[deeptrance]

Hi, I'm in Austin and was just referred to this forum by someone who got banned at city-data. But honestly you'll still find a lot more info at city-data.com because there are tons of members and you'll get lots of diverse responses.

From what I know about Charlotte, you would like Austin better unless you need those tall ultra-green trees. We have shorter scrubbier trees, it's not as wet here but it's quite green much of the year unless we're in a bad drought.

Other than that, it's culturally much more progressive here, it's growing way too fast, traffic is horrible, it's a super-fun place that's very hip and full of cultural amenities especially if you're on the young side... what else ya wanna know?

It's sad that we're among the safer cities. America is so violent! A city this size in Canada would have maybe 2 or 3 murders in a year, we have 30 to 40. But property crime is a much bigger problem. The murders are almost all within families or as a result of fights, it's not like there are people just walking around shooting each other. A lot of it is bar fights in bad neighborhoods and presumably that's not where you'd be spending your time, and you wouldn't be living with a drug dealer and getting into fights about who left the crack pipe on the kitchen counter. But you can live a very clean life and have your home burglarized here, that's the biggest concern. If you do decide to move here, be sure to get a LOT more info about which areas are safe and how to protect your personal property.

best wishes,
DT