OK, learn me Austin, TX

Been doing more research on cities in my wife's territory that we can move to, to open up my career growth (Technical Writer).

I had been looking at Kansas City, but figured if we are going to move out of state, we might as well move to the area in her territory with the best prospects.

That would seem to be Austin (and even San Antonio). I don't think I want to deal with Dallas, and I seriously dislike Houston.

So what say ye? Good areas? Bad areas? Cool things to see/do? I'm going to join my wife on a work trip in October to check out the area.

Got drunk in the rain there once. That was ok.

You're damn close to our rallycrosses in San Marcos. We have fun.
I personally get agitated in Austin. Everyone is always going somewhere and doing something. Lots of movement, lots of energy. It weirds me out.

Keep Austin Weird.

Austin.....4th worse traffic in the US. Highest cost of living in Texas. High Property taxes but no income tax. Overheating property market so buying a house means bidding high.

Poor city management. For many years they just said well if we don't build infrastructure they will quit moving here but it didn't work and now we need about 3-4 billion in bonds to get back to semi sane transit times. And what they do build is all Toll and the tolls are insane.

Motorsports: None in town. City banned it a long time ago and they made greenspace requirements in parking lots so you can't even autox here.Have to go to SA or college station for Autox. San Marcos gets you Rally Cross and Harris Hill. Texas World is closing at the end of the year. COTA of course for spectating. (Only track days if you are loaded)

I've been here 12 years now and as soon as I get my PMP in the spring I'm going to take a long hard look at leaving. I've had enough.

San Antonio is pretty cool. I've thoroughly enjoyed it every time i've visited. Cool architecture, big city without that really badly congested feel, still lots of trees. Good food, generally pretty clean.

Hot, but not unbearably so.

8/10, would inhabit.

Part of me was thinking San Marcos, that puts me 45ish mins from either downtown essentially opening up a A LARGE job market.

Keep in mind with traffic, That is an hour and a half easy to downtown Austin. It's that bad. When I had to go downtown, if I didn't work an off hour my 21 mile commute was at least 1:20. If there was an accident more like 1:45.

It's a total mess to get anywhere here from 7-9 AM and 4-7 PM

Oh and for the record, I live in the farthest part of NW Austin right where Austin, Round Rock, and Cedar Park come together. I'm a quarter mile from either of those cities. I laugh because I run through 3 towns every morning.

Never looked at the cities with a thought toward relocating there, but I always preferred Dallas to Austin or Houston.

If you think Los Angeles would be perfect if only it had mosquitos, Austin is for you.

Is Austin traffic really as bad as Dallas/Houston? Ugh, that's a big downer.

I've been enough Dallas/Houston rush hour traffic that I know I don't want either of those cities either.

Actually worse. Dallas and Houston is a dream because at least when it opens up, they go fast. Here, most of the people barely make it to the speed limit.

It's worlds worse than Houston. A whole different level of frustration. Houston has localized problems with particular freeway intersections or parts of town. As near as I can tell, the entirety of Austin is berkeleyed for hours each day.
If I had to choose between San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin, I'd probably pick them in that order. Houston is after Dallas only because it's a motherberkeleying jungle (my part is anyway) and I'm so berkeleying sick of it right now.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Didn't you just get back?

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

Two weeks ago. I've been sick of the heat for 13 days. I'll stop complaining after Halloween.
I do love my wife (who loves her job) and my family and my garage and the racing opportunities, but if I could get all of this in a different climate I would.

mazdeuce wrote: It's worlds worse than Houston. A whole different level of frustration. Houston has localized problems with particular freeway intersections or parts of town. As near as I can tell, the entirety of Austin is berkeleyed for hours each day. If I had to choose between San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin, I'd probably pick them in that order. Houston is after Dallas only because it's a motherberkeleying jungle (my part is anyway) and I'm so berkeleying sick of it right now.

Hmmmmmmmm, I may have to reconsider then. Damn!

Terrible traffic is literally my biggest pet peeve.

z31maniac wrote: Cool things to see/do?

Can I piggyback on this question? Swmbo and I going to be in the area last week of october. Between san antonio and austin. Have rental car will drive for cool E36 M3 to see/do/eat/drink.

Random thoughts from an Austinite, in no particular order:

School was back in session today. That's roughly 91,000 students (and their parents) that all need to clog the roadways between 7-9am. I took me 50 minutes to travel 8 miles this morning. No spectacular wrecks, no unusual events, just terrible transportation infrastructure. It then took me another 30 minutes to get to work.

Given the size of the city, there is a shocking lack of diversity among employers. If you're not coming here for IT or to be a musician, you're going to have a bad time. If you're coming here thinking "i'll just pick up a job when I get there" you're gonna have a bad time. My buddy just moved here from Omaha. He's a mechanical engineer with a degree from a good university. It took him 9 months of actively searching to land a job.

For all intents and purposes, Austin does not have a car culture. Sure, there's a few things you can go and watch, but very little you can participate in.

For the past two years, it's been said that Austin has netted +140 residents PER DAY. That suggests that the population has swelled by over 100,000 people since 2012. And it feels like it.

A lot of people don't realize that the Austin area has been historically drought prone. We had an atrocious drought a few years ago that we still haven't recovered from. Now factor in 100,000 more people that need\waste water. I have serious concerns about where Austin will be in a decade with regards to this.

Which brings us to...

RX Reven' wrote: If you think Los Angeles would be perfect if only it had mosquitos, Austin is for you.

The wife and I moved from L.A. to Austin about a decade ago. The housing was affordable. The traffic was negligible. It still had a "small town feel", whatever that means.

Now...well hell, now it's starting to feel like L.A. If you want to live anywhere near downtown, you're paying L.A. housing prices. And enduring L.A. traffic. And asshat drivers (most of whom are from L.A.). If you wanted to jump aboard the Austin train, you're about 15 years too late.

Personally? Between the new positive equity in my house and the 2 hours per day spent in traffic, I'm tempted to cash out and take an oil job in Houston.

Oh, and RX Reven forgot the allergies. You'll get buttf*cked by allergies. Austin can still be awesome, but please don't move here.

Amen Calteg....Amen. TG I work from home half the time or I would have gone crazy already.

Oh and to everyone visiting....Come see a race at COTA. It's a great track and we get the cool series here. :) That is one of the few things I really enjoy here is that track. I'm now working just about every race out there.

Just please leave after you are done :) We are full and can't support anymore.

http://www.golaketravis.com/webcam/

That is our main water supply. That island you see there was all underwater 5 years ago...Now there are islands like that all over.

Well, on a positive note, the music scene is tremendous, and there's plenty of arts / cultural places to check out, and COTA is an amazing facility.

It is horribly over-run with hipster doofuses though--- more infiltrated than any other place I've seen. Not a bad thing if you like skinny jeans, trendy beards and fixie bikes I guess.....

My wife is a technical writer. I always thought she made that up, but apparently it is a real thing.

pinchvalve wrote: My wife is a technical writer. I always thought she made that up, but apparently it is a real thing.

It is, not the most exciting job in the world, but the pay isn't bad.

Live in San Antonio, visit Austin.

SA was built as a major city; Austin's a university and a state capitol. It was never meant to have a million people in it.

It took this lifelong New Englander one year to get used to the College Station heat. The keys are the 2000cc water bottle and sunscreen - NEVER LET YOURSELF GET SUNBURNT IN TEXAS, YOU WILL BE MISERABLE.

^OK set the record for the highest average temp for a year, the year before last.

It gets just as hot here as it does in TX.