Quality of Life

The city of Austin loves our Mother Earth who loves and gives us everything. And while it’s not just one day (Austin is making a concerted year round effort to be the most sustainable city on the planet), on Earth Day we celebrate progress and make massive contributions to the organizations that are moving our green efforts forward. Earth Day is a great celebration! This whole week is full of events about greener living and environmental awareness, but on Earth Day itself, we got to hear about the year’s improvements in greener living and the businesses of the city participated in the Austin Give 5 campaign, where 5% of the participating businesses’ revenues are donated to charities running green and sustainable programs. Austin Resource Recovery...

I talk a lot about how many people have been flocking to Austin, and believe me, it’s impressive. And with more people comes more opportunity and necessity to provide accommodations to a a growing population. Take transportation. What happens if you double the population without doubling the amount of roads? This is a potential issue that Austin is proactively considering solutions to. The city knows it’s growth is outpacing its infrastructure, which I’m sure also had something to do with why Google decided to bring us their internet service. And in response to this increasing need to be able to move large numbers of people without major restructuring, this idea came up at a Ted event here in Austin near the end of last year: I personally love...

On March 1st, Austin became one of the first places in the US to institute an official plastic bag ban. Fox 7 ran this story: http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/21437411/austins-bag-ban-is-now-in-effect?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8537491 So far the reactions from the public seem pretty divided, though it’s the unhappy customers that tend to make the most noise (as usual). Looking at it realistically, I can see why people might be a little irritated that the plastic bags they’re so used to are out. It’s essentially a matter of convenience, which is primarily concerned with saving time. Being a Realtor, I’m all about saving time (it’s a 25/8 job), but the time savings here seems minimal. It’s not that much...

Independence Title Company has been doing a great blog series comparing Texas and California (the two states with the highest population). While both states are massive, their similarities tend to end there and in fact, they’re more often polar opposite in almost every respect. In the second post: Texas: ‘The Better Choice’ the blog goes into detail about policies and their apparent effects on their respective economies. What you’ll find is that (of course) Texas is the place to be. Compare the debt, the population growth, the job market, the cost of living, and countless other important considerations and you’ll find that where California is suffering, Texas is prospering. And it shows (if in nothing else) in the fact that people are...

Every year on the first Sunday of March, Austin hosts one of it’s largest events: The Zilker Kite Festival. The festival is held at Zilker park (thus the name) and is possibly one of the hugest events Austin hosts every year. I’ve mentioned before how Austin is a come as you are type of place and the Zilker Kite Festival is a grand example of just that attitude. Imagine a massive art gallery in the sky, full of the independent pieces of imagination from an infinitely diverse population and you can start to picture what’s taking place. The festival was started in 1929 before Zilker Park ever actually became a public park. A group in Austin called “The Exchange Club” started the event as a sort of competition for children. The...

Austin is in the news again!  Austin ranks high on ‘Quality of Life’ http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2010/05/24/daily8.html When you click on the article you will be able to click on a really cool interactive chart. Austin has had strong population growth, 32 percent since 2000, also helped in overall ranking, as well as a comparatively high percent walking to work , 7.1 percent. When YOU think of ‘Quality of Life’ … what characteristics come to mind? If you had to name out or list ten things that really stand out to you … that would give you that quality of life that we all seek and desire what would those be? I want to hear from you. It feels good to call Austin home.  I’m proud to be a resident of Austin,...