How is Austin, TX compared to places like Portland, SF, NYC, etc?

Thread: How is Austin, TX compared to places like Portland, SF, NYC, etc?
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Peacher

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From what I can see, conservatives often liken the city to Portland or San Francisco focusing on homelessness, drugs, and woke people. Liberals say mostly positive things but also complain about the high cost of living.

But people like Rogan and Elon Musk sing its praises and talk about how much better it is than big cities in California...and how being a liberal city in the middle of a "sea of red" makes it unique and much "healthier" politically. What they seem to be getting at is that there is more balance to it being a liberal city in a red state as opposed to SF being a liberal city in a liberal state.

I'm thinking of making a scouting trip in TX or FL soon and trying to narrow down which areas I explore (for relocating to). List so far includes Austin, Houston, DFW, Orlando, and Tampa.

Here is Rogan and Musk talking about Austin.

 
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I live in Austin and love it. Yes Austin proper is filled to the gills with liberals and they are insufferable. And every day there are 50 more dipshits from California due to the insane in tech growth here. But they can be (mostly) ignored and you can still enjoy the upsides of the city. The Food, the music, SXSW, ACL, Formula 1 and so much more.
 
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Peacher said:
From what I can see, conservatives often liken the city to Portland or San Francisco focusing on homelessness, drugs, and woke people. Liberals say mostly positive things but also complain about the high cost of living.

But people like Rogan and Elon Musk sing its praises and talk about how much better it is than big cities in California...and how being a liberal city in the middle of a "sea of red" makes it unique and much "healthier" politically. What they seem to be getting at is that there is more balance to it being a liberal city in a red state as opposed to SF being a liberal city in a liberal state.

I'm thinking of making a scouting trip in TX or FL soon and trying to narrow down which areas I explore (for relocating to). List so far includes Austin, Houston, DFW, Orlando, and Tampa.

Here is Rogan and Musk talking about Austin.

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I'm bouncing the idea around as well. Not Austin specifically but Texas in general. Mainly because I live in California-lite. I'm in MN where it's basically Cali but with shit weather. I've told the wife that TX is on the list of places we need to start looking at. She's game because she grew up on a farm and is in the rodeo life so it would suit her.

Arkam said:
I live in Austin and love it. Yes Austin proper is filled to the gills with liberals and they are insufferable. And every day there are 50 more dipshits from California due to the insane in tech growth here. But they can be (mostly) ignored and you can still enjoy the upsides of the city. The Food, the music, SXSW, ACL, Formula 1 and so much more.
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And see, this is what concerns me. The main cities are going blue with a bunch of libs funneling in from places like Cali. The state is teetering on purple. I want to move to TX because it's a beacon of red. Or at least was. I don't want to worry about the politics if I go. Yep, I can certainly ignore the dipshits but if that place turns blue in the next decade then moving there will be for naught and I'll be right back to square one trying to find a home without a bunch of fucking crazies. Beginning to think that's a pipe dream because these people spread like cancer.
 
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Peacher said:
I've heard the homeless problem in Austin isn't as bad ever since they had a public camping ban a year and a half ago.
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Oh its bad. There are little towns in every greenspace and camps under many overpasses. Its not AS BAD as it was a couple years back when the State stepped in and cleared them from all the areas the State had jurisdiction on. But its still really bad. The city even rents out a couple old hotels as additional housing for the bums. Oh and pan handlers are still everywhere.

But go up to Williamson county and you have none of that.
 
You do you, but I'd never wanna live anywhere hip and trendy like that

Don't see much of a point
 
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Politics aside, I think that Austin looks the best in terms of landscape, parks, bodies of water, running/hiking paths, and outdoor activities in general. These are big selling points to me. Plus the fact that it's much smaller than the others and has one center.

But the high cost of living and political shit have me leaning towards Houston or DFW as alternatives.
 
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Arkam said:
Oh its bad. There are little towns in every greenspace and camps under many overpasses. Its not AS BAD as it was a couple years back when the State stepped in and cleared them from all the areas the State had jurisdiction on. But its still really bad. The city even rents out a couple old hotels as additional housing for the bums. Oh and pan handlers are still everywhere.

But go up to Williamson county and you have none of that.
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Difference is even in Austin, you can shoot them in the gut with a .45 longslide, with laser sighting.

