In Austin's Defense
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12/12/2010
This is an add on to a previous review I made.
I railed against Austin for its awful summer heat (Day AND night - at least here in the high desert of California it cools off at night. See my review for this area at Lancaster/Antelope Valley, CA.).
BUUUTTTTTT, in Austin's defense, it does have some nice winter weather. It can get cold. I remember it getting down to 2 degrees one day. But, generally speaking it has an avg January low of 40 and an avg January high of 60. So, there's the payback (for awful summer heat).
Couple of other points I didn't address:
Traffic: I saw it go from a place where you didn't have to worry about going cross-town at 8 a.m. or 5 p.m. - to a place where you did.
Haven't been back in a while (If they moved the airport from Airport Blvd way out to Bergstrom did they rename Airport Blvd?? I shared a house with 3 other guys on Airport Blvd and the {commercial airliners} would fly 100 feet over our house - you couldn't hear anything for 30 seconds.), but expect traffic to be appropriate for an area of over 1 million people.
Jobs: I drove a taxi for 5 years (in the early 1990's) and that's a comment I would hear often about Austin - "nice place but no (white collar)jobs."
By their low unemployment rate (compared to the rest of the country as of 12/12/10), it looks like they still have a lot of blue collar jobs.
Also, I stated a little opinion in my last review that some might disagree with. I happen to like a nice racial mix in my populace - I realize there are others who might like a racial majority in their area.
And forgive my straying from the facts a little above - just taking a break from the examination side as well I will say this....
If you are racking your brain looking for that "perfect place," good luck, or tell me where you think it is (and I will probably be able to point out either many or few, large or small, negatives).
From what I have found, outside of the coastal areas of California (San Fran to San Diego - which are still very expensive areas relative to the rest of the country - and some parts have bad smog), and some prestigious areas on the Northeast Coast, pretty much everything else in the U.S. is average. Its share of pros and cons - and the severity of those pros and cons differ - but, they balance out to average. A lot of it depends on what you are looking for - to me climate is a huge factor. I like living in a cooler climate (Austin vs. Antelope Valley, CA), but after 12 years here the frequent high winds and dust are starting to bother me and have me thinking of the "next locale." (Can't believe the average American moves ever 7-10 years - I thought I was the only transient.)
One last thing and it's about this website (Let's see if they edit this out.). I really like this website for quick concise facts but don't rely on them as perfect. For example they give San Diego and us (Lancaster) about equal scores on the (summer) climate comfort range (45 and 47) and that is way not true (I wrote them about it, but they haven't done anything, YET.). I.E. We are way hotter than San Diego.
They list us, Rosamond, CA. as a 1 on the air quality scale because they link us in with (awful) Bakersfield because they are using county stats and not city stats. I.E. Air quality varies within counties in Cali, and Rosamond has better AQ than Bakersfield.
That is all. I am going to check out the NFL action (it's Sunday!). I have said enough, if not, too much..........
Lance | Rosamond, CA