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Exactly. However, people will need to figure that out once they get out here and suffer the disappointment of their lives. Again, i suspect that once California gets back on it's feet, HUGE numbers of people in Austin will leave the area and head back to the Golden State. I guess I may be able to understand people moving here from the midwest (although that's still a stretch), but I could never understand someones desire to move to Austin from ANYWHERE in California.
Quote:
Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston)
I've always felt that Austin is over-hyped. The nightlife there is nothing special. I mean, it gets crunk sometimes but honestly i don't see a vast difference between the nightlife that happens in Houston, Dallas, or Ft. Worth, and that's including their downtown areas.
Someone was also mentioning that Austin has more green areas such as parks to congregate in. It's an easy feat to accomplish when a town is over 5 times smaller than the two largest metropolitan areas in the state. All that means is that Austin is not as developed and has various parks and such to fill in the gaps.
I don't hate Austin, but its not one of my Texas favorite cities either. DFW, S/A, and Houston top my list (forgive me i don't know about lonely El Paso).
Austin to me felt too much like my hometown of Colorado Springs, CO except maybe a tad more progressive with a "big city" skyline, 6th Street, and the upcoming mass transit system. Either way, not hating but i don't understand the reason for all the attention it gets.
Exactly. However, people will need to figure that out once they get out here and suffer the disappointment of their lives. Again, i suspect that once California gets back on it's feet, HUGE numbers of people in Austin will leave the area and head back to the Golden State. I guess I may be able to understand people moving here from the midwest (although that's still a stretch), but I could never understand someones desire to move to Austin from ANYWHERE in California.
The only dissapointment I've had was when I found out that middle class people were priced out of hill country 10 years ago, but I moved on rather quickly. Other than that, it was what I expected from a city of 700K people - I wasn't expecting Paris, Tokyo or even SF, but the quality of life here for what I've had to pay has been the best decision I've made. I'm not stacked on top of someone, I'm 8 minutes from downtown in a new house on a greenbelt whose mortgage only costs me 20% of my net family income, I work less than I did in Dallas, I have more free options for entertainment (25 mile drives and $300 for tickets to Cowboys games, $150 weekly trips to the Dallas aquarium for the fam, etc. I gave up a long time ago - among other big ticket experience that you seem to crave.) Since moving here, I've let go of my fascination with money that plagued me elsewhere, and my quality of life has not suffered one bit. The previous 4 years in Dallas added 13K of credit card debt to my financial situation, which I was able to reverse 10K of it within the last 2 years since moving here, and I attribute it to the lifestyle of frugality and low footprint that this city has excelled in creating. People may complain about the cost of property and property tax, but besides that, you can live on $100/week and be perfectly happy in this town if you really had to because of all the available options. The first step would be to leave Avery Ranch, USA and get more exposure to central Austin. For example, Do you have $5? Go to the Zilker Kite Festival this weekend and meet people... bring your cooler, kick off the shoes, stay a while.
I bought some new shoes at Academy the other day. Whilst making small talk with the cashier I learned she was not from Austin.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Fort Worth."
"Oh, well welcome. What brought you to Austin?"
"Well, there's more culture in Austin than up there."
"Really? Have you ever visited The Kimball when you lived in Fort Worth? I've yet to go, but before I leave Texas again hope to make a trip up there eventually. It was designed by one of the U.S.'s premier architects, Louis Kahn!"
Crickets chirping. Vacant stare.
Cashier:
"I've never heard of that place. By culture I mean bars. I mean there are more bars and things for people my age. Plus, the food is better here."
"Really? Fort Worth doesn't have a decent restaurant scene?"
What I realized was that this young lady (she was probably about 22) and I had very different ideas of what constitutes culture. Neither conception is incorrect, they're just different. For her, culture is body shots and Flaming Dr. Peppers followed by tacos and maybe some vomiting. I've been there done that, don't have any interest in another ticket. For myself, older and with a more sensitive liver, culture consists of museums, libraries, panel discussions, symphonic music in the parks, red wine, picnics, you know, boring old people stuff. I used to be like the girl from Academy, but I've outgrown all of that and to some extent, as far as it concerns myself and myself only, have outgrown Austin; but I also have no desire to live in Houston or Dallas.
I used to think Austin beat the pants off of Dallas and Houston. I don't think that any more. I think Austin provides some people with what they want, Houston provides others with what they want, and Dallas provides others . . . same could be said for any city. So to the OP, it depends on what your expectations are, what kind of adjustments you're willing to make, and where you think you'll feel most at ease.
