Austin, Texas Catch-All (S&T, Meetups, Moving here)

Spoiler tagging the old OP for context for later posts, but allowing this to be hijacked for all things Austin.

Spoiler:

Like the title says. I've been thinking a lot lately about how my wife and I, as we get older, are going to be alone by virtue of being childfree. No, that's not permanent, but the decision isn't likely to change any time soon. We both feel solid about it. We also both love Portland, but her parents live in Texas and soon our only nephews, niece and brother and sister in law will live in Texas. So we're thinking about Austin, Texas again, about 4 years after we contemplated a similar move. Mostly to be closer to family. I'd be curious if there were other things I couldn't necessarily find on an average google search that might convince me to consider this seriously, though. I have a feel for the job market and the housing market, but what else am I missing?

It's hot and the air will literally try and kill you.

Besides that, it's f**king awesome there.

It's only 2 hours from San Antonio, home of--among other things--PAX South! I'd be more helpful, but--other than stopping for dinner on the move down from Minneapolis--my wife and I have been enjoying SATX too much to make the trip back. I'm told it's fun and I'm sure there is tons of awesome food. Hill Country and West Texas are both super fun to explore as well. Big Bend (a day's drive) is my favorite national park as well. As much endorsement as I'm qualified to give, I'm afraid.

I only remember the Riverwalk. And being carded and denied seeing a rated R movie as a 14 year old.

So there's some good stuff in my moving to Texas thread, including my own post-mortem on my time in TX.

If I had to do it over again, I would definitely try to live closer to the heart of Austin. Round Rock wasn't excessively far away (it's basically North Austin, the city sprawl has eaten up whatever space may have once separated them), but traffic made it "farther", not as convenient as I would have liked.

Austin was so very comfortable. It's a friendly city, and a clean city. There's so much to do. Something is always going on. There's lots of beautiful places throughout the city. The wife and I were never not having fun there, except for the part where you don't want to go outside for 7 months out of the year.

That hot? That's one of my fears in considering it. I don't want to keel over from a heart attack after moving there. I always thought that either the sun would provide vitamin D that would help me get better or kill me. I haven't had that much sun in decades.

This year has been rather comfortable so far, but it's unusual for Texas. Normally it feels like you are in a oven when in the city because roads bake you just as much as the sun. We have ton of water activities to keep you cool though.

DSGamer wrote:

That hot? That's one of my fears in considering it. I don't want to keel over from a heart attack after moving there. I always thought that either the sun would provide vitamin D that would help me get better or kill me. I haven't had that much sun in decades.

It depends on your tolerance, I guess. All year long, you'll see people out and about, running and biking in the heat there. Some people that live there just thrive on the warmth. I consider them insane, but more power to them. It's a place where SAD goes to die, that's for sure. There are big storms, but not a lot of protracted gloomy days. Lots of sun.

I spent a summer in San Angelo, which is a few hours west of Austin. I also know a bunch of folks in the Austin area itself. The weather there is really hot, but not particularly humid, which IMO makes it fairly bearable. 100F days in that area are easily as tolereable to me as 85F-90F is in Ohio.

As for some other intangibles, I personally find the area to be absolutely gorgeous. There's definitely a ton of opportunity to get out and into nature. I personally am not immensely familiar with biking in the area, but if you're inclined to give disc golf a try, there's a bunch of phenomenal courses in the area.

Grenn wrote:

I only remember the Riverwalk. And being carded and denied seeing a rated R movie as a 14 year old.

In which case I'm afraid you were recalling San Antonio. The river walk is awesome; I try to jog there most week mornings when it's not too hot. As Slytin noted, it's been quite mild this summer, but unless you have specific problems with heat its something you can adjust to. Me, I'm glad I don't have to have to deal with another Minnesota winter!

PewPewRobo wrote:
Grenn wrote:

I only remember the Riverwalk. And being carded and denied seeing a rated R movie as a 14 year old.

In which case I'm afraid you were recalling San Antonio. The river walk is awesome; I try to jog there most week mornings when it's not too hot. As Slytin noted, it's been quite mild this summer, but unless you have specific problems with heat its something you can adjust to. Me, I'm glad I don't have to have to deal with another Minnesota winter!

