Please give me 10 reasons why NOT to move to the Austin area. (Houston: homeowners insurance, condo)

[fil]

First, some of you folks are very biased, which you should be since you love it here, so I'll give a new person's perspective.

"Coming from the NW area here are my reasons..."

This will depend on where we each come from, as we're each use to different things.

"Critters: Rattlesnakes, poisonous centipedes, black widow spiders, scorpions"
Interestingly, I got use to the deadly snakes in Georgia.
Coming from NY and living throughout the East coast, this freaked me out also but you kind of get use to it by ignoring it until you come into contact with one.

Unfortunately, Texas has a large number of deadly snakes.


"Hurricanes"
Again, coming from the East coast it's worse over there.
You just brace yourself during the months of September through November and hope one doesn't come.

This is beyond a Georgia thing for me.

I have friends in Florida and they evacuated Florida (The Whole State) 3-4 times a couple of years ago during the Summer of Katrina.

Hurricanes affected SC, NC, VA, DC, PA, NJ, and NY.

According to history, there is a much higher likelihood for a Hurricane to hit the panhandle to the East coast: All Hurricanes: Entire U.S. Atlantic Hurricane Basin (http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/0104campaign/forecast/allentire.html - broken link)
All Hurricanes: FL & the East Coast (http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/0104campaign/forecast/alleast.html - broken link)


"High property taxes"
Agreed. Stinks.


"Bad drivers, speeders, people don't give way, they cut, too many that beat the red light...all cause our car insurance rates to go up high! There are alot of young drivers that are obnoxious!"

This is normal in cities where there are a lot of transplants.
Atlanta has this problem big time due to many of us Northerners moving there because it's a great place to live--Chicago, NY, NJ, etc. drivers are notorious for this.

Agreed on higher insurance rates. Ours jacked up coming here.

Speeding?
I don't know about this one. This city is weird.
North of RR, State Police hangout to catch Dallas-bound speeders.
NW has a ton of cops pulling people over...I'll say we each have been cited already in a scant 8 months...argh
In Bee Caves, Lakeway, Pf, and Austin people drive ata good clip, especially through store parking lots without regard to pedestrians.
It's a mix here.

Coming from Atlanta, where I didn't get 1 ticket for 11 years and NY, PA, and VA where I'd get a ticket once every 4-12 months, Austin is somewhere in the middle when it comes to tolerating speeders and been hyper-sensitive to speeders.

Where I live in Austin (78750), they are out in force. Unfortunately, for this lead foot...with a couple of exotics...and I've been nailed.


"Traffic! Congestion!"
Austin isn't even close to the worst.
Here's the 2006 Forbes worst list: Worst Cities For Traffic - Forbes.com
America's Worst Traffic Traps - Forbes.com


"Main streets don't have any lighting"
Agreed.

Although I think this coincides with my too many overhead powerlines concern.

I find it weird to see my neighbors taking walks using flashlights.

It seems so third world to me.


"Sushi is unaffordable"
In Austin, you lose some and you gain some when it comes to Asian food.
Sushi...you lose.

Ru-Sans and Miki Motos are way better than anything here.

There are gems here, but in other types of Asian food.
Vietnamese, Chinese, and Filipino food restaurants are plentiful, tasty, and inexpensive.


"Propane gas for heating is expensive"
It's high everywhere right now.


"Services are high: house cleaning, yard maintenance, manicure/pedicure, salons


Contractors or service providers don't return calls"

Agree.

This town is for DIYers. I think it's a Texas thing, which is good to see.
Getting good, reliable, and cost effective contractors in Austin is almost non-existent.

Georgia had a lot of hard working illegal Mexicans (sorry) and they fought for the cash business and did a bang up job.
It's a big problem there, oddly I don't see this here.

I'll add a small list of my pros/cons later.

[austinchic]

1. crazy weather - hot; sudden rainstorms (DON'T have to worry about tornadoes though); winters are weird - usually not under 50F, but sometimes we get snow/ice days, and sometimes it will be hot in the middle of winter all of a sudden.

2. bugs

3. allergies

4. traffic

5. not a sophisticated city (if you're into that kind of thing)

6. sadly i think it's starting to be less "weird"

....

i can't think of anything else...

[austin-steve]

sadly i think it's starting to be less "weird"

Yes, Austin is changing fast.

My biggest complaint is that places like South Congress, when I lived in Travis Heights in the early 1990's, were just unique, different, weird and cool in an organic, unrefined sort of way. My wife and I walked often from our house on Newning over to eat at Magnolia Cafe, Texas French Bread, or one of the other restaurants that never seemed to last long. It was a scruffy area with a lot of homeless people in the park at Live Oak, rundown motels, and hookers. And it was a wonderful, wonderful time to live there and we loved it.

Nowadays, whenever I go there, it seems like the area is trying to be cool and funky on purpose. Sort of like an awkward kid whu one day realizes that other's think he's cool, so he starts acting different to please others.

