Moving to Austin (Victoria, Justin, Cesar Chavez: apartments, loft, felons)

[passionatearts]

Originally Posted by kzatina

Hello Austinites,

After spending days trolling Craigslist and trying to sort out Austin's many neighborhoods, I was hoping you might help...I'm moving from Brooklyn and would love to maintain a pedestrian/bicycle lifestyle, is it possible? I would really like to rent in a historic area (not big on the huge luxury complex)...would love to be around farmers markets/health food store/vegetarian restaurants/coffee/yoga...I am looking for a liberal area...Can you point me in the right direction? South Austin?

Many Thanks

What is your budget? Are you looking to rent or buy? Do you have a job lined up in Austin?

Only a few neighborhoods in Austin are really going to fit your criteria. Your best bets are Hyde Park, Travis Heights, Clarksville, and Rosedale.

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

To be accurate, you don't care for it at all, even if hate is too strong a word. My sense from reading your posts this past year is that you find it backwards and you hold a certain amount of contempt for the area and good number of its residents. That's your opinion and you're entitled to it, in a lot of ways I felt the same way about Seattle. However, despite my distaste for the culture and climate in Seattle, I am willing to accept that it works for a lot of people and if they want to live there, more power to them. I think the same can be said for Austin. It all comes down to what individuals value. Many people from the the NE move here and love it and I am sure many, like you, move here and hate it. It all comes down to expectations and individual preferences.

As long as you feel comfortable portraying my opinions more accurately that I can, the only thing that makes me feel contemptuous is the rabid over hyping of Austin here by people whose only frame of reference is Houston.

Austin is a nice, medium sized city. It has some nice amenities, pretty lousy food and limited cultural opportunities. The university is excellent, and the people within Austin are generally smart. (However being part of Texas there's still a bit too much Jesus and too little science) The winter weather is quite nice, the summer is oppressively hot. I don't like narrowminded, antisemitic homophobes anywhere, whether they be in Austin or New York.

Travel a bit, compare, live outside of Texas. You're still entitled to feel that Austin is the greatest place on Earth. For some it is. However, as you noted many people come from the Northeast with high expectations to encounter disappointment and that side of the story should be told as well.

I have no ulterior motive except to inform (and ridicule biased, racist, beliefs and Christian Hegemony)

[centralaustinite]

For what it is worth, I usually find that mlassoff tells it like it is!

His perspective is particularly valuable for folks from the NE who often don't really just how much they take for granted in their daily lives (amenities and attitudes that they take for granted and mistakenly assume will exist everywhere).

Perhaps a grain of salt is needed once in a while, but I find his opinion valuable (unlike y'all know who).

[blakesq]

For people thinking of moving to Texas, if you think that Christianity is deserving of attack and ridicule, then Texas, and even Austin, may not be for you. I am looking forward to a more wholesome place to raise my family. Those on the coasts are free to attack it, as long as they stay on the coasts.

Originally Posted by mlassoff

As long as you feel comfortable portraying my opinions more accurately that I can, the only thing that makes me feel contemptuous is the rabid over hyping of Austin here by people whose only frame of reference is Houston.

Austin is a nice, medium sized city. It has some nice amenities, pretty lousy food and limited cultural opportunities. The university is excellent, and the people within Austin are generally smart. (However being part of Texas there's still a bit too much Jesus and too little science) The winter weather is quite nice, the summer is oppressively hot. I don't like narrowminded, antisemitic homophobes anywhere, whether they be in Austin or New York.

Travel a bit, compare, live outside of Texas. You're still entitled to feel that Austin is the greatest place on Earth. For some it is. However, as you noted many people come from the Northeast with high expectations to encounter disappointment and that side of the story should be told as well.

I have no ulterior motive except to inform (and ridicule biased, racist, beliefs and Christian Hegemony)

[mlassoff]

Thanks for proving my point. Why does Christanity make a place more family-friendly and wholesome. As if a Jewish neighborhood wouldn't have those values? Nauseating arrogance.

