Austin is great if you have a college education!
-
3/21/2009
I have lived in Austin full-time since 1970, and have enjoyed my life here. As a liberal and a Democrat, I feel comfortable here, especially in the central city, a hotbed of liberal thinkers. Austin is a liberal oasis in a sea of statewide conservative mediocrity, and we will continue being that oasis in part because we attract like thinkers from other areas of the nation. The state is gradually reverting to a liberal political state of mind, and Austin will always be in the vanguard in this respect.
Our "winters" are great because we don't have cold weather, but the summers are hot and muggy. We live in our air-conditioned cocoons from mid-May to mid-October. One fact not advertised by the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau is that we are the "Allergy Capital" of the nation due to an annual allergy we call "Cedar Fever" caused by what are generally know as cedar trees. This happens from late November through the middle of February. But this can cured for most folks with over-the-counter medications, but best of all with weekly allergy shots from late August through February. Typically, one has to do this only once in a lifetime.
In spite of this common ailmnent, Austin is one of the fastest growing mid-sized cities in the USA due to it being a state capital, the home the University of Texas at Austin, three other 4-year universities, a huge community college, two other universities less than thirty minutes away via the freeway, and a high tech center.
You can always find numerous music venues in town with local, national and international entertainers both in town as well as at the local universities.
From my perspective, the only place to live in Austin is in the central city as the suburbs are dull indeed, but this is typical of most American cities.
Our public transit system is said by some to be atrocious, but this again is typical due to our unplanned and unregulated urban form made worse by greedy subdivision developers from the 60s to the present.
Austin seems to be in a constant transformation from good, to better, to best. A social entrepreneurship spirit is alive and growing, and this initiative will undoubtedly have not only a local impact, but most likely also an international impact. I get the impression, though I hope I am wrong, that this social entrepreneurship is for the most part environmentally focused. Our social, human service needs are huge as there is a great discrepancy between incomes of affluent families and low-income families that are mostly Hispanic and African-American. In this instance, there is a great amount of work being done to address this issue by a great number of entities, public and non-profit, but these efforts are poorly coordinated to date.
For the person that is educated, Austin is a great place to live and raise a family. I think I'll stay! It could be much worse elsewhere.
Jose E. | Austin, TX