Living in Austin, TX

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with 20:37, unless you can live right in the heart of things. (Which is full of aging stoners.) The weather is very, very hot and humid. Worse than here. And it's still in Texas.

What exactly does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Well, I guess I'd have to say it means that Austin, while an oasis within Texas, in nonetheless in Texas. Having grown up and gone to college there, I tend to think Texas is sort of a unique state that's not for everyone. I know, no place is for everyone, but Texas has a personality all its own, IMO, and one tends to either like it or dislike it. No insult implied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess I'd have to say it means that Austin, while an oasis within Texas, in nonetheless in Texas. Having grown up and gone to college there, I tend to think Texas is sort of a unique state that's not for everyone. I know, no place is for everyone, but Texas has a personality all its own, IMO, and one tends to either like it or dislike it. No insult implied.

That's what I thought it meant. And I think there certainly is an insult implied. Austin is not an oasis within Texas. It's very much a part of Texas. If you want Austin without all that Texas built in, move to Portland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hate to rain on the parade, but I've always felt that Austin is a bit overrated. It is great if you are in your 20's or an aging stoner. It can also be family friendly, that's true, but no more so than many small university towns throughout the nation. It has awesome Tex-Mex food, but also has horrible traffic. Has a well-developed progressive scene, but is also hours from a beach. Inexpensive housing, but most of it's ugly (either horrible 70's houses or new McMansions). Etc.

Even though this is unneccesarily contentious, I'm glad someone posted something like this. It's good to point out that not everyone 'gets' Austin. I would like to disagree with a few points here though.

This person's post sounds like they are describing Slacker-era (early 90s) Austin. Austin has experienced exponential growth in the last 15 years. It is now the 16th largest city in the US. It's a 'college town' but hardly a small one. It's also a state capital and has one of the largest tech sectors in the country. When I think of college towns I think of places like Bloomington and Ann Arbor. Austin is in a different league.

That said, there are certainly a lot (over 50K) of college students and there are a lot of people takin' it easy. People with good job who aren't 'aging stoners' appreciate these other demographics. They are part of the fabric of Austin and a lot of the things that are enjoyable about Austin wouldn't exist without them.

Traffic in Austin depends very much on where you live. If you live in the neighborhoods previously described and work in Central Austin, you won't even be getting on a highway. You might have a 10 minute delay coming down Lamar or Red River, but there are always back ways.

In a city full of lakes, rivers bends, and swimming holes, it seems odd to complain about the proximity to a beach. That said, it takes about the same amount of time to get from Austin to Corpus as it does from DC to Ocean City, MD.

Finally, the neighborhoods described here have a lot of pre-war and post-war craftsman and ranch-style houses. Not everyone's taste I guess, but then neither are cape cods and faux-colonials. As for McMansions (which I've never seen out here ) there are some, especially north of 183 and in Westlake. These are parts of town that the central Austin-dweller might go to once a month for shopping, but otherwise never see.

I am the OP of the cited response - and I'm sorry it came across as contentious. I am actually a Texan and am quite familiar with Austin and much of the rest of Texas. It is a great small city with many amenities. My point is that it is often very over-idealized and seems to take on a mythic quality in many people's escapist fantasies.

My bias is that I am a big fan of the bungalow and other architecture that is 1920 or before - and, while some of this exists in Austin, there is really not much of it relative to some other locations. This is simply because of the age of the city and the timing of the population expansions. I am also a major beach person and, while the beach itself is nice in places, Corpus Christi is a bit of a pit, imho.

Also, I definitely "get" Austin and have friends and family who live there. Again, it has many wonderful things about it. But if you are coming from someplace like DC, you might experience it as being more provincial than you are expecting after you settle in. Texas is big on Texas - we have a full year of Texas only history in school - and so there does tend to be a lot of Texas-pride. You'll find that in Austin. But, the reality is, that Austin is still a small city in the middle of Texas. Outside of the progressive community, the impact of the Bible Belt mentality is HUGE there. And it is hard to convey the full impact of that in writing.

OP, I encourage you to explore it and consider it fully. Just don't idealize it and make a huge investment of a move based on projections and fantasies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess I'd have to say it means that Austin, while an oasis within Texas, in nonetheless in Texas. Having grown up and gone to college there, I tend to think Texas is sort of a unique state that's not for everyone. I know, no place is for everyone, but Texas has a personality all its own, IMO, and one tends to either like it or dislike it. No insult implied.

That's what I thought it meant. And I think there certainly is an insult implied. Austin is not an oasis within Texas. It's very much a part of Texas. If you want Austin without all that Texas built in, move to Portland.

I think most people who are intimately familiar with Austin and with Texas would describe Austin as an oasis, in terms of progressivism. I'm sorry if that seems insulting to you. Certainly Austin is very much a part of Texas. I think 9:07 explained it better than I did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess I'd have to say it means that Austin, while an oasis within Texas, in nonetheless in Texas. Having grown up and gone to college there, I tend to think Texas is sort of a unique state that's not for everyone. I know, no place is for everyone, but Texas has a personality all its own, IMO, and one tends to either like it or dislike it. No insult implied.

That's what I thought it meant. And I think there certainly is an insult implied. Austin is not an oasis within Texas. It's very much a part of Texas. If you want Austin without all that Texas built in, move to Portland.

I think most people who are intimately familiar with Austin and with Texas would describe Austin as an oasis, in terms of progressivism. I'm sorry if that seems insulting to you. Certainly Austin is very much a part of Texas. I think 9:07 explained it better than I did.

9:07 here and ITA - especially these days.

Texas culture used to have a VERY large streak of frontier spirit that respected individualism and, as an outgrowth of that and of the role of strong women in frontier life, respected women also. For instance, it had common law marriage and laws that enabled women to own property long before this was common on the East coast. The old saying of "just don't scare the horses" is cliched but represents how diversity was well-tolerated as long as you were a good neighbor and citizen.

A lot of this culture, however, has been destroyed and distorted by the impact of the rise of the mega-churches and their brand of judgmental fundamentalist religious bigotry. That culture grew and spread beginning in the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's.

One of the few "oases" from that culture is within the progressive community of Austin.

But, even within the progressive community in Austin, the center of the peoples' world is often Austin. Or perhaps wider Texas as a whole. That's just how it is in Texas. It can be a nice thing. Or it can feel suffocating.