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I have lived in both Seattle (qualify that, Eastside of Seattle in a suburb but know the city well) and Austin (both northeast suburb and Southwest Austin City Limits, worked downtown and husband went to UT) and really loved my time in Austin and am enjoying living in Seattle. So I will do my best to give you some honest comparisons. I get that you may really dislike Seattle at this point and honestly wish I could tell you for your sake that Austin is really different than Seattle but I personally think the "vibe" is pretty similar. Both tech towns, both university towns, both have live music venues and strong artistic communites. Both have large communities into fitness - cycling, triathlon, running. Texans in general are more outgoing and outwardly friendly but yes, still laid back in the same sense of Seattle laid back in Austin proper. Differences? Certainly the topography and the weather are hugely different. Austin centers around either the state government and UT whereas Seattle has many different districts. Seattle is 3x the size, and you will notice that Austin is a much smaller town. Not a bad thing IMO...I rather liked the size but Seattle is a much more diverse population.
The other key thing to remember here is that Austin is still in Texas which is generally a conservative state for the most part. So for Texas, Austin is liberal leaning but relative to say, Boulder, CO (another place I lived near and worked in extensively), which is truly more liberal leaning, it feels more conservative. And for me personally Seattle feels a good bit more liberal than Austin. I say that because I am pretty conservative and was reasonably at home in Austin. Here, less so, though I feel people are still respectful or tolerant of different opinions, but conservatives are in the minority here, no doubt about it. So it will feel more conservative relative to Seattle. Is that bad? I don't think so because I think there is a pretty good live and let live attitude in Austin no matter what side of the fence you fall on.
Both cities have college campuses that are a major presence and you will have your fair share of homelessness in Austin too. I think politically, Washington touches issues that Texans won't really want to touch for a while such as legally assisted death, legalizing marajuana, legal recognition of same sex partnerships and LOL - taxing plastic shopping bags. Whether you think those policies are good or bad, it is relatively progressive to have them on the ballot.
Another key difference and maybe a silly one to some but not me...Austinites in general are not real big on recycling. Most of my neighbors did not recycle in Austin and would put out extra bags of trash. I would physically feel sick every trash day seeing all the trash and I love that in Seattle my trash is 1/5 of what I put on my curb each week when considering recycling, composting and true trash. All my neighbors do it and it is not cheap but the mindset here is truly more focused on the environment. Another issue for me...clean air. Seattle has really clean air and water in comparison and you will miss it. And billboards? I lived in King County for 8 months and could not place why it just seemed so darn clean in Seattle...until a friend told me that billboards taller than 8 feet were against the law. Brilliant idea, unless of course you are new town and want to find Target. You will notice that for sure. Billboards are EVERYWHERE in Austin.
And this should not come across as Austin bashing at all because there are many things I love about Austin. The restaurants and cool little dives there are places I really miss and have yet to replicate in Seattle. And I am speaking of cool places like Waterloo Ice House where adults can hang out with friends while kids play on the playscape. People are still intellectual in Austin but it's not a quality that screams at you like it can in Seattle. I don't think people take themselves as seriously in Austin in their personal lives as they can here. And Texans in general are just the friendliest people you can meet. Austin is a really fun town if you love live music and just living a slower pace of life. And let's not forget the lower cost of living, though you certainly can spend a lot if you want to, you don't have to. I think it's a great place to raise children too should that be on your radar.
From your posts I discern, it's just time for you to do something new and Austin should certainly be high on your list for places to relocate to. It's a very likeable place if you embrace it for what it is. It does have a lot of similarities to Seattle but it's still it's own unique place, just as Seattle is the only Emerald City, love her or hate her. Austin offers a high quality of life for the most part. And hey, you can always move if you don't like it...Austin isn't lacking for residents.
Hope this helps. And if you haven't visited Austin, you need to go. Good luck in your decision! Jennibc, can you chime in??
And the part I've put in bold above is EXACTLY why I prefer Austin to Seattle. After 18 years there, I just couldn't take it anymore! There are a few people lately that have been posting on the Austin forum that remind me of people up there and it has taken every bit of self control to not type QUIT TAKING YOURSELF SO SERIOUSLY, but I digress....
I think your take on both places is fairly accurate, however, maybe I am just more sensitive, but I don't find the 'vibe' the same at all. There's more ambient energy here, more liveliness when you go out. It's louder. I like that. It's nice to see people alive.
In my opinion, people here are laid back in the 'true' sense, in that it seems for most people I've met not much seems to bother them. Up there, it was more like a lack of energy or interest. And honestly, I think there are more artists here - they can still afford to live in this town, unlike the Seattle area.
I'm a little L libertarian so me Seattle and its nanny like qualities was just too much. There's a little of that in Austin (no smoking in bars etc.) but it isn't as bad as up there.
We've been back just over a year now and we don't regret the move a bit.
Well Jennibc maybe the people in austin aren't bothered by things because everybody there is on the same herd-mentality wave length.
If a group of Bill Maher loving people in skinny jeans and purple hair invaded Austin,Texas wearing The Long-Horns is Gay T-Shirt. I'm sure a ton of Austinites would be using the restroom in their pants and crying home to big mama back at their trailer park village.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennibc
And the part I've put in bold above is EXACTLY why I prefer Austin to Seattle. After 18 years there, I just couldn't take it anymore! There are a few people lately that have been posting on the Austin forum that remind me of people up there and it has taken every bit of self control to not type QUIT TAKING YOURSELF SO SERIOUSLY, but I digress....
