Disclaimer: I live next to downtown by I-35. Did move during the pandemic from NorCal to TX. (Have family in TX.) Many issues: The charm is gone with too many

Disclaimer: I live next to downtown by I-35. Did move during the pandemic from NorCal to TX. (Have family in TX.) Many issues: The charm is gone with too many highrises like San Jose downtown. It's hot AF. 110 F for 3 months every day. 100 F every day for another 2 months on either side of that. In winter, it can randomly freeze down to 11 F, and say "hello" to no power and no water for 2-3 weeks. The housing is slapped together and lacks architectural design. The new apartments are tiny and expensive, and not very good. There's just as many homeless as SF, including rampant retail theft. The costs are just as bad as the Bay Area. The roads are worse than those in Bay Area, and I didn't think that was possible without snow and ice. Lots of tourists, which could be a negative for some people. The schools are so-so. It's Texas and abortion is illegal. Fewer batshit insane people than LA but more than Denver. And anyone can CCW or open carry without any documentation. If you have no criminal record, you can buy a handgun over at Academy without any waiting period at all. Property taxes are absurd. If you think Palo Alto is bad... APD is critically underfunded, understaffed by 200-250 officers, morale is terrible, and non-life-threatening calls have a 48 hour backlog. If you have an AirTag on an item, it's stolen, and the location is known, the police won't lift a finger. There is zero routine traffic enforcement. Crowded with 2nd- and 3rd-tier school tech bros, corporate clones, and dumb money lazy people... people who are simultaneously uncool and boring. Don't go to Whole Foods because it screams conspicuous consumption. The HQ is unimpressive. There isn't much of a tech scene compared to the Bay Area. On positive notes: Even though TX-35 is a national gerrymandering joke reaching from downtown Austin to downtown San Antonio by an "umbilical cord" along I-35, Greg Casar is one of the most reasonable, ballsy, sharp, empathetic, and progressive reps in Congress. H-E-B. There are a few used bookstores still in operation. Plenty of vinyl shops, although none compares to Discogs. Absurd number of tall people compared to anywhere else in the US and the world, including Oslo.