Is there any fair an balanced opinion from the people of Austin (San Marcos: middle-class, university)

[austin-steve]

Maybe our reasons for disliking a certain city are very personal and private.

Then why come on a public forum to complain?

[jobert]

Originally Posted by AK123

OP - there are many opinions on Austin that aren't "sugar-coated" so to say... you may just not find them as often.

Look who won this poll
Most overrated or overhyped city: Dallas, Austin, or Houston?

Austin's "uniqueness"
http://www.city-data.com/forum/7249421-post12.html

Underground (or maybe not so much) drug problem
http://www.city-data.com/forum/7249421-post12.html

"Overhyped" Austin
http://www.city-data.com/forum/6850222-post43.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/7401604-post62.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/7362252-post1.html
Finally visited Austin- was very disappointed

Now, whether or not all of these posts are completely legit or fair, I won't get into that. However, I do hear similar stories outside of this forum from real people.

and out of 100+ threads about the quality of life in Austin, those are 7 of them...

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

Maybe our reasons for disliking a certain city are very personal and private.

Like Steve said, why come on a public forum and make blanket statements about Austin because of some "personal" and "private" problems?

Originally Posted by artsyguy

City preferences and problems are subjective.

I'm glad you realize that...which is why I took issue with your statement that "other cities and towns seem to have less problems."

Originally Posted by artsyguy

Sometimes there were people in the city that caused us a lot of pain and we couldn't under any circumstance find somebody to be our friend or to be supportive. Who wants to be in that predicament? It's too painful. If you can't relate or sympathize. Then that's not my issue, it's yours.

So...let me get this straight. You had some social issues, some "personal" problems as you put it. And you want to publicly blame it on Austin, since, in your mind, Austin is like "Soviet Union without the mass destruction."

I'm sorry, but the little you have shared to source your dislike for Austin seem like problems not related in any way to the physical city itself. I have bad memories of various places connected to unpleasant experiences in my life as well. Is that the fault of the geographic region I was in at the time? Hardly, and I wouldn't bash an entire city based on a select few "personal" issues.

The title of this thread asks for "fair and balanced opinions" of Austin. If you automatically strike an entire city down because someone in the city hurt you in some way, how can you possibly be expected to give an honest opinion of the place? But maybe I'm weird in that I usually separate "unique personal circumstances" from general opinions about an entire city. *shrug*

[artsyguy]

Like I said it is a general subjective dislike of the city (really there is not much to do there, roads stink, everything is spread out, I got conned out of money several times, drug use is apparent, ethnic minorities are segregated as if they are some sort of embarrassment, and people brag/boast/exaggerate way too much about what truly is not 'special' or 'unique') and the circle of people (transplants) were major problems.

When comparing and contrasting to other cities I've been too, Austin was one of the worst in what I was looking for. It didn't deliver the goods, as the saying goes.

That is a balanced and fair opinion.

Originally Posted by thesonofgray

Like Steve said, why come on a public forum and make blanket statements about Austin because of some "personal" and "private" problems?



I'm glad you realize that...which is why I took issue with your statement that "other cities and towns seem to have less problems."



So...let me get this straight. You had some social issues, some "personal" problems as you put it. And you want to publicly blame it on Austin, since, in your mind, Austin is like "Soviet Union without the mass destruction."

I'm sorry, but the little you have shared to source your dislike for Austin seem like problems not related in any way to the physical city itself. I have bad memories of various places connected to unpleasant experiences in my life as well. Is that the fault of the geographic region I was in at the time? Hardly, and I wouldn't bash an entire city based on a select few "personal" issues.

The title of this thread asks for "fair and balanced opinions" of Austin. If you automatically strike an entire city down because someone in the city hurt you in some way, how can you possibly be expected to give an honest opinion of the place? But maybe I'm weird in that I usually separate "unique personal circumstances" from general opinions about an entire city. *shrug*

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

Like I said it is a general subjective dislike of the city (really there is not much to do there, roads stink, everything is spread out, I got conned out of money several times, drug use is apparent, ethnic minorities are segregated as if they are some sort of embarrassment, and people brag/boast/exaggerate way too much about what truly is not 'special' or 'unique') and the circle of people (transplants) were major problems.

When comparing and contrasting to other cities I've been too, Austin was one of the worst in what I was looking for. It didn't deliver the goods, as the saying goes.

