Do you live in Washington or Austin, TX?

boatBurner

boatBurner

shutup, crime!
Feb 24, 2012
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We're uprooting from Phoenix and looking at Washington or Austin, TX.

Austin is appealing because of the awesome startup community, good economy, and ideal environment for family.

Washington - I love the weather and being next to the coast. I hear the tech community is also strong, but I haven't looked into the economy or the state laws yet.

Looking for any input from fellow residents of either state.

Thanks.
 


I like weed too much, so I'd be forced to choose Washington. It's also legal to street fight there.
 
Only one way to really know, book a home on airbnb for a few weeks and see which one you like best.
 
^^ What he said ;)

What cities in WA? There is a quite a difference in economic/climates/cost of living/etc., depending on the area. Downtown Seattle is booming from Amazon's recent growth spurt and they are hiring ton of new people. Lots of tech giants doing well and other solid companies such as Zillow.com, Expedia, F5 Networks, Starbucks, Costco, T-Mobile, CoinStar, etc. Of course Microsoft still dominates the eastside (Redmond/Bellevue) with around 40k employed. That ecosystem just keeps breeding more start-ups.

Cost of living is going to be far less expensive all the way around in Austin. Weather in western WA is going to be gloomy/cloudy/raining the majority of the year. Eastern side of the state is high, dry desert with most of it being agricultural based economy. Not really any sort of tech community.
 
I have a cousin in Austin so I've been quite a few times to visit. It's a nice place, laid back, good weather, nice atmosphere, nice people, etc. Cost of living is fairly standard, not too cheap and not too expensive. They also have that insanely fast Google internet. Health food stores are everywhere.

On the downside, there are a lot of liberals.
 
Seattle's pretty live right now. Amazon's taking over. The economy is solid up here. Not a lot of violent crime. Legalized weed. Very liberal. No gangs. Very white and asian. A steadily increasing Muslim population as well.

Seattle itself is pretty expensive, but the surrounding suburbs and cities are more reasonable. Lynnwood, Everett, Shoreline, Northgate, Mill Creek, Bothel, Kenmore...

And yes, tech's booming. A lot of people are trying to use the internet to supplement their income, which means professional web designers are going to be in demand (I just scored my first client last week).

Culturally, Seattlelites are a bit more "shut-off" than many other places around the country. If you're used to a warm Southern/Mid-western vibe, Seattle will throw you off a bit. Errbody staring at their phones constantly, avoiding eye contact, and maintaining a smooth and lively conversation is like pulling teeth sometimes.

A lot of pseudo-intellectual hipster faggots also.

But yeah, Seattle.

I need a break from it, honestly.
 
GimpSpack said:
S

Culturally, Seattlelites are a bit more "shut-off" than many other places around the country. If you're used to a warm Southern/Mid-western vibe, Seattle will throw you off a bit. Errbody staring at their phones constantly, avoiding eye contact, and maintaining a smooth and lively conversation is like pulling teeth sometimes.
Click to expand...

Trust me the stuff you mentioned above is alive and here as well.
 
Moved to ATX two years ago and never looked back. The weather is beautiful, the people are friendly, there's always something to do, there's a huge startup community, local breweries are epic, we have ACL, SXSW, and tons more. As long as you aren't a peasant the cost of living is average. HOWEVER: Traffic here blows. We quadrupled in population but the roads haven't changed much. Between 4:30 and 6:30, it take at least 30-45 minutes to get around. For this reason, I live really close to my office on the Tech Corridor (Northwest part of town), but then at non-peak hours when I want to go downtown, it's only about a 10 minute drive. There are a TON of parks and protected land with trails for hiking, biking, creeks for swimming, floating the river in the summer is tons of fun - we get all of the awesome outdoor stuff that I used to have to drive with my family several hours to do.

Never lived in Washington so I can't pass judgement.
 
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