I'm hoping graduate school will take me out of Texas within a few years, but for now Austin it is. It's not my choice, but here I am. I do wish I could take Dallas's DART system and plop it onto Austin. That would be so righteous.
Is it even fair to compare Austin to Dallas and/or Houston? I know they're all cities in Texas, but Austin is 1/4 the size of Dallas and Houston, so of course it's not going to compare when it comes to big city amenities. A more fair comparison would be between Austin a city of similar size such as Fort Worth (excluding Dallas for a minute), Portland, or Columbus.
What I realized was that this young lady (she was probably about 22) and I had very different ideas of what constitutes culture. Neither conception is incorrect, they're just different. For her, culture is body shots and Flaming Dr. Peppers followed by tacos and maybe some vomiting. I've been there done that, don't have any interest in another ticket. For myself, older and with a more sensitive liver, culture consists of museums, libraries, panel discussions, symphonic music in the parks, red wine, picnics, you know, boring old people stuff. I used to be like the girl from Academy, but I've outgrown all of that and to some extent, as far as it concerns myself and myself only, have outgrown Austin; but I also have no desire to live in Houston or Dallas.
I used to think Austin beat the pants off of Dallas and Houston. I don't think that any more. I think Austin provides some people with what they want, Houston provides others with what they want, and Dallas provides others . . . same could be said for any city. So to the OP, it depends on what your expectations are, what kind of adjustments you're willing to make, and where you think you'll feel most at ease.
I'm hoping graduate school will take me out of Texas within a few years, but for now Austin it is. It's not my choice, but here I am. I do wish I could take Dallas's DART system and plop it onto Austin. That would be so righteous.
I loved that story!
However as someone who has spent time partying in Fort Worth, if you want to party and drink until youre vomiting off the balcony of your bar, you can do that there too. I do agree Austin is more party oriented.
Youre absolutely right, it is different strokes for different folks.
Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
5,429 posts, read 14,838,516 times
Reputation: 3672
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nomadic9460678748
What I realized was that this young lady (she was probably about 22) and I had very different ideas of what constitutes culture. Neither conception is incorrect, they're just different. For her, culture is body shots and Flaming Dr. Peppers followed by tacos and maybe some vomiting. I've been there done that, don't have any interest in another ticket. For myself, older and with a more sensitive liver, culture consists of museums, libraries, panel discussions, symphonic music in the parks, red wine, picnics, you know, boring old people stuff.
Pretty spot-on.
For me, I had tired of the first idea of culture by about age 24. After that, it was all about the second example of culture you gave.
For some people though, they may be 35 before they get to that point. Or 45.
Or, never.
Well I make a full 10K less here than I would in either Dallas or Houston. And about 15 less than what I'd make in NYC. But that is ok because I don't think I'd ever want to live in a large city again. I like suburbs of Dallas and Houston but don't like the drive into the city. If my husband lived in either of those cities, I would not give up my home in NYC to move to be frank.
I don't even live in Austin. I live in suburbia, and my life is much less stressful than it ever was in a large city.
I've been enjoying this thread immensely, and I feel the time has come to humbly offer my point of view.
I currently live in Salt Lake City and I'm moving to Austin for the following reasons.
- I have absolutely had it with cold weather. Never again.
- I hate cars, and will never own one again. Unfortunately, this is directly oppositional to my aversion to cold, as the least car-dependent cities tend to be in the Northeast. I would love to ride the subway and live amongst palm trees, but this isn't really possible in America.
- I love culture, and by this I mean symphonies and museums as well as bars and alcohol. (I'm 27, and I can enjoy college scenes as well as concertos in the park.) I'm aware that Dallas and Houston have more to offer in terms of theatre, ballet, etc. BUT
I ride MY BICYCLE everywhere. I'm not going to live in a place where I have to spend 2 hours on the freeway just to visit a friend. I would LOVE to live in a huge city like NY or LA but NY is cold and LA is, IMHO, a microcosm of everything that is wrong with America (mostly, a bunch of dense sprawl, a malignant culture of superficiality and a lack of social cohesion resulting from people spending most of their free time alone in their cars.)
So, artsyguy and eepstein, to the young(ish) kids like me who are so fond of Austin, it doesn't matter if a city offers the best cultural institutions in the world if that city is surrounded by MILES UPON MILES OF SPRAWLING FREEWAYS, STRIP MALLS, AND SUBURBS that make me want to pop prozac from a pez dispenser.
Also, conspicuous consumption disgusts me. (Which should be obvious coming from a bicyclist.)
I've been enjoying this thread immensely, and I feel the time has come to humbly offer my point of view.
