Where should I move Austin or Nashville? (Memphis, Knoxville: real estate, townhouse)

[MaxBuller]

I'm 25, just graduated college, lived in Houston my whole life and am bored to ****. I just got a job offer from this company; 45G a year. They said I could work in either their Austin lab or their Nashville lab. I want something a lot more outdoorsy but I want to do it with people my age not a bunch of old people. What is better to meet people there my age and have a good blend of city and outdoor life. I also like country music bike riding and the big college scene too.

[septimus]

Austin

[Nash-TN]

If you want 20+ days of 100 degree weather, wild fires, high taxes, but a great music scene, vibran downtown and mass transit, proximity to San Ant, Dallas, and Mexico, South by Soutwest and Austin City Limits music fest....Austin.

If you want hot humid summers, an occasional tornado warning, a couple of inches of snow yearly, A GREAT music scene and industry, CMA fest, proximity to Bonnaroo, no real mass transit options, but growing and developing urban core...Nashville. In addition there 10+ colleges in the area and we are in a 7hours or less drive to to many places in the Eastern U.S.....Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville.

I was on a flight to Chicago and there were a couple of guys in the music scene that had just got back from performing in Austin. They said Austin is basically a bigger Nashville....a little bit cleaner and progressive. They had postives and negatives about both, but liked the atmosphere and vibe of Nashville's music industry.

[Roland123]

Maybe I can offer some insight as I have lived in both Austin and Nashville. To me the city of Austin puts the city of Nashville to shame. I'm only talking how it looks. Austin(city) is prettier. The surrounding areas of Nashville are much much better. Austin to me was only nice for a couple of months out of the year. It's just so damn hot. I remember seeing people in sweaters and jackets when the temp got down into the 80's. It does get hot and humid in Nashville, but nothing compared to the TX heat and the spring and fall in Nashville are fantastic. As far as outdoor things to do, they are about the same. If you have a dog, Austin is better because there are off leash hiking areas. In other outdoor activities Nashville is just as good if not better. Lakes, and rivers, parks, and green countryside.

Nashville has quite a few colleges and universities so there are plenty of people around your age. I would guess that would be true of any biggish city. The people in Nashville won't be fanatic about college sports like the Texas fans. To find that drive about 3 hours east to Knoxville, home of the real UT.

Nashville is not only country music. Whatever you want, Nashville has.
If the outdoors is of main importance to you, check out Chattanooga. I believe it was just named America's #1 outdoor city. It's a short trip from Nashville.

Hope this helps a little.

[IngleDave]

Roland, I'm not quite sure where the shame comes in, but whatever you say.

And to original poster: At 25, a college scene should probably be something you should begin to see in your rear view mirror, for in the rush toward 30, things will get much more interesting than a bunch of kids trying to figure out who they are. You should be well on your way by now.

Whether you choose Austin, Nashville, or Fargo...enjoy yourself and good luck out there.

[Roland123]

IngleDave, I am only saying that the city of Austin is prettier. The riverfront area and Congress going up to the capitol are nice, etc.. It's just my opinion. However, I would choose Nashville over Austin every time. No question about it and it's not even close. Nashville will continue to get better. Everything that I can see Nashville improving on it can, and hopefully will. Lets get the dump next to LP cleaned up and try to do what Chatt has done. New Sounds stadium and kid friendly activities along the waterfront.

[cobyup10]

I didn't ask the question, but appreciated the answer. I'm a guitarist who just got out of luthiery school. Trying to get a day job to get me out of central IL and into a music scene. One of my roomies was from Austin, and even he wasn't that full of praise. If you have any ideas for me about where to start job hunting, I'd sure appreciate it.

[IngleDave]

Roland, I understand. Nashville is making great strides in prettying up. Hopefully, as these large projects are completed we'll have one spiffy town to tool around in. Sometimes, through my eyes, I see things as I see the renderings when in reality, the things aren't really there yet, but coming soon.

Totally agree about the PSC Metals property. I think if it's ever announced that that thing moving, there should be a local holiday declared.

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by Roland123

Maybe I can offer some insight as I have lived in both Austin and Nashville. To me the city of Austin puts the city of Nashville to shame. I'm only talking how it looks. Austin(city) is prettier. The surrounding areas of Nashville are much much better. Austin to me was only nice for a couple of months out of the year. It's just so damn hot. I remember seeing people in sweaters and jackets when the temp got down into the 80's. It does get hot and humid in Nashville, but nothing compared to the TX heat and the spring and fall in Nashville are fantastic. As far as outdoor things to do, they are about the same. If you have a dog, Austin is better because there are off leash hiking areas. In other outdoor activities Nashville is just as good if not better. Lakes, and rivers, parks, and green countryside.

