Forget California: Now it's Florida & New York sending the most transplants to Austin! (Houston: best city, college)

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by theone33

Yeah California is basically a millionaire's playground at this point. It's not very cool to me to be a 40 something year old and forced to either have apartment roommates or live in a ghetto because you dont make six figures. Good luck ever owning your own property. Yeah, most havent left the state besides trips to Las Vegas but still have it drilled into their heads that its Heaven On Earth.

They don't get it. In their eyes they think they've reached a higher stage of nirvana by shunning the accumulation of material things like a house, equity, property investments, businesses, assetts, higher salary, lower cost of living, etc.

They only measure things you can't even quantify like weather, more "tolerant" people, eclectic stores, etc.

More power to them and they have a different value system so to each his own but what grinds my gears is when they tell a hard working guy who's able to pay for a big house, two cars, has a nest egg, raising a family and has built up what little is left of the American Dream, that they're just not living.

[janineg]

I'm glad that you started one at your school, but I'm surprised they didn't already know about something that's been going on in Austin for decades now.

Well, of course everyone's heard of school gardens, but they are much rarer in Leander ISD than CA (so says the school garden consultant whose services we've employed). However, I understand than Austin ISD has a full-time outdoor learning specialist and tons of school gardens. One school even has goats! I'm pretty envious.

You'd been here a month and instead of exploring and enjoying the Tex-Mex and interior Mexican food that is available here (different kinds of interior Mexican, at that), you want someone to bring "good" Mexican food to Austin

That's not quite fair. I'd eaten at a few places (admittedly, in Cedar Park) and poured through posts on this board to find the kind of Mexican food I was used to, and read that it didn't exist here. Having lived 20 minutes from the border; it was pretty authentic Baja style food that I was used to. I'd met neighbors down the street who moved here from San Diego, and they were hispanic; the wife barely spoke English. They both lamented not being able to find the same kind of Baja Mexican food. I don't know what the big sin is in favoring a style of food you're used to.

And not to beat a dead horse, but as a contrast I'll mention that I had a much more sympathetic approach towards out of towners who moved to San Diego. There was a woman who moved to San Diego from Denmark. She left her family behind and didn't really want to move away, but her husband found a job in San Diego. Rather than telling her that if she didn't love and appreciate every aspect of San Diego she should move back to Denmark, I remember hoping that San Diego pleased her and that she could find some Danish friends.
The fact is, no place is perfect, and Californians certainly don't mind crticizing their own state. Maybe it's because they don't have a seperate pledge of allegiance dedicated to just CA

[janineg]

By the way, I'm sorry to have hi-jacked this thread. Here's the original poster's question:

Floridians, New Yorkers, New Englanders: Three questions..

1. Why Austin?
2. What do you like about being down here?
3. What has been difficult?

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by janineg

Well, of course everyone's heard of school gardens, but they are much rarer in Leander ISD than CA (so says the school garden consultant whose services we've employed). However, I understand than Austin ISD has a full-time outdoor learning specialist and tons of school gardens. One school even has goats! I'm pretty envious.


That's not quite fair. I'd eaten at a few places (admittedly, in Cedar Park) and poured through posts on this board to find the kind of Mexican food I was used to, and read that it didn't exist here. Having lived 20 minutes from the border; it was pretty authentic Baja style food that I was used to. I'd met neighbors down the street who moved here from San Diego, and they were hispanic; the wife barely spoke English. They both lamented not being able to find the same kind of Baja Mexican food. I don't know what the big sin is in favoring a style of food you're used to.

