Austin In The Polls

[texastarkus]

Dandy Dozen: Best College Football Towns
2) AUSTIN, TEXAS. The home of Lance Armstrong and the struggling Longhorns, the capital of Texas is also the hippest place in the state. Located on the banks of the Colorado River, residents bill the town as "The Live Music Capital of the World." 6th Street is famous for its nightclubs. Want to avoid the 21-year-old crowd? 4th and 2nd streets are the cool yuppie hangouts.


http://www.statesman.com/sports/dand...Trk=RTR_781143

[texastarkus]

Best Places to Retire
http://custom.yahoo.com/lifelonginve...vingretirement

9. Austin, TXPopulation: 799,267
% over 50: 22%
Median home price: $196,600
Where to take classes: University of Texas at Austin

Known widely for its burgeoning music and film scene, Austin is the cultural and literal capital of Texas. Music can be heard everywhere come October, when the Austin City Limits takes over the 46-acre Zilker Park along the banks of the rambling Colorado River. The three-year-old Long Center for Performing Arts, which is home to opera, symphony and ballet, has also become a cultural staple of Austin. If you'd rather perform than watch, you can waltz right into the Austin International Folk Dancers, a nonprofit that has been teaching cultural dance to Austinites for more than 50 years.

While dance will keep your heart pumping, continuing education programs at University of Texas at Austin can keep your mind sharp. In addition to enrichment classes through its lifelong education program, the university offers a worldly "Road Scholar" travel educational odyssey for retirees.

[KevinFromTexas]

Whoa, don't post the whole articles, and make sure to post a link on the forum to them.

[DougRockstead]

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/wh...an-800-a-month

"1. Austin, Texas: Anyone who's ever visited lovely Austin knows that it's much more than just the capital of the Lone Star state. Great barbecue, abundant green space, and a world-class music scene have turned this city of 735,000 into one of the nation's most beloved destinations. And as the home of the University of Texas and the heart of a dynamic local economy, Austin offers a wonderful quality of life to residents and visitors alike. The median home price in the Austin area stood at nearly $197,000 in the second quarter of this year, a slight increase from a year earlier. After a 20 percent down payment--of $39,400--monthly payments for mortgage principal and interest on a median-priced home in Austin come to $782."

[DougRockstead]

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work...-coming-cities

3rd Fastest-Growing City: Austin, Texas



Associated Press


Change in Population, 2000-2008: 32.2%

The capital of Texas, also known as the "live music capital of the world" for events such as the Austin City Limits annual music festival, Austin ranks as the third fastest growing city in the nation by population. Increasing in population by almost a third from 2000-2008, the city is home to a number of major corporations such as Dell (NasdaqGS: DELL - News) and Whole Foods (NasdaqGS: WFMI - News), and a recent deal inked with Facebook promises to bring even more attention to this up-and-coming city.

[DougRockstead]

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work...rklife_balance

You can find Austin here at #6

And San Antonio here at #5 (Although I don't think they're too happy with the poll they're on)

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/sports/dand...ns-961142.html

Dandy Dozen: Best College Football Towns

By RALPH D. RUSSO
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 11:23 a.m. Friday, Oct. 8, 2010

So you want to take a college football road trip, but your significant other is not exactly into college football. That means you'll have to find some cool places where the game isn't the only game in town. Places with some night life that doesn't involve funnels, and some green spaces without yard lines painted on them.

With some help from AP Top 25 voters, the 12 best college football towns:

2) AUSTIN, TEXAS. The home of Lance Armstrong and the struggling Longhorns, the capital of Texas is also the hippest place in the state. Located on the banks of the Colorado River, residents bill the town as "The Live Music Capital of the World." 6th Street is famous for its nightclubs. Want to avoid the 21-year-old crowd? 4th and 2nd streets are the cool yuppie hangouts.

[texastarkus]

Austin was ranked ninth on a list of top hot spots for drunk driving convictions, based on a study of the biggest 20 cities nationally.

San Diego and San Jose, Calif. ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively as the cities where drivers were most frequently cited for drunk driving and related violations.

Insurance.com, an online marketplace for auto insurance, came up with the list by analyzing information submitted by users seeking car insurance quotes over the last three years. The data included drunk-driving convictions and other alcohol-related violations.

The auto-insurance website said factors such as proximity to colleges and universities and other night-life hot spots could play a role in the rankings. Boston, which has plenty of both colleges and nightspots, was excluded from the list due to lack of data.



