People of Austin: Tell Us About Your City

I hated Austin for the first ten years I lived here, mainly because it is hot and expensive. But in my tenth year, I suddenly found myself loving it. I've been here since 1993.

What is the general level of eco-consciousness in population?

I'd say it is fairly high, but we're no Ithaca. As Austin grows, eco-concern drops because we are employing people from areas of the country that aren't as eco-conscious as we are. The Save Our Springs Alliance is still alive and well :)

How is it for cyclists?

Lance Armstrong lives here (most of the time), so that should mean something. It could be safer, but I think we're definitely on the level of Boulder. Michael Bluejay runs an awesome site with more details.

How's public transportation?

Getting better all the time. We recently passed a commuter rail agenda, and by 2008 it should ferry commuters from the suburbs to the center of town.

Suburban sprawl?

Needless to say, no one here wants Austin to be the new Atlanta, but with Round Rock and San Marcos growing like they are, sprawl seems inevitable. The city has taken on some very serious urban density programs to try to create infill and reduce this problem.

Air quality?

We've recently adopted tougher emissions standards, and our mayor has voiced a commitment to inviting electric vehicle support to Austin. Still, if the ozone doesn't get you, seasonal allergies will.

Recycling/composting?

At every doorstep, except for cardboard. Texas Campaign for the Environment has been working on it. Dillo Dirt is available for purchase and is also used along the highways to promote wildflower growth.

As time passes, are things getting better or worse?

I think the things that have made Austin great have invited many people to live here. Like so many other US cities, Austin is still trying to figure out how to grow gracefully. Most of us are doing everything we can to "Keep Austin Weird," and I admit that I think it is working.

My husband and I are building the house we plan to raise our kids in, we spend a great deal of our time around our neighborhood and on Lake Austin, we love our local businesses and our careers are thriving here, so I don't think we'll be leaving any time soon :)

Thanks Christiane! Very interesting.

I have a few additional comments. Funnily enough, I just moved to Austin from Portland last year, so I may be comparing to some very high standards :-).

As for public transportation, I think Austin's system is less extensive but maybe a bit more reliable than Portland's. I ride the bus to and from school (UT) every day and I am impressed with how on time the buses almost always are.

I have to disagree a bit with Christiane on the recycling, though. The city has a pretty good program, but it doesn't reach everyone. While my apartment complex does have recycling bins for paper, plastic, metal and glass, several of my friends' complexes don't have any recycling at all. I also feel that awareness and willingness to recycle falls far short of what I saw in Portland. For example, the trash can next to my complex's mailboxes is always stuffed with junk mail that should be going in the paper recycling bin (I'm trying to get the management to place one by the mailboxes, but no luck yet). Walking around the UT campus, I see newspapers in trash cans when a paper recycling bin stands literally 2 feet away.

On the other hand, the city electric company has sold out on wind power and there's a waiting list for it, and our Freecycle group is very, very active! I think overall, we're doing pretty well. So far, I like it here.

I do miss Portland, though.

I don't live in Austin, but I'll throw down my impressions having visited several times.

It's a fantastic city with a very unique and thriving personality. Music is the "big thing" with a constant stream of excellent bands available to fit any taste, and in general, very cool, approachable people who are refreshingly unpretentious.

It Looks perfectly fine for biking (pretty flat), has a concettration of innovative companies to work for, has some incredible natural springs to relieve you from the summer heat, has more windpower energy than anywhere else in the country, and has some incredibly nice semi-urban neighborhoods near downtown that would make anyone feel confortable and at home.

My one complaint is that sprawl is as bad as anywhere (thought not as bad as other Texas cities) and the downtown is mostly parking lots - it looks like anything that was ever historic has been long since demolished for parking or replaced by fairly generic office buildings, except for a strip on 6th street which, though fun, is a pretty cheesy college-bar zone. However it looks like there's a lot of urban infil on the horizon.

Concerning the green state of things in Austin I'm not familiar enough to elaborate but AMD's recent 100% renewable energy plan for their new campus must be mentioned.

AMD To Use 100 Percent Renewable Energy In Austin

Ah, Austin. Home sweet home. Or not, as has been the case since I moved back here.

