you're a grad student? NOT west campus - unless you're looking to party alot and hear a lot of undergrads being rowdy. if that's what you want - you'll be in heaven.
i'd look north campus or enfield - or anything along a UT shuttle route - they run every 10-15 minutes during the day and then every 20-30 minutes from 6ish until midnight. oh and they're free. in fact all Austin buses and Dillos are free for UT students. so far west and riverside are on those routes (further away than north campus and enfield) and are more affordable.
i'm using austin apt. finders now for a new apt. in austin (the old one is too small) they'll work with any budget and are quite nice. i used them 2 years ago for my old apt. http://www.ausapt.com/
there are lots of other services too (habitat hunters) and i honestly don't know how they compare...
if you're a grad student you can't live in the dorm, i don't think...my 3rd year of b.arch they made the dorms all-freshman except for RAs. so not many people get to experience the sheer joy that is the combo bed/couch of a typical jester dorm room.
so. west campus sucks if you actually want to study and/or sleep. of course if you're in the SOA you will do neither anyway...you'll be in studio.
i recommend either going north of campus within walking distance of the #5 woodrow or #7 duval bus routes (the #5 goes down the drag in front of the SOA).
one of my personal favorite neighborhoods in austin is the area bounded by dean keeton on the south, guadalupe on the west, 38th street on the north, and red river on the east. close to campus (you can ride your bike or the bus) but not as populated by loud undergrads. of course, with 50,000 students, you can't go anywhere in austin where there aren't ANY loud undergrads, but. and, you can walk to wheatsville.
i would recommend against far west and riverside. undergrad ghettoes which, with the proliferation of newer student housing west of campus, are quickly becoming just ghettoes. if you don't own a car and the shuttles aren't running (like on saturdays or holidays) you're SOL. the apartments down on riverside are in one of the most dangerous parts of town. if you see the student apartments, you'll see that they have lots of security fencing. the thing about far west is that it's...far and west of campus.
if you have a car and are not afraid to use it...south austin. my single most favorite part of town. this is where austin's at, baby.
yes-grad student-would like to be close to campus but no with undergrads-may be impossible? have a car and not afraid to drive it-but would prrefer to be close and in safe place. when looking on line-it doesn't list neighborhoods-do you have zip codes to look in?
78701 is downtown austin
78705 covers west campus, north campus all the way up to 38th st
78751 covers hyde park and the north loop area
78722 covers french place / cherrywood (where jasoncross is talking about east of 35)
Oh God, stop being contrary-Houston is interesting, but that's it. When my brother lived there, he said it was like living inside a strip mall.
Other Austin options-the triangle between Manor, the Interstate, and Airport-the neighborhoods in there are called the Delwood and Wishire Woods-they are really sort of quiet and hidden because they are east of 35 but they are safe and green and nice-an apartment wouldn't be a bad deal but the houses are expensive. I also second the recommendations on South Austin, I especially like the area around South First-South Congress is too yuppified and full of cute boutiques-it's gotten annoying-good for visits but not much. Also if you live on the south side, you will have better access to Zilker Park, the Hike and Bike trail and the Barton Creek Greenbelt for those rare times that you have free time.
I'm a native Austinite-we do exist-and hearing all this is making me so wistful.
ringlet, pretty much the only place to live thats near campus (walking distance) if u dont want to take the bus or anything like that and that isn't filled with loud undergrads is north campus (though if u get unucky there still could be some drunk freshmen next door) but if u use aoartment finders or anything like that all they'll show u is what gets them the highest commissions. If u want i've got a buddy who does real estate/apartment locating and if i say ur a friend he won't screw you. email me and i'll send u his number if u want, he would probably be ur best chance at finding a place thats right for u. anyways if u do email me post on this thread and let me know b/c i never check the account i have listed in my profile. Anyways, ur going to love austin it has to be one of the most fun cities in america, and has the prettiest gurls too.
i hate to be a buzzkill on apartment locators of any kind, but yes, they show you the place that will get them a commission. you would be better off to peruse the austin chronicle (www.auschron.com) and maybe some of the apartment websites and just find a place on your own.
i lived at the act IV (or VI or IX or something) apartments at 43rd and duval for a year and the place was a dump but the neighborhood was awesome. there were no less than four good restaurants within one minute's walking distance and a grocery store, too. and the giant H-E-B grocery store was close by.
be careful, though. austin gets a lot of students and a lot of people who are kind of checking out of mainstream society. both these demographics don't mind living in shitty apartments. there are slumlords everywhere.
