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Old 09-23-2007, 06:17 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles, CA
21 posts, read 83,087 times
Reputation: 18

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Hello All-

I am so excited to find this forum. I am originally from Minneapolis, but currently living in LA and looking to get out of here soon. I'm planning on visiting Austin in October. I would love to get some answers and advice from all of you.

Crowding:
How crowded is Austin? The reason I ask is LA is crowded. Everywhere you go there are people. It takes forever to get anywhere and when you do get some place, it is always crowded. So how crowded is Austin?

Apartments & Rent:
Which neighborhoods have older apartment buildings? I want to live some place that is urban, but nice. The apartments I’ve looked at online are all of those beige 70s and later apartments. Are there any cool old art deco type apartments in Austin? How much is rent usually for a one bedroom for an older building?

Parking:
How hard is it to park in Austin? I spend so much time looking for a place to park and then paying a lot just to park no matter where I go. What is the parking situation like there?

Traffic:
What is the traffic situation like there? I’ve heard it’s bad, but certainly not like LA. Does it take a long time to get everywhere?

Websites & blogs:
What are some other good online resources for moving to Austin?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Noah
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Old 09-24-2007, 02:25 PM
 
Location: Dallas, Texas
3,589 posts, read 4,149,739 times
Reputation: 533
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silogram View Post
Hello All-

I am so excited to find this forum. I am originally from Minneapolis, but currently living in LA and looking to get out of here soon. I'm planning on visiting Austin in October. I would love to get some answers and advice from all of you.

Crowding:
How crowded is Austin? The reason I ask is LA is crowded. Everywhere you go there are people. It takes forever to get anywhere and when you do get some place, it is always crowded. So how crowded is Austin?
Very!


Quote:
Apartments & Rent:
Which neighborhoods have older apartment buildings? I want to live some place that is urban, but nice. The apartments I’ve looked at online are all of those beige 70s and later apartments. Are there any cool old art deco type apartments in Austin? How much is rent usually for a one bedroom for an older building?
Older buildings in Austin are usually either very expensive or in the student ghetto. I've never seen an art deco building in Austin that you could...y'know...live in.

Quote:
Parking:
How hard is it to park in Austin? I spend so much time looking for a place to park and then paying a lot just to park no matter where I go. What is the parking situation like there?
In central Austin itself? Very bad.

Quote:
Traffic:
What is the traffic situation like there? I’ve heard it’s bad, but certainly not like LA. Does it take a long time to get everywhere?
When I last lived there, traffic was hell on earth. This was in 1999-2001. I've heard it is MUCH worse now.
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Old 09-24-2007, 09:21 PM
 
701 posts, read 2,482,822 times
Reputation: 207
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silogram View Post
Hello All-
Crowding:
How crowded is Austin? The reason I ask is LA is crowded. Everywhere you go there are people. It takes forever to get anywhere and when you do get some place, it is always crowded. So how crowded is Austin?
Depends. Sundays, downtown seems to be dead unless there's an event. It's nowhere near as crowded as LA though (but downtown LA is pretty dead on Sunday am too, IIRC)

Quote:
Parking:
How hard is it to park in Austin? I spend so much time looking for a place to park and then paying a lot just to park no matter where I go. What is the parking situation like there?
Downtown parking during the week can be difficult but not impossible. There are private lots as well as metered parking. Like LA, the 'burbish parts of Austin don't have much of a parking problem.

Quote:
Traffic:
What is the traffic situation like there? I’ve heard it’s bad, but certainly not like LA. Does it take a long time to get everywhere?
Not at all like LA. First of all, the freeway system is really small compared to LA. There are only a few arterial highways. Rush hour is more definite as opposed to what can be all day at times in parts of LA. But traffic is traffic, and there are parts where you do end up crawling for a bit before you can really move again.
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Old 09-25-2007, 04:32 AM
 
Location: Dallas, Texas
3,589 posts, read 4,149,739 times
Reputation: 533
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phisch View Post
Not at all like LA. First of all, the freeway system is really small compared to LA. There are only a few arterial highways. Rush hour is more definite as opposed to what can be all day at times in parts of LA. But traffic is traffic, and there are parts where you do end up crawling for a bit before you can really move again.
Last time I was in Austin it took an hour and a half to get through Travis County on 35, going north to south. It was horrifying.
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Old 09-25-2007, 11:16 AM
 
Location: Chandler, AZ
289 posts, read 1,138,899 times
Reputation: 273
Gotta second nativeDallasite on that one.

I am from bigger cities and I've never seen a harder city to drive through than Austin. East to West or North to South. Went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago and it was much easier and faster. If you want to get away from traffic, Austin is not your city.
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Old 09-25-2007, 11:22 AM
 
701 posts, read 2,482,822 times
Reputation: 207
I dunno, LA would beat Austin hands-down. Pretty much most of Southern California, for that matter. Also the rush "hour" there is much, much longer.

We've made the mistake of driving on I-35 at 4:30 pm on a Friday. That was awful and we claim temporary insanity. However, it still was better than I-405 from Long Beach to south Orange County any afternoon. IMO, frontage roads > car pool lanes.

(look, Ma! no "the" in front of the freeway numbers!)
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Old 09-25-2007, 11:28 AM
 
Location: Up in a cedar tree.
1,618 posts, read 6,617,438 times
Reputation: 563
Austin is working on HOV lanes.
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Old 09-25-2007, 11:53 AM
 
Location: SoCal
2,261 posts, read 7,233,328 times
Reputation: 960
Granted, I was only there for 4 days, but driving in Austin was like heaven compared to driving in LA (or Boston, for that matter). Sure, there's traffic... but NOTHING compared to LA. We even checked out I-35 during rush hour. Yep, lots of traffic... but it was still moving along at a pretty good pace. I drive from Ventura to LA a lot and it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours to go 40 miles on the 101.

Austin also seemed a lot less crowded than LA but had more of a "big city" feel.

I wonder if the people talking about how much traffic there is have actually lived in LA. (again, I should point out that I don't live in Austin... so maybe I was just lucky. On labor day weekend.)
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Old 09-25-2007, 02:40 PM
 
Location: Dallas, Texas
3,589 posts, read 4,149,739 times
Reputation: 533
Quote:
Originally Posted by tashina View Post
Gotta second nativeDallasite on that one.

I am from bigger cities and I've never seen a harder city to drive through than Austin. East to West or North to South. Went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago and it was much easier and faster. If you want to get away from traffic, Austin is not your city.
Amen to that. Austin is especially hard to navigate east/west, and your only real options north/south are Mo-Pac (hahaha) or 35 (double hahaha).

The hippies don't want any more roads built either. Austin's ruined.
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Old 09-25-2007, 03:07 PM
 
Location: Hutto, Tx
9,249 posts, read 26,697,972 times
Reputation: 2851
Austin will turn into another Dallas or Houston here very soon....not to worry!
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