I grew up in Austin, and have lived here all of my life except for 3 years when I went away to college. Growing up, I thought of Austin as a very liberal and green place, but as I've gotten older (and perhaps more skeptical?) I get more frustrated with the city and its residents. Perhaps I have changed, too. I know that I have become more environmentally aware in the past 8 years, so it's entirely possible that Austin has always been this way, and I just never noticed before.

Let me be more specific with my main gripe about Austin. Austin is in Texas. It might be a little speck of blue in a sea of red that makes up the rest of Texas, but it's still Texas. And Texans like their trucks. They also like to drive. Texas cities are very spread out from each other, and growing up here, you get used to the idea of the 4 hour road trip to grandma's house.

I'd say we're almost pre-programmed to the idea sprawl. Texans love the idea of this place being "wild" and each of us wants our own little piece of that "wilderness." So we're very keen on the idea of having our sprawling ranch house on 2 acres. Commuting times don't seem to bother us, because we have decided that a three hour round-trip commute is acceptable as long as we have a view of the lake, or can keep a horse. I don't think that will ever change.

Trucks and SUVs go hand in hand with this mentality. What that means for Austin, is that people will buy a house in Bastrop (1 hour) or even as far as Smithville (1.5 hours), and then drive their truck or their SUV to work every morning, and they don't see this as a problem.

I bike to work every morning, but it took months of planning before I got the balls to ride out there with the trucks on the actual roadways. I work downtown, and my commute is very short (2.5 mi each way), but every morning it seems like I have an incident with a truck buzzing me, or turning in front of me. Cars here just don’t know what to do with bicycles. They don’t know how to treat them, and are shocked that a bike might have some right to the lane. I'm one of those "rare" bicyclists who obeys all traffic laws (even the full stop at a stop sign... most cars don't do that), and I'm dreaming of Portland... I would love to live somewhere where there was an actual biking community. My friends all think I'm crazy for biking to work, and I don't know anyone else who does. I have some courier friends, and they're regularly hit and mauled by drivers. The whole sprawl thing does not go well with bicycling. I know people who talk about being environmentally conscious, and do yoga and are liberal, and all that hoopla, yet they still buy houses an hour outside the city, so “of course” they “can’t bike to work” like I do. That’s what I hear every morning on the elevator at work. “Oh I wish I could ride my bike, but I live so far away.” Well, move closer! And whoever said that Austin was flat up there, let me set you straight. This is a very hilly place. I'm sure that has something to do with the lack of cyclists here. Oh yeah, that and 100 degree days like the past two have been. And it isn't even summer yet.

Austin has some interesting initiatives… like the wind power someone was talking about up there, but I just don’t think it’s enough. There’s a massive and raging love of the automobile here, and I don’t think that will ever change. We’ve got that whole “commuter rail” thing going on, but if you look at the maps, that won’t be completed for 20 years. My husband works up in north Austin (where all the tech companies are) and he has struggled with the drive and the drivers ever since we moved here (he’s from Florida). He desperately wants to take the bus, but there is no bus that runs directly from central Austin to north Austin. He would have to change busses about 6 times, and the whole trip would take 2 hours each way. And that still wouldn’t get him within 5 miles of his work. Save Our Springs does a good job of community outreach on environmental matters, but it’s just one group when we need 50 or 100.

Um, I don't know which Austin you went to Nick, but in the Austin I live in well more than half of the buildings on Congress from 1st to 11th are historical landmarks or date back to the turn of the century, not to mention most of the buildings on Guadalupe, and Red River have been there for decades. And the vast majority of the office spaces downtown are renovated houses. We have our sprawl problems sure, but it's is a far sight from San Antonio or Houston, and is generally confined to the outskirts of Austin.

What is the general level of eco-consciousness in population?
As far as I know, it is pretty high, from consumers to businesses to schools to government agencies.

How is it for cyclists?
IMHO, not enough roads are marked for cyclists, although I see them everywhere.

How's public transportation?
It’s adequate for now. Austin needs a more efficient and convenient mass transit system to reduce inner city traffic. Also, all public transportation should, but they do not, run on clean fuel or electricity.

Suburban sprawl?
Like any major city, urban/suburban sprawling seems to be out of control.

Air quality?
Other than the second hand smoke and exhaust fume from monstrous trucks and SUV’s, I am breathing okay.

Recycling/composting?
Back in Santa Cruz, CA, we put just about anything marked recyclable in one big bin. Here, our recycling nazi dictates what is and what is not recyclable. After several rejects, we now pay more attention to the specific recycling instructions. At least our backyard here is big enough for a compost heap.

