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Forces outside my control mean that I need to relocate my family to Austin area or Phoenix area.
I can't get over how much I love Santa Barbara. Gorgeous weather, lots of nature, city has ample financial resources to keep everything looking beautiful, there are a TON of activities for kids, small town feel, very limited sprawl, wide variety of school options, parks, playgrounds. Yes, expensive as all get out, but quality of life is high. I own my small home design business and would need to transfer that as well.
My question is: has anyone that is familiar with Santa Barbara also familiar with these other two areas? Are there places that are comparable? Well maintained and beautiful, lots of school options, parks, nature access, kids activities..
I'm flying out to each in the next couple months, but I could use insight from someone who has actually spent time in these places.
I love all three places as well, but Austin lacks the physical scenery of Arizona or California. Completely personal taste, but with far fewer cacti, palm trees, and mountains, Austin competes well against the rest of Texas, but not the West. It also has to be the capital of dead looking fan palms.
For kids activities, both Scottsdale and Austin have plenty to offer, and both offer less chance to be outdoors in the summer than Santa Barbara. Both also have tons of sprawl, and it's hard to avoid in either place. Austin, like many Sunbelt cities, has single family home neighborhoods a couple blocks away from new skyscrapers. Density doesn't transition down the way it does in more traditional cities. And Round Rock, Georgetown, etc are just as sprawled out as suburban Dallas or Atlanta. Phoenix/Scottsdale is like this too, but it hits a hard wall when you reach the hills/mountains at the edge of the Valley.
Parts of Scottsdale and Austin have resources to keep things beautiful, but many parts don't. Austin's downtown homeless situation is getting worse by the minute and while the area immediately east of I-35 near downtown is gentrifying, the rest of its looks pretty run down. The west side up into the hills is pretty nice but again, gets very sprawled out very quickly. Scottsdale also looks like clean in many areas, but if you head west of Phoenix or even the southern and eastern edges of Downtown Phoenix there are plenty of run down areas. Santa Barbara benefits from being a smaller city with almost none of the industrial infrastructure Austin and Phoenix have.
Are you prepared to live in a city that is 20++++ degrees hotter in the summer than Santa Barbara? Austin is hot and muggy, and Phoenix is just plain &^%ing hot. You won't want to be outside much in either place from June-September.
Austin's transportation infrastructure sucks, and their mass transit is weak. Phoenix is much better in this regard.
Austin doesn't have a suburb that is anything like Santa Barbara IMO. You'd have to go into the city. I think the neighborhood most similar would be Zilker and Barton Hills. That area has absolutely skyrocketed in price as it's a favorite of the tech money crowd.
Others to look at would be Bouldin Creek, Rosedale, Hyde Park, and Allendale.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11
Austin's downtown homeless situation is getting worse by the minute
I don't think that this is accurate now that camping is banned again, personally. I'm assuming you have visited since that happened? If anything I'd say the situation is getting much better as there is a huge amount of investment into building housing and shelters happening right now.
Last edited by whereiend; 01-14-2022 at 03:51 PM..
Yeah. The homeless situation in Austin has vastly improved. I don’t think Austin looks terribly run down either. It does look cluttersome and blighted along I-35 but that has more to do with TX and the access roads.
They could use to take better care of the lawn around Austin. The upkeep of the city is not great at all when it comes to infrastructure and the grass. The suburbs are a different story though. They come off much newer and better roads as long as you don’t have to go into the city.
That stated, you will not find Santa Barbara in Austin, or anything close to it.
Yeah. The homeless situation in Austin has vastly improved. I don’t think Austin looks terribly run down either. It does look cluttersome and blighted along I-35 but that has more to do with TX and the access roads.
They could use to take better care of the lawn around Austin. The upkeep of the city is not great at all when it comes to infrastructure and the grass. The suburbs are a different story though. They come off much newer and better roads as long as you don’t have to go into the city.
That stated, you will not find Santa Barbara in Austin, or anything close to it.
Yep, the suburbs with HOAs have nicer lawns. Also the roads in Austin are bad in areas with clay soil, which includes a lot of central areas and everything east of 35.
I still think central Austin is more Santa Barbara-like just because of the level of density and walk/bikability. The suburbs in Austin are way more spread out and car dependent than you would see in Santa Barbara I think. That said I don't know Santa Barbara super well so maybe it also has areas like that.
Santa Barbara, as echoed by several other posters here, is one of the most original and beautiful cities in the US. It sits in just a stunning geographical area.
Weather-wise, Santa Barbara is in an elite group of areas in the US, where the weather can be close to perfection, year round.
(compared to most of the US)
With Phoenix, it will be miserably hot for 7 months or so, but the late fall/winter/early spring is gloriously near perfect.
Austin will be hot, muggy and humid for most of the year, with the exception of 3 months or so in the winter season, but even then it can be muggy on warmer days.
The landscape in Austin will pale in comparison to Santa Barbara. Phoenix has stunningly beautiful desert areas, but is not as nice overall as Santa Barbara. Plus, the architecture and stunning mediterranean vibes of Santa Barbara is rare to find in the US.
San Diego and that area is closest, or California coastal towns, up and down the coast.
Outside of California, look at New England for the quaint similarity of another country (Europe), inside the US. Texas won't offer any of that, in general.
Arizona also has Sedona-a stunningly beautiful resort/retirement town that has a great aesthetic to its architecture and building style...
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