Board 8 > Athens, GA vs Austin, TX

(+) Yeah! (+)

Has anyone been to both cities long enough to make a comparison? I am looking to move somewhere in a well-run state, but close enough to places that have some culture and fun stuff going on. I ideally would love to find an oasis of younger people, movie theaters that play foreign films, and bars with good live music hidden among the glorious freedom that is red state America.

Austin is fairly well known as a hipster epicenter, but Athens is super intriguing because it's the birthplace of my favorite music scene: early 90s indie college rock.

Any thoughts on either?

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I live in TX, have been in Austin before. It sounds pretty much exactly like what you're looking for. Bars with good live music is basically Austin's thing, and the city has more of a lively culture than just about any other place in Texas. They'll definitely have foreign films showing at some places. There's a university close to downtown so young people will be around.

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athens is basically a college town. If you dont enjoy that atmosphere the fact that its a very 90s esque music scene doesnt mean much.

Source: went to UGA for a year

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Watch, youll move and within a few years theyll both be blue and New York will be red
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Metal_DK posted...

athens is basically a college town. If you dont enjoy that atmosphere the fact that its a very 90s esque music scene doesnt mean much.

Source: went to UGA for a year

This is super helpful. I weirdly don't even associate college with music anymore since bands barely exist.

Definitely looking for a place where there are mostly educated people in their 30s who still like doing cocaine on Fridays.

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Jakyl25 posted...

Watch, youll move and within a few years theyll both be blue and New York will be red

Our governor single handedly murdered 15,000 people by jamming them into infected nursing homes and his approval rating is like 80%. This state is doomed.

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athens is basically 18 to 23 year olds, the late 20/30 somethings who never moved on past college, and a fair bit of poor people

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Enjoy the shit weather! You'll wish you were back in NY in no time
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Alright so while we're here, these are some other places I'm considering:

Asheville, NC: Seems like a beautiful place but may be too far in the woods. Also, NC isn't free and is only getting worse.

Salt Lake City, UT: I think it has the right atmosphere, but the Mormon drinking laws are unpalatable.

Austin, TX: Seems to be the best option, but Texas might be a culture shock for me in general.

Dallas, TX: Nice area but not as exciting or culturally fulfilling as Austin.

Are there any other places I'm missing? I want to move to a nice mid-sized metro areas in the south, but not in a WASPy city like Charleston or an impoverished area like New Orleans.

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Also: Boise and Jackson Hole would be at the TOP of my list but I would have to get divorced first and that's expensive

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I don't think you'd fit Asheville at all

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I live in Brooklyn now fwiw. Really love the access to things here, but I really hate the state.

Find me a friendlier Brooklyn south of NC!

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Portland~

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Menji posted...

Portland~

HELL no sir

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Go to Texas.
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Considering you're like the peak example of gentrification I'm sure they'll be happy to see you leave!

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Austin looks like a good city and it has lots of stuff but it also has tons of infrastructure issues.

There is traffic, probably the worst traffic youll ever see in your life. It is very over crowded. A LOT of people have come to Austin in the past few years. There is construction on every major highway all the time and every other highway that isnt under construction is a toll road.

The electrical grid is shit. So bad that brown outs in the summer are common and in order to attempt to stop them the austin power company will forcibly shut down your AC during the hottest parts of the day for a few hours to compensate.

It wasnt uncommon for my apt to get upto 80-83 degrees inside or higher from the hours of 3p-7p\

If you can get past some of that then sure, Austin is a great place.

I recently moved back to the Houston area from Austin after living there for two years. Good riddance.

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Metal_DK posted...

athens is basically 18 to 23 year olds, the late 20/30 somethings who never moved on past college, and a fair bit of poor people

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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Dallas, TX: Nice area but not as exciting or culturally fulfilling as Austin.

Dallas is my area. The weather is better in Dallas than Austin if you ask me, but otherwise you have it rather spot on. There is some cool stuff in Dallas/Fort Worth but not nearly as much as there is in Austin.

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Lucavi000 posted...

There is traffic, probably the worst traffic youll ever see in your life. It is very over crowded. A LOT of people have come to Austin in the past few years. There is construction on every major highway all the time and every other highway that isnt under construction is a toll road.

god this part is so true

I thought DFW traffic was bad, especially because everything is so spread out. You're having to go between cities quite often (Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Denton, and Plano are some of the more important cities around the area and they make up a big circle) so you can spend quite a bit of time on the road.

