The internet blasted me when I said I regretted moving from California to Austin, Texas. Here's what I'd do differently if I moved there again.
Brett Alder says moving his family to Texas in 2015 was a mistake on his part and assumed his experience in California would carry over to Austin.
He made a poor home purchase and says that if he had moved to a more suburban part of Bee Cave with a more moderate elementary school, they might've been much happier.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
A couple weeks ago, Insider republished a post I had written back in 2016, where I talked about my family's misadventures moving from San Diego to Austin, as well as cautions for Californians considering the move.
In the attention vacuum created by Trump's deplatforming (from office and from Twitter), I was, for about 48 hours of a slow news cycle, the poster child of so many antagonisms: California vs. Texas, Rich vs. Poor, and Red vs. Blue.
It's hard to be certain, there's a lot of nuance out there, but I'm pretty sure I've been placed in the buckets of CA, Rich, and Blue.
For this column, let's re-hash the first antagonism.
California vs. Texas:
I have heard from people all over the country. Many bystanders and Californians watched in amusement and bewilderment of the unfolding. Others, particularly in Austin and in broader Texas, bridled at a story going viral that not only seemed needlessly hurtful, but also anecdotal and unrepresentative.
When my family and I first moved to Bee Cave/Austin, there were a number of wonderful families from our church congregation and neighborhood that reached out to welcome us. We grew close to one family in particular, who heavily invested in us despite the fact that a number of previous families they had welcomed and befriended had "moved back to California." We think about that family a lot. I also wonder why their friends moved back to California.
So what should I have done to make the move a success? I've reached out to a number of people I trust in Austin, at least those who will still speak to me, as well as curated some glorious feedback from social media.
Here are two key takeaways.
1. Focus on the big picture when it comes to culture and geography
Spend some time reviewing this graphic. It shows Facebook connections across seven different regions and was originally published 11 years ago.
There are two key takeaways from this image.
One is that California and the Western US are quite culturally interconnected, a consequence of people moving around a lot. All of this movement creates more general cultural rules of engagement. Our weather in the West comes in off the Pacific Ocean and is buffered by mountain ranges, so though climates vary, it's generally not extreme (there are no tornadoes or golf ball sized hailstones).
The second is that the Greater Texas region is strongly bound, and except for a link between California and Austin, is more culturally self-contained with more specific rules. This means Texas culture has less experience integrating newcomers, but also has the benefit of higher social cohesion. The weather is unimpeded by mountains, and the Gulf can get feisty.
The point is that if you're thinking of moving, and considering Seattle, Boise, Phoenix, and Austin, all those cards might seem to have the same suit, but culturally and geographically, Austin is by far the outlier.
Do not assume that your experiences in California or the West will carry over to Austin. I know these are basic points, but I had traveled to Austin probably a dozen times before settling in Bee Cave and I didn't fully comprehend that we had crossed into a new world until we moved there.
2. Allow more time for discovery if moving from California to Austin
Let's just clear the air: of the people I spoke with who lived closer to the center of Austin, no one related to my family's experience with the strict schools, football culture, "monoculture," and rudeness that we had experienced in Bee Cave, about 15 miles from downtown.
They were happy with their schools, the level of diversity, and friendliness. Yes, there are anti-Californian billboards and people wear "Don't move to Austin" t-shirts, but they're not smug about it like the guy I encountered at my kid's flag football game.
At the same time, most people are not moving to the city, but rather the suburbs, so the suburb discussion is important to have.
My friends advised, across the board, to rent first and get the lay of the land - and maybe don't sell your home in California. This can be especially difficult advice for Californians to follow, since a primary reason for moving might be to finally afford a home, or finally purchase the home of your dreams. I get it - the real estate market is red hot and you feel the need to pull the trigger fast.
But making a poor purchasing decision like we did, based on assumptions of what we thought it would be like, can taint your whole experience.
Before moving to Austin we visited a number of neighborhoods, attended different Church congregations, and talked to people - mainly west of Austin in places like Dripping Springs. Their feedback was that Bee Cave was very nice, it's in the hill country, very pretty, and you could get land while also being close to schools and amenities.
Probably our biggest mistake was buying a unique house, with electric-only heat, no city water connection, and undisclosed water penetration issues that most locals would have known to watch out for.
Aside from the football culture and strict school, we liked Bee Cave. We were surrounded by sharp and successful people that we learned a lot from. If we had bought a smaller house in a more suburban part of Bee Cave with a more moderate elementary school, it would have been a much better fit for us.
There are some other points I want to discuss.