NEVER sign anything without seeing the EXACT apartment you will be renting.
do a very careful inspection before you decide to rent AND when you are filling out your initial conditions form (if you haven't rented an apt in TX, it is part of the standard TX apartment association lease...don't rent from any landlord who doesn't use that lease). be VERY picky when you fill out that form, because you very likely will NEVER get anything fixed during your lease term if you haven't indicated it on that form. indeed, you may not get it fixed even then. i have stories to tell and if you ever need advice on how to legally (and without penalty) break a lease, just ask me.
my current apartment (family owned for 40 or more years) ONLY rents thru an apt. finders service - that's the only way to see and rent with them.
http://www.haliscomgt.com/ - so that's how we did it, we didn't have much of a choice. and it's been fine. basically the family doesn't want to spend their time showing/marketing so they route all business thru the apt. finders service. so for some apts., like ours, it's the only way you will see/find them. and i love our place - it's the loft layout but we've outgrown it. and we've never had a problem with the landlords - we just got a brand new fridge not too long ago. so i don't think all apt. finders are out to screw you or show you crappy places or get the highest commission - that's not been my experience.
so we just looked last weekend with this service and they showed us some great apartments (some on the websites below) that were in our price range, accepted pets, and in neighborhoods we liked. so that's my experience, for what it's worth.
also - check out these management companies - they're only going to show their properties but it's a good place to start and to get an idea of what's out there, floorplans and prices.
just to get all sides of the story...it HAS been my experience. i am glad brujitadulce (sweet little witch, right?) has had good ones.
my first apartment (thank you apt finders) had so many roaches that a buddy of mine and i got real drunk and built a roach rodeo arena in my bathroom out of old toilet paper rolls and cigarette boxes. the wall a/c-slash-heater conked out in november, forcing me to have to keep the gas oven open for heat. except when the pilot light would go out. which it did one night at 2 AM when i was asleep. i woke up afraid to pick up the phone...and extremely dizzy. i called the landlord eighteen times to ask for a replacement heater. (it can get cold at night in TX in a poorly built 70s apartment complex) only when i threatened to call austin code enforcement did i get a new one. pest control never came by...ever.
my second apartment (hey, habitat hunters!) was the aforementioned act IV on duval. the AC went out on a 90-degree day in march and started acting like a heater, not an AC unit. maybe it's because homeless people used to urinate on my condenser. i dunno. but i sure couldn't open the windows for that reason. and i had to wear flip flops in my own shower after the exhaust fan in the bathroom broke and fungus started growing...everywhere. landlord never did end up fixing that stuff.
my third apartment (never EVER ask a friend to find you a place) was the worst. i was supposed to get new carpet. they decided they would replace the carpet (downstairs ONLY) but not the padding. sick. the toilets had trap problems which manifest themselves in a faint odor like the tide going out. out of three toilets my wife would only sit on one. the carpet on the stairs was worn smooth to a point where i fell down the stairs three times. at first the landlord refused to replace the upstairs carpet and it had obviously been the area where dogs had gone to pee. it was soaked in urine. they did replace that after i threatened once again to call code compliance. after none of the rest of these items were addressed i looked up the texas property code and after the site manager refused to divulge the address and phone number of the actual management company i found it myself online. i sent a registered letter with my complaints and, seven days later, the management company owner was on site to tell my wife that we could legally break our lease without penalty so long as we didn't sue...because i had by that point retained a lawyer.
austin gets a lot of students, a lot of people who think it's cool to be poor, and a lot of immigrants, none of whom seem to be much inclined to complain about crappy places.
