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We (my husband, my 2 year old son and I) are tired of the MN cold and really want to move to someplace warm. We have been hearing a lot of good things about Austin except that it does not have many jobs.
We both are in the Computer Software Industry, and have good jobs here in MN.
We will be interested in knowing how is the job market for the IT industry there? What are the different IT companies out there?
What are the good cities to live in?
What are the best daycares around?
Which area has good schools for early grades etc...?
What activities are out there for families? (Not drinking, bar hopping etc... but family activities and things to do over weekends)..
All help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
We (my husband, my 2 year old son and I) are tired of the MN cold and really want to move to someplace warm. We have been hearing a lot of good things about Austin except that it does not have many jobs.
We both are in the Computer Software Industry, and have good jobs here in MN.
We will be interested in knowing how is the job market for the IT industry there? What are the different IT companies out there?
What are the good cities to live in?
What are the best daycares around?
Which area has good schools for early grades etc...?
What activities are out there for families? (Not drinking, bar hopping etc... but family activities and things to do over weekends)..
All help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
I'm from Chicago, tried Austin for some time last year, and moved back again. I found that the area was very hyped up, and was more of a glorified college town than anything else. Very bad traffic, a horrific traffic grid, few cultural amenities besides local bar bands and a few festivals. It was certainly nice, but hardly what they make it out to be. I would still check it out myself to see how it is. You may like it. It has a few interesting club districts, though geared more towards college kids. I found that it had a surfeit of outdoor eateries, which seem to be its claim to fame. Some have really cute/original motifs, but that isn't suficient when that is all the city has to offer. If you are coming from Minn., you are accustomed to top notch library districts. Austin, and Texas in general, has some of the lowest funded library and school districts in the country. Libraries are only open 5 days a week, and the facilities are few and sorely lacking. In a nutshell, the city is nirvana for college kids and recent grads, and not so much so for those over 30 or so. Few neighborhoods with any personality outside of a small portion south of DT and near UT. Most of the city is composed of mega apartment complexes and big-box stores/malls, like any other new, hyped-up sunbelt city. Again, best to take a week trip, and see for yourself. Per getting out of the snowbelt, south florida, southern cal., and other places may be better suited for you. Finally, Austin has an abject lack of union representation in most sectors, and pays accordingly. I would check that situation out as well before you make any final decisions.
I also add that the two main Austin festivals are not free. South by Southwest is VERY expensive. Lanyards cost $500
dollars, while wristbands are a few hundred, and don't even get you in many venues. Austin city limits fest is the other
biggee, and charges several hundred for a ticket, to see the same bands you can check out for free at taste of chicago. You have to have a ticket just to enter, even if you are not interested in any particular bands. No wonderful milling about of the general populace that you see at taste of chicago, or other publicly funded fests. 6th street is barricaded off every week-end,
and is teeming with college kids wandering around stoned and drunk, throughout the entire year. Not exactly a family atmosphere. The handful of suburban districts are safe, but boring even for families. Just a bunch of big-box stores and
nondescipt strip malls....make sure you come out here and visit before you make a decision, and be aware of the fact that
their main entertainment district, 6th st., is a barricaded-off drunk fest for college kids 52 week-ends a year.
Last edited by scongress1234; 02-06-2008 at 03:31 PM..
I think overall the IT market is probably one of the better job markets here v. a lot of other industries. There are a lot of large employers (Dell, AMD for example) here as well as startups and smaller companies. I would just do a random tech job search on Monster.com to get an idea of the range of companies here and what is available.
There are a lot of great suburbs to live in, as well as downtown/central areas. Without knowing your housing budget and what you are looking for, it's hard to recommend one specific area. most of the suburban areas here are in pretty good school districts. You will find a lot of posts on here if you search the forum about which are better than others, but most really are pretty good.
There is plenty to do for families here; however, one area where I feel Austin sorely lacks is in good museums (I come from Chicago however, so the bar is set pretty high for me). Plenty of parks, sports teams, outdoor eating places with playscapes, areas to go on day trips with kids, festivals, etc. We are never lacking for something to do here and we have a 5 year old and an almost-3 year old!
I moved from CA to Round Rock over a year ago. Round Rock is near Austin. The purpose was because I couldn't afford to be a SAHM in CA. RR public library is open 7 days a week. They have excellent story times in the morning, different puppet shows and holiday parties throughout the year. They hold adult classes and family nights. Coming from CA I couldn't be more impressed with the services offered at the RR library.
There are also toddler programs offered at the Clay Madsen Recreation Ctr that are excellent and affordable. Plenty of parks and open space for kids to run around. The city is very Kid friendly and Old Settlers Park has easter egg hunts and Halloween parties. Also, Williamson County (which is where RR is located) was named one of the top ten for best use of tax dollars when it came to school funding.
