Dallas or Austin?? (Post: real estate, crime, neighborhoods)

[melbon7462]

Can you help me out and give me a few positive things about Dallas and Austin, and a few negative...Thanks!!

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by melbon7462

Can you help me out and give me a few positive things about Dallas and Austin, and a few negative...Thanks!!

Austin negatives:

Overcrowded
Overrated
Trendy
Full of Californians
Traffic is a nightmare
Most expensive place to live in Texas
Economy is not diversified

Dallas negatives:

Traffic can be pretty bad
Crime is much higher than Austin in some areas (but not all)
DISD schools overall are terrible
Very little scenery

[melbon7462]

wonderful...any good things??

[Babyneedsahome]

I love Austin, and if my husband could get a job there, we would go there in a heartbeat. Not to say Dallas is bad, I just don't know as much about it...but gotta go where the jobs are : )

Anyway, I think they are two very different cities. Austin is a more liberal city, lots of great music, tons of free stuff to do, lots of outdoor activities, easy city to live a healthy lifestyle. Again, not that Dallas doesn't have this stuff, but I'm just not as familiar with it. Yeah, the traffic stinks, but I've heard Dallas isn't all that great either, and after living in DC for a few years, we've come to accept that traffic is going to stink wherever you go. I highly recommend just visiting both of the cities if there is any way possible. You'll get a feeling for what is more "you".

[Drew610]

I think Austin generally has a vibrant nightlife, good "city as a community" vibe (like the city bands together to get stuff done), excellent parks and recreation areas.

Dallas has everything you want in a city (parks, trails, lake, great restaurants, nightlife, good symphony, theatre). It also has good neighborhoods for young people and young and older families. But isn't nearly as green as Austin, and has much less of the "city as a community" vibe - its more conservative, more everyone for themselves kind of vibe.

[kt2le]

UT has 50,000 students that give Austin a much different culture than Dallas. The cities don't compare. Dallas is a big city that's part of a mass metropolitan area/Austin's metro area is much smaller. Austin, with its hills and trees, is prettier, overall, than Dallas but pretty areas exist here, too. Real estate prices and taxes are astronomical in Austin so Dallas is a much more affordable place to live. I love Austin and lived there as a college student but everytime I go back I like it a little less. I know things change and I'm not opposed to change unless it's for the worse (subjective opinion, I know) but the traffic is horrid there partly due to "no growth" people blocking much needed road projects. Anybody there will tell you same thing.

[_Charles_]

Someone really ought to mention the proliferation of insect pests in the hill country west of Austin. Yes it is beautiful but:

fire ants
centipedes
chigger / chinch (sp) bugs
hornets
wasps
ticks
scorpians (under almost every rock).

And there is the oppressive summer humidity - and I do mean humid.

[dgz]

I lived in Dallas for a few years in the early 90s, Austin for 4 years in the mid-90s, and since 1997, I've been living back in the Dallas area again. But I still continue to visit friends in Austin. Here are my general impressions.

DALLAS

Negatives:
Lots of sprawl and concrete
Not a good place if you enjoy outdoor activities (hiking/camping/kayaking)
Very money-focused
Poor air quality
People more focused on their day jobs and 'business'

Positives:
A lot more jobs
More affordable housing in the exurbs
Gardening seems easier than it was in Austin (perhaps I just had a rocky yard!)
Has Ft. Worth right near by, so you get the benefits of 2 cities (i.e., all Ft. Worth's museums and gardens)
More shopping options


AUSTIN

Negatives:
Traffic is bad
'Cedar fever'
Housing seemed more expensive
Difficult to find a greater variety of community and other colleges there (If I wanted to take classes, it seems I always had to go through UT-Austin)

Positives:
Liberal/Progressive
More Arts-oriented
Much greener (more trees and better environmental practices)
Lots of outdoor activities
Much more aethetically appealling (although as you get outside the center of the city, everything is looking more like Dallas with concrete and ugly shopping centers/big box stores/etc.)

[melbon7462]

Ok great...thanks a million....After all the post I think Austin looks more like it would fit my lifestyle...Very helpful Posts

[Lakewooder]

You can have the best of Austin and the best of Dallas by moving to laid-back East Dallas/Lakewood..

Quote from today's DMN: " grassroots, hip, lefty, urban (the latter should not be confused with "downtown"). Its nominal leader, Angela Hunt, a young political maverick from the M Streets, inspired the anti-suit, anti-McMansion, Austin-in-East-Dallas crowd".