and i am helping with an apt - to - condo conversion purchased from rainier. the place was in abysmal shape.
yikes - sounds like you went thru hell multiple times over - i will thank the apartment fairy that has been very VERY good to me over the years. i think apartment hunting is hard, in general, and it's difficult to know how the owner or management company is going to respond to issues. we've been blessed thus far and i'm reluctant to move for fear of stories like yours...but it has to happen at some point, so we're taking the plunge. i think the fact that our complex is full of law students might help with the response time :) that and the family that owns it is nice (my parents were some of the first tenants in our complex many, many moons ago - so living there is like a family tradition - my brother also lived there when he was in law school) and they do pest control spraying every quarter without fail (you have to sign a relase for them to NOT do your apt - and we've never had the pest control b/c of our cats and we've still never had a bug problem. i think i've seen a total of three roaches in 2 years.
now i'm trying to remember why i'm leaving....
oh, the laundry facilities suck. so we go to ecomat. but other than that it kinda rocks - for an old apartment. the loft is nice. lots of light.
yes - near the law school and the practice bubble (that's what we call it...) and we get to hear the marching band practice on thursday nights during football season (which we find charming and not annoying). the apts are so solidly built and each apt. only shares one wall w/a neighbor and they're quite thick. love 'em.
not sure where we're moving to...we just started looking. i'm starting UT SOA grad in the fall and i'd like to live near campus - on shuttle route or walking distance...right now we're thinking enfield or duval...
I would check the City of Austin online crime stats map. You may care to take your chances in south Austin, but do some searching to see which areas look like trouble. I checked up on this with an ex-girlfriend who had lived in Austin before and was moving back for grad school. We found one place that had two separate murders within a 500 yard radius, another with multiple sexual assaults, etc. and so on.
Dallas has something similar, but they represent different crimes with little symbols. I don't remember if Austin had that, but it's all interesting information at least.
I am wondering if anyone has imputs on Red River Place, it's on dean keaton and red river. i am about to take it un-seen. it is quiet cheap so i am a bit wary. there is another option of a place on 32th and speedway for me. How do you compare the locations? is one obviously better than the other? and is I-35 highway distractive. i couldn't find review on it. thanks again.
does anyone have any dorm experience? of the various dorms, which would you recommend? I kinda like Prathers/ Roberts/ San Jacinto.
Not too sure about Brackenridge. I heard the rooms are really small !
ochona - I almost spit water out all over my keyboard reading about your apartment experiences. Quite sure we could all account stories of bad student housing experiences. An old house I rented a room in while in undergrad was condemned not long after I left. Also turns out it was loaded with asbestos. Go figure.
Of my couple of friends that went to grad school at UT, both of them decided to live in the burbs and drive into campus just to get away from the undergrad rowdiness. And it's TX so driving is the norm...even in Austin.
I live in austin and I can tell you that if money is tight or something and you have to live somewhere not as close as duval/north loop/38th st, living ANYWHERE besides let's say.. 12th&chicon (the one bad block in austin) and the surrounding 4 streets is FINE
i lived way east of airport blvd (it was free) and while that neighborhood lacks in charm/business development, the neighbors were nice even if they were drug dealers. i moved because i wanted to feel more like i was in "austin" so i moved to south austin, which is a higher-income, but better developed area closer to things to do/walk to.
the area immediately east of 35 up to about 11th street is cool, particularly from about 2nd street until 12th st. it's a cheaper area where a lot of creative things are popping up, the closest thing austin has to a brooklyn (it's a stretch but whatever).
the south side (south of the river) between a little west of congress and a little west of lamar is a hip area with a lot of local business/music venues
6th street is where every friday and saturday the douchepocalypse hits town. this isn't to say there isn't any merit to going down there: it is 100% safe during sxsw and there are also plenty of music venues there that do play quality music they just happen to sit right next to the ones that have the blues traveler cover bands and 16 year olds trying to get into the drunken animal-themed sports bar.
i've lived in around 10 major world cities and austin is for sure the safest i've been to. you'll be fine, security wise, livin anywhere and from september -may when you're in school the weather is so nice you can bike anywhere. the bus can take you home if you're tired.
just realized i havea lot of errors in my writing:
the zone E. of 35 is particularly good from cesar chavez (1st street) north to 12th street and to the west until comal, roughly.
south side:
east of congress (that neighborhood is all good, it just is bordered by 35 on some parts so maybe kind of loud at night?) and all the way until west of lamar is cool down until oltorf. a few blocks either way won't hurt you but much past oltorf and it turns into strip mall central.
