Thinking of moving to Austin from Portland

[japmn]

I lived in Austin from 2002-4 and will agree with Mudcloth 100%.
It is a fun town to live in but does not live up to the lore and most of the best places were gone before I even got there. I live in Chicago again and actuall pay less rent. Chicago isn't cheep.

Mexican food... It is good.
BBQ... THE SALTLICK
best in the world.

Hey Mudcloth, do you know Road House Rick?

[msmith]

I currently live in Austin and run a studio here as well....I like it. The traffic sucks and the cedar blows, but its a nice city...
+sigh+

[roygbiv]

Where do you live in Portland?

If you have been living on the Westside, consider moving over to the Eastside (Belmont, Hawthorne, Woodstock, etc.) before bailing on Portland.

Did that myself ~ 8 years when I moved from the Northwest neighborhood over to the Hawthorne neighborhood.

Best lifestyle thing I ever did. Food is cheap over here, and there is way fewer yuppies (although plenty of the locals have their own crunchy-granola and/or tattoo'd/pierced pretentiousness goin' on).

[CarlWelden]

My favorite saying I learned there was:

"The only problem with Austin is that it's surrounded by Texas"


Yes, it's the live music capital of the world, so they say.
I found it very affordable and very bike friendly (get a good lock though).
Can't say much about the heat, cause I was there in the t-shirt days of winter.
For some adventure, I had a friend down there at a death-metal pirate radio station: www.kaos959.com

Good luck with your decision, wherever it may lead.

[digitaldrummer]

if you were thinking of moving here for the music scene, might want to check this out

http://www.theyearofaustinmusic.org/

and yeah, I should probably be at the meeting right now but I'm a slacker...

[tdbajus]

When I moved from Philly to NYC in 1995, went from living in a city that I absolutely loved with no work for me and no music scene to speak of at all to a giant shopping mall with a music scene that hugged and loved me like a tender mother surrogate who packed my pockets full of money (relative to the $8-$12K I was making a year in Philly)

It was funny- I went to shows in Philly all the time, and every time Zorn, Sonic Youth, Helmet, Fugazi, Jawbox, etc, etc came around, the shows would be packed. Yet the bands that were coming out of there were the Hooters, Tommy Conwell, Robert Hazard, Jeffery Gaines- stuff that was just too pacemaker safe for my tastes (which, compared to some of my friends who thought Wounded Nurse was pop music, isn't really that far out).

Now, of course, NYC is unbelievably expensive. I moved out to Williamsburg in '97, attracted by cheap rent, tons of rehearsal space, and to get the F out of Manhattan.
Funny to think now.

The floor where my studio used to be above Northsix was knocked out to expand it to the Williamsburg Hall Of Music, and I have gone from sharing a $600/month for a bit less than 300sq/ft with 3 bands to splitting a barely larger than 220 sq/ft space with one person (there isn't room for anyone else) for $1050.

My studio neighbors aren't Enon, Girls Against Boys, World Inferno Friendship Society, and Rainer Maria anymore, either.

Is there any place that doesn't kind of suck now? I'm a city boy- I'm 37, I've never owned a car, and like to live as far away from any Chilis and Outback Steak Houses as humanly possible. I like subways and taxis and art and bands that don't sound like Creed knocking of STP knocking of Pearl Jam.

Oh, and my day job is doing visual effects for ads and movies. How is LA these days?

[bradb]

I think we're heading into some shifting patterns in where (mostly young) people want to live. Some of these complaints here seem to be common to many cities.

The suburbs were king back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Most people that could, left the cities, and in some cities you had economic depression, crime, etc rise to fill the hole. It was easy to make it in a city because no one else wanted to live there! Still cities remained places of commerce / business (and just closed down for the night when the workers left, Newark is like this today) so if you lived and worked in the city, you'd get a good wage and then live cheaply because all your coworkers lived in the 'burbs and weren't competing with you for housing.

Nowadays, driven by shows like Seinfeld (i'm serious), hip urban car commercials, urban outfitters, environmental awareness, etc. everyone wants to move to the city, any city. I mean wouldn't you? Marriage postponement, procreation postponement, or plain old singleness / childlessness all mean that people have less incentive to leave the city for that coveted yard.