That is a balanced and fair opinion.

What were you looking for?

Aside from the segregated neighborhoods (which is terrible, obvious, and very common in any almost any city) and the roads, I didn't experience any of the other problems you did in Austin. I have a feeling you lived in a less-than-stellar neighborhood? If that's the case, then of course you'd have a bad opinion of Austin. But what city in America doesn't have bad neighborhoods?

If you care to share, what cities are you using as a comparison to Austin? I've only lived in Texas, and I can attest that Austin has very unique and "special" qualities as a city in the lone star state....although that lessens as you move further from the city center, unfortunately.

[TexasHorseLady]

Problem is, quite a few of us were under the impression that artsyguy actually lived in Austin, based on statements about the university and about his co-workers here who were clearly prejudiced against him because of his sexual preference and not being able to get a date because Austin has no exclusively gay part of town, but now we find him saying that he's visited here but not lived here.

So it's a bit difficult to figure out what's really going on and what really happened here to cause his serious dislike, and whether he actually spent long enough here to form an accurate opinion or if he just visited, as he now says.

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Problem is, quite a few of us were under the impression that artsyguy actually lived in Austin, based on statements about the university and about his co-workers here who were clearly prejudiced against him because of his sexual preference and not being able to get a date because Austin has no exclusively gay part of town, but now we find him saying that he's visited here but not lived here.

So it's a bit difficult to figure out what's really going on and what really happened here to cause his serious dislike, and whether he actually spent long enough here to form an accurate opinion or if he just visited, as he now says.

Interesting.

Although this conversation has seemed to reach a level of absurdity from which it can't be saved, I will say that Austin is plenty gay for me...and I'm gay. But I've heard this line of disappointment before. People from the northeast or Cali come here thinking that Austin is some gay mecca, and that just isn't the case. This is Texas, after all.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

Like I said it is a general subjective dislike of the city (really there is not much to do there, roads stink, everything is spread out, I got conned out of money several times, drug use is apparent, ethnic minorities are segregated as if they are some sort of embarrassment, and people brag/boast/exaggerate way too much about what truly is not 'special' or 'unique') and the circle of people (transplants) were major problems.

When comparing and contrasting to other cities I've been too, Austin was one of the worst in what I was looking for. It didn't deliver the goods, as the saying goes.

That is a balanced and fair opinion.

I don't think you have ever stated which cities you DO like or find satisfying. Austin is not utopia and I don't think even the biggest Austin fanboy here says it is.

Every city is compromised. For many Austin is a great place. But artsyguy - you say many things that few agree with - like there isn't much to do here. Compared to what? You never say.

I've lived here since 1985 and have never been conned out of money.

My son had a car accident yesterday. Mutiple people stopped to help him. One man gave his clean extra t-shirt and tore it into pieces to wrap my son's arm to slow the bleeding before EMS arrived. It was a scary day but the kindness of people simply stunned me. The Travis County police and EMS were superb.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Glad your son is ok hoffdano!

[ILikeSmartHippies]

There is one thing wrong with austin demographics, and that is the strong percentage of UT students or employees vs. the rest of the population. University towns always have their problems because university culture is.. well.. different than normal life. This is an objective statistic which can be compared to other cities, and would show Austin as handicapped. To illustrate this, I sold something on craigslist recently. I received several emails from "starving college students" who wanted what I was selling for maybe 1/4 the price. Why? Because "I'm a starving college student." What! Come on, I was starving in college as well (I mean it; really starving, not the fake "I'm starving but I just bought a new pack of cigarettes and some bud and a Dell PC for gaming" type starving). So I have some sympathy... However when this demographic dominates the population, there's going to be some unhappy skew going on. Rental real estate is especially hammered by college kids and lowers overall quality of housing while increasing price, in a university town. ..etc..

I ask people I meet here, where the "coolest / funnest place to go is." I'm always looking for interesting tidbits of info like this. Continually, I hear: "Oh, 6th street." No, I didn't mention drinking and I don't look like a drinker or partier. Even people on this forum mention that "6th street is not Austin and is kind of too big these days." Yet commonly, this is the opinion I get back. This is likely a university phenomenon too. No, I'm not just asking university people.. I'm asking random service people I meet in the course of living here. Any university town has to deal with absorbing the "university drinking population".. (unless it's a religious university town, hah.) So that's another drawback.