So, in the next few years, I may find myself moving to one of the bigger cities in Texas. Mostly I’m looking at the Dallas/Fort Worth area (I’m vaguely familiar with the area as I used to live in one of the smaller cities off of I-35E when I was in high school), Houston (probably the south side of it, since I have family that live around there, and if I join the Air Force Reserves or Texas ANG, it’ll probably be in Houston), and Austin (I’m told it’s a great town). San Antonio is also a possibility, as I have family who live around there.
Mostly my priorities are finding affordable schools to go to (as financing my college career is an issue) and getting work (since, well, I’d need money). Of course, living in a safe yet affordable place is preferable, since I don’t have much of any experience to fall back on if I have to live in the Big Bad City™.
Failing any of those possibilities, I will be moving to Arizona to live with my parents
So in short, anyone who happens to know about these areas, how would you rank them?
I’ve lived in Dallas for about 8 years, and it’s a good city. Lots of good food and lots of… freeways, I guess. Downtown is pretty cool, and there are several good independent movie theaters around the metroplex, if that’s your thing.
I’ve been to Austin about a dozen times, and it strikes me as a really fun town. It’s got a lot of culture, restaurants, and greenery (which Dallas is kind of lacking in.) Plus it’s a big college town, which I’m sure you know.
I’ve only been to Houston once or twice, and it didn’t strike me as all that fantastic. Kind of smoggy and industrial, from what I remember, but like I said I haven’t been there that much.
Likewise, I’ve only been to San Antonio a few times, but the downtown area is gorgeous. It’s got some neat tourist attractions, especially the river walk.
Well I guess I didn’t mention affordable colleges or safety issues because frankly I don’t know. If I were to rank cities in order of where I’d like to go to college (excluding the fact that all my friends and family are in Dallas), it’d go Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston.
I’ve always liked Houston but I’m only a frequent visitor not a resident. It’s always seemed like it would be a pleasant yet affordable place to live. Admittedly, I’ve never spent a summer there.
I liked San Antonio but I really know almost nothing about it. I’ve only been there for two single day visits.
Though I don’t know about San Antonio for college - maybe replace that in the order with Bryan/College Station? (Texas A&M) though UT@Austin (Austin) and SMU (Dallas) would be my tops for colleges.
IMHO…
I’ve lived in both Austin (8 years) and Dallas (2 years) - in that order. I’ve spent a lot of time in Houston, San Antonio and Bryan/College Station.
My thoughts:
The best: Austin, by far. Live music capital of the world, lakes, rivers, hills, mountains, not all that humid, weather is nice, traffic sucks as there are few major thoroughfares (but not as bad as Houston), college town (UT @ Austin – great school) and parties (6th Street, second largest Mardi Gras, Halloween draw, SXSW). Town Lake (healthy running/walking trails), SRV memorial, Lake Travis, Saxon Pub, Jovita’s. The list goes on… Major downside: no major league sports (Longhorns are a HUGE pull though). No major art museums though a lot of wanna-be’s. Good place to live on a budget for a few years.
Runner up: When I moved to Dallas, I envisioned the utter pretentiousness of the show. Far from it. Dallas is a business Mecca though, with more company HQs than almost all other cities (NYC is the one larger). The problem with Dallas: too spread out. Friends in ‘Dallas’ really lived in Addison, Richardson, Plano or Frisco. White Rock Lake was nice, but not for boating. Hockey and basketball major league sports (the Cowgirls are actually in Arlington thanks to the mayor’s decision to axe their move to Fair Park – dumb move in my opinion, almost a blow in the face to downtown businesses). Traffic can be bad and back up at times but if you are streetwise, you can avoid it. School: SMU, private and expensive, great school though. Living expenses suck – expensive place to live.
Armpit of Texas: Houston. A few nice areas but traffic is ungodly bad, smog, crime. The only real Texas city with downtown baseball, football and basketball facilities. NASA museum was kind of a let down (though I admit, it was years ago when I did visit and the best exhibit was the Lego exhibit). Rice and U of H, both good schools. Don’t know about living expenses though it doesn’t seem to rank like Dallas as an expensive place to live.
Arizona:
Phoenix is a happening place. Not real expensive to live, good school (ASU, think it’s among the largest in the country), people are not pretentious – mostly laid back like Austin. First Fridays – great art and chillin’ down town attitude; unemployment is relatively low (depending on what type of income you seek, of course). Downside: VERY costly place to buy a home unless you live 25 miles out of the city. Most other living expenses are tolerable. Has major sports facility downtown – hockey, baseball, basketball, football. Chicks are WAY good looking - rival the Austin girls.