You may be right. I was pretty upset about not seeing that movie so I may have erased part of my memory.

I moved down here 2.5 years ago, from the black hole known as Nebraska, and here's what I think so far:

First, the bad:
It really is that hot. I moved from the frozen north, and have no heat tolerance, but still. DAMN. I live near south Congress, and it's a bit pricy. (IMO worth it, because I've had a 5-15m commute the entire time I've lived here.) Traffic is nuts, and there's a decent percentage of insane drivers.

You are still, actually, in Texas.

Then, the good:

Around where I live, south congress and downtown, it's actually pretty bike friendly. (But the above notes about occasionally crazy drivers and weather hot enough to melt your bike frame apply.)

Amazon delivers incredibly quickly here, and we're in the zone for some cool stuff like Instacart, Amazon Now, Grubhub.

Time Warner is actually not a complete sh*tshow here. That said, Google Fiber is in the middle of a rollout, so there's that, too.

We're all introverts with social anxiety here, but there's some cool stuff around here to do. (Alamo Drafthouse is cool, for instance.). There's a fair GWJ colony here, too, and that's pretty cool.

It really doesn't seem like you're in Texas like, 90% of the time.

Oh yeah, Austin proper has a ban on the one-use disposable plastic bags, so if you do move, pick up some canvas or insulated tote bags for your groceries.

I know you said you had a pretty good handle on the job market and housing market here, but it does bear mentioning that the tech sector is doing quite well here. It's why I moved.

Kannon wrote:

I moved down here 2.5 years ago, from the black hole known as Nebraska, and here's what I think so far:

First, the bad:
It really is that hot. I moved from the frozen north, and have no heat tolerance, but still. DAMN. I live near south Congress, and it's a bit pricy. (IMO worth it, because I've had a 5-15m commute the entire time I've lived here.) Traffic is nuts, and there's a decent percentage of insane drivers.

You are still, actually, in Texas.

The traffic and weather freak me out the most. Living in Portlandia currently the weather is usually mild (although the last two summers have sucked). I'm assuming I could get used to the heat or at least benefit from the sun / ample outdoor swimming, which I love.

Kannon wrote:

We're all introverts with social anxiety here, but there's some cool stuff around here to do. (Alamo Drafthouse is cool, for instance.). There's a fair GWJ colony here, too, and that's pretty cool.

I'm an introvert with social anxiety. So much so that when I met boogle I stumbled all over myself apologizing for being socially anxious. So I guess I'd fit in.

Kannon wrote:

It really doesn't seem like you're in Texas like, 90% of the time.

Oh yeah, Austin proper has a ban on the one-use disposable plastic bags, so if you do move, pick up some canvas or insulated tote bags for your groceries.

I know you said you had a pretty good handle on the job market and housing market here, but it does bear mentioning that the tech sector is doing quite well here. It's why I moved.

We're used to the whole canvas bag thing here. We have a grip of them in our closet, in our car, in our shopping trolley (since we live in the downtown core right now). That's good about the job market. I'm apprehensive about even considering this, but I'm lonely and I miss being around family and I'm not inclined to start my own still. So moving near family is looking like a good idea. We'll see. Thanks for all the feedback. It's helpful. Keep it coming.

DSGamer wrote:

I'm an introvert with social anxiety. So much so that when I met boogle I stumbled all over myself apologizing for being socially anxious. So I guess I'd fit in.

boogle makes everyone feel that way. Mostly women, but really, everyone.

I've been in Austin since 92 and I really enjoy the city. If you enjoy the outdoors at all, then Austin is a great home base for exploring an entirely new part of the country. As a Bonus, Austin is now the center of the Texas BBQ renaissance

koshnika wrote:

I've been in Austin since 92 and I really enjoy the city. If you enjoy the outdoors at all, then Austin is a great home base for exploring an entirely new part of the country. As a Bonus, Austin is now the center of the Texas BBQ renaissance

I must represent, and say it's more of an ellipse, with the foci in both Austin and San Antonio...but then have to acknowledge that most of the options are up Austin way, so you are ultimately correct anyhow.

Lets not argue on who has the best BBQ, lets eat it then judge for ourselves!

koshnika wrote:

Lets not argue on who has the best BBQ, lets eat it then judge for ourselves!

