When I say Austin is weird and liberal, I mean it’s wierd and liberal compared to the rest of Texas.
By “the Bay Area”, I assume you mean the San Francisco Bay area. If that’s the case, the Prius-driving hipster douchebags are going to look like stodgy Republicans compared to what you’re used to seeing.
And in reality, it’s probably not that bad. It gets a bad rap, simply because it’s a college town and you have a huge presence of young people, or “freelance poets”. Every time I went there, it was for fun. I rarely went for business. If you live there and work in a professional environment, you’re surrounded by professionals who will have very little use for your tie-dyed “Keep Austin Stupid” t-shirts.
No doubt, and the over the top stuff can be entertaining, Good friend of mine’s wife was an assistant DA in Dallas. Got to be a little much for them though. They moved to her home town in Colorado once they had kids. Didn’t want to raise their family there, but I’ve known many great people from Dallas. Like you said, sure there are great areas.
There’s not as much outdoors-type stuff to do in Dallas. Less ethnic diversity as well, if that’s important to you.
More universities to choose from, though none probably the caliber of UT-Austin. (And certainly none that can hold a candle to UTSA.) But I’m sure you can find plenty of qualified people from Baylor and SMU.
Dallas is also more urban sprawl, like you mentioned. It’s a lot less “centralized” than Austin is. In Austin, most of the nightlife is right there between 4th street and the south side of the University. In Dallas, it’s spread out all over. (That’s actually probably pretty true about everything, not just nightlife.)
DFW is one of the best and biggest airports in the nation.
It will also be a little cooler and less humid than Austin. Winter will be a little colder and longer. Summer will start a month later and end a month earlier.
Cost of living would probably be about the same. There would be more to do, but that’s simply because Dallas is about 3x as big as Austin.
All the “business friendly” and “no state income tax” applies there as well.
Ehh I don’t know about that. At this point the only thing I would trade the roadster for is a faster roadster. So far this has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made.
@ Greenie, yes the SF Bay Area although I don’t live in the city so I am spared some of the craziness.
W hotel is probably 50% Austin 50% Dallas. We have plenty of that scene and plenty more on the way. I think 3 boutique hotels opening in the next 1-2 years, plus a mixed use Fairmont, and JW Marriott, both downtown. We’ve already got plenty of bars all across the spectrum.
I am not a big Dallas fan, but would move there for the right opportunity. I think Austin has more well rounded people, probably due to the university, whereas Dallas has a few old money neighborhoods and thousands of 30k millionaires. Most Dallas people like things that are shiny and new regardless of the underlying quality. Both men and women are obsessed with status, but most of the women don’t know the difference between a hedge fund manager and a mortgage broker. I played that game in LA and not having to deal with it in Austin is refreshing. People are just friendly here, and its an eclectic mix.
The hipster douchebag is not embedded into the Austin culture like it is in some cities. (Portland, SF). There are plenty of underemployed college grads and underprivileged 20 somethings doing the hipster thing, but its contained to the neighborhoods you probably won’t be visiting often. If you’re willing to spend more than $5 on a drink, you will not see them.
Austin weird is a trailer park in the middle of the city surrounded by condos, an old man riding his bike in a thong, old hippies smoking weed and playing frisbee golf, etc. None of these things are pretentious or overly obnoxious.
Austin has way hotter women. They all do yoga and go running on the trails every day. I see 20+ hot chicks every time I step into Whole Foods.
I need to correct a misconception. As a native of the South who graduated from a school in Texas, I feel it’s important to state that Texas is not part of the South. They are very different. Texas is its own huge, wonderful, quirky place. Houston, San Antonio and Austin all have much to recommend them, but Dallas sucks.
I’ve heard good things about Nashville, too, but haven’t spent any time there. But Vanderbilt is a good school and you could probably find some talent there. Can get away to the mountains pretty easily too. Downside? It’s in Tennessee.
That’s fair, thanks for the correction. There is still a certain Southern Charm (to a non-Southerner like myself, maybe I should have called it Texas Charm or something else) that is not present outside of the South and Texas. Texas is not the South but culturally it’s more South than the rest of the country by a long shot.
Are you saying there are parts of NJ that are even worse, thereby elevating Houston by comparison? Or are you saying there are really nice parts of NJ that I missed?
I drove across the state a couple of times. I’m sure there are a few nice parts but the state as a whole seemed much worse than any other state I’ve been to except Delaware. I was flat out afraid to get out of the car in multiple places in NJ.
There must be nice parts because Gabelli lives in NJ to avoid paying NYC taxes. I guess he won a big case against the IRS when they tried to nail him for tax evasion.