I'm way past the bar scene but I also love Austin, the capital, town lake and the Childrens museum and there are enough cultural events to keep busy. I haven't traveled much outside of Austin, Georgetown and Round Rock. Hoping to do that when my husband finally get's vacation this summer!!
I'm a SAHM so I don't know much about child care but the website 404 Error - Page Not Found (broken link) can give you information on child care centers and if there have been any violations. Best of luck in your search!!
I moved from CA to Round Rock over a year ago. Round Rock is near Austin. The purpose was because I couldn't afford to be a SAHM in CA. RR public library is open 7 days a week. They have excellent story times in the morning, different puppet shows and holiday parties throughout the year. They hold adult classes and family nights. Coming from CA I couldn't be more impressed with the services offered at the RR library.
There are also toddler programs offered at the Clay Madsen Recreation Ctr that are excellent and affordable. Plenty of parks and open space for kids to run around. The city is very Kid friendly and Old Settlers Park has easter egg hunts and Halloween parties. Also, Williamson County (which is where RR is located) was named one of the top ten for best use of tax dollars when it came to school funding.
I'm way past the bar scene but I also love Austin, the capital, town lake and the Childrens museum and there are enough cultural events to keep busy. I haven't traveled much outside of Austin, Georgetown and Round Rock. Hoping to do that when my husband finally get's vacation this summer!!
I'm a SAHM so I don't know much about child care but the website 404 Error - Page Not Found (broken link) can give you information on child care centers and if there have been any violations. Best of luck in your search!!
I stand corrected per the library system in the suburbs, which seems to be better funded, for obvious reasons(smaller populace), than the city. Round Rock would be the obvious choice for families. I think it all depends what you are used to per the city you are from. If you are from a larger city with traditional museums, like aquariums, planetariums, science museums, and zoos and such, you obviously will be disappointed with Austin, as it essentially has just one museum that could possibly be construed as something kids would be interested in, the bullock texas history museum, which is well done, but again even that is more adult orientated. Outside of that, in Austin proper, you just have Zilker park, which does have a charming childrens' locomotive, and a small playground, along with a canoe launch, which is fun. That would literally be it, for a city over 700,000. I still think the city itself leaves tons to be desired per family friendly fun. Most of the festivals are quite baudy, with Eeyore's BD, for example, typically with freaks walking around naked with saran wrap and such. I think its family orientation is very much a work in progress, as families pretty much stay in the burbs for family activities, which are not that many. Again, in the burbs, as with the city, no museums, historical re-enactment villages like Conner's prairie outside of Indianapolis, no city-sized zoos, no amusement parks, and on and on. Austin and the burbs pretty much rely on the private sector(builders) to create whatever there is there, and they have evidentally decided that families are happy with a bunch of malls and housing developments. Very little civic involvement or neighborhood feeling, with a transient vibe the operative feeling. Just a constant flow of newcomers in search of community, and greedy developers that seem to have decided that folks are happy with a very antiseptic nothingness. Very sad really....I do think the bar of expectations is such right now that people seem to be happy
with the nothingness-nowhere that developers are creating outside of sunbelt cities, but this is a different age, and not
the one that I grew up in.
Last edited by scongress1234; 02-07-2008 at 06:41 AM..
scongress, I'm confused by how contradictory some of your posts are! In some, you're in love with Austin and desperate to get back, in others (like this one), you seem to be discouraging people from going there because you dislike it so much.
Not trying to hijack, but I am in a similar situation to the OP and am trying to sort out what's what from people's posts here. Could you clarify?
Unfortunately it sounds like scongress had a bad experience the few months he lived in Austin, but fortunately I think thats not the norm. Austin has great city services and very progressive environmental policy. There are all kinds of activities, especially outdoor ones that take advantage of the sunny weather 11 months of the year. Look into the Town Lake Hike & Bike Trail, LCRA parks in the Hill Country, free concerts at ACL show tapings. The downtown area is really growing pedistrian friendly with new residential developments. (still not sure if more condos are good though). For museums there is also the new Ransom Center on campus not to mention all the resources of UT. Its been my experience that there is lots of neighborhood character and community in central and south Austin as well as TX hospitality! Definitely take time to explore the city it has a lot to offer. Of course probably not the same level or quantity of offerings as big cities like NYC or Chicago but we don't have big city problems either like crime. (just dont tell to many people because its getting overcrowded as it is!)
My family and I relocated from silicon valley a couple of years ago. Austin is a regional city that is growing. If you come expecting NYC, San Francisco, or Chicago with an accent and warmer climate you will be disappointed. It is a big 'small' city and a great place to raise children. There are many strong elementary schools, and many things to do with young kids....
