Was "ideology" a big factor in your move to Austin?

[love roses]

We didn't move here based on ideology. As far as that goes, to me Houston and Dallas feel like they have the same subset of ideologies as Austin does.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

I disagree with your initial premise here. How you tell how "liberal" or "conservative" a place is has more to do with the day to day and less to do with the political (because only for a very small subset of the population is politics the be all end all of life - most other folks actually have lives and live them and could care less about the politics of their neighbors or, for that matter, about knowing about the politics of their neighbors. What's more important is, are they good neighbors no matter how they vote?).

Interesting point TL brings up....true, voting records are the ultimate "barometer" of an areas' politics, but, indeed, it goes far beyond voting. A conservative mindset extends into religion, family life, recreation, general mindsets, etc. So does liberal and middle-of-road inclinations. To fudge matters even more, there is no cookie-cutter mold everyone fits in per political leanings....individual differences still count for something. AND, every metro/state has its own version of all of the above. A conservative californian from the bay area is prob more liberal than a liberal from Arkansas. A liberal from Dallas can be more conservative than a conservative from NYC.......

The problem is when we use two basic terms to cover a nation of 300 million people....just too many varieties and places to put everyone in the kit bag of terminology.....

[JERiv]

I do agree with the huge amount of flexibility within the categories of conservative/liberal/moderate (forgot to add moderate to the original question!).

I do wonder if the folks who do not take the region's ideology into consideration do so because they assume it is the same as theirs.

It is obviously something plenty of people consider, as you can see by the # of posts where folks say "moving to Austin, would like suggestions on where to live, we are a conservative/liberal family...". If it is not criteria for the move itself, it is definitely criteria for where to live within the city! Sort of funny, how that works.

Maybe I went too macro, and folks just take it into consideration based on neighborhoods rather than at the city/state level.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by JERiv

Maybe I went too macro, and folks just take it into consideration based on neighborhoods rather than at the city/state level.

But then you're ignoring all the times that people have explained on here that it doesn't matter what political persuasion their neighbors are, and that conservatives and liberals live next door to each other, never mind in the same neighborhood, without it being an issue at all - block parties and helping each other out and being good neighbors being the important thing.

Or are you saying that it is just the locals who judge people on who they are, not how they vote, if they judge them at all?

[love roses]

political ideology is never what we use as a barometer for picking a place to live. I lived just outside of downtown Houston in Rice Village which I'd consider pretty liberal of an area. I live in an area that is considered more conservative right now, but my next door neighbor is an Obama supporter and we're not and we get along wonderfully. We only pick a place based on what's nearby, do we like the house, what are the nearby amenities.....

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by JERiv

I do agree with the huge amount of flexibility within the categories of conservative/liberal/moderate (forgot to add moderate to the original question!).

I do wonder if the folks who do not take the region's ideology into consideration do so because they assume it is the same as theirs.

It is obviously something plenty of people consider, as you can see by the # of posts where folks say "moving to Austin, would like suggestions on where to live, we are a conservative/liberal family...". If it is not criteria for the move itself, it is definitely criteria for where to live within the city! Sort of funny, how that works.

Maybe I went too macro, and folks just take it into consideration based on neighborhoods rather than at the city/state level.

Nothing wrong with wanting to live with people that share your beliefs..heck, they built an entire metro around that in a place called Salt Lake City, still going strong now....People ask that question about Austin on here often because they read about Austin being liberal, but hear Texas is a hard-core red state, and get confused....Austin is definitely liberal socially, but, economically, it definitely trends libertarian, and farther to the right than the republican party itself, same as the rest of Texas.....no taxes or regs is the constant theme here, and prob always will be....perhaps it came from the original pioneers/wildcat oil barrons.....or the Hunt Brothers or something....who knows?

[JERiv]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Or are you saying that it is just the locals who judge people on who they are, not how they vote, if they judge them at all?

Not at all!! Just wondering if folks moving here use that as a consideration.

Folks here in Austin from what I've seen are pretty dang tolerant and friendly.

[harrison512]

I landed a job with a company that offered to relocate me to either Austin or Raleigh, NC.

I looked up a City of Austin website which had the motto, "Keep Austin Weird."

Raleigh's website motto was "America's G-Rated City!"

So I picked Austin because it sounded like more fun.

This hasn't panned out for me, but kudos to the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Boards to give Austin its rep.

Now, "Live Music Capital of the World?" I think LA, NY, Nashville, Chicago, London, Tokyo, etc.... might want to debate that!

[1mintjulep]

I didn't know anything about Austin when I moved here 8 years ago, so no. All I really wanted at the time was to escape from my hometown and my crazy (not in a good way) family.

If I were going to move to another city (which doesn't seem likely) and were researching where to go, I think "ideology" would certainly play a part - but so would lots of other things. I'm probably about as introverted as they come...I find a small circle of people I like and have things in common with, and don't venture outside of it too much as far as socializing goes. I imagine I could do that just about anywhere, tho in some places (Austin) it would probably be easier than others (Shreveport/Bossier City, LA).

[jobert]

Originally Posted by eribear

have considered Atlanta, Raleigh, Seattle, Portland, and Memphis in addition to Austin and San Antonio. Where else would you have me consider? We are not living anywhere with snow so that rules out Denver, boston, NY, DC and all of the midwest!

no place that snows, really? take me seriously here though, I would recommend Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Nashville, Roanoke VA, Boise, Olympia WA, SLC, KC and Denver. Snow or not, those are happening places. I contemplated between KC and Austin for a year, but opportunity knocked louder here.