Random Early Lunch Post

[urbpan]

1. I'm pleased to see that after the Atheist Apocalypse there are still pigeons. It wouldn't have killed the cartoonist to change it to an American robin, but hey, I haven't given up the room in my heart for pigeons.

2. On account of the exciting mortgage crisis (Low income people out on the street! Bailouts for Wall Street Usury firms!) our options for where to move have temporarily expanded. Here's a question I asked on thequestionclub with predictably binary results (considering the binary nature of the question): You have two choices about where to buy a house. You have a 300k budget. Do you a) Buy a tiny house with no yard in Oakland California or b) buy a nice house with a gigantic yard 30 miles outside of Austin Texas?

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Bastrop is little more than one of the most notorious speed-traps in the state on top of some of the most boneheaded highway junctions in the state.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

The only good things that ever came from Bastrop were the film The Whole Wide World (which used Bastrop's downtown to fill in for Cross Plains) and a very good friend. Other than that, it's a pit.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I chose Bastrop as an example more or less at random. Any location within 30 miles of Austin where we can get a house on an acre or more within our price range is fair game.

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

The only places within 30 miles of Austin that are even faintly cool are Pflugerville and Buda, and they are still podunk-y, just with some cool features. And geez, we have been back there several times already this year, as you know, and
(a) the traffic is even worse than we remembered,
(b) fewer eateries are open later at night than there used to be,
and (c) the prices of everything at said eateries have gone up, so that a sandwich at most places now costs as much as it does here in B'more.

My brother J and his wife and 2 kids live in Oakland. They live in a very nice area. However, their house DOES meet the "no yard to speak of" description; they have cats rather than dogs, so it doesn't bother them, but I couldn't see living there with any dog larger than a Pomeranian.