Zilker park has a nice play scape and railroad that runs along town lake. There is also a nature and science center with a touch and feel exhibit room, animals and birds that can't be released to the wild in a display area, and dinosaur pits where 'pretend' dinosaur bones are buried in sand pits so children can unearth them. There are also botanical gardens, Barton Springs Pool and the Umlauf sculpture garden.
There is a zoo outside of Austin, but it is a rehabilitation center and I think privately owned. If you want a 'real' zoo Waco or San Antonio are both close enough for day trips. Sea World is in SA as well.
There are various nature preserves around the area that have programs for children in the warmer months. Two ones that come to mind are Wild Basin and Balcones Canyonlands NWR. Here's the parks and rec site to check out more : City of Austin - Austin Nature Preserves System. Last summer we went to one where they opened the caves and let people go in. While they weren't very big the kids still seemed to enjoy it.
Austin has a First Night on New Years , with an early program for kids including crafts and activities. Fireworks are usually around 8, preceded by a parade that is admittedly a little weird.
The Bob Bullock State History Museum mentioned in another post has an IMAX theater that often has movies appropriate for kids. There is a children's museum downtown as well.
There is a lot of high tech here in Austin. I'm not sure how the job market is though.
As for places to live that's a personal choice of what you value and where your jobs are. Round Rock was nice, but we liked the hills so we purchased in NW Austin. South Austin, Dripping Springs, and Cedar Park seem to have more buzz these days.
scongress, I'm confused by how contradictory some of your posts are! In some, you're in love with Austin and desperate to get back, in others (like this one), you seem to be discouraging people from going there because you dislike it so much.
Not trying to hijack, but I am in a similar situation to the OP and am trying to sort out what's what from people's posts here. Could you clarify?
There is much good, but also much bad as well, hence my ambivalence. The bad is very bad. Local traffic is bad beyond belief. I never lived in an area where I was tailgated incessantly just about everywhere. The DT area is barricaded off every fri-sat night, full of blocks of college kids drunk and rude. Many of the new areas are full of quite rude new people and foreigners, especially the giant new apartment complexes. The streets are beyond confusing, and I still have no idea what the I-H stuff is on the map. I know its frontage roads off xpressways, but it gives no indication what side of the xpressway a store is, or what street to take to approach it. I spent 90 minutes one time just finding a movie theater off those I-H roads. People tend to almost run you off the road if you are looking for a road and aren't sure where you are going. I never got that anywhere in Chicago, even in the heart of the city. They charge for many events that are usually free in Austin. SXSW charges 200-500 bucks, and ACL fest charges 150 bucks. Thats a shock coming from a city that would never think of charging for a public fest. And you miss the funky mass of folks that you do get at the one major free fest, EEyore's BD. I went to an arts and craft show, and they were charging 10 bucks to enter that too. What DID I like? Lots as well. Many people WERE friendly outside of the transient new complexes, of which there are unfortunately many. There really was a bunch of creative folks all over, and much beauty was created by them everywhere. The hip areas were very impressive, and the outdoor eateries like Shady Grove and such were very ambiant and laid-back, like myself. The clubs in general, along with the festivals, had great music to die for. I recall a special moment at Antone's when Marcia Ball played, and they had a bunch of folding chairs set up for the old Austin folks, mostly over 50, and it was incredible. I used to go monthly to a backyard party full of old Austin hippies in tie-dies, some playing stand-up bases and mandolins, which was pot-luck, that met for the last 38 years at the same place.
So I loved Austin as much as I hated it.......I think my frustration lies in not coming here many years ago. I know it does.......I was blessed with seeing a taste of the old Austin, and it was very good. I sensed the passing of the old Austin, and it was very sad......this is hard to explain unless you've been there. And it won't be there much longer. I can see, new as I am/was, how those old days are ebbing fast, and how sweet and singular they once were. And this is why you get the same comments from the long-term locals on here, about how the newcomers have just about ruined everything forever. Again, I feel lucky and blessed to have gotten a little taste of the old, as few will even have a chance at that soon. Hope this clarifies my ambivalence.....
and maybe this picture will as well....
Last edited by scongress1234; 02-08-2008 at 06:19 PM..
So I loved Austin as much as I hated it.......I think my frustration lies in not coming here many years ago. I know it does.......I was blessed with seeing a taste of the old Austin, and it was very good. I sensed the passing of the old Austin, and it was very sad......this is hard to explain unless you've been there. And it won't be there much longer. I can see, new as I am/was, how those old days are ebbing fast, and how sweet and singular they once were. And this is why you get the same comments from the long-term locals on here, about how the newcomers have just about ruined everything forever. Again, I feel lucky and blessed to have gotten a little taste of the old, as few will even have a chance at that soon. Hope this clarifies my ambivalence.....
Thanks for clarifying this, as I was a bit confused too. I can clearly understand now why those who've lived in Austin before all the housing boom can be frustrated in the changes that came with it.
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