Recreation: This is one of the things that I was most pilloried over. People have talked about the many great things to do around Austin. As far as the outdoors are concerned, people recommended making friends with someone who has a boat and spending the summer on Lake Travis, mountain bike parks with lifts, and camping retreats further out of town like Pace Ben Park.
Talk to people before planning outings. For example, you might see Whirlpool Caves on Google Maps very close to the city and the website looks fine, but locals know it's locked up and only open for infrequent elementary school tours.
Leverage a Local Network: Whether it's a church community or local Indian community, get plugged in. It can be indispensable to have local guides helping you through the culture shock.
Since so many things work differently in Austin, getting recommendations from newfound community on their go-to plumber or favorite recreational areas can be surprisingly helpful even in the Internet age.
Taxes: There is no state income tax in Texas, which is great, but be mindful of the property taxes that are often ~1.25% for a newly purchased home in California and 1.69% up to 3% in Austin. The homestead exception helps lower the rate, but Austin's real estate appreciation can lead to property tax bills that increase as much as 10% per year, year after year. Leave headroom in your budget.
Traffic and Toll Roads: Most people seem to agree that Austin's infrastructure was not built to handle the huge influx and is getting worse.
Do your research on traffic pinch points as they relate to your commute. A couple of miles might entail 15 to 20 minutes of driving. A lot of the new construction seems to be made up of toll-roads, whether as an added express lane or alternative route, and may have variable pricing depending on traffic conditions.
I was universally told the traffic was the fault of incoming Californians.
Community Make-up: Apparently Bee Cave, and surrounding areas have a reputation for being more football obsessed. That's because Westlake and Lake Travis high schools are ranked in the top 5 in Texas, so both the Lake Travis and Eanes school districts as well as surrounding areas seem to form hot spots in the football obsession heat map - schools closer to the city not so much.
Two of my older three boys were very small for their ages (late bloomers), so being a part of a culture where both adults and other children highly valued physical size and football potential was a bigger deal for us. I'm still amazed at how strong the football culture was.
Austin has a significant demographic division along the I-35 into East and West sectors, and the higher ranked schools are typically to the West. Local elementary school demographics can give you an idea of the diversity to expect. A lot can depend on the specific community you end up in. New housing developments (like in Belterra or in Dripping Springs, both west of Austin) are more likely to be made up of a mix of newcomers (possibly 8% Californians and 51% Texans).
We met a lot of people from the South and Midwest as well. If you move to a more established neighborhood that is further out of town, things can change fast and are predominantly more conservative, a departure from the liberal Austinite variety. So even a 10-mile distance can result in big differences in community make-up and the flavor of local customs. Self select carefully.
Texas Folkways: Texas tradition may seem foreign and in some ways arbitrary, but it definitely has advantages in that it brings people together.
We were invited to neighborhood potlucks, hot cocoa in pajamas brunch, and New Years and Halloween parties - all very well done. Several comments and interviews have confirmed that pre-COVID, Austin neighborhoods seem to get together and feel more of a sense of community than I have experienced in California or Washington State.
If I had not been caught up in a cobweb of so many issues (like buying a unique house and dealing with unanticipated culture shock), I definitely would have enjoyed the city more.
Obviously there is a big political divide between Austin and the rest of Texas and a feeling of mutual dislike - a blueberry in the tomato soup. But Austin is still deeply embedded in the Greater Texas region and influenced by the Texas folkways.
Austinites expressed a pride in their city that I would interpret as a modified Texas Pride. Uber drivers would talk for a whole 30-minute drive about how they loved Austin. A soccer coach from the Bay Area would rave about how happy she was to have moved.
It is this kind of infectious city pride that has made Austin a national brand.
Partly because of this, when talking to friends in Seattle, Phoenix, and Austin, our friends in Austin may be the most enthusiastic about their city by far. And while I'm happy Austinites have a strong sense of pride - I really am - I also recognize how this complicates things for us outsiders.
In California or the dynamic West, we move around too much to have a highly cultivated sense of state or city pride, so it can be very difficult to disentangle what is Austin pride and what are the comparative merits of Austin as a medium-large city in Texas. We don't move to Austin feeling entitled, we move there believing in some dream, big or small.
If I were going there again, I would look forward to the bluebonnets, springtime, beautiful cloud formations, spectacular thunderstorms, and the lightning bugs. There's a virtue to the extremes of Texas; time slows down when you feel like the weather and the critters are trying to kill you.
We packed in three years' worth of memories into our one year in Bee Cave/Austin. I never did get to plant my wildflower seeds.
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