Then I took a trip to Austin and a trip to San Antonio where I had to drive through Austin. The trip to Austin, we got stuck coming into the city, middle of the afternoon. The trip to San Antonio, there was heavy traffic trying to make it through Austin at 11pm. It seems like it doesn't matter what time of day, there will be traffic on the highway no matter what.

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Lucavi000 posted...

Austin looks like a good city and it has lots of stuff but it also has tons of infrastructure issues.

There is traffic, probably the worst traffic youll ever see in your life. It is very over crowded. A LOT of people have come to Austin in the past few years. There is construction on every major highway all the time and every other highway that isnt under construction is a toll road.

The electrical grid is shit. So bad that brown outs in the summer are common and in order to attempt to stop them the austin power company will forcibly shut down your AC during the hottest parts of the day for a few hours to compensate.

It wasnt uncommon for my apt to get upto 80-83 degrees inside or higher from the hours of 3p-7p\

If you can get past some of that then sure, Austin is a great place.

I recently moved back to the Houston area from Austin after living there for two years. Good riddance.

Oh yikes. How are the suburbs surrounding Austin? Is it like NYC where everyone around it travels into the city when they want to go out, or do the surrounding areas have their own cultural enclaves?

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Austin 100%

Boise seems great. I almost ended up moving there after college.

idk why seph's wife is ok with SLC but not Boise
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I have no experience with Athens, but I did take a brief trip to Austin a couple years back. It's one of those cities that doesn't necessarily make for an exciting vacation, but would actually be quite enjoyable to live in, if that makes sense. It definitely seems to be a safe city by all accounts, and as far as hipster neighborhoods go, South Congress is one of the better ones out there. I will say that I enjoyed Dallas significantly more.

I'd like to shout out Bozeman, MT here. It's obviously not in the South, and I sincerely doubt coke flows like honey out there, but you will find no shortage of educated 30-somethings. Along with cultural endeavors, great food, HOT SPRINGS!!, gorgeous views, etc. The college town culture is distinct but not overbearing. The people are super friendly, the coffee is top-notch, Cactus Records is the best record store I've been to... oh man, there's a lot to love about that city.

Do not, under any circumstances, consider Louisville (a Kentucky Fried Hellhole) or Nashville (the Woo Girl capital of the world) for your move.

Good luck mate, I plan to move as well (hopefully next year) and it's an exciting feeling!

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Athens is a beautiful city, but as others have mentioned I do not think you'll find exactly what you're looking for there. Sounds more like you're looking for Atlanta, but without having to pay for midtown apartment rent which I don't blame you for.

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KingButz posted...

Boise seems great. I almost ended up moving there after college.

idk why seph's wife is ok with SLC but not Boise

Oh she isn't really okay with SLC either. Probably shouldn't have included it.

Boise would be near the top for me, but our compromise destination would have to be somewhere warm and/or near water.

If Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina had a coastal metro area that wasn't filled with douchebags like Charleston or highly spotty neighborhoods like Miami or Savannah, then I think this would be an easy answer.

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GenesisSaga posted...

Athens is a beautiful city, but as others have mentioned I do not think you'll find exactly what you're looking for there. Sounds more like you're looking for Atlanta, but without having to pay for midtown apartment rent which I don't blame you for.

I pay 4 grand a month in Brooklyn so I am not really too concerned about rent in other cities

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TheCodeisBosco posted...

I'd like to shout out Bozeman, MT here. It's obviously not in the South, and I sincerely doubt coke flows like honey out there, but you will find no shortage of educated 30-somethings. Along with cultural endeavors, great food, HOT SPRINGS!!, gorgeous views, etc. The college town culture is distinct but not overbearing. The people are super friendly, the coffee is top-notch, Cactus Records is the best record store I've been to... oh man, there's a lot to love about that city.

Do not, under any circumstances, consider Louisville (a Kentucky Fried Hellhole) or Nashville (the Woo Girl capital of the world) for your move.

I'd 100% check out Montana if it were my sole decision =(

And yeah I have been to Nashville and really did not like it there at all


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UltimaterializerX posted...

Austin is played out because of the locusts from California. Youll hate it. You need a place that actually meets your values.

Im looking into a move to the Rocky Mountain area. Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas, Wyoming.... Im just done with the northeast leftist shit shows.

The problem is that I think you'll have leftists in any major metro area. I don't mind them as people (most of my friends are left of center), as long as the state doesn't have power. Texas and much of the Southeast are relatively free from authoritarianism for now.

But like I mentioned, I would love to go to the places you suggested, but it's not in the cards.

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Montana has a Dem Governor
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Yeah you're too old for Athens but you might like Atlanta

terrible traffic here though

Atlanta is too much of a mixed bag from what I've seen

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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/400-current-events/78729332

Relevant thread just popped up on CE, lol.

