I seriously think that you should give Decorah, Iowa a look. It's a small college town in the northeast part of the state. It's basically on the border of Minnesota. 1 hour drive to Rochester. 2 hours to the Twin Cities. 1 1/2 to La Crosse, Wisconsin.
A small-town (~ 20,000 or less) in a beautiful natural setting: Population 7,907. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I personally find this area to be one of the most overlooked in the country.
http://cdn.onlyinyourstate.com/wp-co...016/04/1a.jpeg. This is the view from one of the parks in town. The entire driftless area is gorgeous though. (
https://www.google.com/search?q=drif...w=1280&bih=752)
2) A tight-knit, family-friendly community: I'd say so. I don't know for sure because I don't live there (I go to college there).
3) Great schools: The Decorah Community Schools are ranked 2nd in the state of Iowa according to US News (if that holds any merit). There is also a parochial school system for elementary, I believe.
4) Low poverty and crime: The only crime I hear of is bike theft on Luther's campus. There are some rowdy-ish students but most of them are pretty respectful and the partying is kept in pretty secluded pockets of town.
5) Access to cultural opportunities (arts, museums, music, etc.): The Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum is in Decorah (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vester...merican_Museum). The town is very obviously proud of its Norwegian heritage. There are Norwegian flags all over the place. Many houses also have Gnomes welcoming you at their doors. The McDonalds is done up in Norwegian architecture and has Norwegian Welcome and Goodbye signs (I thought this was sort of cute when I got here). Then there is Luther College. It has a huge music program. There are 600 people in the choir alone. Every year they put on a series of Christmas performances that are pretty spectacular (if I do say so myself). There are a couple other places in town that have art, such as Arthaus, which hosts poetry slams every now and then and teaches art classes. There are also a couple of local artists in the town that have studios.
6) A slower-pace of life: This is relative I suppose. I have nothing to compare Decorah to because I am from Iowa. Probably a lot slower than Austin though.
7) True four seasons weather (preferably in climate much colder than Texas): Definitely.
8) Affordable housing: You can do some zillow / realtor searches to decide for yourself. Much cheaper than Austin for sure.
9) Interesting local shops and restaurants (preferably in a walkable town square/downtown area): Downtown has a decent variety of offerings. There are two craft breweries in town. One being Toppling Goliath, which is considered one of the best breweries in the nation currently. There is a yarn / knitting shop. There is the aforementioned Arthaus. Also a decent sushi place. A couple of higher end restaurants. A restored historic hotel. 3 coffee shops. Mabe's Pizza is pretty famous in the area. A food coop. Quite a few specialty farms around the area. Most notably Seed Savers Exchange, which is a seed bank that carries heirloom plants and has a herd of endangered cattle. They've kept me interested so far.
10) Access to outdoor recreation: There is a lot of this. Trout Run Trail is a 13 mile paved trail that goes around the town. There are a handful of city parks that have trails. There is a series of mountain biking trails as well. The Upper Iowa river is popular for paddling / tubing. There's also Seed Savers outside of town that has hiking. Luther has ~1000 acres of land which includes a decent variety of hiking areas and a restored prairie (the community has its own restored prairie as well). Most of the parks offer trails in the summer and a couple have cross country skiing in the winter. About an hour away is the Mississippi River and a host of other hiking places such as Effigy Mounds National Monument and Pikes Peak State Park. I could go on. It's one of the best towns in the state for being outside.
11) Connection to history (interesting architecture, historical sites, etc.): Downtown is pretty well preserved. There are quite a few historic spots around the area as well. There are some pretty well kept 19th century homes in the older part of town.
12) High civic engagement: I'm not a permanent resident so I don't know a lot about this.
13) Lots of community events/ traditions: Nordic Fest is the greatest one that comes to mind. It's pretty big in the area. A ton of people show up to it every summer. It's also the county seat so the Winneshiek County Fair happens there. Luther offers quite a few other events as well. When it's in season, there is a farmer's market every wednesday and saturday.
14) Access to adequate healthcare: There is a hospital in town. One of the best hospitals in the world is about an hour away in Rochester (Mayo Clinic).
15) Active religious community: It depends on the religion. The biggest one here is Lutheranism. Specifically the ELCA (which Luther falls under). There is also a Catholic church and a couple other christian churches. There is a buddhist retreat place of some sort around here. I forget what it's called.
16) Cultural diversity (or at least acceptance/absence of pervasive racism): Small town Iowa. White people for the most part. The college brings some diversity when school is in session, and there are some more diverse faculty. I don't think there is any blatant racism but I'm white so I couldn't really know for sure.
I hope your search goes well! Definitely do some research on Decorah if you find it interesting.
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