I will not argue with that!

Adding to favorites, but it will probably be a few years before I load up the moving truck again.

cartoonin99 wrote:

Adding to favorites, but it will probably be a few years before I load up the moving truck again.

Yeah, we're not necessarily on the brink either. Just thinking about it heavily right now.

koshnika wrote:

Lets not argue on who has the best BBQ, lets eat it then judge for ourselves!

The best BBQ is the BBQ you're eating at the moment.

Hey everyone, I'm hijacking this thread temporarily rather than start a new one.

Wife and I are going to spend a few days in Austin to catch the Cal-Texas game in a few weeks. We're not staying in city center, as I hotels are ridiculous for football weekends ($400+/night), so we settled for north Austin, in a place close to something that google maps calls North Burnet. I'm assuming that area is fine and from what little I found on the internet, fairly suburban and boring.

Since most of what I'll be doing will be in Austin proper, how long will it take to actually get in and out of central austin during morning or afternoon rush and on gameday? We'll have a car, and coming from California I'm more than used to traffic, but just need to make sure I plan accordingly from a time standpoint.. Most importantly, I need to know when to leave to get to Franklin BBQ by 8am.

I would say at most an hour.

Rooster Teeth is based there, so there's that.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Hey everyone, I'm hijacking this thread temporarily rather than start a new one.

Wife and I are going to spend a few days in Austin to catch the Cal-Texas game in a few weeks. We're not staying in city center, as I hotels are ridiculous for football weekends ($400+/night), so we settled for north Austin, in a place close to something that google maps calls North Burnet. I'm assuming that area is fine and from what little I found on the internet, fairly suburban and boring.

Since most of what I'll be doing will be in Austin proper, how long will it take to actually get in and out of central austin during morning or afternoon rush and on gameday? We'll have a car, and coming from California I'm more than used to traffic, but just need to make sure I plan accordingly from a time standpoint.. Most importantly, I need to know when to leave to get to Franklin BBQ by 8am.

Parking is going to be HELL going to the UT game.
UT is just kind of a sh*tshow of being close to downtown, massive and without a ton of parking.
I would suggest looking into the bus routes that cap city metro has and seeing if you can take a bus to the stadium (I know the 7 runs up at least near there, although its on Duval instead of Burnett [Burnett is 2 major roads west]).

I'm going to say that you could have a good meal at John Mueller Meat Company as well as Franklin, but Franklin is kind of worth it for the experience.
Probably leave your hotel around 7:30 if you want to be parked and in line at Franklin at 8.

You will also be near one of my favorite mexican joints (not tex mex), Cocina de Consuelo at Burnett and 45th.

Re: DSGamer
I'm a big fan of austin's public transit. It's not perfect, but it's damn good for the west but not left coast part of america. (I take the bus to and from work every day. Didn't have a car for a good 6 months)
I'd say it's worth spending a little more on housing in central Austin (Rosedale, Hyde Park [HI MOM], etc) just to get access to easy public transit.

And the disc golf is good.

I'm hijacking this thread now because I couldn't find any Austin S&T threads. Quintin Stone and I will be in Austin this weekend for a wedding. This is last minute because I didn't think we'd have any free time, but it turns out we don't have any obligations Saturday until mid afternoon.

My plan is to go check out the Riverwalk area because I remember going there as a kid and liking it. Plus I like to walk and window shop in pretty areas.

So, any of you locals interested in meeting up for lunch somewhere on the Riverwalk? We could also do breakfast/brunch if that works better. We'll just have to start heading back to the wedding venue by around 2pm (Vintage Villas on the Colorado River, about an hour drive).

Hijack away. I will revisit this when I need to be sold on Austin later. As it is I'm moving, but not to Austin.

Hrm. Now what I'm finding seems that Riverwalk is in San Antonio, despite a bunch of pictures marked "Riverwalk Austin".

Sure, we'll work something out.

boogle wrote:

Sure, we'll work something out.

Cool, any suggestions for where to meet? Since I flaked on the whole river walk thing I have no preferences.

Was talking to Q a touch in IRC today.
Mexican or BBQ for an early lunch are natural choices.