As time passes, are things getting better or worse?
In general, life is good and very green in Austin. We love visiting the Zilker Park, wading in Barton Spring, hiking around Hamilton Pool, Wild Basin, Lake Travis, Enchanted Rock, petting rescued animals in Austin Zoo, listening to music at Shady Grove, Maria's Taco Express (a.k.a. Hippy Church), Nutty Brown, the ACL festival, having brunches at Central Market, Whole Food, Y-bar, Rudy’s, E-Z’s, hanging out with friends at the fun-filled South Congress, finding mid-century modern homes hidden in neighborhoods, checking out new modernist houses and buildings popping up here and there, picking up gorgeous plants from farmer's market and various local nurseries. You can still buy an affordable house with a big back yard in a good neighborhood for less than $200K. Austin has some of the best (Blue Ribbon) schools and green building/energy programs in the U.S. Traffic can be bad in the rush hour, but that is common in all major cities. After living in various big and small cities on both coasts, we chose Austin to settle down and raise our family here. This is our home. Austin is not perfect, but I love Austin for all it is and all that it offers.

I have lived in Austin for 10 years. The city was once very eco-conscious, but with the tech-boom and it receiving lots of attention for being a highly liveable city, the influx of "foreigners" has slowly degraded it. Southwest Austin (the pretty area where the hills start) sits atop a fragile aquifer and development is rampant here. We're loving it to death. For years, city voters have told major developers to stay away from the aquifer, but AMD is ignoring these demands and building a huge campus that will encourage more sprawl and degradation of our water (http://www.moveamd.com/). I live out in the country on 10 acres a few miles from their planned campus and will probably end up moving if the development around me continues. It's too bad... Austin used to be a real progressive city. Oh - and if you're from Austin, vote YES on proposition 1 & 2! It's our last chance to save the aquifer.

Austin is the world headquarters for Whole Foods and Central Market also has a couple stores around town. Local restraunts and coffee stops almost always have some kind of organic option.

But my office on 360 has no access to public transportation and yesterday a biker was killed just a mile down the road. I'm not a super active biker but I will ride around town when I can avoid traffic. On weekends I like to ride the off road trails that are in the area.

I’d like to put Whole Foods on blast, Wheatsville co-op (http://wheatsville.coop/) is the spot with the southern fried tofu sandwich and organic food. Casa de Luz has the best food in Austin (http://www.casadeluz.org/). ICC (http://iccaustin.coop/) is the place to live with a vegan coop (Royal) two blocks from a vegan fire station (http://www.engine2.org/site/index.php). Michael Bluejay is possibly the most annoying person in town and bike lanes are almost nonexistent. It’s impossible to bike any distance without putting your life in serious danger. Props to my CSA’s, Boggy Creek Farms (http://www.boggycreekfarm.com/) and the farmers market. Things are getting worse by the second and Austin is only as weird as those crazy soccer moms will let it be. This limits weirdness to Eeyors B-day and t-shirts that say ‘Keep Austin Weird’. I-35 is the great segregator (rich white people west and poor people east) and White Mountain Tofu is the best tofu in the country. People are still rampant consumers so they can compost as many organic mangos, flown in from El Salvador and bought at Central Market, as they want but it doesn’t do any good. Public transit for the university (rich kids) is great and city wide (poor people) decent. Austin is not liberal, Austin is moderate. Think Bill Clinton not Dennis Kucinich. Air quality is slowly degrading, I’ve seen the data, but it’s still much better than Houston or Dallas/Fort Worth. The major influx of people (students, tech boom folk, ect.) looking for familiarity has watered down the city. Places that were once unique were paved over for Starbucks and apartments. I guess if you compare Austin to the rest of Texas it’s the Garden of Eden, but compared to where we should and could be its still disappointing. I live in the down town area so I rarely venture to the sprawl but I hear it’s horrendous.

Austin likes to present itself as environmental, but there's a very entrenched NIMBY scene that totally opposes much-needed densification. (As my brother-in-law puts it, Austin is the only city in the world that makes L.A. feel dense.) It's truly bizarre to see these people in action: self-righteous baby boomers calling themselves environmentalists even as they fight to keep from densifying the low-density, suburban-style neighborhoods in the central city.