I think your take on both places is fairly accurate, however, maybe I am just more sensitive, but I don't find the 'vibe' the same at all. There's more ambient energy here, more liveliness when you go out. It's louder. I like that. It's nice to see people alive.
In my opinion, people here are laid back in the 'true' sense, in that it seems for most people I've met not much seems to bother them. Up there, it was more like a lack of energy or interest. And honestly, I think there are more artists here - they can still afford to live in this town, unlike the Seattle area.
I'm a little L libertarian so me Seattle and its nanny like qualities was just too much. There's a little of that in Austin (no smoking in bars etc.) but it isn't as bad as up there.
We've been back just over a year now and we don't regret the move a bit.
Yikes. Sorry to hear you have to put up with that nonsense.
The last non-HOA neighborhood we lived in was horrible, too. We had a guy across the street running a landscaping business from his garage, where he encouraged his dozen or so workers to come work on the equipment and drink beer from about 7pm until midnight 3-4 times a week while blaring salsa music. Next door to them a lived a guy who owned a mini bike that could only be operated from 2am to 4am Monday through Thursday when he got home from the bar and drag raced up and down the street with it. Two doors down was a guy and his son who seemed to aspire to be Sanford and Son, complete with multiple rotting appliances laying around in their front yard (washer, dryer, fridge, oven).
Thankfully, none of these people were belligerent, unless you count the survivalsit who lived kitty corner behind us and had several billion watt flood lamps in his back yard set to a motion sensor that turned them on every time a gnat flew through his yard at night. It was like living behind a slow motion disco parlor. Tried to talk to him once and got the imrpession he was sizing me up for target practice.
While some HOA's can suck, I'll take them over utter chaos any day.
Well Jennibc maybe the people in austin aren't bothered by things because everybody there is on the same herd-mentality wave length.
If a group of Bill Maher loving people in skinny jeans and purple hair invaded Austin,Texas wearing The Long-Horns is Gay T-Shirt. I'm sure a ton of Austinites would be using the restroom in their pants and crying home to big mama back at their trailer park village.
You're saying this about the city where Leslie ran for mayor and got votes and is one of our more famous residents, and you think THAT would scare us?
As for skinny jeans and purple hair, I've been seeing that in Austin for donkey's years.
As for Bill Maher, eh. Except that he's apparently dumb enough (or attention hungry enough) to fall for PETA's bilge when even THEY admit they consider the truth to be a piddling consideration (direct from Ingrid Newkirk), I can take him or leave him - agree with him on some things and disagree with him on others. Certainly doesn't scare me, or anyone I know.
And then their are the minor things, like during the election year when it was open season on me and my husband for being Republicans in a Democratic city. Do you know how many derrisive and hateful things were said to us "Just in joke?" When I went to management about a coworker who was being especially vicious, they blew me off. Come to find out they all were also Democrats who empathised to the left.
I lived in Seattle for one year, and there were many things I really loved about it. But I really hated those people. "Pretentious Hippies" is what I called them. They think that being liberal and being open-minded is synonymous, and it is not. And don't get me wrong- I am a huge Obama-loving Democrat!! But I really dislike liberal people who behave that way, it gives the truly open minded liberals (who actually are in the majority, I promise) a bad name. I currently live in Memphis and I get the same treatment- just the other way around- so I feel your pain.
1.) A neighbor lady who remarried, found God and turned her house next door to us into an unsupervised homeless house which quickly became a crack house for three years until the frequent police calls and neighbor complaints shut it down.
2.) The neighbors on the other side who started out friendly, but then let their twin boys run wild through the neighborhood from the time they were 3-years-old. These boys would seriously open our house door, run in, and refuse to leave. At all hours of the day. If we locked the door, they would ring the doorbell over and over until we came down.
...the chicken dung smell was horrendous and a massive population of rats invaded the neighborhood.
3.) The beautiful trees which looked so nice when we moved in have crushed three holes in our roof over the years.
Good grief, I should think you would be grateful that you haven't had meteorites and tornadoes hitting your house with luck like that! All the people I know in Seattle LOVE it there and have had none of the issues you list. I really do think it's just a coincidence of misfortune and not a general characteristic of the city.
Your perceptions about the politics there are probably somewhat realistic. Even though I'm a left-leaning person myself, I've experienced a kind of fascist political correctness in parts of Seattle, Portland and especially Eugene. Austin is much less oppressive with its politics. I've been to many a social gathering here where one could see Democratic and Republican bumper stickers side-by-side, and I commonly find that conservatives and liberals befriend one another more here and they did where I lived in northern California.
Likewise, I've seen ridiculously (and delightfully) mixed crowds in places like the Continental Club --- kids with mohawks dancing next to old-timers in cowboy hats and middle-aged hippies with pony tails. It's not like that in the outlying areas or even most of downtown (any more), but in South Austin and a few other neighborhoods you can still find remnants of the old mix.
I'll never forget the first dinner party my girlfriend and I had when we moved here. She invited some co-workers from the old Whole Foods store to join us. One of them was a wild-looking guy with hair down to his waist and he was an outspoken Republican. At the same time, I was learning that the clone-like UT students I was teaching, who all groomed and dressed the same to my Californian eyes, held political views so diverse that I couldn't predict anything based on outward appearances. I soon realized that Austin and the west coast are very different places. I still haven't quite figured out Austin some 20 years after moving here, so it continues to hold my interest.
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Good grief, I should think you would be grateful that you haven't had meteorites and tornadoes hitting your house with luck like that! All the people I know in Seattle LOVE it there and have had none of the issues you list. I really do think it's just a coincidence of misfortune and not a general characteristic of the city.