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Austin is kinda overrated from what I've seen

No good places for cocktails (well, maybe one), everything is spread out with no public transit, bad traffic

BBQ is good though

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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Oh yikes. How are the suburbs surrounding Austin? Is it like NYC where everyone around it travels into the city when they want to go out, or do the surrounding areas have their own cultural enclaves?

There are a lot of places everywhere. Good food everywhere. All of the major hot spots for drinking are downtown though.

You also have to remember that Austin is also a college town as well since UT is literally right near downtown. So anywhere you go on the weekend for drinking in the downtown area will always be flooded by college kids. 5th, 6th and rainy streets are ALWAYS packed on weekends because of this. Not saying its a bad thing but it can get annoying when literally ever bar you go to is shoulder to shoulder packed.

Lots of live music and concerts in town all the time. In the two years I lived there I probably went to over 30 live shows of various types.

The public transit system is ass. It's just your typical public bus transit. Lots of homeless everywhere. It wasnt uncommon to see tents under a lot of overpasses. As a matter of fact I lived north of Downtown about 20 minutes and the homeless were under every overpass here. At my street in paricular (N. Braker if you wanted to see how far i was from downtown) there were ALWAYS homeless under the overpass or in the bushes next to the overpass.

It's a real problem and the austin government wont do anything about it. They just let them stay where they want.

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Jakyl25 posted...

Watch, youll move and within a few years theyll both be blue and New York will be red

I mean, most college towns, even the ones in red states, are already pretty blue... Austin I know is!

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TsunamiXXVIII posted...

I mean, most college towns, even the ones in red states, are already pretty blue... Austin I know is!

Funny story, Texas as a whole is a red state but every major city in the state is blue.

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Almost every urban area with few exceptions is "blue." I am fine with that. The state governments tend to reel in the local authoritarianism in red states though.

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Lucavi000 posted...

Funny story, Texas as a whole is a red state but every major city in the state is blue.

That's true for almost every city in this country.

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It's almost like most well-educated city folk have the right ideas. How peculiar.

Anyway yeah, Athens and Atlanta both are terrible. There's a hippie parade every weekend in Athens and then a pride festival at night, stay far away imo
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sephy is suspended again guys

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Hahaha get fucked

And yall givin him moving advice like he's not gonna be a contributor to gentrifying the shit outta wherever he goes like he is in Brooklyn right now, shame

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Yeah well I live in one of the states, sorry but better off somewhere else than here.
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I mean even so if you are considering moving this kind of topic is still worth looking at just from an insider perspective

but then again why would you entrust where you move to board 8

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Move to Destin, FL.

Its a party town with white sand beaches that is 100% Trump country.

Plus you can buy a boat and I can borrow it.

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Nelson_Mandela posted...

I pay 4 grand a month in Brooklyn so I am not really too concerned about rent in other cities

Jesus fucking Christ, thats 2.5x my mortgage payments

More people should move to smaller towns. I lived in a town < 100,000 my whole life, except for 2 years that I lived in Toronto. There are advantages to living in a big city, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. The biggest thing for me was the prospect of never owning a house, so when I had an opportunity to take a great job in my hometown, I jumped on it.

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Jesus fucking Christ, thats 2.5x my mortgage payments

More people should move to smaller towns. I lived in a town < 100,000 my whole life, except for 2 years that I lived in Toronto. There are advantages to living in a big city, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. The biggest thing for me was the prospect of never owning a house, so when I had an opportunity to take a great job in my hometown, I jumped on it.

What are the negatives outside the cost of living?

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By the way I wasnt joking, if you really want the good life Seph, move to the beach.

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Aecioo posted...

What are the negatives outside the cost of living?

The biggest thing for me was how crowded everything was. Crowded busses/subways suck, and I didn't like not being able to easily drive around. My daily commute was 1:15 each way, and that's actually a not bad commute compared to some other people I know down there.

One of the main criticisms I heard growing up was "there's nothing to do here, wish I lived in a big city". And while true, all of those "things to do" in the big city cost money, money which you don't have as much of because of the cost of living. Outdoor activities is another big one. We have a family cottage that we go to pretty much every weekend in the summer, and there's also any number of hiking/biking/snowshoeing/skiing trails nearby.

Having access to a lot of ethnic foods was a big plus, but with the recent increases in immigration, a lot of immigrant families are moving to my current city and opening up great restaurants (a Syrian family recently moved here and opened up a fantastic shawarma place, and one of the best indian restaurants I've ever eaten at is here).


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