@ keopi - great info. Thanks for sharing! Just curious, how's the weather like between may - september? Heard it can get really humid and hot. You mentioned Sept - May, so I am wondering what's happening in Austin during those few months you didnt mention. I am not trying to split hairs here. It's a genuine question.
Summer months in Austin can get hot, but not IMO humid. Then again I grew up in Houston which is humid.
Was in Austin for a week once in July where it would get up to 100 each day but it wasn't the "standing next to a fire" kind of heat that places like Phoenix get. Unlike some other cities in the southwest, people in Austin actually do enjoy the outdoors in the middle of summer.
Once you acclimate to the heat (assuming you are from the north) it's very livable year round.
Apr 14, 10 1:55 pm ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
Where to live in Austin?
Any advice on where to live in Austin near the university? Not too expensive.
live in a dorm. Jester is the best.
you're a grad student? NOT west campus - unless you're looking to party alot and hear a lot of undergrads being rowdy. if that's what you want - you'll be in heaven.
i'd look north campus or enfield - or anything along a UT shuttle route - they run every 10-15 minutes during the day and then every 20-30 minutes from 6ish until midnight. oh and they're free. in fact all Austin buses and Dillos are free for UT students. so far west and riverside are on those routes (further away than north campus and enfield) and are more affordable.
i'm using austin apt. finders now for a new apt. in austin (the old one is too small) they'll work with any budget and are quite nice. i used them 2 years ago for my old apt.
http://www.ausapt.com/
there are lots of other services too (habitat hunters) and i honestly don't know how they compare...
see you in the fall?
if you're a grad student you can't live in the dorm, i don't think...my 3rd year of b.arch they made the dorms all-freshman except for RAs. so not many people get to experience the sheer joy that is the combo bed/couch of a typical jester dorm room.
so. west campus sucks if you actually want to study and/or sleep. of course if you're in the SOA you will do neither anyway...you'll be in studio.
i recommend either going north of campus within walking distance of the #5 woodrow or #7 duval bus routes (the #5 goes down the drag in front of the SOA).
one of my personal favorite neighborhoods in austin is the area bounded by dean keeton on the south, guadalupe on the west, 38th street on the north, and red river on the east. close to campus (you can ride your bike or the bus) but not as populated by loud undergrads. of course, with 50,000 students, you can't go anywhere in austin where there aren't ANY loud undergrads, but. and, you can walk to wheatsville.
i would recommend against far west and riverside. undergrad ghettoes which, with the proliferation of newer student housing west of campus, are quickly becoming just ghettoes. if you don't own a car and the shuttles aren't running (like on saturdays or holidays) you're SOL. the apartments down on riverside are in one of the most dangerous parts of town. if you see the student apartments, you'll see that they have lots of security fencing. the thing about far west is that it's...far and west of campus.
if you have a car and are not afraid to use it...south austin. my single most favorite part of town. this is where austin's at, baby.
yes-grad student-would like to be close to campus but no with undergrads-may be impossible? have a car and not afraid to drive it-but would prrefer to be close and in safe place. when looking on line-it doesn't list neighborhoods-do you have zip codes to look in?
hyde park, northloop areas, south first, south lamar areas
a relatively cheap areathat is close to campus is east of I35 between 51st and 15th.
78701 is downtown austin
78705 covers west campus, north campus all the way up to 38th st
78751 covers hyde park and the north loop area
78722 covers french place / cherrywood (where jasoncross is talking about east of 35)
78705 is your best bet
really though, austin sucks. terminal cuteness. come to Houston instead, a REAL city.
houston has highways that double as parking lots, it is awesome.
hate houston-looking forward to Austin-so sorry mies.
thanks for the tips!