I currently live in Salt Lake City and I'm moving to Austin for the following reasons.
- I have absolutely had it with cold weather. Never again.
- I hate cars, and will never own one again. Unfortunately, this is directly oppositional to my aversion to cold, as the least car-dependent cities tend to be in the Northeast. I would love to ride the subway and live amongst palm trees, but this isn't really possible in America.
- I love culture, and by this I mean symphonies and museums as well as bars and alcohol. (I'm 27, and I can enjoy college scenes as well as concertos in the park.) I'm aware that Dallas and Houston have more to offer in terms of theatre, ballet, etc. BUT
I ride MY BICYCLE everywhere. I'm not going to live in a place where I have to spend 2 hours on the freeway just to visit a friend. I would LOVE to live in a huge city like NY or LA but NY is cold and LA is, IMHO, a microcosm of everything that is wrong with America (mostly, a bunch of dense sprawl, a malignant culture of superficiality and a lack of social cohesion resulting from people spending most of their free time alone in their cars.)
So, artsyguy and eepstein, to the young(ish) kids like me who are so fond of Austin, it doesn't matter if a city offers the best cultural institutions in the world if that city is surrounded by MILES UPON MILES OF SPRAWLING FREEWAYS, STRIP MALLS, AND SUBURBS that make me want to pop prozac from a pez dispenser.
Also, conspicuous consumption disgusts me. (Which should be obvious coming from a bicyclist.)
There's my two cents, y'all have a nice day!
Good luck with your move.
Be forewarned, Austin is pretty sprawly, requires tons of driving, and has lots of freeways, strip malls, and suburban tract housing. It is still a Texas city.
I hope you'll find the right neighborhood to live car-free, because it's not going to be super easy.
Haven't been to SLC in many years, but here's my take on your comments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ammonman
I've been enjoying this thread immensely, and I feel the time has come to humbly offer my point of view.
I currently live in Salt Lake City and I'm moving to Austin for the following reasons.
- I have absolutely had it with cold weather. Never again.
Austin is FAR from tropical. It does get cold here and frequently during the winter. The main difference is that unlike SLC, the cold doesn't last very long. Freezes at night are pretty regular, especially in the suburbs and the airport area.
- I hate cars, and will never own one again. Unfortunately, this is directly oppositional to my aversion to cold, as the least car-dependent cities tend to be in the Northeast. I would love to ride the subway and live amongst palm trees, but this isn't really possible in America.
You don't have to worry about cars in this area because 90% of the population drive gas guzzling pickups or huge SUV's (pickups with backs on them). I hope you are planning to live right in the heart of the city, because that is the only way you have a chance in these parts without 4 wheels!!
- I love culture, and by this I mean symphonies and museums as well as bars and alcohol. (I'm 27, and I can enjoy college scenes as well as concertos in the park.) I'm aware that Dallas and Houston have more to offer in terms of theatre, ballet, etc. BUT
I ride MY BICYCLE everywhere. I'm not going to live in a place where I have to spend 2 hours on the freeway just to visit a friend. I would LOVE to live in a huge city like NY or LA but NY is cold and LA is, IMHO, a microcosm of everything that is wrong with America (mostly, a bunch of dense sprawl, a malignant culture of superficiality and a lack of social cohesion resulting from people spending most of their free time alone in their cars.)
It all depends on what you want. Sure, culture can be found here in some minor forms. Bike at your own risk in Austin. The city has fewer bike trails than cities half it's size and there are not many plans to change that. Dont know if you can take your bikes on Cap Metro though. You could easily spend 2 hours on the freeway here! The traffic is horrible, unless of course you live downtown. The city of Austin only cares about residents who have money and like to spend it.
So, artsyguy and eepstein, to the young(ish) kids like me who are so fond of Austin, it doesn't matter if a city offers the best cultural institutions in the world if that city is surrounded by MILES UPON MILES OF SPRAWLING FREEWAYS, STRIP MALLS, AND SUBURBS that make me want to pop prozac from a pez dispenser.
As a die hard liberal (in a sea of BRIGHT RED), i commend you for your environmentally conscious behavior of riding your bike and giving a damn about the environment. It will be quite a slap in the face for you down here, but there are a few (mainly from CA) that actually are going in the right direction here environmentally. I could go on and on about how 2 faced the city of Austin is with regards to environmental friendliness, but you will find that out for yourself.
Also, conspicuous consumption disgusts me. (Which should be obvious coming from a bicyclist.)
I hear you sir!!
There's my two cents, y'all have a nice day!
Think long and hard about your decision to move here.
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