Things you should know about Austin before moving
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11/4/2008
1. It's a Republican State
2. Texans consider Texas a separate country; they don't like to be associated with the rest of the USA and think TX is better than any other state. I'm dead serious!
3. Lance Armstrong is the icon of Austin, yet his billion dollar home uses 10% more water than the average family home here. Where's the "green-ness"?
4. The cost of registering your vehicle is at least $120 if you're new to the state. They charge a $90 "new resident tax" plus the cost of registration. What is that??
5. One half to 3/4 of Austinites drive a gas-guzzling truck or SUV. Of that, more than half do not use it for work purposes or hauling anything. More "green-ness" I guess.
6. The total # of executions in TX is 419 since the state reinstated the death penalty using lethal injection instead of elecrocution. The count started in 1982, so 419 people in the last 26 years. Currently, there are 13 people pending execution, just sitting around waiting...It costs an average of $137 million each year for the death penalty and TX has the largest population on death row. Wonder where your taxes are going? And check this out - the average time spent on death row just waiting for execuation is 10 years in TX!! That means that our tax money is being used to keep these offenders alive for 10 years until they're just going to kill them anyway. What a waste!!!
7. The motto for Austin is: "Keep Austin Weird". There is nothing weird about the city or people except for the fact that they claim to be the "live music capital of the world", yet all the good performers bypass Austin and hold concerts in Dallas and Houston instead.
8. Most people I've talked to claim to be good, humble, Baptist, charity-giving people. That's great, except the homes they live in could easily occupy their family plus 2 God-needing homeless families downtown. And they are the ones driving the big SUV's while talking on their cell phones and heading to their manicure appointment with their poodles in the front seat.
9. It's HOT and HUMID! There are no seasons. It's November and I'm still wearing shorts and tank tops. 82 degrees today.
Carol | Austin, TX