Is Austin a southern, southwestern, or western city? (Houston, Dallas: 2013, restaurant)

[jobert]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

I don't think your income equivalency is correct. I used one of those calculators and it gave me almost a 2:1 ratio for Maui:Texas. Cost of living is much higher, especially considering the state income tax.

Are you sure you want to live on the wet side of Kauai? If it's anything like Maui it will be overcast every day, and rain a LOT. As far as I know Kauai is much wetter. Think Houston in the winter, but much worse.

The issue isn't whether your kids are embarassed to be haole. It will be how they're treated and how often they get beat up for being not only haole, but outsiders from the mainland. I know a lady who works at the local high school, and it really is rough. There's a lot of drug use, teen pregnancy, fights, etc. Basically like a rough urban school on the mainland.

BTW the middle school I went to in Houston was a somewhat rough urban school, and it does suck.

The jobs we looked at in Kauai that were equivalent to ours in Austin paid about 150K total, while we make about 120K here. The house would be a downgrade/downsize - we aren't asking for much, and we feel our house here is palatial and somewhat unnecessary. We also preferred the wet side - we stayed in Hanalei, and loved it - but it was expensive, so we are looking near Kapaa/Wailua. It was always 75, we never got burned, and the sun was manageable. Only when it came out (directly overhead) were we like "OMFG It's hot!!" and reminded we were in the tropics with the sun near the zenith. The dry side was desolate like a martian landscape, even though it was only a few miles from the "wettest spot on Earth" I was amazed by the whole experience. Why are you moving back? The Island Fever you mentioned?

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by jobert

The jobs we looked at in Kauai that were equivalent to ours in Austin paid about 150K total, while we make about 120K here. The house would be a downgrade/downsize - we aren't asking for much. I feel our house here is palatial and somewhat unnecessary. I liked the wet side - we stayed in Hanalei, and loved it. It was always 75, we never got burned, and the sun was manageable. Only when it came out (directly overhead) were we like "OMFG It's hot!!" and reminded we were in the tropics with the sun near the zenith. The dry side was desolate like a martian landscape, even though it was only a few miles from the "wettest spot on Earth" I was amzed by the whoile experience. Why are you moving back? The Island Fever you mentioned?

Island fever, remoteness, and I can't afford to live here. I work at the County of Maui as an entry level GIS technician. My salary is $37k, which ends up being $35k with the biweekly furloughs we have now, and then the state tax and pension and insurance gets taken out... suddenly I only get $980 per paycheck which isn't enough to live on Maui.

Going to the beach every weekend and hiking is good cheap fun, but I can't afford to do things I want to like spend a measly $250 for a used kayak, or take a plane to another island, or even get dental work done.

In Texas I could make twice as much, with much lower cost of living. I just checked a salary equivalency calculator and it's like I make $22k in Texas!

$150k is probably fine as long as you have enough to pay for private school.

[winkosmosis]

BTW I was living in Wailuku, which is pretty wet but not nearly as much as the wettest areas. I got tired of it so I moved to semiarid Kihei, which I like a lot more. It reminds me of Central TX. There's even mesquite growing everywhere (invasive species)

[BentBow]

It is San Francisco, on the 3rd Coast.

The out lying suburbs are somewhat like Beverley Hills

The rural properties are pure Texas.

[TexasReb]

Well, I am not going to re-enter (unless tremendously provoked! LOL) on whether or not Austin is Southern/Southwestern/Western (my opinion is there for the record anyway), but I DID want to add something as to its climate.

That is to say, some have classified it as "semi-arid". It isn't. It really falls on the border of what can be called "humid sub-tropical" or "sub-humid-sub-tropical."

The Climate of Texas

Texas Climate Descriptions

The climate of Austin is humid subtropical with hot summers and relatively mild winters. Austin, the capital of Texas, is located at the junction of the Colorado River and the Balcones escarpment, separating the Texas Hill Country from the Blackland Prairies to the east. Elevations within the city vary from 400 feet to just above 1000 feet above sea level. Mild weather prevails during most of the winter, but temperatures fall below freezing on average 25 days a year. Strong mid-winter cold fronts can usher in brief but frigid conditions.