Despite the crusty-old-hypocrite scene, Austin's got a lot of movement toward sustainable infill that might convince people to get off their asses and into buses (which are pretty good if you're going to/from downtown and pretty bad if you're going anywhere else) and our new commuter rail that will come online one of these days.

The Save Our Springs Alliance is the only local environmental group with any real name recognition. However, it's a single-issue group (aimed as preventing high-density development in the southwest part of town where the geology makes the groundwater most easily polluted) and is silent on many other environmental issues. For example, they've joined the NIMBYs in opposing densification; or, in their desperation to keep development out of the southwest they don't seem to care how much we sprawl out east. Austin could really use a broad-based environmental group willing to think holistically about Austin's entire environment.

How Green is Austin? Well, we should start with the nationally renowned Green Building Program and continue with energy-efficiency programs offered by the municipally-owned Austin Energy.
I agree that it's lost it's lustre, but I think that's just uncompromising liberal ideals. Case in point, the AMD situation. Yes, they are building in an environmentally-sensitive area, but their Austin facilities are also now the 12th-largest consumer of green energy in the nation. That's their Austin facilities alone! (and the Austin Independent School District is number 14.) Compromises don't make idealists happy though, so there's plenty of grumbling. Bravo, let's keep struggling for a better world. But let's also recognize our qualified successes as the progress they are.
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Austin is great mainly because of its contrast to the rest of Texas. Dallas? Houston? San Antonio? Blech! Austin is a gem in comparison. But that's not the ringing endorsement you might be looking for.
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Biking in Austin is ok, but as you already know, it's really hot most of the year. Doesn't stop all of us -especially during Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Compromises? When it comes to protecting fragile environmental zones, it's comes down to locating developments away from it. AMD and defender's greenwashing of their project fails to address the bigger issue of the amount of sprawl this will generate. Here is their proposed location:
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=1&ll=30.25284,-97.869108&spn=0.015625,0.018239

It's the gift that keeps on giving for the developers, Stratus AKA Freeport-McMoran, who own thousands of acres in the area...

Unfortunately, sometimes Austin is not safe for cyclists.

Austin is a great city, very laid-back, but getting more sophisticated with every year. There is a high level of eco-consciousness in the population of Austin proper, but tensions arise all the time over what the appropriate level of development should be in the sprawling suburbs, and over the city's plan to make the downtown area an upscale urban "paradise." The problem with living in paradise is that everyone wants to come here, but my main fear is that we're pricing regular people out of living in the city.

Recycling is easy if you have a house or live in a large apartment complex because you get curbside collection. If you live in a small apartment, you have to take your recyclables to a downtown center, which is kindof a pain. Composting is the norm, and there are lots of organic and natural gardening centers that can help you to develop an environmentally friendly, local-climate-appropriate garden.

Public transportation is good, very reliable, and certainly better than any other city in the South. It doesn't reach everywhere, but you can count on buses to be on time. The city is super biker-friendly, as are the bus drivers - they never get upset when you have a bike. Air quality isn't great, since, despite the fact that we have a great public transportation system, most people insist on driving their cars everywhere. But there are wonderful outdoor spaces and you can't beat the live music. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

Austin's Mayor Wynn is pushing for a very surprising thing - plug-in hybrid trucks!

He has proposed a plan to buy a large order of Mercedes (Dodge) Sprinter vans, equipped as plug-in hybrids. MB has pretty much completed development of these vans already, they just don't have them in production yet.
He has also worked to get other mayors and owners of large fleets to join in, so as to offer Mercedes a contract so large, that the buyers can dictate how they are made! I believe he plans to charge city vehicles from solar or wind.

Pretty darn good thinking, I say!

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/mw_hybrid_vehicles.htm
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/02/austin_mayor_pu.html

Comments from Treehugger about Austin that you may find interesting (and supportive of your decision not to put it on our list).

Love,
me

To add to what previous commenters had said.

- Many business located in Austin, not just AMD, have switched 100% to wind power. I think the list was 100+ strong, which contained most of the big tech companies here.
- Recycling in apartments is poor, but in houses just fine. My neighborhood is in a pilot all-in-one recycling plan where you dump all your recyclables in one 60 gallon trash can.
- Biking lanes could definitely be better, and depending on where you live Austin is NOT flat.
- I think Sprawl is more related to "high" real estate prices than to a Texas desire to own more land. If I had bought my house 3-5 miles closer to downtown, I would've paid at least 2x as much. I'd love to live downtown, but its just not affordable to me.

