Why choose San Antonio over Austin? (Trinity, West: neighborhood, theatre, school)

[Shasta523]

Taraaa;
We lived in Austin and made the mistake of moving to SA because we thought if would be more affordable and nicer. Boy were we wrong. Austin is a much nicer place to live. SA has tooo many aggresive drivers and to many uneducated people living here. Wages here are low as a result of the under educated people.
In regards to 210's reply:

Low cost of living....Low quality of housing & other living aspects as well.
Friendly people...People here are not friendly, SA has one of the highest statistics of domestic violence, road rage, & various other crimes.
Fantastic shopping...Only La Canterra or North Star Mall are the Fantastic Shopping areas.
Great downtown...The Riverwalk is great but the rest of Downtown is slummy
Beautiful hill country...Austin's Hill country is much more beautiful.
Good schools...In a statisticall report Austin beats SA hands down.
Cheap housing...Cheap housing is only in the slummy areas and if you are able to get a cheap house anywhere else in SA then chances are it was built by a shotty builder that uses low grade products.
Weather in the fall, winter, and spring....Weather in SA is the same or compairable to Austin.

[RGV]

SA is better for families with young kids. Much more things to do.

Austin is perfect for the 20 and 30 somethings who have no kids.

[sapphire]

You have some valid points about Austin's Hill Country proximity, I will give you that. Austin's west end out by Lake Travis is gorgeous. But it's totally unaffordable for the average family--that's why folks like Sandra Bullock and Willie Nelson live out there. And I bet they have very nice homes, not built by shoddy builders.

[210]

What do celebrities have to do with anything?

SA has its fair share of celebrities living here as well.

[sapphire]

Right, if you read my post it says that celebrities live out in the most beautiful part of Austin, not where the average family can afford. I am not in awe of celebrities, and I know we have plenty here. Like in the Dominion, again where most of us can't afford to live.

All I was saying is that yes, Austin's Hill Country proximity is beautiful. Just not very affordable.

[CJH]

Originally Posted by 210

One final thing. And this is my opinion, as well as many others, so take it for what you will.

The only real difference between the two is that one is an extremely over-the-top hyped city. Extremely.

And it's not San Antonio.

Agreed.

I like Austin, but I can help but find that city irritating at times. I always hear about how Austin is so liberal, unique, vibrant when I honestly don't see much difference between it and San Antonio.

Austin's nightlife has the benefit of being centralized and cater around the college crowd, while San Antonio's is spread out.

Austin's supposed coolness to me seems as contrived as what you see on MTV. Again its focused on the young crowd, nothing comsopolitan.

And who exactly said Austin was more of a college town than SA. Last I checked San Antonio has way college students than Austin, and thats not including the Texas A&M campus coming to SA in a few years.

Throw away all of these misconceptions between the two, and you basically get very similar cities. When it comes to Austin, you have city that has alot of the things that makes San Antonio great, and quite a few things us San Antonians wished the city had (like a plethora of parks and downtown living). As for San Antonio, you have a cheap and underrated city. San Antonio doesn't wow, but it is a nice place to live.

[winst0n]

I agree CJH, Austin is overrated, while SA is underrated...

[guerosincero]

If you care more about what people think about your relocation decision than you think about your relocation decision, choose Austin; it's not even close. It is the coolest, hippest, trendiest, weirdest, artsiest city in Texas, daresay the entire world. Just ask them, and they will be happy to tell you that they are all of these things and more. Indeed, I would not be surprised if at some point particularly altruistic Austinites don't begin mission trips down to San Antonio to educate us simpletons in the ways of their extra-ordinariness. A mission impossible if ever there was one.

I went to UT for graduate school, had a fabulous, great time as a student, but absolutely knew that working in Austin was a completely different story, and know from friends of mine who have now been working there that this is the case. The cost of living not to mention the commute times are insanely high, and are directly related to one another. I live 8/10s of a mile from work in near downtown San Antonio. I could never afford to do that in Austin straight out of school.

I met a person who lives with his wife in Austin through business and had him come over for drinks at my house after dinner at Liberty Bar. I don't think he ever imagined that people in San Antonio lived the way my wife and I did, much less that it was possible to do so at roughly 2/3s the cost.

Austin at some point convinced itself that the corollary to the phrase "if you build it, they will come" must be "if you don't build it, they won't come." Well, here's the problem, they did not build the infrastructure necessary for the population, which is why they are now so tapped out because people keep coming and coming and coming. And if you ask them when relocations to Austin became a problem, it started the day after they showed up there.

Moreover, notwithstanding their notoriety for being so progressive, it has been only very recently that Austinites have even considered the possibility of building on the east side of 35, which, given its elevation and proximity to downtown, probably has some of the best views of the city you can find. A lot of the hesitancy has been the stigma attached to that side of the "tracks" which one would not expect to be so pervasive and powerful in a town that is a progressive as Austin claims to be.

[Robert123]

Shasta523 said it very well in my opinion.

One place is not better than another. It all depends on whether you want to live in a more energetic and sophisticated place that has a top, world-ranked university (and an international population of professionals and faculty and overall mindset that accompanies that). That's Austin, of course. However, others may prefer a simpler, more understated life in San Antonio free of that kind of mental stimulation.

[crazedchef]

Originally Posted by guerosincero

If you care more about what people think about your relocation decision than you think about your relocation decision, choose Austin; it's not even close. It is the coolest, hippest, trendiest, weirdest, artsiest city in Texas, daresay the entire world. Just ask them, and they will be happy to tell you that they are all of these things and more. Indeed, I would not be surprised if at some point particularly altruistic Austinites don't begin mission trips down to San Antonio to educate us simpletons in the ways of their extra-ordinariness. A mission impossible if ever there was one. .

I was LOL at this....Good One


Absolutely, I love Austin, and I love occasionally going to Sixth ST. and to concerts at the various venues around town: The BackYard, Stubbs, Antones, The Saxon Pub, Erwin Center, etc...

But DRIVING there is HELL!!

I will always favor SA for that one reason alone, the constant construction does a much better job of keeping up with our phenomenal growth as opposed to Austin.

crazedchef