Retired in Austin
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2/26/2011
Native Texas farm boy; now retired and living in Austin, TX the past twenty years. Lived in the SF bay area for ten years before moving back home to Texas.
Bottom line: I'm tired of Austin. Grown too big. Too much traffic. Property taxes way too high.
This is a city for younger folks. Something going on every week-end. Seems like they block off the streets every other week for another marathon or other street event.
Night life and music is abundant. The sixth street area is a party every night; lots of UT students and techies.
The local nightly news is always about whats going on downtown (sixth street, Lady Bird Lake hiking area, Austin City Limits studio, etc..). Watching the local news you'd think Austin didn't have any suburbs.
Austin is not what you'd call a traditional Texas town. Way too socially and politically liberal. Native Texans call it the Berkeley of Texas.
For me, at this point in my life, I'd choose central California over Austin. Alternate would be Waco, TX or Bryan, TX.
My advice for anyone moving to Austin is to look at Georgetown (Austin suburb). It seems that's where all the Austin folks are moving.
Joe | Austin, TX