Oh God, stop being contrary-Houston is interesting, but that's it. When my brother lived there, he said it was like living inside a strip mall.
Other Austin options-the triangle between Manor, the Interstate, and Airport-the neighborhoods in there are called the Delwood and Wishire Woods-they are really sort of quiet and hidden because they are east of 35 but they are safe and green and nice-an apartment wouldn't be a bad deal but the houses are expensive. I also second the recommendations on South Austin, I especially like the area around South First-South Congress is too yuppified and full of cute boutiques-it's gotten annoying-good for visits but not much. Also if you live on the south side, you will have better access to Zilker Park, the Hike and Bike trail and the Barton Creek Greenbelt for those rare times that you have free time.
I'm a native Austinite-we do exist-and hearing all this is making me so wistful.
Oh yeah, the fries at Opal Divine's on 6th and Rio Grande are really good as well-as good as Hyde Park, I'm not sure, but they at least come close.
ringlet, pretty much the only place to live thats near campus (walking distance) if u dont want to take the bus or anything like that and that isn't filled with loud undergrads is north campus (though if u get unucky there still could be some drunk freshmen next door) but if u use aoartment finders or anything like that all they'll show u is what gets them the highest commissions. If u want i've got a buddy who does real estate/apartment locating and if i say ur a friend he won't screw you. email me and i'll send u his number if u want, he would probably be ur best chance at finding a place thats right for u. anyways if u do email me post on this thread and let me know b/c i never check the account i have listed in my profile. Anyways, ur going to love austin it has to be one of the most fun cities in america, and has the prettiest gurls too.
thanks-but I hope you didn't think ringlet was a guys name...
nothing about "ringlet" says guy to me...
i hate to be a buzzkill on apartment locators of any kind, but yes, they show you the place that will get them a commission. you would be better off to peruse the austin chronicle (www.auschron.com) and maybe some of the apartment websites and just find a place on your own.
i lived at the act IV (or VI or IX or something) apartments at 43rd and duval for a year and the place was a dump but the neighborhood was awesome. there were no less than four good restaurants within one minute's walking distance and a grocery store, too. and the giant H-E-B grocery store was close by.
be careful, though. austin gets a lot of students and a lot of people who are kind of checking out of mainstream society. both these demographics don't mind living in shitty apartments. there are slumlords everywhere.
NEVER sign anything without seeing the EXACT apartment you will be renting.
do a very careful inspection before you decide to rent AND when you are filling out your initial conditions form (if you haven't rented an apt in TX, it is part of the standard TX apartment association lease...don't rent from any landlord who doesn't use that lease). be VERY picky when you fill out that form, because you very likely will NEVER get anything fixed during your lease term if you haven't indicated it on that form. indeed, you may not get it fixed even then. i have stories to tell and if you ever need advice on how to legally (and without penalty) break a lease, just ask me.
my current apartment (family owned for 40 or more years) ONLY rents thru an apt. finders service - that's the only way to see and rent with them.
http://www.haliscomgt.com/ - so that's how we did it, we didn't have much of a choice. and it's been fine. basically the family doesn't want to spend their time showing/marketing so they route all business thru the apt. finders service. so for some apts., like ours, it's the only way you will see/find them. and i love our place - it's the loft layout but we've outgrown it. and we've never had a problem with the landlords - we just got a brand new fridge not too long ago. so i don't think all apt. finders are out to screw you or show you crappy places or get the highest commission - that's not been my experience.
so we just looked last weekend with this service and they showed us some great apartments (some on the websites below) that were in our price range, accepted pets, and in neighborhoods we liked. so that's my experience, for what it's worth.
also - check out these management companies - they're only going to show their properties but it's a good place to start and to get an idea of what's out there, floorplans and prices.
http://marquisliving.com/
http://www.rainiermanagement.com/index.asp
and, don't forget craigslist
Hey Oldirty, I'd rather live in a real stripmall than a fake neighborhood.