I love that Austin promotes things like wind energy and plug in hybrids, but like everything there's plenty of room for improvement.

I have lived on and off in Austin for fourteen years. As mentioned in previous posts, Austin beats any other Texas city hands down in areas of eco-consciousness. As lamented earlier, that isn't exactly the gold standard. The citie's leadership is certainly responsive to eco-concerns and aims to balance growth through numerous programs. As mentioned previously, the utilities are owned by the city and offer numerous programs to financially incent the average homeowner to "greenify" their dwelling. Rainbarrels at a discount, rebates for efficient appliances, whole house energy audits, low water use toilets, not to mention healthy rebates for solar panels. Sadly these incentives are being reduced thanks to cuts in federal funds...courtesy of POTUS Bush. The cities residents are widely divergent in their approach to eco-friendliness. In parts of town you will see great concentrations of homes with xeriscape lawns, solar panels, cfl's, and homes built with sensitivity to our location. There is a coffehouse experimenting with a green roof, numerous vegan and organic restaurants to choose from, organic suppliers that focus on locally grown produce, etc. There are sources for bio-diesel, retailers that focus on providing sustainable building materials, and bike shops that carry electic scooters/bikes. The main point I'm getting to is that if you choose to live a "greener" life in Austin you have plenty of opportunities to do so and the budding community infrastructure to support your personal ethic. There are plenty of senselessly huge McMansions, gas guzzling trucks/SUV's chosen strictly out of vanity, and residential development that aims to offer the American Dream...complete with sprawling effects. Light rail has been approved, there are programs that seek to educate the public on how to lower their impact on poor air quality, and a concerted effort to incent density by making the downtown area more attractive. As Austin morphs from the sleepy college town it was twenty years ago into the major metropolitan area it seeks to be in twenty years, it is likely there will be a less eco-sensitive population. With the right leadership at the city level much of that can be mitigated. Unfortunately the communities that will ultimately blend into the metropolitan corridor from Williamson County to San Marcos do not share the same eco-consiousness as Austin proper, nor do they seek to build an infrastructure sensitive to our local environment. By design they have invited the sprawl that Austin's laws, taxes and zoning regulations made unattracive within city limits by lowering boundaries and costs to that development in their areas. More than ever Austin will be an island of sanity in a sea of Texan apathy. Like Peggy Lee said, "if that's all there is, the let's keep dancing." I will happily keep dancing in Austin and do my part to support eco-consciousness and follow my own ethics. You can do that here.

Unfortunately, people need to start to realize the urgent threat that Austin's environment is under right now. AMD moving out into the Barton Springs zone is a huge problem. Once they bring their 3,000 employees out there, the building boom is going to start. This is just what Stratus Properties has been waiting years for. If you love Barton Creek and its swimming holes, you better start speaking up because these developments will occur right above Twin Falls. Hector Ruiz and AMD are being totally irresponsible. They could buy green power anywhere - it doesn't do any good to use green power when you're polluting our water.

Please, people - get out there and do something.

There's a growing vegan community in Austin, supported by a resource and group called Vegans Rock Austin!

Vegans Rock Austin link

It was recently featured on GoVeg.com's entry for Austin in its "North America's Most Veg-Friendly Cities" article. Anyway, check it out.

Environmentalism: The environmental movement in Austin is fading quickly. Barton Springs will become a memory and this city will be a place not worth caring about.

Bike Friendliness: If you want to consider a few painted lines on the margins of multi-lane thoroughfares "bike friendliness," then we are bike friendly. If you want to live in a place where you can travel on designated bike paths, and not be assailed by regular stories of dead bicyclists accompanied by opinions that they deserve the "Darwin Award," this is not a bike-friendly city.

Sprawl: There are two or three functional neighborhoods in this city (Hyde Park, Tarrytown, etc) that are quickly becoming too expensive for anyone except for corporate transplants to live in. This is because the rest of the suburban tumor that is greater Austin is so banal and worthless that anybody who can afford to, moves out.

East Central Austin is the next "hip" area that is becoming populated by artsy first-wave gentrifiers who tag the area with anti-gentrification graffiti.