The grittiness is replaced by upscale, manufactered vibe. It's like the old natural S. Congress is now overinjected with Social Botox. When I see people sitting in front of the old tire shop at Academy and S. Congress (I think it's called Docs) in the hot sun drinking cofee at 2PM, all I can think is "that's not cool". Or I see people at that coffee stand on the other side of S. Congress with their noses in their laptops instead of talking and visiting with one another.

I can see why outsiders and newbies like S. Congress, but to me, it's starting to suck a little bit.

[End semi rant from another "Austin-was-better-20-years-ago" complainer]

[tashina]

Yeah, I am new to Austin (2 years) and I went to SoCo once and found it to be sort of an underwhelming wannabe Melrose Ave of Hollywood. I grew up with Melrose in the late 70's/early 80's and it was great and funky then. It's actually such a caricature of itself now that I kinda still like it (well, last time I was there was about 10 years ago).

I would have liked to see South Congress in it's "weirder" days before the "cool" people got a hold of it.

[southaustingal]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

[End semi rant from another "Austin-was-better-20-years-ago" complainer]

I'm one of those complainers, too, though I try not to be. But really, the more I go to San Antonio, the more I feel like it has the old Austin thing. It's not quite the same, and it's definitely NOT in the north part of San Antonio. But the old downtown area, the King William and parts around Trinity University, seem so laid-back, unhurried, social, all the stuff Austin used to be, except with an overlay of Hispanic culture. So it's not exactly the same but I find myself really enjoying it because I feel so relaxed there--no harried Hummer drivers, no corporates with cell phones stuck in their ear, no high-tech gadgets of any kind really. In fact, one girls' weekend at a B&B in King William last year, we spent half the night on the porch yakking and watching residents on their porches, drinkin' beer and hanging out, walking to restaurants and (independent) coffeeshops. I felt like I'd stepped back 20 years.

[jhwest]

I live in Utah with the least amount of money spent per pupil. The schools are not good. In the Salt Lake Area there are tons of charter schools. I tried to find some in Austin and they are few and far between. That tells me something good about the schools there.
Oddly enough, Utah has the highest numer of high school graduates. Go figure.

[normalguy]

Most of the reasons given here are true, but here is one I came up with
yesterday, after I saw something really stupid: "Lack of concern for the
environment".

Yesterday, I saw a "support our troops" sticker behind a gigantic
hummer which probably has its gas mileage quoted in "gallons per mile"
instead of "miles per gallon". Am I the only person to see the irony here?

In general, I have found lower environmental sensibility in
Austin (compared to other big cities). Every other vehicle you come across
is an SUV or a truck (many with "support our troops" ribbons behind them),
which makes me think that they are not even aware of what our
guys and gals are dying for in the middle east. I don't see recycling as a
part of the mainstream culture and in some counties in Texas
(I don't think Travis is one though), a vehicles emissions test is "optional".

To be fair, I have seen a few people driving Hybrids in Austin
and I salute them for supporting our troops although I didn't
see any stickers behind their cars.

[Jazzedforhim]

Originally Posted by normalguy

Yesterday, I saw a "support our troops" sticker behind a gigantic
hummer which probably has its gas mileage quoted in "gallons per mile"
instead of "miles per gallon". Am I the only person to see the irony here?

In general, I have found lower environmental sensibility in
Austin (compared to other big cities). Every other vehicle you come across
is an SUV or a truck (many with "support our troops" ribbons behind them),
which makes me think that they are not even aware of what our
guys and gals are dying for in the middle east.

I don't understand your question. You think that because the person was driving a hummer that they are not supporting out troops?

What does that have to do with living in Austin?

[normalguy]

I don't understand your question. You think that because the person was driving a hummer that they are not supporting out troops?
YES

What does that have to do with living in Austin?
It may sound strange to you, but a lot of people make their
decisions on where to live based on the awareness and educational
level of their surrounding population. I was just bringing up the issue
of environmental awareness (or lack thereof) in Austin.

[Trainwreck20]

Hmmm...I think the irony is meant to be "support our troops, because I need them to ensure a steady supply of gas for my hummer" or something along that line. At least that is how I would interpret it (not agreeing or disagreeing). Further discussion is available in politics and other controversies .

As for the environmental awareness, I find that comment kind of strange. As a city, Austin has preserved more greenspace than any other similar sized city in Texas (and many not in Tx), has much higher than average standards for water run-off and control, has enacted the SOS ordinance, is active in trying to provide wilderness areas, the city of Austin has a very broad recylce program, and there are active groups supporting a couple of endagered species (the warbler and the barton springs salamander). I suppose we are not the environmental mecca, but I wouldn't say there is a 'lack of concern'.

As far as vehicles go, I don't really think the type of cars vary that much from this city to most of the other cities. Emission inspections pretty much only exist in the US where the air has already degraded to a point where it is REQUIRED by the EPA. Austin is one of the only cities to VOLUNTARILY enact an inspection program in an attempt to prevent the air from reaching that point (for more information, check out the Clean AIR Force of Central Texas)