So - I am moving to Austin - practical advice welcome.

[StellaBlue]

I lived in Austin for four years, 1997-2001. I am moving back next month, into a small apartment NW of the Capitol, somewhere between Whole Foods and UT. I have a car. I have an account at UFCU. I have a job downtown, and I may also do some bar work for a bit to get some more money flowing.

Any advice re: utility companies, wireless internet, cheap TV packages, etc.? It's been a while.

Very appreciated.

[acmejack]

1. Welcome back

I don't know anything about the deals down by the campus. I will look forward to meeting you at the DUers brunch though we had our biggest one ever this last Sunday. We'll just have to beat that record now you are going to be here.

I guess I'm a lot of help, huh?

[Gman]

2. Hold your breath from December 16 through about January 31

for Cedar pollen.

[Horse with no Name]

3. Austin aint got nothing on East Texas

when it comes to cedar pollen.
:D

[StellaBlue]

4. that's where I am currently trapped

so I second that

[Melissa G]

5. Austin Energy is the best utility company in the nation

They have awards for this..Grande I think is good for phone and internet but only if you can get them and I don't think they serve your 'hood. Can't help with tv as i do very little that way. My work is over on South First. Come visit.. my office used to be in your neighborhood and i know it well..

[GOPisEvil]

6. Utility companies? Companies? We have Austin Energy.

That's right CITY-OWNED ELECTRIC. Novel concept. :) If you live in an apartment, you won't have to deal with gas, which is a whole other matter. x(

Time Warner and Grande are the cable providers, but Grande is not city-wide yet. I use Time Warner and they've been really good to me.

What else ya wanna know? :)

[StellaBlue]

7. Thanks for the input so far!

I guess I never realized the electricity was city-owned before. Doh!

Should I get a basic cable/wireless package from TimeWarner, then? I already have a wireless card, and, as for TV, I only want the networks, PBS, and CSPAN. I am getting a basic landline, and using my cell phone as my main phone number.

[sonias]

8. Advice - come get involved

StellaBlue - glad you're coming home to Austin. I'm sure we'll meet you soon. I know it's going to be tough with your night sideline bar job, but I do hope that you will come out to some of the club meetings. Keep Austin Blue is a good social type happy hour might be a good one to come to first.

WiFi - we are so wired in Austin
www.austinwirelesscity.org
www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/browse/us/2000239/2043315/

Let us know when your can meet for brunch.

Sonia

[StellaBlue]

9. will do - thanks!

Great. When I was in town a few months ago, and went in to the new flagship Whole Foods to check it out, I knew I was home when I ordered a coffee and the barista asked me, 'organic or soy'?

:rofl:

[GOPisEvil]

10. Keep Austin Blue link

www.keepaustinblue.org Quite a few DUers are at the meetings. Stop by and say hi.

[efhmc]

11. Don't do it!

It is a small provincial backwater that will not acknowledge its big city problems and continues to have poor roads and schools and thinks it is cool so that is okay, It is overrated, has no diversity and is being overrun with yuppies wannabes and sinks every year more and more into republicanism. And in case you want to know my bonafides, my family has been in and around the area since the place was founded. The good part of my family is from East Texas.

[sonias]

12. hey efhmc, she's already moving here

We're not that backwater, come on. There is still a whole lot of damn charm to this city. I moved here in 1975. Ok it's grown way too fast and we do have sprawl. I think we have acknowledged we have big city problems. Like all major cities, we have problems keeping up with infrastructure demands. But we don't have traffic as bad as Houston. And not all of our schools are bad. We have some excellent blue ribbon inner city schools. And if the frickin legislature (miserable republican failures that they are) would fix school finance, then we'd be better schools all over the state. How can you say we're sinking more and more into republicanism when we just won HD48 in what is considered a strong leaning republican district. The repukes redrew that district to win it and we stole it right underneath their noses. And we're going to do the same in HD47. I think we are turning things around after being too complacent for much too long.

I'm sure things were nicer, and that your family does remember the better days. Considering how this whole state looks like what you described, why slam Austin? We're the blue heart in the purple state.

So what paradise do you live in that you would recommend to StellaBlue?

Sonia

[efhmc]

15. Just came back from a visit to Houston and seeing real museums and

eating real ethnic food (not just bbq and TexMex)and seeing different cultures all over the place and watching roads being built BEFORE they are desperately needed and being able to get around the city because there are are more than three main ways to go north and south made me overreact. Right now I am living between the ranch in W. Texas and a small, very right wing backwater in central Texas and Austin. I guess Austin would win in that contest but I do LOVE a city. Of course, to New Yorkers, no place else is a real city and they would probably apply all of my diatribes to Houston. But if you think that repukes are not being effective in eroding away the liberal base in Austin and surrounding areas because of one win against a candidate who had fellow millionaire repuke people working for him who predicted his loss and were not unhappy about it, I pray you are right. Also, this is nothing new, I have never really liked the place. (I probably got part of that attitude from my husband who was born and raised there and couldn't wait to leave the place.) I said that to a co-worker in Houston one time (We were moving back to Austin to care for my mil.)and he asked if it was because of all the liberals (obviously did not know me too well) and I said, No, that's the part I love about it."