Downtown: There are three main components to downtown: A collection of old buildings that have become a playground for drunk college kids; surface parking lots/parking garages with concrete walls on the street; and upscale "lofts." There is almost no daytime street life (shops, cafes, museums) besides office workers going to the Quiznos.

Austin used to be a green city. I've lived here for nearly 20 years. The "green" is now much more of a trendy news byte than a reality. Our air quality is bad and getting worse,smog, particulates,ozone. SUVs are the main mode of transport by toddler and cell toting parents and singles alike. The mood is no longer light hearted. The city is primarily focused on growth. People buy houses to "flip." The music scene draws more people from other cities than from Austin as prices to attend these events are now ten times what they used to be.

It's disappointing in so many ways. And now we're getting a new "rail" to transport people from Leander to Austin. Gotta have workers for all those manufacturing jobs I guess.

Bicycling is too dangerous for me to even try.

Eating out seems to be the main past time. Although the bad air hasn't deterred the joggers on Town Lake - which surprises me.

I guess in the scope of big cities, Austin is as good as any. But if it's a "green" place you are looking for...I guess I'd say keep looking.

I visited Portland not long ago and was surprised at how industrial it was. And how much traffic there was. The rail system was nearly empty - though we did use it as tourists. My friends who moved there are still looking for the "right" place too.

I think the issue with historical buildings might not be an issue of bulldozing so much as there not being many. Austin was a very small city until recently, and is historically fairly new. It's essentially a college town (and there's plenty of historical buildings in and around campus), and a capitol city. The Texas legislature meets ridiculously infrequently so there wasn't a need for that many buildings. You can look at historical pictures. You've pretty much got Congress avenue and then nothing...

