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Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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1. Tucson
2. Austin
3. Tampa
I prefer Tucson over just about any city in the country with the exception of Seattle, Denver, & San Diego. Those are my top 4.
I already live in Austin (during the school year) its a great city, and its got a great job market, and is very "down to Earth" and has a lot going for it. The only minus side is the heat, and public transportation.
Tampa, its pretty sweet, and definitely if you want to live on the coast then its your place, it also unlike the other two cities has professional sports, and has a nice location to other cities in its state. Tucson does to Phoenix, Austin does to San Antonio, Tampa does to Orlando, Jacksonville, & Miami.
Houston, Fort Worth, & Dallas are a pretty long drive from Austin, about 3 hours or so, so they might count or might not, depends on how you perceive close, to me thats close but to others thats far.
But in all actuality though, I would take Tucson of the 3 choices. I am fond of the other choices too, its just that they were paired up against one of my top 4 favorite cities in the country.
I investigated Austin as a place to visit or possibly move, 3 yrs ago. I decided I didnt wanna after awhile. I was interested in Austin to begin with because of their music scene and it didnt look bad at all from what I heard, but then as I started taking into consideration climates, then I was like ok, not worth it.
Tampa imo is better than Austin all the way around.. Austin to me has the upper hand on music, but you would be highly amazed. Tampa has a great music scene for a city its size and is a definite good alternative to Austin and even has local authentic blues too. Its just not on every corner like in Austin, but their NPR station gets a lot of hit ups for it and mentions to certain blues clubs + you arent far from the ocean.
Tampa is charming on the whole and I do think Tampa weather beats Austin based on everything I investigated.
I thought there was no ski resorts in Texas so no it doesn't. Would probably have to drive 5+ hours to a ski resort in New Mexico. And hiking i mean maybe hiking a trail in a canyon or mountain peak. I don't think Austin has that either, except in the southwest part of the state.
I thought there was no ski resorts in Texas so no it doesn't. Would probably have to drive 5+ hours to a ski resort in New Mexico. And hiking i mean maybe hiking a trail in a canyon or mountain peak. I don't think Austin has that either, except in the southwest part of the state.
Sorry, thought you were referring to water skiing; Lake Austin and Lake Travis (on the outskirts of Austin) have plenty of that.
Austin is on the eastern boundary of the Texas Hill Country, so there are hiking and biking opportunities aplenty. Gorgeous country.
I am thinking Tucson would be the best spot to explore the west coast...would love to go to San Fran/Oregon Coast/Wine Country/Yosemite/etc. But Austin would have more access to cultural events in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio
For weekend trips, I could see you hitting up San Diego/OrangeCounty/LA. Driving would be around 6-8hrs. Yosemite, San Fran, Oregon...you would need to take a week off unless you flew to those locations.
Also, Austin would be the closest culturally and weather wise(cold) to the Bay Area.
YES, Clean_Polo I realize FL depends on tourism...They wern't asking to take a tour were they? I believe they were making a life choice on where to reside. I would hope if I were asking for advice, on where to live someone would be nice enough to tell the truth. We are above the national average in crime...Look it up. Tampa is not a place I would ever reccommmend someone to live. I strickly live here for work, (which relies on tourism) and can't wait to get out. The crosstown expressway???? That's a studid comment!
YES, Clean_Polo I realize FL depends on tourism...They wern't asking to take a tour were they? I believe they were making a life choice on where to reside. I would hope if I were asking for advice, on where to live someone would be nice enough to tell the truth. We are above the national average in crime...Look it up. Tampa is not a place I would ever reccommmend someone to live. I strickly live here for work, (which relies on tourism) and can't wait to get out. The crosstown expressway???? That's a studid comment!
I live in Tampa and I would recommend it as a great city to live in. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others wont. Sure crime is over the national average, like every other city Tampa's size. Have you noticed how much crime in Tampa has dropped 10 years? I drive through Tampa all the time, and I don't drive past Strip Clubs on a daily, or even weekly basis. I don't see people buying or selling drugs either. This area has a lot of positives, and if you can't appreciate them because all you notice is the negatives, then I feel sorry for you.
Tucson is way too small and remote, (but if you don't like bigger cities and do like outdoors, then maybe that's a good city for you).
Austin is just ok to me. I just find the city to be extremely overrated and I'm not fond of living in a giant college town. Nice town, especially for texas, but it's just missing something. Maybe it's not quite big enough.
Tampa is my choice here. If only they had a nice ballpark for the Rays to play in. As a MLB fan, I really prefer any city I live in to have MLB. Tampa does (in StPete), but it's just not the same as other towns. But they do have NFL and NHL and both play in great facilities. Tampa has come a long with their downtown and waterfront areas too and there are some emerging urban districts too. Plus you are that much closer to Miami, even Orlando, which has a surprisingly active downtown.
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