Read more: Austin among guiltiest drunk-drivers - Austin Business Journal


9. Austin

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http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin...l?surround=lfn

[texastarkus]

The Fastest-Growing Cities In The U.S.
Lower housing prices, shorter commutes and a more pro-business attitude are driving the cities on our list.
By Joel Kotkin, Forbes.com
Oct 11, 2010

...Now several relatively small-scale urban regions are reaching the big leagues. These include at least two cities in Texas: Austin and San Antonio. Economic vibrancy and growing populations drive these cities, which ranked first and second, respectively, among large cities on Forbes' "Best Places For Jobs" list.

Austin and San Antonio are increasingly attractive to both companies and skilled workers seeking opportunity in a lower-cost, high-growth environment. Much the same can be said about the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, and Salt Lake City, two other U.S. cities that have been growing rapidly and enjoy excellent prospects...

1. Austin, Texas
Austonites tend to be smug, but they have good reason. The central Texas city ranked as the No. 1 large urban area for jobs in our last Forbes survey. Along with Raleigh-Durham, Austin is an emerging challenger for high-tech supremacy with Silicon Valley. The current area's population is 1.7 million and is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades. Austin owes much both to its public sector institutions (the state government and the main Campus of the University of Texas) and its expanding ranks of private companies--including foreign ones--swarming into the city's surrounding suburban belt.


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http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/th...in-the-us.html

[texastarkus]

Austin's House of Torment was named the ninth best Halloween attraction by Hauntworld Magazine.

The trade publication ranked spook houses according to their level of special effects, detail and overall “scare factor," according to a press release.

“These haunts are a full-fledged scare fest, with behind the scenes teams comprised of master Hollywood special effects technicians, makeup artists, set designers and very talented actors,” Editor-in-Chief Larry Kirchner said.

The House of Torment is behind Highland Mall at 523 Highland Mall Blvd. It is based on a fictional story about a biotech company that created a virus that mutated, turning people into monsters.



Read more: Austin haunted house 9th best in U.S. - Austin Business Journal

9. House of Torment – Austin
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http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/st...1/daily56.html

[texastarkus]

Best Cities to Move to in America

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com
Oct 27, 2010
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/be...n-america.html

What people are looking for when they relocate changes from time to time. In the 90s, it was a city with low crime. Then, it was places with good schools.

"These days, you want a job and to make sure you can get a house there," said Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net, which helps people find the best places to live, work or retire.

Sperling crunched the numbers to find the 10 best cities to relocate to today. The list takes into consideration all kinds of data points from cost of living to crime rates, the number of colleges and how healthy the population is, as well as access to museums, shows, sporting and other events. Plus, one you might not think of - stability.

"We're a big believer in the concept of stability, where there is modest, controllable growth," Sperling explained. "Big booms lead to disruption, and ultimately big busts. Neither is good for livability."


5. Austin-Round Rock, TX ranks high on quality of life and affordability: It has at least a dozen colleges and was voted the No. 1 college town by the Travel Channel. The cost of living is 2.4 percent below the national average.

But what sets it apart is its quirk. The city has been described as a "crazy quilt," stitching together everything from art, improv and country music to environmentalism and high tech. It's home to the South by Southwest festival, featuring independent musicians and filmmakers and emerging technologies. Though, its quirky rep has been around awhile, spawning a new slogan, "Keep Austin Weird."

Round Rock is its conservative counterpart, known for its outstanding education system and as the headquarters of Dell Computers.

The unemployment rate in the area is 6.5 percent, well below the U.S. average of 10.2 percent. It's the No. 10 job market, according to Indeed.com, with two applicants for every job opening.

Companies That Are Hiring Now: Dell, Seton Family of Hospitals, Soliant Health and AT&T, according to Indeed.com.

[texastarkus]

Report: Austinites 7th smartest in U.S.
Austin Business Journal - by Staff Reports
Date: Tuesday, October 26, 2010, 3:54pm CDT
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...est-in-us.html

Read more: Report: Austinites 7th smartest in U.S. | Austin Business Journal

Austin residents have been ranked the 7th brainiest in the U.S., according to a recent Daily Beast report.

