Thoughts on Austin
Sep. 14th, 2006 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanWell, we're just back from Austin, and I thought I'd share some of my impressions. Bear in mind that we were there for somewhat less than four days, so I don't speak with great authority or breadth of experience. Many of you know that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cottonmanifesto and I are shopping around for a new location in which to live (several years from now, after certain family members graduate from high school). I've ranted and rambled, unintentionally insulted and alienated people, and generally been tediously obsessed with finding the best place for us to move.
The short review is this: We didn't eliminate Austin from our list.
The Positives:
- Urban Nature: Aplenty. Lots of really cool stuff, including many of my favorite categories, such as carrion birds, bats, reptiles both mundane and venomous, and large frightening-looking invertebrates. Yes, that's right: giant spiders are a big positive to me. Barton Springs, the Austin Science and Nature Center, and other city park areas are wonderful. A short (by Texas standards) drive away is one of the best birding areas in the country, along the gulf coast, which has, along with migratory novelties such as whooping cranes, tons of large animals including alligators (!!).
- Weather: As many of you are eye-rollingly aware, one of our primary reasons for leaving Boston is the cold weather and snow. I hate dressing for it, hate walking in it, and really hate shoveling in it. None of that in Austin. It gets occasionally chilly (below freezing "about three times a year" according to friends) and once every couple years or so they have an ice storm that shuts down the city. I can live with that. The wife needs warm sunshine in large doses or she loses her will to live. Austin has large doses of warm sunshine. It also has occasional rain, which I appreciate, because it means there are plants living there (no offense to you desert people, but I find the lack of ground cover and scant trees in the southwest unbelievably depressing).
- Cost of Living: We can afford a house there. This is an important factor that has unfortunately eliminated Hawaii and California from our lists.
- Food and Vegetarianism: Despite Texas' well-founded reputation for an obsession with beef, Austin is favorably comparable to Boston as far as finding vegetarian food goes. Vietnamese and Thai restaurants are abundant (Indian places regrettably less so) and due to large numbers of college students and other flaky types, more restaurants seem to believe it's in their interest to clearly identify vegetarian options on the their menus. Also, due to the lack of shitty cold weather, and close proximity to food-growing regions such as Mexico, rare New England delicacies such as avocados and mangoes are insanely cheap in the grocery stores. We didn't look too closely, but we assume that this is the case with most produce. The headquarters of Whole Foods is in Austin, so if we felt like spending a lot of money on food, we could. There's lots of yummy Mexican food around, too.
- The Dogs: Thanks to the Texan ethic of "leave my property alone or I'll kill you," there are few limits on what you can own, including animals. This means there are maniacs with reptile zoos (and probably pet pumas) in their houses, but it also means that the State Constitution prevents laws that prohibit or regulate specific breeds of dogs. (We pit bull owners are obsessed with "Breed Specific Legislation," or BSL.) That means no nasty surprises like the Boston muzzle law that snuck through a couple years ago, or the horrific Denver canine genocide that disproportionally affected law-abiding dog owners, in that otherwise sensible city (screw you Denver--it snows too much there anyway :P).
- Friends and Family: We have friends there, and it seems real easy to make new friends there. Due to air travel, we wouldn't be too far from other friends and family (and, in fact, we'd be about half-way between my in-laws' two houses), as opposed to smaller cities on the west coast that we are considering. It's actually a lot closer to my brother and his family.
The Negatives
- The Weather: Almost everyone we spoke to said "Wow, you got here after it cooled down," (highs were in the 90's the entire time we were there) "it was a lot hotter last week." Temperatures in the hundreds are routine, and it stays hot (apparently) from about April to September. No sweat for the wife--she works indoors and everything is air conditioned to meat locker temperatures; she'll have to buy more sweaters--but my job track seems to keep me in the outdoors most of the time. Also my favorite hobbies and recreation activities occur outside. Plenty of sweat for me: my shirt back was instantly soaking wet whenever we left the car. Chances of a heat-related injury for me? 100%. If not heat stroke, it'll be blister-producing sunburn. (Members of my family tend to wear more clothes in hot places, due to our saltine colored skin. My insane brother in Las Vegas wears more clothes on a desert hike than I do shoveling snow.)
- Public Transportation: There ain't none. The meager bus service looks like it compares unfavorably with, say, Worcester Mass. Everyone simply drives everywhere. I know this is normal for most Americans, but it is very alien to me. I'd get used to it, but is that a good thing? The city is pretty small and easy to get around, and there are a fair amount of people bicycling, but for the disadvantages to this, see "The Weather," (negatives), above.
- Culture Shock: Not so bad, actually. This was my number one concern, and found myself quite charmed by the place. Austinites are proud of Texas, but generally not proud of the President. The social/political vibe is pretty low key, compared to what I'm used to. It seems to be impolite to wear your politics on your sleeve, which I actually think is a good thing. People might get along better, if they weren't covered with bumper stickers and t-shirts proclaiming that they are right and if you disagree you're a jerk. Austin has an interesting culture of college students and hipsters, which I believe both help make a city a better place to live, even though I want nothing to do with either of them.