Nashville has quite a few colleges and universities so there are plenty of people around your age. I would guess that would be true of any biggish city. The people in Nashville won't be fanatic about college sports like the Texas fans. To find that drive about 3 hours east to Knoxville, home of the real UT.

Nashville is not only country music. Whatever you want, Nashville has.
If the outdoors is of main importance to you, check out Chattanooga. I believe it was just named America's #1 outdoor city. It's a short trip from Nashville.

Hope this helps a little.

Well I've lived in Nashville 3 times and Austin twice. I've posted many times on the differences between these two cities, and you cannot convince me there is anything that definitively puts Austin ahead in the comparisons unless you are left politically which may be underlying some opinions here. Yes Austin is the beauty queen of Texas, and the downtown riverfront (lakefront) is prettier than Nashville's but in Nashville you get a full blown riverboat cruise. Austin has a lot more swimming holes along the creeks and greenbelts and at Barton Springs or Deep Eddy, but in terms of preserves and forest and parklands showcasing the natural forested beauty of the area, Nashville wins hands down with Radnor, Warner, Beaman and other spectacular preserves not matched in Austin. Although Wild Basin and the Barton Creek greenbelt are great when not crowded. Also great float tripping or canoeing/kayaking in Nashville on the Harpeth. In Austin you can only do this on Barton Creek after a huge rain, and the rock formations make it pretty iffy at that, and in July/August forget it as the creek bed closer into the metro has been sucked dry by the fissures in the aquifer recharge zone.

Now suppose you want to get out of Austin fast. If you go N or S you are OK on the one interstate as long as you don't go through the downtown IH-35 bottleneck. But suppose you go to Houston a lot. You have to hit dozens of lights in and out on either of the 2 routes. Same problem going to Fredricksburg or Kerrville. Nashville by contrast has 3 interstates with 6 spokes giving you great access to other interesting cities; also by air more non-stop flights to major U. S. cities than does Austin, which connects many flights to DFW or Houston. Nashville has especially good air service to NYC and L.A. because of the supporting role in media there.

Suppose you need a transplant. If you are in Nashville there is no problem as there are extensive world class medical facilities. In Austin you may have to go to either San Antonio or Houston because Austin has been traditionally low end on the medical procedure availability.

So far as the satellite cities go, the Nashville region wins here. There is nothing like Franklin, Brentwood or Cool Springs near Austin, so far as visually, historically or economically. San Marcos is nice, maybe half the size of Murfreesboro with a University and a nice river, but without the dynamism or historical significance of Murfreesboro or Franklin. Round Rock is a dynamic area with Dell HQ but with no downtown, interesting history, or no river, hard to get excited about it. Nashville metro wins here.

Just a few of the many things I discuss comparing the 2 locales. I have written extensively on this website comparing Austin and Nashville, search with my screen name and the two city names.

[groovamos]

My previous post being pretty one-sided prompts this one. I would not trade my experience in Austin for anything, I have precious memories of the place. The city managed to bootstrap itself into a generator of cultural legends in the '70's and that is when I arrived, in '75 in the pre-tech Austin. I wasn't in Berkeley in the '60's but I was in Austin in the '70's, and Nashville doesn't have a vibe which quite compares to this cultural history. Most of the icons of this period (Townes Van Zant, Willie, Gary P. Nunn, Michael Murphy, Jerry Jeff Walker etc etc etc) were native Texans which further cemented the iconographical feel of Austin. You might wonder why this particular place? All I can say is that there is no way to describe standing on a front porch in near South Austin or Clarksville (neighborhood near downtown) and getting that "don't you just love it" feeling for the place say in spring or early summer. In the '70's there were about a dozen small natural food stores ("The Good Food Store") clustered in central neighborhoods where most customers arrived on bikes with backpacks of course. Yeah the place was a hippy/ artist haven and I consider the term haven the absolute accurate moniker for that period. The natural foods milieu fostered the opening of the first Whole Foods Market on Lamar where I would invariably run into my new age friends in the '80's.

Now this has mostly changed as Austin is 4 times larger now. South Austin still has the funky vibe but tempered by high real estate prices, teardowns, and townhouse construction. Austin is not a corporate headquarters magnet like Nashville or Coolsprings, but it is a site magnet for tech companies. All of this comes together into a wonderful, edgy cultural mix kind of like west coast cities, Texas style. Fry Electronics has a presence there; I don't think Nashville is on their radar, which is an indication of the edgy, tech oriented population trend of Austin. Naturally, progressive types are drawn to Austin, this is the main reason for its explosive growth as progressives abandon coastal states ravaged by progressive fiscal and social policies. As you might guess, a non-ideologue like myself looks askance at this aspect of Austin but I still love the place. I know this is a Nashville board but this is an adjunct to my last post comparing two cities and I'm going to link to an article which elaborates on the situation in Austin, published in a Houston paper by an Austin expatriot: http://www.houstonpress.com/2011-06-09/news/finding-austin/