just to get all sides of the story...it HAS been my experience. i am glad brujitadulce (sweet little witch, right?) has had good ones.
my first apartment (thank you apt finders) had so many roaches that a buddy of mine and i got real drunk and built a roach rodeo arena in my bathroom out of old toilet paper rolls and cigarette boxes. the wall a/c-slash-heater conked out in november, forcing me to have to keep the gas oven open for heat. except when the pilot light would go out. which it did one night at 2 AM when i was asleep. i woke up afraid to pick up the phone...and extremely dizzy. i called the landlord eighteen times to ask for a replacement heater. (it can get cold at night in TX in a poorly built 70s apartment complex) only when i threatened to call austin code enforcement did i get a new one. pest control never came by...ever.
my second apartment (hey, habitat hunters!) was the aforementioned act IV on duval. the AC went out on a 90-degree day in march and started acting like a heater, not an AC unit. maybe it's because homeless people used to urinate on my condenser. i dunno. but i sure couldn't open the windows for that reason. and i had to wear flip flops in my own shower after the exhaust fan in the bathroom broke and fungus started growing...everywhere. landlord never did end up fixing that stuff.
my third apartment (never EVER ask a friend to find you a place) was the worst. i was supposed to get new carpet. they decided they would replace the carpet (downstairs ONLY) but not the padding. sick. the toilets had trap problems which manifest themselves in a faint odor like the tide going out. out of three toilets my wife would only sit on one. the carpet on the stairs was worn smooth to a point where i fell down the stairs three times. at first the landlord refused to replace the upstairs carpet and it had obviously been the area where dogs had gone to pee. it was soaked in urine. they did replace that after i threatened once again to call code compliance. after none of the rest of these items were addressed i looked up the texas property code and after the site manager refused to divulge the address and phone number of the actual management company i found it myself online. i sent a registered letter with my complaints and, seven days later, the management company owner was on site to tell my wife that we could legally break our lease without penalty so long as we didn't sue...because i had by that point retained a lawyer.
austin gets a lot of students, a lot of people who think it's cool to be poor, and a lot of immigrants, none of whom seem to be much inclined to complain about crappy places.
and i am helping with an apt - to - condo conversion purchased from rainier. the place was in abysmal shape.
ochona -- sweet little witch it is...or i am :)
yikes - sounds like you went thru hell multiple times over - i will thank the apartment fairy that has been very VERY good to me over the years. i think apartment hunting is hard, in general, and it's difficult to know how the owner or management company is going to respond to issues. we've been blessed thus far and i'm reluctant to move for fear of stories like yours...but it has to happen at some point, so we're taking the plunge. i think the fact that our complex is full of law students might help with the response time :) that and the family that owns it is nice (my parents were some of the first tenants in our complex many, many moons ago - so living there is like a family tradition - my brother also lived there when he was in law school) and they do pest control spraying every quarter without fail (you have to sign a relase for them to NOT do your apt - and we've never had the pest control b/c of our cats and we've still never had a bug problem. i think i've seen a total of three roaches in 2 years.
now i'm trying to remember why i'm leaving....
oh, the laundry facilities suck. so we go to ecomat. but other than that it kinda rocks - for an old apartment. the loft is nice. lots of light.
if it's over by the law school...yeah, that area is pretty cool, doesn't seem like a bad recommendation
good luck on your move. where to?
yes - near the law school and the practice bubble (that's what we call it...) and we get to hear the marching band practice on thursday nights during football season (which we find charming and not annoying). the apts are so solidly built and each apt. only shares one wall w/a neighbor and they're quite thick. love 'em.
not sure where we're moving to...we just started looking. i'm starting UT SOA grad in the fall and i'd like to live near campus - on shuttle route or walking distance...right now we're thinking enfield or duval...
enfield is very nice...buen suerte
bruj- what program will you be in?
live in san antonio!!!
looking for a roomy and a two bedroom house/apt./warehouse with a large studio/shop space and within two miles of campus.
