Riding in the Texas hill country

[tulip]

Aggie, why do you hate Austin (I mean aside from the UT-A&M thing)? I found it to be a vibrant and interesting city, both when I lived there 20 years ago and during my recent visit. It seemed to be very livable and relatively bicycle-friendly. In fact, I found mysef wondering why I moved away in the first place.

I'm just wondering if I'm missing something. I'd like to know because it's on my list of future places to consider moving to.

[Aggie_Ama]

Mostly it is the urban sprawl. The city didn't have a very good plan in place for the explosion of growth and now it is congested and doesn't really have the infrastructure. The vibe has changed a lot since I grew up here, so some of my displeasure is that the personality has become less Austin. There are still pockets (Barton Creek, Zilker area) that are trying to keep the life blood but Austin is just another town to me. So mostly it is probably sadness for what has been lost since Dell and the tech companies tried to make it the next coming of Silicon Valley. We have boring strip malls with the same boring chains almost every 10 miles. I try to avoid those chains and shop locally for cycling, running, food (when I can). I do LOVE the abundance of mountain bike trails and the state parks outside the city. I just wish it was the way it was. To take a liberty with the song: they paved paradise and put up a condo here.