Relocation from NYC to Texas: Houston, Dallas, or Austin? (Plano: city hall, school district)

[diablo234]

I am going to have to disagree with you there.

In my experience Austin had way more amenities then Charlotte and Indianapolis. The only thing it does not have is a major league sports team.

[feconi]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

Tiny feeling in terms of amenities.

Evidently you have no reservations about stooping down to the level of artsyguy--possibly because your beloved Houston has been getting bashed.

By any metric, Austin feels "tiny" compared to none of them. Have you actually visited any of these cities?

Austin feels a bit smaller than Milwaukee and Charlotte for a variety of reasons IMO, but definitely not Memphis, Nashville, or Indianapolis. The only major thing Austin lacks relative to all of these cities is a major league sports franchise; I see no reason why that qualifies Austin as "tiny" particularly since it is stronger than most or all of these cities in other ways (such as restaurants, shopping, and nightlife).

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

After all this running around, I still think Austin is the best fit for the OP.

[AK123]

Originally Posted by cBach

Can you not understand that for someone that enjoys nature, enjoys walking around downtown, and enjoys eating outside that Houston would not fit the bill for them????

No because once AGAIN, you are completely wrong about that and are obviously seriously lacking in experience with regard to Houston. Your comments on it that you may think are helpful are actually extremely misleading and show a lack of knowledge and experience with it.

Originally Posted by love roses

Right? Almost everywhere we go in Houston has a patio where you can drink outside, restaurants and bars alike. There isn't a lake in downtown Houston but if you were down in Seabrook it would be super easy to sit at a restaurant overlooking the bay. Austin is a great city for hiking, but people have to go a little out of downtown to do it. People dont' hike in downtown Austin. It's the same for Houston. We used to do a lot of mountain biking in Memorial Park and it was decent enough for a city that isn't hilly.

Exactly... there are outdoor patios everywhere in town! Houstonians love sitting outside on patios.
For overlooking the water, there are plenty of places around Kemah and Clear Lake which is actually coastal and not a man-made lake. For a lake, there's Lake Houston, and further out there is Lake Conroe.
Memorial Park is great, also Terry Hershey Park.

Originally Posted by sb8636

I have lived in Austin for most of my life and currently live near downtown. I have been to Houston many times, Dallas a handful of times, and have a lot of college friends from Houston and Dallas.

I will rate the cities by "% of residents whose favorite U.S. cities include NYC, Portland, San Diego, Denver, and Chicago."

1. Austin
2. Dallas
3. Houston

Really? Not from what I've seen. I don't know many people in Dallas, but many of the Chicago and even NY people I've come in contact with seem to enjoy Houston... its multiculturalism, global and international flair are appealing to them. I lost count of how many people from Chicago moved to Austin and hated it. Austin sort of wants to be like Portland, but really isn't very similar to it at all; it may be more like it than the other Texas cities are, but that's not saying too much.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by justme02

After all this running around, I still think Austin is the best fit for the OP.

I think so too, I just don't think that the Austonians have to bring down DFW and Houston to say so.

all of this started because someone made a stupid comment along the lines that DFW and Houston are just major blobs of sprawl, when in fact both have nice walkable areas comparable to Austin and on the flip side Austin sprawls just the same as the bigger two.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

I think so too, I just don't think that the Austonians have to bring down DFW and Houston to say so.

all of this started because someone made a stupid comment along the lines that DFW and Houston are just major blobs of sprawl, when in fact both have nice walkable areas comparable to Austin and on the flip side Austin sprawls just the same as the bigger two.

Austin is my least favorite of the three, but Im not saying its the worst, thats just a personal preference. For the OP, it would probably be his favorite.

[love roses]

"There was no place you could hike into the woods. "

Not in Central Houston, but part of my Houston experience was living in Clear Lake. There were a couple of parks out there where you could walk around trails in the woods along the creek and people would also carry kayaks (Challenger Park was a big one for that) down through the trails to the Creek to go kayaking or even canoeing. I got a good laugh about your shopping comment I'm a girl, but that's about how much I love to shop

[eepstein]

Major blobs of sprawl? Isn't that EXACTLY what metro Austin is striving to do?. Building tollroads to ENCOURAGE further sprawl and building out to places like Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, etc.? Do anyone really honestly believe that SH 130 was built SOLELY for a truck bypass? No, metro Austin wants to sprawl further out east and highways tend to make that more likely.

Originally Posted by HtownLove

I think so too, I just don't think that the Austonians have to bring down DFW and Houston to say so.

all of this started because someone made a stupid comment along the lines that DFW and Houston are just major blobs of sprawl, when in fact both have nice walkable areas comparable to Austin and on the flip side Austin sprawls just the same as the bigger two.

[eepstein]

Absolutely true. In the Austin area, giant SUV's and pickups are a measure of your importance (and arrogance). People STILL drive cars up in Dallas and Mercedes, BMW's, Porchses, and Bentleys are all over the place. It is RARE that I see a nice vehicle in Austin that isn't a Cadilac Escalade or Hummer H2. One the rare occasions I see an MBZ, or BMW, i just assume they are from Dallas visiting.

Originally Posted by artsyguy

I know there is much more class, nicer cars, and fashion sense in North Texas: it's a massively good culture shock going from Austin into North Texas.

[eepstein]

Your statements are mostly FALSE.

Originally Posted by feconi

Wow, what a shock! You agree with eepstein's mindless Austin bashing.

These things are exactly true for the culture of Dallas, Houston, and anywhere else in Texas. Indeed, Dallas easily beats out the other Texas metros for being the most Christian.

The crisitian areas MAY be higher in Dallas than Austin proper, but once you get out 5 miles out of the city center of Austin, then it's every bit as religious if not more. The consevative nature of Williamson County is something I haven't experienced since living in Colorado Springs nearly 10 years ago!!

The only real "culture shock" between the two cities is due to the differences in size and amenities (i.e., the obvious jump from a mid-sized metropolitan area to a very large one).

As usual, you make a mockery of Dallas--this time for pretending it is a progressive, vibrant fashion mecca.

A mockery? That is what you consider a fact? Dallas is one of the most progressive major cities in the country. Like San Francisco, and New York, NO, but surely up there will the other big cities of the nation.

Despite eepstein's purposefully false comments, there are plenty of "classy," wealthy people with nice cars in Austin. On any per capita or per household basis, Austin has the wealthiest metropolitan area in the state (see: Dallas-Ft. Worth or just the Dallas side of DFW versus Austin). You just find more of these things in Dallas because it's a much larger city.

The is Dallas as a WHOLE. You take North Dallas, Plano, and Frisco and they would all TROMP Austin as far as Mediam Household income, education levels, and school districts.

INdeed, you find a lot more superficial people in Dallas; "fake" and "superficial" are enduring trademarks of Dallas. Perhaps this is an element of the culture shock you speak of...

I have dozens of friends in the DFW metroplex, and rarely come across superficial people. OK, i must confess, the town of Highland Park DOES have some snootiness going on big time, but come one. It's only like the richest city in the whole country--i'll cut em some slack..