Is Austin a place where one needs a car? Or will the metro and a bike be good enough?
you can live on bike or feet alone in austin with little or no problem.
I would check the City of Austin online crime stats map. You may care to take your chances in south Austin, but do some searching to see which areas look like trouble. I checked up on this with an ex-girlfriend who had lived in Austin before and was moving back for grad school. We found one place that had two separate murders within a 500 yard radius, another with multiple sexual assaults, etc. and so on.
Dallas has something similar, but they represent different crimes with little symbols. I don't remember if Austin had that, but it's all interesting information at least.
ringlet - first professional 3.5 yrs - and you?
I am wondering if anyone has imputs on Red River Place, it's on dean keaton and red river. i am about to take it un-seen. it is quiet cheap so i am a bit wary. there is another option of a place on 32th and speedway for me. How do you compare the locations? is one obviously better than the other? and is I-35 highway distractive. i couldn't find review on it. thanks again.
does anyone have any dorm experience? of the various dorms, which would you recommend? I kinda like Prathers/ Roberts/ San Jacinto.
Not too sure about Brackenridge. I heard the rooms are really small !
ochona - I almost spit water out all over my keyboard reading about your apartment experiences. Quite sure we could all account stories of bad student housing experiences. An old house I rented a room in while in undergrad was condemned not long after I left. Also turns out it was loaded with asbestos. Go figure.
Of my couple of friends that went to grad school at UT, both of them decided to live in the burbs and drive into campus just to get away from the undergrad rowdiness. And it's TX so driving is the norm...even in Austin.
Just camp at Zilker and bathe in Lake Austin.
I live in austin and I can tell you that if money is tight or something and you have to live somewhere not as close as duval/north loop/38th st, living ANYWHERE besides let's say.. 12th&chicon (the one bad block in austin) and the surrounding 4 streets is FINE
i lived way east of airport blvd (it was free) and while that neighborhood lacks in charm/business development, the neighbors were nice even if they were drug dealers. i moved because i wanted to feel more like i was in "austin" so i moved to south austin, which is a higher-income, but better developed area closer to things to do/walk to.
the area immediately east of 35 up to about 11th street is cool, particularly from about 2nd street until 12th st. it's a cheaper area where a lot of creative things are popping up, the closest thing austin has to a brooklyn (it's a stretch but whatever).
the south side (south of the river) between a little west of congress and a little west of lamar is a hip area with a lot of local business/music venues
6th street is where every friday and saturday the douchepocalypse hits town. this isn't to say there isn't any merit to going down there: it is 100% safe during sxsw and there are also plenty of music venues there that do play quality music they just happen to sit right next to the ones that have the blues traveler cover bands and 16 year olds trying to get into the drunken animal-themed sports bar.
i've lived in around 10 major world cities and austin is for sure the safest i've been to. you'll be fine, security wise, livin anywhere and from september -may when you're in school the weather is so nice you can bike anywhere. the bus can take you home if you're tired.
hope this helps!
just realized i havea lot of errors in my writing:
the zone E. of 35 is particularly good from cesar chavez (1st street) north to 12th street and to the west until comal, roughly.
south side:
east of congress (that neighborhood is all good, it just is bordered by 35 on some parts so maybe kind of loud at night?) and all the way until west of lamar is cool down until oltorf. a few blocks either way won't hurt you but much past oltorf and it turns into strip mall central.
@ keopi - great info. Thanks for sharing! Just curious, how's the weather like between may - september? Heard it can get really humid and hot. You mentioned Sept - May, so I am wondering what's happening in Austin during those few months you didnt mention. I am not trying to split hairs here. It's a genuine question.
Summer months in Austin can get hot, but not IMO humid. Then again I grew up in Houston which is humid.
Was in Austin for a week once in July where it would get up to 100 each day but it wasn't the "standing next to a fire" kind of heat that places like Phoenix get. Unlike some other cities in the southwest, people in Austin actually do enjoy the outdoors in the middle of summer.
Once you acclimate to the heat (assuming you are from the north) it's very livable year round.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.