5 ms·

Austin has culture and affordability as a counterexample.

• zem 10y ago
  as does houston, which always seems to be overlooked on these lists. i spent four years there for grad school, and other than the woefully inadequate public transit system it was a very livable and extremely cosmopolitan city.
  • karcass 10y ago
    Rice or UH?
    • zem 10y ago
      rice. nice part of town too, one of the few places i could actually walk to stuff.
      • bsder 10y ago
        The Rice University area is WAY non-representative of Houston. Saying that you live in Houston when you live near Rice is like saying that you live in Texas when you live in Austin.
• iamdave 10y ago
  Austin has [...] affordability Lived experience and countless local articles scream otherwise. Of course, when you compare to NYC and LA, just about everything looks 'affordable'-yet this is the most common refrain to Austin: "It's cheaper than NY". What city in the US that isn't greater-LA, SF or Seattle isn't?
  • Joof 10y ago
    I'm using data from the link, which disagrees.
    • joveian 10y ago
      The link is about change in values; the absolute value is also important.
    • adevine 10y ago
      Average data for Austin, though, misses some important points. Anything near central is quickly becoming unaffordable to anyone without a high paying professional job. Outer lying areas are still affordable, but the transportation situation is so horrendous that living in those outlying areas comes with a high personal cost if you have to commute.
      • iamdave 10y ago
        Even living in the city core has serious transportation costs in a few areas. I used to live in South Central Austin and commute north of 183 to work. When my car broke down I took the bus-no big deal, coming from Chicago I don't have many aspersions to public transit-so long as it works and is relatively safe (or as safe as a city can reasonably make it). When I say "pick your poison" re: cost, I mean getting from my apartment to my job on time meant waking up 3 hours before shift begins and riding for two hours. Getting off work at 5:30 and not getting home until almost 9 depending on traffic conditions (school year meant having to ride through the UT area, that added another hour). The "personal cost" adevine mentions here is real and it is painful. You're either going to spend more on gas and vehicular maintenance, or you're going to spend every waking moment not at work sitting on the bus (depending on where you live), or waiting for a bus.
  • santaclaus 10y ago
    Austin and LA are pretty comparable in terms of cost, at this point. LA is quickly becoming the affordable West coast city...
• bsder 10y ago
  Um, I would fault you on both. First, downtown Austin is now actually more expensive than downtown San Diego. When people say "Austin" and "cheap housing" they mean Round Rock, Pflugerville, San Marcos, etc. Many of those places are now an hour or more commute to downtown Austin in horrific traffic that now rivals Los Angeles. When people think "San Diego" they don't mean commuting from Ramona or Temecula (an equivalent hour of horrific commute). Second, Austin has some culture, but has been working overtime to flush it down the drain. Stevie Ray Vaughn would be an unwelcome, dirty scumbag on the current 6th Street. Medium sized venues (300-1000 people) that launched major music careers are becoming very scarce (I blame smoking bans mostly). And most of the "cultural" catering is to overpaid DINKs (Dual Income--No Kids) who want desperately to be so cool yet complain about the noise from the very places that they moved in next to in order to be cool.
  • CalRobert 10y ago
    San Diego is a bit odd in that it seems like a place where downtown is still relatively affordable (emphasis on relative), while people pay quite a bit to live in the beach towns and historic streetcar suburbs. I was surprised at how cheap condos in high rises in Little Italy could be, and how expensive houses in Clairemont Mesa (a place that seems to have few redeeming qualities) were. Source: Lived in South Park, a streetcar suburb about 3 miles from downtown, for the last year. Enjoyed SP, but disliked SD. Also, many people will decry my use of the word "suburb" for a place 3 miles out, but it was originally built as one and the residents have fought tooth and nail to prevent any development that would change its character or increase density. I'm sure they don't mind that their home values have increased massively as a result of these restrictions on building in nearly the only pleasant, walkable neighborhood in a city composed primarily of aphalt hellscape, though.
  • JPKab 10y ago
    "When people say "Austin" and "cheap housing" they mean Round Rock, Pflugerville, San Marcos, etc. Many of those places are now an hour or more commute to downtown Austin in horrific traffic that now rivals Los Angeles. " This is the reason I didn't move there a few years ago. I flew in for the interview, and was stuck in various traffic jams the entire 2 days I was there. The economy there is booming, so it's not like the traffic is coming from a bad place, but I'm not keen on hour-plus commutes.