of cronyism.

[adtobias]

i find the people to be very rude and crass. you will see

[ROY DUBOSE]

reminds me of an old story -- seems a young couple got tired of the city life and decided to move into a rural town -- getting back to the basics 'ya know -- they drove to a little town and fell in love with the trees, the quiet, the simplicity but were concerned about the people -- spying an old 'coot rocking on his front porch, they decided to stop and ask him about the attitude of the townspeople - the old gentleman asked why they wanted to leave and the young couple went on and on about the lousy people in the city -- well, he said, we've got those kinda folks around here too -- abreviated moral of story to me is no matter where you are you can find what you're looking for -- and, you'll reap what you sow

[luksky]

So true!

[mimimomx3]

Have you actually been here?

[Moonlady]

There seem to be a lot of people on this board who are less than enamored with Austin because it wasn't everything it was cracked up to be on paper. I think people get an idea about a place based on it's statistics and then find a different reality when they get there.

I would highly recommend a visit to see if this is a place you'll actually like. Everything you mentioned can be found here (although not exclusively in Austin). There are also lots of transplants on this board that will tell you that moving here has been a great thing for them. It's not a one size fits all kind of place though, so it may not live up to the hype and your expectations.

There are several long posts on this board about why Austin is not as great as it is made out to be. It would behoove you to read those so you get both sides of the story and then you can make up your own mind.

I grew up in Northern Virginia and I can tell you they are two completely different places, but both have their merits.

[artsyguy]

So if you move to the Gaza Strip or to Somalia you would have no trouble at all with the "attitude of the townspeople"??

Or let's say it is circa 1940 and you are a gay Jewish man and wanted to live in Europe because you heard it was beautiful and lovely there, I'm assuming you would have absolutely no problem with the townspeople??

Originally Posted by ROY DUBOSE

reminds me of an old story -- seems a young couple got tired of the city life and decided to move into a rural town -- getting back to the basics 'ya know -- they drove to a little town and fell in love with the trees, the quiet, the simplicity but were concerned about the people -- spying an old 'coot rocking on his front porch, they decided to stop and ask him about the attitude of the townspeople - the old gentleman asked why they wanted to leave and the young couple went on and on about the lousy people in the city -- well, he said, we've got those kinda folks around here too -- abreviated moral of story to me is no matter where you are you can find what you're looking for -- and, you'll reap what you sow

[ATXIronHorse]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

Worst place I ever lived. Rudeness, conniving attitudes, or self absorption seem to be the norm there. Also very capitalistic in a Mao Zedong kind of way and full of cronyism.

I disagree with this assessment. And I think 99% of the people on this forum disagree with you as well.

[artsyguy]

That is fine. You can disagree, however, did you read how I said cronyism was a huge part of the problem in what I saw in Austin? You probably don't even know what that is...cronyism certainly has influence on this discussion

Originally Posted by ATXIronHorse

I disagree with this assessment. And I think 99% of the people on this forum disagree with you as well.