[T.S.]

Originally Posted by 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

Screw city-data, I was banned there also and know the admin here.

Thanks for the Austin info.

Originally Posted by ProEye

I lived in Austin for 5 years working for IBM. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Texas or Austin for that matter, but to each his own.

Not sure what five years will get anyone but I can offer my perspective.

I'm not a hot weather person so I was not impressed with Texas. I really would not have been there had I not landed a job at IBM. Then I went back to school in Houston, and it was the least expensive option, so I was stuck again for 4 more years. I worked for a year as an eye doctor and felt I was stuck again!

Anyway... Austin is okay. Unfortunately, many cities are losing their identity since there is so much corporate interest. A Wal-Mart in one city is the same as in any other right? Plus, since Austin is growing so fast it is very new, so I can't say that most of Austin was all that unique.

One thing that few people seem to mention is the violent weather in Austin. There are a lot of bad thunderstorms that occur there. I can't tell you now many times it seemed like there was a tornado outside my window. The biggie was the big hailstorm in the early 90's that caused something like $1 billion in damage. I was lucky in that the storm pooped out before it hit my area (I had a house in Cedar Park).

We don't get that kind of stuff here in CT.

My wife is from the panhandle and my daughter was born in Houston so I still have fond memories...

Thanks for the reply.