I live here in Austin and, trust me, you don’t want to live here. The traffic is horrific. What good is all the live music, lakes, rivers and other cultural activities if you can’t get there? In a last-ditch effort to provide some semblance of infrastructure, TxDOT has begun building a series of toll rounds around the city. I don’t know how you feel about toll roads, but they really chap my ass. Austin is a rapidly expanding metropolis and the incoming ‘yankees’ are quickly diluting all the things that once made Austin a fun and lively town. Coming here will only add to the aggravation and headaches that are turning even us few remaining natives into souless, manic-driving assholes. I’ll stop my rant here before I start frothing at the mouth and walk over to Chuy’s for a couple of margaritas to calm my nerves.
P.S. If you need any more convincing, please visit us in the middle of July. We don’t have the dry kind of heat like in Arizona, we have the hot kind of heat.
This is the second time I’ve heard you telling people to not move to Austin. Look, I’m sure you like your city, but I’m going to assume not everyone in your city is as xenophobic as you. Or maybe it’s just you who doesn’t like living there. You ever think about moving? It would make room for one of us who wants to live there.
Yeah, Houston itself isn’t all that great and job prospects are probably horrible now with a couple hundred thousand Katrina evacuees trying to support themselves. Assuming they’re still in the area, of course. The 'burbs to the southwest, specifically the Sugarland area (which I’m most familiar with), that’s nice place to live.
I’ve been to Houston in August. Only time I’ve ever had sunburn on my fingers!
There are cheaper post-secondary options in the Dallas area.
There’s also UTD, and a half hour north there’s Denton, which has UNT and TWU. They’re not as good as SMU, but they’re much cheaper, and Denton is a very cheap place to live, especially if you head off into the rural areas around it.
Austin’s the only place I’d live in Texas. Great outdoor city with a really cool vibe. But, it has gotten more expensive if you don’t want to live way out in the 'burbs. The University of Texas is a top-notch school and very affordable if you qualify for in-state tuition but it has gotten a lot more competetive in the last five or so years.
I’ve been in Houston and Austin virtually all of my life. I like Austin, and it is a great place to be if you are in the position to get into UT, but UT is pretty hard to get into nowadays and there are not really many good options besides UT (there is a community college and a TBC, there are also a few reasonable colleges within 50 miles, not including the many in San Antonio).
Dallas and Houston are mostly just cities. You live there, they ain’t the glamour queen cities, but you can be comfortable. Dallas and Houston are among the biggest cities like this, but there are probably 2 dozen cities slightly smaller that you could say the exact same thing about. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Sacramento, Scottsdale, Denver, Montgomery, Jacksonville, Buffalo, etc. etc. No insult to the good folks living there, but inevitably you go to a place like St. Louis and they say stuff like “Well just outside the city is great hiking!” or “We have great neighborhoods!” or “So-and-so is only 75 miles away!” or “We have great restaurants!” or “Look at our worthless national monument/one tourist attraction!” (for Houston it is NASA, for St. Louis the Arch, for Cleveland the Rock and Roll Museum).
I can say this for a fact because I have just interviewed around the country for medical residencies. Cities like Boston and Chicago don’t need to sell themselves; everybody else gave the exact same generic slide show.
Houston is very easy to live in, if you have a car. Yeah, we have bad traffic (but you quickly learn how to avoid it). Yeah, we have a smog problem (which is irritating but it is not a huge detriment to life). Yeah, it is hotter than hell for 8 months a year (but you meet a ton of Northerners who specifically move here so they never have to deal with another Northern winter). We actually do have fantastic, cheap restaurants, and great places to stay that are cheap. It is a huge city, and we have the requisite number of young people it takes to have a good night life and an active student life. We have several colleges, U of H and Rice being the most prominent. The city is large enough that we have just about everything here, from fabulous ethnic cuisine and goods (enormous Mexican/Latin American, big Vietnamese, Chinese, South American, and Indian populations, reasonably sized Korean and Thai population, smattering of just about everything else) to professional and college sports to a very active art scene.
All in all, it is very easy and addictive to live here. One gets used to driving everywhere and not walking anywhere. I’m kind of happy to be leaving, because I think I’ve spent waaay too long here. But I fully realize that it will be very different, and in all probability a lot harder wherever I move.
