Reviews & Comments
Austin, TX
re: -
3/1/2015I am a 51-year old single divorcee from the midwest who has lived in Champaign-Urbana, Worcester, Massachusettes,and St. Louis as a married adult. I lived in Austin 2000-2012 and was in the lower income strata the entire time, so what I have to say will be from that perspective. I will also discuss my grown children's perspective, since 5 of them currently or recently lived in Austin. Austin is a great place to live if you like outdoor activities that are not necessarily culturally or intellectually stimulating. It's true that there are not many decent museums in Austin, but plenty within driving distance (Dallas & Houston). There are way too many hippies and progressive liberal democrats from California here (and from other states, too, of course), but a huge population of conservative Christians reside here and everyone gets along and is pretty tolerant considering the vast differences between the two. Traffic...not nearly as bad as St. Louis, Chicago or Houston traffic. Many people take the bus (great value) and use the time to read. I did this when I had car troubles and it was very safe, very convenient and very inexpensive. Austin is hot in the summer but the sunshine is one of the reasons for the positive can-do attitude of the majority of non-whining Austinites. Austin is in Travis County, and north of Austin is the infamous Williamson County with a totally corrupt court system, so unless you know for absolute certainty that you will NEVER be in divorce court or sitting in your truck drinking (they will find you and arrest you), you should move to Travis County. Now, here is what my children say about Austin. They loved it for awhile, but once they matured past the drinking & partying stage, they found it annoying and rather dull. Austin has a very low crime rate if you don't count the abortion rate. If you are into New Age religion and witchcraft and homosexuality, you will find South Austin and the downtown area to be more to your liking, while the more conservative types will prefer being closer to Williamson county (Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, and Georgetown). It's a tossup as to which is more disgusting. I almost forgot to mention the drugs. It is pretty apparent that about half of the residents (the 18-40 year-olds primarily) are on some sort of drugs, mostly pot, but also a lot of Prozac, and some hard drugs. If you like "gentlemens" clubs, there are lots of them in Austin. It is still possible to rent a 2-BR apartment in a decent neighborhood for $775 or thereabouts. From talking to native Austinites, Austin is nothing like it used to be and so they are hoping all the Yankees and trash from other states will stay where they are instead of polluting Austin, but frankly, it is pretty much too late.