So our next step is to save up money again (hopefully we'll get a good tax refund) and go to Portland Oregon. It's my first choice for a place to live, but we are skeptical that it meets the wife's requirements (see weather, positive, above). We'll try to visit in February or March, so that we can get an honest feel for its cold and damp potential.
cottonmanifesto and I are shopping around for a new location in which to live (several years from now, after certain family members graduate from high school). I've ranted and rambled, unintentionally insulted and alienated people, and generally been tediously obsessed with finding the best place for us to move. The short review is this: We didn't eliminate Austin from our list.
The Positives:
- Urban Nature: Aplenty. Lots of really cool stuff, including many of my favorite categories, such as carrion birds, bats, reptiles both mundane and venomous, and large frightening-looking invertebrates. Yes, that's right: giant spiders are a big positive to me. Barton Springs, the Austin Science and Nature Center, and other city park areas are wonderful. A short (by Texas standards) drive away is one of the best birding areas in the country, along the gulf coast, which has, along with migratory novelties such as whooping cranes, tons of large animals including alligators (!!).
- Weather: As many of you are eye-rollingly aware, one of our primary reasons for leaving Boston is the cold weather and snow. I hate dressing for it, hate walking in it, and really hate shoveling in it. None of that in Austin. It gets occasionally chilly (below freezing "about three times a year" according to friends) and once every couple years or so they have an ice storm that shuts down the city. I can live with that. The wife needs warm sunshine in large doses or she loses her will to live. Austin has large doses of warm sunshine. It also has occasional rain, which I appreciate, because it means there are plants living there (no offense to you desert people, but I find the lack of ground cover and scant trees in the southwest unbelievably depressing).
- Cost of Living: We can afford a house there. This is an important factor that has unfortunately eliminated Hawaii and California from our lists.
- Food and Vegetarianism: Despite Texas' well-founded reputation for an obsession with beef, Austin is favorably comparable to Boston as far as finding vegetarian food goes. Vietnamese and Thai restaurants are abundant (Indian places regrettably less so) and due to large numbers of college students and other flaky types, more restaurants seem to believe it's in their interest to clearly identify vegetarian options on the their menus. Also, due to the lack of shitty cold weather, and close proximity to food-growing regions such as Mexico, rare New England delicacies such as avocados and mangoes are insanely cheap in the grocery stores. We didn't look too closely, but we assume that this is the case with most produce. The headquarters of Whole Foods is in Austin, so if we felt like spending a lot of money on food, we could. There's lots of yummy Mexican food around, too.
- The Dogs: Thanks to the Texan ethic of "leave my property alone or I'll kill you," there are few limits on what you can own, including animals. This means there are maniacs with reptile zoos (and probably pet pumas) in their houses, but it also means that the State Constitution prevents laws that prohibit or regulate specific breeds of dogs. (We pit bull owners are obsessed with "Breed Specific Legislation," or BSL.) That means no nasty surprises like the Boston muzzle law that snuck through a couple years ago, or the horrific Denver canine genocide that disproportionally affected law-abiding dog owners, in that otherwise sensible city (screw you Denver--it snows too much there anyway :P).
- Friends and Family: We have friends there, and it seems real easy to make new friends there. Due to air travel, we wouldn't be too far from other friends and family (and, in fact, we'd be about half-way between my in-laws' two houses), as opposed to smaller cities on the west coast that we are considering. It's actually a lot closer to my brother and his family.
The Negatives
- The Weather: Almost everyone we spoke to said "Wow, you got here after it cooled down," (highs were in the 90's the entire time we were there) "it was a lot hotter last week." Temperatures in the hundreds are routine, and it stays hot (apparently) from about April to September. No sweat for the wife--she works indoors and everything is air conditioned to meat locker temperatures; she'll have to buy more sweaters--but my job track seems to keep me in the outdoors most of the time. Also my favorite hobbies and recreation activities occur outside. Plenty of sweat for me: my shirt back was instantly soaking wet whenever we left the car. Chances of a heat-related injury for me? 100%. If not heat stroke, it'll be blister-producing sunburn. (Members of my family tend to wear more clothes in hot places, due to our saltine colored skin. My insane brother in Las Vegas wears more clothes on a desert hike than I do shoveling snow.)
- Public Transportation: There ain't none. The meager bus service looks like it compares unfavorably with, say, Worcester Mass. Everyone simply drives everywhere. I know this is normal for most Americans, but it is very alien to me. I'd get used to it, but is that a good thing? The city is pretty small and easy to get around, and there are a fair amount of people bicycling, but for the disadvantages to this, see "The Weather," (negatives), above.
- Culture Shock: Not so bad, actually. This was my number one concern, and found myself quite charmed by the place. Austinites are proud of Texas, but generally not proud of the President. The social/political vibe is pretty low key, compared to what I'm used to. It seems to be impolite to wear your politics on your sleeve, which I actually think is a good thing. People might get along better, if they weren't covered with bumper stickers and t-shirts proclaiming that they are right and if you disagree you're a jerk. Austin has an interesting culture of college students and hipsters, which I believe both help make a city a better place to live, even though I want nothing to do with either of them.
So our next step is to save up money again (hopefully we'll get a good tax refund) and go to Portland Oregon. It's my first choice for a place to live, but we are skeptical that it meets the wife's requirements (see weather, positive, above). We'll try to visit in February or March, so that we can get an honest feel for its cold and damp potential.
