trainwreck517

iTrader: (1)

Hey my friend just bought a house in austin TX for cheap.. thinking of doing the same.

Just had a few questions.
1. How is the city?
2 Jobs? (currently a Test Engineering doing Energy Star and UL testing for Electronic ballast company)
3. Cops?
4. Weather?
5. The people?
6. Alot getto people?
7. What you guys mainly do for fun? Any lakes or rivers near by?
Hmm, thats all I can think of for now.

Thanks for any feedback.. good or bad.

Buzzardsluck

I don't live in Austin but have been there a lot so heres IMO:

1. I don't really like it much (damn liberal hippies lol), but since your in Cali that shouldn't bother you. Traffic is terrible, good night life (home of UT afterall) and lots of live music, nice central location in TX, fair RX community and way too many to count good backroads.

2. Don't know.

3. Almost everytime I'm in Austin I see at least one speed trap on I35. 5-10 cops sitting a row just constantly pulling people over. I almost always drive 10-20 over the limit but I don't speed in Austin much. There are many first rate golf courses around also if thats your thing.

4. Can be/is hot, expect to see 100 a few times in the Summer and solid mid 90s and they seem to get more a fair amount of rain (not alot though).

5. See #1

6. Define ghetto. I haven't encountered many that I would call ghetto but I don't venture to areas where they might be lol.

7. I think they smoke a lot of pot and form drum circles ? The Colorado river (I think, I can't remember) runs through Austin and there are quite a few nice lakes and rivers around.


I doubt that helps much but I'm bored

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

Yep, Austin is definately the most liberal city in Texas. From what I've seen of most of california, its fairly similar as far as the people go. They are generally very nice and friendly. I'm sure there are ghettos somewhere, but its not bad like Dallas or Houston. The best way to live in Austin is in one of the surrounding areas like Round Rock or somewhere around the oustide of town. Cops can be bad, but its not different than any other big city I've been in. Traffic is the same way, bad but normal for a city of over 1 million people. Austin is the new silicon valley, so there a good number of tech jobs around. If you do electronics repair, there are tons of jobs. Samsung (I think) is opening an insanely huge fabrication plant, plus AMD and Applied Materials have large plants already. I live about an hour away, but I would be working there already if I wasn't going to school. There isn't **** for tech jobs in Killeen unless you are former military or family of military. There are lots of very nice parks and lakes around Austin. It also has a great nightlife. If you ever visit you have to go to 6th street. Tons of clubs and great live music. The weather is typical of the area. Just as buzzard said.

dantheman

iTrader: (4)

1. Pretty nice place. I would get a house in one of the outlaying citys just to not be in "Austin". Overall a very nice place.

2. There are a TON of jobs there. Home of AMD and Dell. I think Philips and a few other places have chip plants in the area as well. If you want to go to San Antonio (slightly south) there are even more military jobs avaliable.

3. Eh, not as bad a cali, not as good as a small town.

4. Hot and humid. We never get enough rain.

5. Same as any other place I guess. Austin is a pretty nice place over all.

6. Not as much as Dallas

7. Hill country is a short drive away. Wonderful twisty roads there. Lots of live music and such in the town. Lake Travis is also just a small hike away. Several BIG racetracks only a few hours away from you. SPOKES (Car club) has an autocross there once a month I do believe.

trainwreck517

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the feed back, and I just asked my buddy.. and it's in San Antonio in Sonoma Ranch. Going to be new housing comunity.. How far us Austin from San Antonio?

The the above comments still apply? Or is it slightly better/worse?

Thanks once again. Also What tracks (road race circuits) are around? And how close/far? As dantheman reminded me. hehe

Thanks once again.

Buzzardsluck

Alright, SA I know some about

SA is about 45 mins to an hour from Austin, depends on speed/route/traffic, etc.

Austin isn't very similar to SA IMO (all the following is IMO)

SA is hotter and drier than Austin. When Austin is low-mid 90s we are upper 90s or 100+. Very mild "winters". Normally we either get a ton of rain and it floods for a week or two or its dry for a few months, I think between Jan to Aug we got maybe 2" of rain.

SA proper isn't nearly as nice as Austin in terms of things to do, scenery, overall appearence. Most of SA is kinda crappy/rundown/poor except the FAR north side with a couple exceptions. Yea, I said it fellow San Antonians, most of SA is ugly and ghettoish
There are several nice (read: rich) areas outside of town that are nice.

SA is a tourist town mostly but with the new Toyota plant that will be changing I think. Toyota is far southside of town.

People are for the most part nice, I encounter some racism being white (SA is about 70%-75%+ hispanic) but its nothing strong or bothersome. Its kinda funny actually.