Supply is limited (thats the nature of a city) and demand is high.




Regarding austin, i lived there from 2000-2004 and loved it. I was also wilder than I am today. It was friendly, close knit music scene, amazing food, etc. Even though I played in bands and was out watching music always, I admit, I was part of the problem, I was a tech worker who came in and drove rents up.

Allergies will destroy you in Austin. I have had seasonal allergies my entire life, in the spring time. In austin, my springtime allergies would last longer than on the east coast and cause depression. it was really weird, i'd take allegra and it would go away. then fall would come and i'd be fine... then cedar fever hit. So basically its hard to deal with. (thank you NYC)

Austin now has an Anthropologie store.. WTF? A friend who lives there and is a local tech worker wonders how long that stuff will sustain.


I guess in summary, I don't really see this as a Portland vs Austin thing. Its a city vs suburb thing.

[Glory_Morris]

I've never been to portland, but it sounds nice. Austin is pretty great, but like everywhere else, you have to give it some time and actually get involved. Plus, remember that some of these guys knocking Austin probably live or lived in Round Rock or North of 183 where people's feet grow backwards. You can't experience much from up there. I know a number of people getting by fine and they live less than a mile from downtown. I live half a mile east of downtown and I don't own a car. I get around strictly by bicycle and bus. I'm completely happy. Plus, a new metro rail is coming in Fall.

[digitaldrummer]

some of these guys knocking Austin probably live or lived in Round Rock or North of 183 where people's feet grow backwards.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

Don't get me wrong, I love Austin, but its a lot bigger than it was when I moved here nearly 20 years ago. And granted since then I've gained a family, worked the day job, and progressively moved further and further north into the burbs... if I didn't have the above, I'd probably live in South Austin, or closer to downtown if I could.

yeah, the traffic blows, but there are ways around it. My biggest gripe is that the City of Austin continues to tout the "Live Music Capital of the World" but rarely helps musicians (and regularly stabs them in the back). clubs would hire bands when the rent on 6th street was cheap and the cops weren't carrying sound meters to bust them for noise ordinances which were instated for the rich dumb asses that bought condos right above the live music club (what did you think it would sound like?). Lots of cool clubs were turned into daquiri bars or razed to build office buildings. I have friends that were hassled by police during SXSW and you all probably heard about the incident with Ozomatli a few years back. its harder to get paying gigs.

but this area is still my favorite place to live.

[squizo]

I moved from kansas (i know, not a big stretch) to austin in 04 to work under a producer who's name rhymes with McBarfy.

It was like going to 'finishing school' and even though my hometown was only a 12 hr drive up i-35 ...it was like another world.

it is very hot.....but the winter months are AWESOME!

and the mexican food.....fuhgetaboutit! cheap! and many different kinds and ways...whoever said earlier in this thread that its all tortillas,meat, and beans obviously hasnt been to El Chilito, Tamale House, Marias Taco Express or z-Tejas. Each one has a beautiful take on a cuisine i ate every day it seemed.

i lived in a great neighborhood 4 or 5 blocks from (the)Whole Foods and Waterloo Records. It started at $850 a month but then over the next 2 years went up to $1100......at that point i made the decision to move back home to do my own thing. (and rent a house for $650!) After 2 years of comping and editing and helping others i just felt if i wanted to keep loving this i had to make a break on my own. I had already been doing bands back home so i just moved and took the risk and the pay cut and so far so good.

i dont regret it and i still go back down there to work from time to time, but im glad to not have to see so many horribly bland and overstrategic bands trying to cool it up. I would put the saturation ratio like this. For every popular band from anywhere... there are at least 25 similar copy cat bands in austin

25 arcade fires
25 nickelbacks
25 los lonely boys

ok im getting nauseous

great city....but its expensive.....have a job, a good one....you might need a car

also

Kansas City is where the real BBQ in this world exists....dont even try to come with that Texas crap

[tonejunkee]

there's a good chance I'll be moving to austin as well. Mainly due to the explosion of game dev companies. I've been getting some game audio work and decided to drive there (from denver) for the GDC last summer. good lawrd it was hot, but I'm from memphis and it felt like home. I went in late nov. and it was perfect, 60 and everything green....including palm trees. compared to denver, austin is incredibly cheap. I also visit Portland frequently, and also love it. I will say that Texas wins on the amount of beatiful women, but portland's women are rather plump n healthly. maybe it's the rain and lush greenery.