[muse]

17. Don't apologize.

You are entitled to your opinion. I have a good friend who is in grad school in Austin and feels the same way you do about Austin. He is from Houston and is so used to very diverse big city experience. I live in Houston also, but was born and raised in Austin and I really love and miss Austin. But, I see Austin through his eyes - the lack of diversity, the road problems, the provicialism - and I get what he is talking about. It doesn't lessen my love for Austin, though! And, I still wish I lived in a place in Texas where there were real, true, living breathing liberals en masse to bump into!

I would welcome anyone in Austin who is tired of the place to move down to Congressional District 22 where there are plenty of Republicans - way too many - but, it's a place where we could use some democratic voters this November and some feet on the ground to get Tom DeLay out of office. So, if you are stressed out about living in Austin, move on down to Houston and move in with us in District 22!

[NoPasaran]

18. I might consider that

If'n ah ever git the hankerin ta see tha bright lights an tall buildins of a real city. But fer now ah think ah'll just mosey on down to tha fillin station an watch 'em change tires.

[efhmc]

19. Way too FUNNY. Come out to west Texas with me and see the real

thing en masse.

[NoPasaran]

20. I've seen it

I used to drive between Austin and El Paso a lot. It always struck me how the only thing for young folks to do for entertainment in Ft Stockton was to cruise the Sonic parking lot, drive to the McDonalds, cruise that lot and head back to Sonic.

[StellaBlue]

23. My parents met doing that in a small Texas town.

But they got divorced in 1982, so maybe it's not a winner...

:shrug:

haha

[Javaman]

24. I was born and raised in NYC, lived in LA for 6 1/2 and

totally love Austin.

I lived in the heart and lungs of downtown Manhattan for 26 years. Lived in the belly of the beast in Los Angeles for 6 1/2 years. Yes, you have your culture but at the cost of what? no peace, gang violence, the general crazy people, etc, I could go on and on.

Austin is a peaceful city. The people that live here, love living here and that, to me, is the single most inviting thing about Austin.

Peace.

[muse]

25. hey, you missed my point

I was born and raised in Austin.

Yeah, I'd move back to Austin in a second. I miss it like crazy. It's just that I get what people love about the big cities and the negatives they see in Austin. I just don't entirely agree with them. :)

My parents still live in Austin and I'm an officer in a state organization that gets me back there for meetings 4-6 times a year, so I get my fix QUITE often!

[StellaBlue]

13. hahaha

not a backwater. I've been living in London the last four years, and I can't WAIT to move to Austin, if I am going to have to live in the USA.

Yeah, there are way too many foreigners (read: Yankees) and Republicans, both foreign and home-grown, but it's the ONLY place in Texas worth living in, and, as a Texan, having had my around-the-world fling, I don't really want to live anywhere else. Except maybe San Francisco. But that's not in the cards, California has WAY too many yuppies and wannabes, and it's far too expensive for someone in my position to even consider.

Thanks for the input, though.

[martymar64]

28. Welcome to Austin

I've been back for 6 mos now and loving it. Having lived in L.A. for 11 1/2 years, I do have a soft spot for California, I really love san Francisco, was stationed there in the Army 20 years ago.

Life is generally good here, it's nice to be in the midst of TX liberals, IMHO the best in this nation.

[jobycom]

14. All part of the charm. We even welcome

the oldtimers who like to whine about the way it used to be! :-)

[Paladin]

27. We Whiney Oldtimers Certainly Appreciate It

Regards from a McCallum High ('68) and U.T. ('72) grad....

[efhmc]

16. My comments were my personal opinion and not at all useful. Sorry

about that. I think that the site Austin 360 is helpful in some respects and believe it or not the CofCommerce (rightwing though it may be) usually is helpful with questions about businesses. Good luck to you and welcome.

[nick_DFT]

21. Some stuff

Utilities I believe are all through City of Austin. For my cable and internet, I use Grande, which I have found to be better than Time Warner in my personal preference. Some areas of town have access to one or the other, some have access to both. A plus to be said about TW though is that they have News 8 Austin.

[nick_DFT]

22. I think someone mentioned it, but...

Keep Austin Blue has a great monthly meeting, as well as Democracy for Texas. Other Democratic groups are listed on the Travis Co. Dems site.

keepaustinblue.org
democracyfortexas.org
traviscountydemocrats.org

[cosmik debris]

26. A warning about Grande

Grande uses a spam filtering service based on the IP address of the mail server that sent the message. (not the IP address of the actual sender) So if ANYONE has ever used that server for spam, Grande will block it. And they will NOT tell you that they have blocked your email. The only way you will know you have been cheated is when the sender CALLS you to ask why their email bounced back.

They will not allow me to receive the WaPo emails every morning, and my brother who uses Earthlink is frequently blocked. Also my other brother who uses SBC Global is occasionally blocked. They will make no exceptions, and they will not apologize for blocking the email I paid to have delivered.

I still use them for my ISP because they provide decent service when all I need is a pipeline to the internets, but DO NOT TRUST THEIR EMAIL! You can get another email address from many different free providers but Grande email service absolutely sucks.

(and for the geeks, Grande does not allow SMTP traffic unless it originates from THEIR SMTP server. So you will not be able to use Outlook with your other email account)