Traffic is okay since the city is very spread out. (rant on) I will say there are many many gravel/dump trucks drivers that must think its ******* hilarious to cut you off/drive like they are in a F1 car and have goddamn boulders fall of their rigs and hit your car. I can't remember the last time I drove to work that I didn't give the finger to a truck driver (rant off). Also the amount of unisured drivers is very high.

Please don't remind me of the lack of road racing tracks around . I think the closest is Houston. Theres 2 drag strips and a autox club but no road tracks. As with Austin there are countless backroads. We have a fairly small RX community

There is maybe 3+ main lakes in the area (hour drive or less) but only one I would consider going to, its fair sized. Several nice hill country streams/rivers and the coast is maybe 2 1/2 hours away.

It looks like I think SA sucks dick but I pretty much love it and don't plan on leaving even though its part of Mexico again.

razorback

ive been to austin, it was a short visit and the locals were pissed when we left (football game) but it seems to be a pretty nice town. i would live eitherthere or in houston if i had the choice.

(ps i hate texas)

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

Houston itself is a hellhole to live in. You can get tech jobs with very good saleries, but thats because no one wants to live there. Horrible traffic, bad smog, lots of ghetto areas. On the Northern/western areas its pretty nice, but expensive. For example, in Sugarland all of the buildings have to be brick to keep up the "appearance" of the city for all of the snoty rich people that live there. First colony is close and nice, but not as uppity.
As for SA, Buzzard pretty much nailed it. Much of the city is relatively poor, and is overwhelmingly hispanic. There are definately a large number of uninsured drivers there. The towns economy is based on Tourism and Military, fwiw.
Also, there is a pretty nice race track in College Station - Texas World Speedway. It used to be a Nascar Superspeedway back a couple decades ago and has been used for a few Can Am races around that time as well. It has a nice infield course with several different layouts - check out their website for details. There a periodically car clubs that have track days there, mostly Porsche clubs from what I've seen but there are some SCCA events there as well. The whole area around the hill country has tons of wonderful backroads too. One of the major car maganizes had a feature on them a few years back.

Tessai

Given the choice, I'd move to Austin over SA.

Austin has the awesome backroads and Lake Travis. SA has.... Sea World? :P.

I plan on a move to Austin myself, sometime.

If you do move, PM me... I wanna see the godzilla car in person.

KeloidJonesJr.

iTrader: (8)

Oh noes you and 13B-RX3 gonna have a good time!

trainwreck517

iTrader: (1)

Hmm seems like San Antino is pretty shitty... I will go there some time and January to check it out.. if I do move.. wouldn't be for another year so.. I think the hardest part would be finding a job with a salary close to the one I currently have.

rotarynerdette

iTrader: (5)

I would move to Austin instead to SA. Dallas and Fort Worth are always a badass choice though

struhall

austin is a badass place to be. most all of my family is from there, and i love going to visit them. if you are into the whole club/bar thing, 6th street is the place for you. i read somewhere that UT Austin is the BIGGEST party college in the US. there is so much to do in austin, lake travis is huge, it is 63 miles long with 250ish miles of shore line, and the roads up to it are amazing. just go there for a week, on a vacation or something, you will have a great time.

dantheman

iTrader: (4)

I lived in San Antonio for a while and I loved it. The town is layed out well and the people there are nice. There are a ton of jobs there in the tech industry. You shouldn't have a problem. While there are a ton of hispanic people, they are usually very nice for the most part. The mexican food there is better then what you can get in Mexico!!


There are 3 tracks within driving range to you (road courses, over 10 drag strips) TWS is here in College Station. TMS is up towards Dallas. There is also a private track over in south Houston, but I don't know anything about that one. TWS and TMS are both big tracks with a ton of SCCA, NASA and open events. Several big car clubs in the area as well. TAMSCC is here in College Station, SASCA is there in San Antonio and SPOKES is up in Austin. All of them run autocrosses monthly, and they are all great people to race with.

The Hill country is a great area to go driving in. More then enough roads, and tons of little places up there to get lunch. If you are into backpacking or camping, it is easy to find areas as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept keeps areas looking very nice.

dtorre

Hmm being a San Antone resident I wouldn't say it is to bad...its just once you reach the medical district than you've got problems....and the white population is high in the northside of town where I live....Im asian though I look hispanic =( ....so don't fit into either side of town ...however if you live in North San Antonio you don't ever have to go south unless you want to visit the riverwalk....only God knows why you would want to do that ........but in your field of business you would either work in the north part of town or in the "city" which is actually fairly nice.....

Rather live in Dallas though...love it there...and so may rotary owners

Turbo II-FB

move to austin end of story. Badass city .. I live here so my opinion over rides everyone. lol j/k. But seriously its a really nice city and great for younger ppl 20's

canaryrx8

you wouldn't need to make NEARLY as mich living here, if you can find something than more power to you as a dollar buys you here what 10 dollars buys you in Cali :