To residents who so proudly love it Austin is a boom town, a rapidly expanding sprawl, droves of noobs gentrifying its charm away with huge shiny towers, McMansions where there were once woods, and skyrocketing rents. For a visitor from the biggest sprawl in the U.S., the scale is lovely, easy to navigate, dense with art, culture, food – ohhh, glorious food – where rush-hour traffic from downtown to just about anywhere is still measured in tens of minutes, not hours. In a city that’s seen 30% population growth just since the last census, both impressions can be right.
We went to see the gorgeous state capitol, drove out to wine country, I squeezed in several motorcycle rides, explored the incredible Zilker Park and Barton Springs, and had some of the best meals in memory nearly everywhere we went. The truth is, I felt so at home from the first moment that it doesn’t really feel like a visit. Of all the cities I’ve visited in this big country, if city life appealed again at all I could see settling in Austin.
