Bay Area to Austin (Houston, San Antonio: best city, real estate, homes)

[tjones20]

My family is considering moving to Austin from the Bay Area. We would live to take the equity in our property and buy a decent home in good community.

We know about the schools in Austin-Very Good
We know the realestate market is dirt cheap compared to the Bay Area.

What we don't know is how we would would fair in the Austin's culture.

We're African-Amereican Californians. (ie.. We love diversity, progessive thought, tolerance and great food).

Can someone give me an objective perspective of Austin culture? A reaonsonable expectations?

Thanks,

Tony

[Grape]

Where do you live in the Bay Area?

[bayoucitygirl]

To be completely honest, when I was in Austin I did not see any black people.

[love roses]

There are black people in Austin. There isn't a large community like you would find in Houston though. I'm not AA though, so can't give any advice on that end. Austin isn't progressive, ie..socialist, leftist, in your face liberal like West Coast or East Coast is. It's very accepting of many viewpoints. No militant anti anything groups. There are museums, music of course, theatre, etc...I haven't heard of any blatant rascism here. Maybe compared to the Bay Area real estate is dirt cheap, but as someone who has lived in Texas nearly her entire life, I'd say prices are moving up pretty quickly. You used to be able to buy homes for under 100,000 a number of years back. Now you'd be lucky to find much under 200,000....That is, if you are looking at living in town or West of 35. Most people tend to look away from East of 35, but it costs less out this way. I say that, because most people like the hilly terrain west. East is flatter.

[TheHarvester]

I've responded over the past year to several posts from Black people looking into Austin and it has caused me to be more aware of the issues that exist here.

First, Austin is more segregated than cities in the Bay Area, Seattle, and other coastal regions. There isn't blatant racism here, but it's very hard to overcome the history of the place and there's an ongoing problem with our police department's relations with minorities which is bad enough to have made national news.

The segregation isn't enforced by anyone, and there are parts of town that are well-integrated. But bayoucitygirl posted above that she saw NO black people in Austin when she was here, and that's entirely believable because the west side of town is so lily-white. I think the cure for this problem is for blacks to move to the west side. Straight up. White folks like myself have lived in the 'hood and I still visit my friends "over there" on the east side, but many (if not most) of the east-siders won't even come over to the west side for reasons that probably have a lot to do with history and the fear of prejudice. It's a sad situation.

Surprisingly, some of the most integrated areas I've seen are in the suburbs. I don't know Round Rock or Pflugerville very intimately but both places SEEM to be quite diverse relative to supposedly-progressive West Austin. I don't know how to explain this, it could be a question of economics, or maybe racism has nothing to do with whether you're liberal or conservative, urban or suburban. I suspect it's all the above.

The population is about 12% Black, about like San Francisco or Berkeley (right?) but nothing like Oakland or Richmond. The biggest thing missing here is a thriving Black middle and upper-middle class, along with local Black-dominated cultural institutions and movements. Houston is totally happening for Black culture. In Austin, it's more like the North Bay where the Blacks who integrate are spending more time being with white people, if that makes sense. There are a lot of excellent Black musicians here and a lot of the music scene is integrated, especially the eclectic semi-country music and world music scenes.

I'm rambling, doing my best to try to paint a picture of things. It's definitely different from the Bay Area but WE NEED YOU, so I hope you'll move here and help generate more integration!

[love roses]

I couldn't have said it better myself. East of Austin is more diverse. I'm in the North Eastern suburbs (NorthEast of Austin, not to be confused with northeast Austin, note the of) and I see plenty of AA's out here, and almost never West.

[OzzyRules]

I'm a moderate-conservative white person in San Antonio. From the times I've visited Austin, I've seen more tension between whites and Latinos (compared to San Antonio), and more acceptance between whites and blacks. It's kind of weird. I hope that doesn't offend anyone, just my impression. I think you would really like Austin.

[love roses]

Not Legal ones...But that's another topic for other forums.

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

From the times I've visited Austin, I've seen more tension between whites and Latinos (compared to San Antonio), and more acceptance between whites and blacks.

Having lived in Austin since 1990, and having spent 10 years on the east side, and having visited San Antonio many times, I'm in 100% agreement with you. San Antonio is probably the best city in the USA for Hispanics, with possible competition from Miami, El Paso and parts of Los Angeles.

The first neighbor I met on the eastside, an older (about 70) Black woman, who lived with her family next door, said to me "I'm sho glad ain't not Hispanic folk movin' in there!" That was in reference to me being her new neighbor. White? No problem.

It makes sense when you consider that Europeans and Africans have been living together in the USA for a few centuries, whereas the extremely large influx of Hispanics in recent decades is something we haven't adjusted to, so there's a cultural and language barrier that will take a long time to break down. But eventually every immigrant group becomes a part of the fabric of this beautiful quilt we call our homeland. In spite of all the racism and other problems, the USA is still the most successful nation in history at welcoming huge numbers of people from all corners of the earth, providing them freedom to make a new life, and hassling them much less than what they'd experience in most other nations.

[tjones20]

We live in Alameda-right next to Oakland