In a nutshell- Austin's climate is much more akin to the lower elevation southeastern part of the country than to the interior southwest. In fact, for all the Hollywood "western movie" imagery, only a fourth (perhaps, stretching it, a third) or so of Texas can be called semi-arid or arid.

[atx58]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Austin is on the edge of the black plains and the hill country. The climate is semiarid, unlike the South.

Edit: Didn't realize this thread was inactive for so long. But I won't apologize for bumping it. It's worth discussing Austin's culture and physical geography. Even all the way here on Maui, people are interested in Austin because it's a potential destination to move to. I had one friend who was about to move to Austin but was skeptical because she thought it was a Southern city.


Here's a map of US cultural regions. Note that Austin is on the edge of the SW. No, it's not a SW city, but it's more SW than S.

That map is uncredible pointless garbage.

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by jdevelop2

Would Austin be more comparable to Nashville, Phoneix, or San Diego?

More like San Antonio than any of those in my book

[HUM398]

Austin is a southern city according to all measure that matter...Historic, and Cultural. If find it a bit erroneous to try to fit the entire South into this monolithic identity.

For starters, not a single person on here has been able to verbalize what exactly it is to be southern. I have seen some of the most ridiculous arguments against Texas as a wholes southernness on this board, that i have heard anywhere.

"They don't serve sweet-tea by default"...LOL

"Its too dry to be southern"...LOL

"it doesn't look like Mississippi"...LOL

Lets look at some Historical factors that qualify and secure Texas place as a "southern" state.

1. They were an original member of the CSA.

2. They murdered and butchered German-American and German Unionist

3. They threw out their Governor for not getting on board

4. Supplied the CSA with both men and supplies for the war, and Texans earned their southern stripes by sacrificing men on what the rest of you call Southern soil.

5. Texas was a Strong-hold post "The War for Southern Independence"...a term frequently used in texas during that era.

6. Texas believed and BELIEVES in Sovereignty of the state of Texas and other states.

7. Texas was part of the Solid South, and was the last stronghold for democrats before it flipped for republicans and established the New Solid south

8. Texas has ALWAYS been one of the souths loudest voices. We have never unified ourselves with the southwest for any reason.


Cultural- and guess what, it doesn't have a dang thing to do with tea....

1. Bible belt- Texas has always been a Christian and protestant strong hold.

2. Texas is King Cotton, and our beginnings are DEEPLY rooted in the agricultural culture of cash crops. To this day we are the nations LEADING cotton producing state.

3. We are rural america, we have more farms and ranches then anywhere else in the country. Rural america and southern america are VERY VERY VERY similar culturally.

4. The Southern Black culture is strong, long, and well


Are we Antebellum South? Only a portion of our state, an area roughly the size of Mississipi. Are we Old South? Yes. Are we deep south? Historically yes, Culturally speaking...that same Mississipi sized region. Are we new south? YES.


This idea that Hispanics or germans or catholics don't have a place in southern culture or history is revisionist at best. By the same argument, Cajun Culture is not Southern. Gullah Culture is not southern.

The south is diverse as a place as you can get. In fact it is the richest, deepest, and purest cultures we have in this Country.

Guess, what....Austin by virtue of being in the state of texas is SOUTHERN.

Now i do accept El Paso to be Southwestern, and believe it to be the gate way to the southwest. I also hate that city as the most non-texan city i have ever had the displeasure of roaming through. Historically speaking it has always been that way. It wasn't ever really considered a part of texas terrotory until around 1850, around 15 years after the establishment of the Republic. it was a concession prize after Texas agreed to give up a large portion of its claim above the Mason-Dixon. El Paso still isn't like by most Texans. The Sub-region of the "south" ends culturally just south of hwy 285 in south texas. South of Uvalde in Central Texas. West of Fort Stockton. Historically, The entire state is Southern.

[TexasHorseLady]

Your personal opinion, of course. As it's said, everyone has one.

[clarksvillemom]

Not southern. Texas has never seemed like part of the deep south or new south to me, although I know it was part of the south in the civil war of course. If I had to choose, southwestern I guess. I like tex mex, to tell th truth