Please give me 10 reasons why NOT to move to the Austin area. (Atlanta: crime rate, living in)

[love roses]

Someone in my neighborhood is growing a pineapple.

[dtrain]

Originally Posted by david4455

Now I'm really depressed... although I don't like "water parks" so 6 and 7 are actually a plus.

Then why do you live there???????????????????????????

[Sage113]

Originally Posted by love roses

I'm being off topic here, but wanted to reply to two things from Iguanas4. The clue is in the name "hill" country (not "mountain" country). Gardening out here has been great so far, for me. But I live east of 35, no rocky soil. I'm gonna try and get my neighbor to take a picture of some of these monster zucchini we've been growing. We grew them last year, too. We don't do anything to them, either and it puts miracle grow to shame. We think the farmers around here ought to be growing more vegetables, not so much corn. We're also doing tomatoes again which are doing great, and this year new we're doing okra and bell peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe and onions. So far, so good.

Only bad thing I have to say about Austin is the drivers are terrible (as far as speeding and tailgating)

Since you're into gardening and growing veggies and commenting on the farmers you must be into eating healthy. This is a critical factor for my wife in deciding on a place to move to. She needs either a nice backyard to have a small garden and/or needs a good, fresh Farmer's Market around. If she has a garden, she wants to be able to work in it most of the year without killer high humidity or annoying bugs eating everything. We have one in our backyard now but the tomatoes keep dying from the heat. My 20 pineapples love it! So do my red pepper plants.

Would you please comment on those questions and is Austin a "Green" city in any way? Thanks. I know this is a little off the main thread but it's the only place I've seen this topic come up. But, back to the topic for the original post.

As for reasons NOT to move to Austin, I see a lot of comments on drivers and the way they drive. I think it's all relative. I live in Sebring, Florida and Austin is high on our list for possible places to move to next. Every winter, the snowbirds flock down and the county's population doubles. We suddenly have hundreds of 80-90 year olds driving their brand new caddies or towncars in the left lane doing 25 in a 55 zone and they can't see you, hear you, turn their heads or react very fast. Add in the young kids with their zippy, megaphone mufflered, stereo-ground-pounding Hondas going 80 in the 55 zones and you have a real mess. I ride my motorcycle thru this every year and it's very dangerous. Have you ever driven the beltloop around Atlanta at 7:30 in the morning? It's all relative.

As for the bugs, scorpions, snakes and other critters: try living in Georgia. The snakes, no-seeums, deer flies and mosquitos bite real hard. Again, all relative. There was a post from someone who moved to Austin from Canada. Talk about climate shock! I would expect a negative comment on the heat and humidity from her. But, someone like me moving from south, central Florida where it's 96 degrees right now with about 60% humidity, it might be a positive comment. Same with liberal-minded people moving from California vs folks moving to Austin from the deep-south, bible-belt areas. Relative.

I do like this post though. It's good to hear the negative side. It really helps us make our decision. At this point, I think a road trip is in order.

[another_hot-day]

Originally Posted by TERRIE

8 months of summer and 1 week of winter? sounds perfect to me! i grew up in montana where it is just the opposite...

I have friends that come visit from Canada who say the same thing.

[iguanas4]

Originally Posted by Hi-Power

Iguana, Georgetown is the worst city in Texas I've ever been to as far as the attitudes of the people who live there.

Really? How so?

We haven't had much contact with the people here, we keep to ourselves mostly; no kids, I work at home and SO works in Austin. But the people we have run into in Georgetown were very friendly. Maybe that's not what you mean? I have heard it's more conservative here than in Austin, but so far it's not been an issue for us.

[Torontonian]

Can anybody comment on the fact that Texas came out No. 49 (out of 50) in the US State health systems performance rankings?
And how Austin is different from Texas in this context ?

U.S. State Health Systems Performance

[twange]

Originally Posted by Torontonian

Can anybody comment on the fact that Texas came out No. 49 (out of 50) in the US State health systems performance rankings?
And how Austin is different from Texas in this context ?

U.S. State Health Systems Performance

I won't get into the numbers - I'm not a demographer...but think about it this way: While Texas in general has a lot of perceived negatives, the state is larger than France, has four large cities(Houston, Dallas/Fwth, San Antonio and Austin), has plains, woodlands, hills, mountains, desert and coastline. It's more of a region than a state, so I would be careful about direct correlations and conclusions. I think the best way (at least for me) is to go live there and find out. If you hate it, go somewhere else.

I realize that's an over-simplification - moving is a lot to think about, especially for folks with kids - but there really is no other way

[love roses]

I'm not sure what areas of Town you are looking in, but probably Southwest would be a good area for growing things. Someone who lives in that area probably knows more about that than I do. But I'm sure you can find a home with a nice sized yard with little problem. The first thing people did out where I'm at is go buck wild planting trees. We've only had to replace one, and that was a peach, and we ended up buying a different variety. We have a mimosa, 2 crepe myrtles, pomegranate, pear, fig, fir, peach, and 2 oaks. We tried growing a flowering maple, but it didn't make it. We replaced it with the pom and so far no problems. With the fir tree we had to add sand before we planted it, and everything else just gets root stimulator. I did finally have to spray for bugs today, but they're not usually a massive problem. There are also lots of farmers markets around. We go to the one near downtown. Large variety of products and organic as well. Maybe experiment with tomato varieties. We haven't had any problems with that yet, though. Some of the trees have grown large enough that they provide ample shade, and it's great to sit under when you're doing yardwork. Our lavender and Jessamines didn't make it, but we have althea, amaryllis, yellow bells, roses, daisies, butterfly bush, etc. and haven't had to do any replacements. My neighbor has some amazing rosemary bushes in her front yard. My husbands grandma told us to drive through the older neighborhoods in whatever area you live in to get an idea of what grows well. Hence, where we came up with mimosa and pomegranate. Austin is a "green" city, at least well on it's way. Lots of natural gardening options, and if you watch this old house, they were just doing a project in Austin that was "green" as far as homebuilding.

[jread]

1. Too Hot

2. Being ruined by suburban sprawl. Just look around on this forum, everyone moving here wants to live in one of the suburban areas.

3. Too Hot

4. Bad drivers

5. Too Hot

6. Spineless local government that doesn't get things done

7. Too Hot

8. Soil is shallow, alkaline, rocky and completely worthless for gardening

9. Terrible transportation infrastructure

10. Oh, did I mention that it's TOO HOT?!?!?!?

[Zzyzx]

Originally Posted by jread

2. Being ruined by suburban sprawl. Just look around on this forum, everyone moving here wants to live in one of the suburban areas.

Want might be a bit harsh. I would love to live in one of the nice downtown neighborhoods, but I don't want to plop down 400K plus on a 60 year old 1200 sq ft. fixer upper.