The state government keeps the liberal cities in check somewhat.
 
Peacher said:
Politics aside, I think that Austin looks the best in terms of landscape, parks, bodies of water, running/hiking paths, and outdoor activities in general. These are big selling points to me. Plus the fact that it's much smaller than the others and has one center.

But the high cost of living and political shit have me leaning towards Houston or DFW as alternatives.
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Houston and DFW aren't a whole lot better at this point. The smaller towns in commuting distance of the big cities are mostly okay, though who knows for how long.
 
ExpandKong said:
Houston and DFW aren't a whole lot better at this point. The smaller towns in commuting distance of the big cities are mostly okay, though who knows for how long.
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I see Houston votes 42% republican. Austin 24%. DFW and San Antonio somewhere in between.
 
Well I decided on a road trip next week.

Will be visiting Austin. Looking at airbnbs to stay at...will spend about one or two weeks there.

I think I can deal with the liberalism there as long as the liberals are more normie types who hate cancel culture and attend Kill Tony or Rogan comedy shows.
 
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I suppose it's not bad when compared to someplace like SF or LA for sure, but as someone who's lived in the area for a while now it's gotten noticeably worse.
 
ExpandKong said:
I suppose it's not bad when compared to someplace like SF or LA for sure, but as someone who's lived in the area for a while now it's gotten noticeably worse.
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If I was looking for a place to settle down and raise kids in, I definitely wouldn't choose Austin. I'd go for one of the suburbs outside the city limits. I'm currently in a very blue suburban area (Fairfax County, VA) and it's not as one sided as it looks in places like the SF Bay are or Portland area - people aren't shy about supporting conservative causes here.
 
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Well I just spent a week in Austin and San Antonio.

Austin was awesome. I stayed in the city and explored most of downtown/central along with Lake Travis. Beautiful city feels like it was made for outdoorsy people. So green and hilly, some parts of it could be mistaken for a rainforest.

So many nice walking/running trails and bodies of water. The parks are so accessible compared to in other cities. I loved the Zilker Park and Barton Springs area, could see myself spending time there regularly.


I'm going back there to explore the suburbs just north of downtown. Will be staying in Cedar Park this time.

San Antonio - eh...it was okay. The downtown River Walk area was cool, but more of a one and done experience. I checked out New Braunfels about 30 minutes north and it was much more interesting.
 
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Loved my time visiting Austin, although many many times I was told how much Trump sucked without asking.

As long as the state isn't governed by these people, I'm sure it will continue to be ok.
 
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GreyHorace said:
I'd hate to see Austin go the way of liberal shitholes like Chicago and Los Angeles.
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It's too late, already.

TaySan said:
Why not move to Oklahoma or Arkansas if politics is that important?
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It's the bad voting habits of people who leave their overpriced, poorly managed states to go to affordable, well managed places that people have problems with.

Politics is secondary to property values, every time. Though Politics do fuck up property values as we have seen from the likes of LA, San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Portland, Seattle, and now Austin.
 
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WesternBlood said:
It's too late, already.



It's the bad voting habits of people who leave their overpriced, poorly managed states to go to affordable, well managed places that people have problems with.

Politics is secondary to property values, every time. Though Politics do fuck up property values as we have seen from the likes of LA, San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Portland, Seattle, and now Austin.
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WesternBlood said:
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The problem I have observed is that democratic cities will actually attract homeless and impoverished people who, for whatever reason, are not capable or not likely to lift themselves out of their problems. They will flock to these liberal cities for the access to free or reduced cost amenities such as pools, libraries, recreation centers, health and childcare, food banks, and crisis shelters. What these liberal cities are never prepared to handle is the volume of needy people who will flood there. As the available free housing and halfway houses fill up, there's no where for these people to go...

It just never seems to fail. Even the most conservative cities I've lived in, as they have slowly gone purple and then blue, the same failures emerge until you have mobs and swarms of drug-addled mindless homeless people moving about the downtown areas. Tent cities will pop up in city parks and interstate underpasses and then vanish as police go on a major offensive, but all they manage to do is push the hoard out of the parks and back into the downtown streets and alleyways, rendering once desirable downtown areas into places everyone will then avoid.
 
I would like to visit. Joe Rogan, his new club, The B-Team and New Wave Jiu Jitsu. Sounds like an awesome place.
 
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