Austin, Austin. It seems that everyone wants to be heard on commenting and criticising this city. So i am going to jump on the train here. It seems to me after reading all of the comments above, that we as people of Austin should look more to the city, state, or whatever form of gov't it takes to get certain issues taken care of. Why is there not a law enforcing recycling like there is where I used to live in California. Don't get me wrong, I was raised in Texas so I was only a transplant living in CA. But how do we as a society expect to make lazy people throw thier burgers kings wrappers in a recycle bin verses the dumpster? Only way I can think of to solve this issue is to enforce it and pass out fines to apt complexes that dont either have recycle bins, or to individuals cought in the act of doing the bad dump. I cant tell you how many times i have had to run to my car ( not necessarily in austin only ) to keep the meter maid from slapping a hefty fine for being a few minutes over the medter time limit. Does our country not make enough in taxes to enforce these type of laws? or our state? its like raising a child, if you allow them to exercise bad habits in their beginning youth, they may have a hard time changing to good habits later, everything should have a consequence. I am a bad speller so overlook it please. Anyway, I grew up in Houston, and as much as it is indeed constantly getting dubbed the most polluted metro area in the nation on the evening news, that is every other month after los angelos has some pacific winds that blow its smog into the central valley, Houston is not an ugly city. It is indeed flat, but has some of the most beautiful victorian homes in the world. And has a beautiful skyline if your into glass buildings. Those who are as I would imagine, are very visual people who like to look from vistas and what not areas. However, after living in the SF bay area, and " the city" as san franciscan and bay area peeps call it, and now Austin, Houston doesn't hold a chance in hell in competition for being as nice a city as Austin is. I have lived here for a few years now since moving back to Texas from CA. I moved back mainly because I got tired of paying 2 grand a month for an apartment that didnt even have a dishwaser in it! So, when I decided to move back to Texas, I knew from growing up in Texas that Austin is by far the most scenic city in a nature aspect. For the record, the southwest side of Austin is not the most hilly and scenic area of the city, it is a documented fact that mt. bonnell is the highest point in the city and furthermore if you drive up loop 360 aka capitol of texas highway, you can see that when approaching the area close to the spicewood springs intersection that the hills are more steep and they are even so high at points that they are actually bluffs? or cliffs? Regardless this city has it all if you are into the natural setting of nature and dont want to drive miles to get to an area of such beauty. How long that will last is the question. I just hope some form of law and people who have studied and learned form other huge cities such as the metroplex aka dallas ft worth, houston, and san antonio how not to make the mistakes they have made since they boomed to what I feel Austin is now lined up tp do. It is as if most of the already huge 2 plus million metros in texas have already waited in line ahead of Austin to jump off the high dive into the pool of huge citydom. I just hope city planners and all who have anything in any way to do with that subject learn from studying those cities previous boom days. Yes, allergies are bad for the typical allergy sufferer, and of course everyone as we all know has worse allergies than the person next to you, but you can either take that new nose spray steriod stuff, antihistamines, and decongestans whenever you have flare ups, or suffer, take your pick. Personally mine were just as bad in Houston as they are here. I feel so much better now since i have started taking these meds, so what if they arent natural, and dont tell me to squirt some salt water saline up my nose cuz it aint a working! Ive tried it enough to know, Even still i only have them bad two times a year. Now next subject. My main complaint with the city is it's crazy drivers. I am not sure and dont quote me on this, but i think i heard that there was some survey somewhere that compared traffic accidents and fatalities by cities. And if I am not mistaken we were like # 7 or something? That is pretty bad considering that Austin is only as of 2006 right about the 30th largest metro in the nation, and the 16th largest by city limits. I have talked to my friends about this and between all of us, and let me tell you, I have alot of friends, anyway, we decided that the high traffic accident rate and fatality rate is due mainly to the fact that it is what we decided to call a " new city". Meaning, that it is in a major growth spurt, yes like it's turn to jump off the high dive, and in turn therefore are so many new residents. New residents dont know the roads as well and I am sure there is some studies out there somewhere in the world that that could support this as a major cause of traffic accidents. I must add to that though, we all also decided that it is the city planners fault for not having the roads marked well by the way of signs, or signage whatever you wanna call it, not to mention unlit roads and intersections. It is a mess as far as I am concerned in that category. It's almost like there is a nicely concrete paved road but no street lights. Take for example, if you exit Howard Lane in the North part of Austin off of interstate 35, go West to the 1st intersection , which is Metric if you turn South, and Thermal if you turn North, OK , so here it is, midnight on a two lane bumpy road and no above street light so you cant see the median if you turn to your left onto Metric, you can hit that damn thang and lose a tie rod or something. That is just a miniscule example of the many weird and lethal areas that seem almost prepped to make someone crash. Also if you are going North on I 35 just South of the 6th street exit I think it is, you decide to exit cuz you wanna go back downtown to check out some music on red river or somewhere dwntn, so you are new here and you go up the hill to exit, and just immediately as you clear the top of the hill doing at least 65 to keep from getting plowed over by the cars behind you, besides thats the speed limit get real, anyway you clear that hill and immediately over the top the trraffic is backed up the ramp in your face and you slam on your brakes so you dont smash the soccer mom coming home from gramas house with her 5 soccer kids in the back of that huge suburban that her hubby has added a huge trailor hitch made of the strongest metal in the world so you are gonna crush your lil toyota into it and die from the trailor hitch coming thru your car. Austin planners, i tell you get it together before you make us pay for those toll roads you are building all arouund the outer burb areas! i mean really! any other city would have yellow flashing signs saying stop over the hill immediately! OK , so i got that outta my system, but really, after living in houston, guadalajara mexico, new york city, san francisco, san diego, this town is a hip place with some very cool people of all ages these days, not all college kids anymore, youve got tech doark nerds who are actually very cool, and guitar players who are struggling to get by sitting next to each other in the many places where you can go to watch live music and/or just have a beer or a shirley temple or bottled water whatever your choice is. I really like living here because it is very sunny most of the time, has some awesome thunderstorms that come through and are gone in a cpl hours give or take a few mins, its incredibly scenic if you are like me and take your dog hiking with you in one of the dozens and i mean dozens of parks that are HUGE here in this city, and go down to the creeks, the creeks are all over the place, its always see thru water, dont know if that means its clean enough to drink but i wade thru it with my dog as she swims in it and we never got no dysentery or anythign weird liek that. its very pretty, the water you can see thru so nice , and they all seem to have tons of while limestone bottoms which also makes this area beautiful. Oh and also in walnut creek park, if you are like me and can hike off the main trails and gtet to some of the more hard to get to areas of the park and the creeks there, you can see tropical fish that i know arent minnos or tadpoles cuz they had an orange stripe going down thier side and the rest of thier body was silver, bout 3 inches long was the bigget ones, thats some clean water to support that, in the middle of the city! I will tell you what, here is what I would do if I wanted to drive someone around in Austin one day to show them the way it appears form a car window. Ok pick them up from the airport, go down 71 towards the city and go to loop 360, then go north till you get to bee caves road, go east back towards town till you sifukle your way up to the top of red bud trail and you got an awesome view of the skyline including the capitol and the UT tower, then go downt the hilll and go to the left at lake austin blvd till you sifikle your way through some hoods where theres a street called scenic drive, huge beautiful homes, oh also back up and before getting this far you have to go down stratford just after the mopac bridge and see that very roller coaster ride of a neighborhood there, ok jump back to scenic drive till you sifikle over to mt bonnel, its not really a mountain but anyway, go stand up on that hill and get on top of the picnic table to see the whole 360 view of the metro area, ok make them walk back down the hill with you to the car and then take them down teh other side of mt bonnel to where you come out on 2222 and them follow that to 360, that strip of road from mopac to loop 360 along 2222 is extremely an eye opening good impression to someone that thinks they want to see if this is as pretty of a city as they have always heard it is, then turn right on 360 and go north to spicewood springs and that area is also awesome for being in a city limit and so close to urban development. All in all, Austin is not a perfect city, but who defines what perfect is? I have to say yes its hotter than hell could dream of being in the summer here, but it has a fall, winter, spring that kind of merge together to make up for it , giving you several nice climate months from october to april give or take. Besides, i like to sweat in the summer when i am wakling with my dog, it gets all the bad food i eat out of me, so i think. I am well adapted here after living here for a few years now, and its great for me cuz i play guitar in a band so theres lots of admirers for my field of work. all in all no place is perfect, but if I had to rate Austin compared to other cities that I know of, it would be no 1.