If you think that being against Christian hegemony is the same thing as ridicule and attack, then I question where your defensiveness stems from.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

To be accurate, you don't care for it at all, even if hate is too strong a word. My sense from reading your posts this past year is that you find it backwards and you hold a certain amount of contempt for the area and good number of its residents. That's your opinion and you're entitled to it, in a lot of ways I felt the same way about Seattle. However, despite my distaste for the culture and climate in Seattle, I am willing to accept that it works for a lot of people and if they want to live there, more power to them. I think the same can be said for Austin. It all comes down to what individuals value. Many people from the the NE move here and love it and I am sure many, like you, move here and hate it. It all comes down to expectations and individual preferences.

Why do people take offense if someone gives an honest opinion about a potential move? I would imagine one wouldn't want to hear just good stuff, if reality doesn't jive 100% with the same.....everyone has an opinion, and chiming in with one is what the questioners want, I presume...otherwise, they can just contact the local chamber of commerce and real estate agents for a 100% "just great" opinion.....

Reality is a mix of good and bad, just like life itself....and even great cities are not suited for everyone.....if you know a place that everyone in the world would be thrilled with, let me know.....

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by inthecut

Why do people take offense if someone gives an honest opinion about a potential move? I would imagine one wouldn't want to hear just good stuff, if reality doesn't jive 100% with the same.....everyone has an opinion, and chiming in with one is what the questioners want, I presume...otherwise, they can just contact the local chamber of commerce and real estate agents for a 100% "just great" opinion.....

Reality is a mix of good and bad, just like life itself....and even great cities are not suited for everyone.....if you know a place that everyone in the world would be thrilled with, let me know.....

I wasn't offended at all. I was just pointing out that his threads demonstrate he really isn't terribly neutral about the place. And yes sometimes his posts drip with contempt for some of the people that live here. But that doesn't mean that I am offended by it. Just pointing it out. As you may have gathered by now, I am pretty thick skinned.

BTW, I am an agnostic and don't find there to be "too much Jesus" here. It's fine that some of the people I know here are Christian. I have not felt threatened or judged by them. I guess I am just more tolerant of differences.

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

BTW, I am an agnostic and don't find there to be "too much Jesus" here. It's fine that some of the people I know here are Christian. I have not felt threatened or judged by them. I guess I am just more tolerant of differences.

Yes, obviously you're a warrior for tolerance and I am an intolerant SOB. I just can't bring myself to tolerate intolerance. After all it's Christianity that makes things "wholesome and family friendly, right?

My comment about "too much Jesus" was more a reference to continuing events like the Texas State BoE trying to back door Christian Theology in to public high schools, organized prayer before public school sporting events, displays of Christmas related items on public land. On your property do you what you want. On public property-- well, I've said this before: I don't expect your tax dollars to support my Judaism, so why should mine support your Christianity.

Where you have public officials trying to argue theology as an alternative to science, you have too much Jesus.

Again, I think its something you can only understand if you are Jewish, Muslim or some other religious minority here-- and even then not every Jew feels as I do...

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

Yes, obviously you're a warrior for tolerance and I am an intolerant SOB. I just can't bring myself to tolerate intolerance. After all it's Christianity that makes things "wholesome and family friendly, right?

My comment about "too much Jesus" was more a reference to continuing events like the Texas State BoE trying to back door Christian Theology in to public high schools, organized prayer before public school sporting events, displays of Christmas related items on public land. On your property do you what you want. On public property-- well, I've said this before: I don't expect your tax dollars to support my Judaism, so why should mine support your Christianity.

Where you have public officials trying to argue theology as an alternative to science, you have too much Jesus.

Again, I think its something you can only understand if you are Jewish, Muslim or some other religious minority here-- and even then not every Jew feels as I do...

So being a nonbeliever, I am not in the minority? I didn't say you weren't tolerant, I just have a feeling I am more tolerant of differing religions than you are, that's all. I wasn't the poster who wrote about Christianity making things more wholesome either - and that's not really what blakesq wrote anyway. He got defensive because he perceived that you took a slam at Christianity.

I just spent the last eight years in a city where people openly sneered about Christians and I found it very ugly. Just like I find it ugly when people use racial slurs or make derogatory comments about homosexuals. But I'm consistent that way. So if I see any of those things on this board I am going to call it out.

Note to ITC, the tone of this response should be read as calm and inquisitive

[contramundum]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

I just spent the last eight years in a city where people openly sneered about Christians and I found it very ugly.

Wait a minute! You mean to tell me there is a city in the US where people openly sneer about Christians? Where were you living?