And not to beat a dead horse, but as a contrast I'll mention that I had a much more sympathetic approach towards out of towners who moved to San Diego. There was a woman who moved to San Diego from Denmark. She left her family behind and didn't really want to move away, but her husband found a job in San Diego. Rather than telling her that if she didn't love and appreciate every aspect of San Diego she should move back to Denmark, I remember hoping that San Diego pleased her and that she could find some Danish friends.
The fact is, no place is perfect, and Californians certainly don't mind crticizing their own state. Maybe it's because they don't have a seperate pledge of allegiance dedicated to just CA

Again, you're missing the point. Instead of embracing where you'd moved to, you focused on finding what was familiar, and when you couldn't find that, you started a post declaring that, in essence, in your title, there was no "good" Mexican food here.

I've not moved to California, though I did move to Seattle (and back then there was NO BBQ and the enchiladas had soy sauce on them, but I didn't complain, just found what was good there). But when we visited San Francisco, we learned a trick we've used in every new place we've visited since. Find someone walking down the street who looks like a local. Ask them, "If you could eat at any restaurant within 6 blocks, where would it be?" If their eyes light up and they say, "You HAVE to try X place!", go there for lunch or dinner and you'll likely be very happily surprised. If they casually list four or five places, thank them politely, then move on to the next local looking person. Do NOT, not, NOT go (or move) to Boston and complain that there's no decent BBQ - try the seafood or Italian food or whatever the local specialties are. When visiting friends (who moved there from Texas) in D.C. one year, I didn't go looking for BBQ or TexMex and complain because it wasn't available - instead, I discovered Afghani food, which became a new passion.

In other words, when moving to a new place, be where you are, not where you were.

As for the Danish woman, I wouldn't tell her to move back to Denmark (and didn't tell you to move back to California, though I have told people on here that were clearly flat out miserable in Austin or wherever they were and there was obviously no hope of changing that feeling that life is too short to be where you are miserable and they should live where they are happy - Austin isn't nirvana for everyone nor should it be). I would, however, find out what she missed about Denmark and see if I could find how we fill that need here (all human needs are the same and they are filled different ways in different places) and introduce her to that. And probably ask her to teach me how to cook some of her Danish recipes and teach her how to cook Texas cuisine (which varies dramatically from region to region, by the way, if you haven't figured that out yet).

[ATX Wahine]

The most vociferous anti-transplant posters here are, as usual, the ones who don't even live in Austin themselves, or came here from somewhere else, but still qualify themselves as experts on the subject with a myriad of "I'm here often on business", or "I still come here to visit friends/eat/shop" excuses. And they're not only experts on Austin, they also know everything about every other state and its residents, too! Amazing!

[theone33]

Originally Posted by Nor Cal Wahine

The most vociferous anti-transplant posters here are, as usual, the ones who don't even live in Austin themselves, or came here from somewhere else, but still qualify themselves as experts on the subject with a myriad of "I'm here often on business", or "I still come here to visit friends/eat/shop" excuses. And they're not only experts on Austin, they also know everything about every other state and its residents, too! Amazing!

Being an older man who was in the military and practically stopped working a 9-5 for 8 years to explore the country and world gave me a nice view on other places.

[CT_ATX]

Originally Posted by janineg

By the way, I'm sorry to have hi-jacked this thread. Here's the original poster's question:

LOL. I think was the only one that answered those.

[Novacek]

The title doesn't match the data. The data says Florida sends the most to Travis County. They don't measure who sends the most to either Austin (the city) or Austin (the metro, including the other 4 counties).

[riaelise]

Why Austin (well the metro area for me. I lived in Austin probably 1 out of my 12 years here)? I came here for love.

What do I like about being down here? I get to live with the awesome man that I married twelve years ago. Oh, and yeah my quality of life is better IMO.

What has been difficult? Nothing. Public transportation is just ok/barely adequate, but I've dealt with it all of these years.

[ATX Wahine]

Originally Posted by riaelise

I came here for love.

Same with me. I married a native Austinite who was on temporary assignment for his employer in the Bay Area. He brought me back with him. I love Austin, as does every transplant that I personally know. I have a great life here and just accept the issues that come with a growing city because I underwent the same growth back in the Bay Area. It's just life in a nomadic nation of free people.