I left Austin in 1999 and have longed to move back. My wife could not get used to the extreme Texas heat.
So... Now I live in "The OC" California, spent four times the price for a home one forth the size of my home in Austin.
My best memories of Austin was swimming in Barton Springs at night and the Pot Luck dinners all the swimmers would put together.
If you live in Austin - Count yourself blessed.

Laura is right on target. There's a lot of "boutique" environmentalism in this town.

Look at me! I pay 5 times for the normal price to get organic vegetables at Whole Foods. I'm sooooo eco-conscious. Now I'll get in my SUV to go vote against Light Rail and then off to my anti-Smart Growth meeting. I'm fighting "The Man" in my $400k "bohemian" bungalow.

Hypocritical Nimbyism rules here.

OK, maybe that's too harsh. Sometimes they drive a Prius to go vote against transit and smart growth.

I agree with above wholeheartedly. If you are rich, you can be a cool Austin hippie and afford to eat right, and not ride the bus and enjoy the "cool" rich hippie enviromantalism Austin has to offer.
But if you are broke, you might as well move somewhere else in Texas. Someplace you can afford to live.
This town sucks if you make less than 30k a year.
I see lots of rich hippie women proclaiming to do the right thing, while their Man, works for Dell or some other firm that pollutes like Hell, so they can SUV their kids back and forth to karate and ballet classes.
These "psuedo-enviro's" talk a good game, but they don't truly walk the walk. This town is full of them. It's funny, in Austin more often than not, you are only Green if you can afford to be Green. The rest of us? Dude, we got bills to pay. It isn't easy staying in this town and being green on a low income.

I moved to Austin in 1983, attended UT and then left for work. I have lived in NYC, Hawaii, Southern Florida, Los Angeles, Michigan(Detroit area), San Francisco(Petaluma), Austin and surrounding areas. When I first moved to Austin it was like Nirvana. I have moved away and moved back several times and now I'm here to stay. Austin has changed, it's big, too big and yes, it's barely affordable for most people. It's gotten out of hand. I'm one of those SUV drivers with a cell phone and a toddler, I live outside of Austin on five acres, where we have a 20,000 rain water collection system and are three years into building our home with cash. It's a slow process, but we decided to cash out of the yuppy lifestyle. I also used to be an avid cyclist, but three crashes in one year, took me off of my bike. Austin is not bike friendly and neither are the surrounding country roads. You have pockets of enviromentalists that care and are willing to be inconvenienced. We take all of our recycling to the center on 7th street every six months because we don't get curbside service. We try not to buy anything with a package. We quit our jobs and altered our lifestyle so that now we only need to drive into Austin two days a week, and we all go so that we don't waste any gas. We bought a vehicle that can run on biodiesel and plan to make our own when we can afford to buy a system. We're planting another organic garden this next spring. We take military showers(turning off the water