If you want to move to Austin, then why not Houston? (Dallas: transplants, crime)

[Gunion Powder]

Originally Posted by lndigo

tropical storms & flooding aren't going to get any better over the years

The city will become more and more prepared to handle them, though.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Gunion Powder

The city will become more and more prepared to handle them, though.

Still doesn't mean it won't happen. Many cities are prepared for Earthquakes but they still devastate cities. Cities appeal is no competition to mother nature. Austin has flash flooding, but it is very easy to identify the areas that do flood, if you are worried about it, and avoid them. That's the same with San Antonio. Houston, even though areas, historically, have not flooded, they still could and that's a risk all Houstonians take.

[Gunion Powder]

Many flooded homes in Houston have already been destroyed and the land is being given back to the watershed. This fix along with the densifying of the city means more places for the water to go and even less people affected by it. Harvey is likely the worst we will see in our lifetimes.

So you couldn't use flooding to scare me into choosing Austin over Houston any more than you could use Sandy to get me to choose Pittsburgh over NYC.

[Trainwreck20]

*shrug* Hurricanes will continue to be a factor when choosing whether to move to Houston or not, but more so for the elderly. When (if ) I get older, I don't want to have to worry about evacuating or being stranded. As a younger person, it is a non-issue for me.

[Aquitaine]

I don't really know that I'd consider a, what was it, 800 year flood as a basis for planning the next 2-3 decades.

Houston and San Antonio are both more accessible cities than Austin. They've been bigger longer. Houston particularly is more cosmopolitan -- I work in the theatre here in Austin and Houston's arts scene has more money going into it (though Austin is catching up!). San Antonio is pretty far behind as we get actors from down there coming up here for work, though this may start to change as one of their theaters just 'went pro.'

But outside of the arts, Houston's economy is gigantic. Austin's is large and growing but doing anything here is more expensive, whether it's building (with the City of Austin trying its best to be San Francisco and our CodeNEXT nightmares) or getting around.

I'll take the weather and terrain in Austin over Houston any day. The weather may not be leaps and bounds better - it's only a matter of time until somebody tells you that they prefer Austin's "dry heat" over Houston or Dallas, and while that's true,
100 degrees is 100 degrees. I'd take New England in July and August over any place in Texas but right now I'm pretty glad to be here!

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

For an unskilled blue collar worker with no more than a high school diploma, the jobs will pay quite a bit more in Houston than Austin.

If a person can get hired on at one of the off-shore oil well drilling equipment factories in Houston, it would be possible to live a middle class lifestyle. With 2 similar incomes, it is possible to live a *comfortable* middle class lifestyle.

In Austin, a similar job will pay slightly more than minimum wage and it would take two and possibly 3 incomes to live a middle class lifestyle.

Austin is definitely a white collar city and the powers that be have every intention of keeping it that way. As the future nears, it seems that Austin is well on it's way to becoming a playground for the rich.

If I was young and just starting out, I'd never be able to make it in Austin on the wages they start out. Houston, on the other hand, is very blue-collar friendly. That's why so many of the auto and steel workers from the Rust Belt have moved to Houston.

I've met quite a few people in Austin originally from the Rust Belt who moved to Houston before moving to Austin, myself included.

[youngprodigy21]

IMO. Houston doesn't have the fun factor that Austin provides, but Houston is way more industrialized.

[Exult.Q36]

The only advantages that Austin has over Houston is it’s more pleasing to the eye, less flood prone, hilly terrain, and more outdoor activities. I think Houston wins every other category.

[youngprodigy21]

For nightlife, Austin hands down. One of the major drawbacks of Houston is that for a major city it's size, it does not have a centralized entertainment district like New Orleans has. Instead, everything seems to be spread out with small neighborhood pockets. The Montrose neighborhood is kinna neat. I call it Little Austin, as it shares that same hipster vibe.

[Gunion Powder]

Is Austin's nightlife actually better or is it simply more concentrated? I definitely think Houston definitely suffers from not having it's own "Sixth Street", but there's still more variety.