I was impressed to see young college kids grooving on some old live blues groups. the live music scene there is vibrant and strong. there is an appreciation of roots music wich i dig. people are extremely friendly and you'll quickly make friends in the south. portland however, will take some strategy and effort on that.

www.noisebuffet.com

[barrett]

I currently live in Austin and run a studio here as well....I like it. The traffic sucks and the cedar blows, but its a nice city...
+sigh+

i also run a studio in town. i find it wonderfully fruitful. it's a very open town. it's a safe town too.

[pedrohead]

Yeah, I moved to Austin in 1990 and I'm about to sound like the old people I used to roll my eyes at. Austin ain't what it used to be. They call it the Live Music Capital of the World. That's right, you can see more loud, shitty bands there than anywhere else in the world. The L.M.C.W. doesn't pay that great, either. Clubs pay next to nothing and often times don't have they're own P.A. When they do have a P.A. they don't usually have a soundperson. Why pay a guarantee when someone else will be happy to play for tips? Also, fewer and fewer people are going out to see bands. Refer back to the loud, shitty part above.
The L.M.C.W. has absolutely no problem tearing down awesome venues like Liberty Lunch and putting up tech buildings and strip malls. Smart growth, they call it.
Part of the problem with Austin is that so many people move here. Traffic problems used to be non-exsistent, really. Friday at 5 O'Clock? Nada. Now I-35 on a Saturday afternoon can be a parking lot, even when the Longhorns aren't playing. For YEARS now, on average, 100 people move here a day. 100. People. A day. Guess what, 99 of them could give a shit about live music.
Rent has QUADRUPLED in the past 15 years and the wages have stayed the same.
At one point the occupancy rate was 99%! I used to live by myself for $200.00 bucks a month. Before I moved I was paying $400.00 to have the pleasure of living with three other dudes.
I used to eat and be full for under 5 bucks. Now 5 bucks will buy you a fucking taco. Meat, rice, beans and tortillas. 5 bucks. 8 with a salad. 10 with tip. 11 if you're not a cheap ass.
Oddly enough, people move here from places like Sacremento, Tulsa, Akron, and where ever else and say "Austin's awesome! And so cheap!".
Yes, it's hot. I can't adequately describe what 102 degrees with 95% humidity feels like for 60 days in a row. 80 degrees with that kind of humidity feels oppresive. I can't imagine how many people would move here if we actually had nice weather. I wish SXSW was in August.
And allergies, if you don't have them, you will. Cedar fever feels like you have pneumonia or the flu. Really. Through out the year if it's not cedar fever, it's ragweed, mold or other. I've known plenty of people who've moved back to whence they came simply because of allergies.
Meh. Austin's magic time has been over for over ten years. Stop moving here and making it worse! Or move here, you'll love it.
I must say this, though. The first thing that I immediately noticed when I moved here is that I'd have never seen so many beautiful women in one place. I saw more gorgeous women in one day than I ever saw in 4 years in Conneticut or Rhode Island. No forget I said that. The women here are all ugly. And old.
By the way, I got priced out of Austin 8 years ago. It's literally less expensive for me to own my own house and commute 20 miles than it is to live in the city and rent, by a lot. Best move I ever made. It really bums me out when I have to go "into town" now. So much change for the worse. Yet still, I tell myself "It's still way better than Dallas."
If you move here, look me up. I'm usually not this much of a curmudgeon.

wow. suddenly i don't feel so bad for myself anymore for living in detroit...

wait, yeah... yeah, i still do.

[47ronin]

I've lived in both places. I'd say at this point both are over rated as far as desirability for musicians, but that will depend on a lot of subjective factors. If I were you I'd be more original and move someplace in the midwest or new mexico or something like that.

[terryb]

yeah, move to albuquerque where good bands seldom play shows.

That's what sucks here. Not enough touring acts stopping through.
Built to Spill played here a couple of weeks ago.
Before that, Murder by Death.

The good shows are few and far between, but the local scene is pretty cool.

I'm planning on moving to Portland.