The study analyzes cities' average educational attainment and intellectual environment, such as book sales and educational institutions per capita, among other factors. Boston came out on top, while residents of Las Vegas were ranked the lowest. Austin moved up from No. 12 last year, and scored high in most categories, except for political engagement.

The publication analyzed a total 55 cities with 1 million people or more, using U.S. Census data

Top 20 smartest metropolitan areas:
7. Austin-Round Rock


Read more: Report: Austinites 7th smartest in U.S. | Austin Business Journal

[DougRockstead]

http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/28/aff...artner=yahoore


Austin, Texas, (No. 10) is one of the nation's hottest cities for high-tech jobs

[texastarkus]

Top 10 Haunted Hotels
Mystical orbs, ethereal apparitions, things that go bump in the night. A load of hooey you say? Then check in to one of these 10 haunted hotels and test your tolerance for the paranormal.
By ShermansTravel Editorial Staff

As far as we can tell, ghosts like their hotels. These territorial phantoms stick to their turf and never, ever leave. (They have good taste at least – many of their stomping grounds come with five-star service and an atmosphere to match.) The unbelievable and inexplicable seem almost mundane at these eternally haunted haunts, but we've narrowed down the creepy contenders to those that have the ghost tales and the "evidence" (i.e. paranormal expert backing, documented deaths on the premises) to go with it. Devilish reputations aside, many of these storied American mainstays – Hotel Monteleone and Queen Mary, for instance – embrace their spooks, and even offer ghost tours and ghost-themed events, while others only whisper about their suspected presence. One thing is certain: The legends surrounding these beings and the mysterious circumstances that led to their demise never die.

9. The Driskill
Austin, Texas
Cattle Baron Colonel Jesse Driskill opened his luxe namesake hotel in downtown Austin in 1886, and by 1887 its first resident ghost had moved in. As the story goes, a visiting senator’s daughter chased a ball down the hotel’s grand staircase and tragically tumbled to her death. All signs indicate that the daughter hasn’t left: Eerie peals of laughter and the gentle rhythm of a bouncing ball can be heard in the lobby, the ladies restroom, and on the stairs that lead to the mezzanine. Today, she has plenty of partners for playing catch, as a gaggle of ghosts occupy the building, among them a Houston woman who fled to the Driskill after her fiancé cancelled their wedding in the 1990s. Armed with her ex’s credit card, the rejected bride consoled herself with retail therapy before committing suicide two days later in room 29, where a female figure toting shopping bags is sometimes seen. Guests needn’t even stay in one of the haunted hotel's 189 rooms for a thrill as some say big band music sometimes mysteriously bellows from the lobby, where rowdy ghouls dressed in tuxes and gowns are thought to throw an eternal party. Rates from $279/night.

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-36436907

[texastarkus]

Austin ranks No. 6 nationwide for job growth
Austin Business Journal - by G. Scott Thomas
Read more: Austin ranks No. 6 nationwide for job growth | Austin Business Journal
Austin added 14,300 jobs in September, ranking it the sixth fastest growing city in the U.S., according to figures released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Washington D.C. area topped the list for net gain, growing by 34,400 private-sector jobs between September 2009 and the same month this year. It was followed by Boston, up 21,600 positions; Dallas-Fort Worth, up 21,200; and Phoenix, also up 21,200.

Austin came in first for percent growth, rising about 2.43 percent year-over-year last month to a total 601,700 jobs.

A majority of the top 100 markets — 56 in all — continued to lose jobs in September. The Chicago area suffered the biggest decline, losing 66,000 private-sector positions in the past year. Detroit was next worst, down 30,400 and San Francisco-Oakland came in next with 26,000 less jobs

Read more: Austin ranks No. 6 nationwide for job growth | Austin Business Journal


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http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...e-for-job.html

[Armybrat]

Austin is a horrible place.

PLEASE DON'T MOVE HERE!!!!!!!

[DougRockstead]

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...y-1101820.html

"Austin's not your traditional military town, but its healthy economy, proximity to Army posts and cool factor have earned the city a third-place ranking on a national survey of best places for military retirement."

[texastarkus]

8. Austin was ranked as having the eighth worst commute in the nation, according to a consumer expenditures report from Bundle.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...tes-in-us.html

[BevoLJ]

Forbes voted Austin "Best City for Young Adults"

http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/15/bes...opular+stories)

[austlar1]

I think Austin should be listed number one for the most over-hyped city in the U.S. I feel this way, and I live here! Go figure.