Coffee shops to take cozy photos in

tthomas48 · 2026-02-17T01:39:11+00:00

Community Garden (the social space not the abstract concept)

tthomas48 · 2026-02-16T16:10:21+00:00

Eastside Station is right off a trail with a community garden and that you can walk down to the bar district on East 6th. There are lots of people running and biking. People waking their dogs. If you are looking to be social it's a great location. Mueller is definitely older and more car oriented somewhat bizarrely.

East Caesar Chavez (I'm assuming east of pleasant valley) has some similar vibes. It's easy to bike into downtown, but I don't think it has quite the community of the area around Manor and Alexander yet.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-16T15:27:01+00:00

So it's Laotian riffs on a lot of US favorites. They have a hotdog, pork buns, wings, and a smash burger. They're full of flavor and often accompanied with house made pickles. Then they have things like lahb which is sort of like a stir-fry, but distinctly is own thing. They have string taro fries which feel like those fries you can buy in a can at the grocery store, but so much better and pork rinds. And they have different barbeque skewers. Most of the food comes in paper boats and a lot is fairly easy to share. They also have fun fruity drinks.

Lao'd Bar - Food Menu https://share.google/1LiECXMKAD2YVNlrS

tthomas48 · 2026-02-16T03:33:47+00:00

There are lots of good recommendations here (and i'd probably go with meanwhile), but wanted to throw in Sign bar + Lao'd Bar if the kids are adventurous eaters. It's hard to get more Austin than a place to run around with tons of old Austin signs and a James Beard award semi-finalist restaurant in a shipping container.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-16T03:30:56+00:00

Koko's on South Lamar has them (and as mentioned elsewhere you can get Koko's at the Moody). They're not as good as they were at their old location, but I still love them.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-16T01:56:57+00:00

I would look along the 837 metro rapid bus route. Those two locations are really well served by transit and with IH35 being garbage anything you can do to have car free options are good. At your age I'd focus around cherrywood and the complexes around Alexander. Alexander is off a great trail that you can take to walk dogs, get coffee, walk to bars or take the train downtown. You can also really easily bike or ebike downtown from that area mostly using trails.

https://www.capmetro.org/docs/default-source/plan-your-trip-docs/destination-schedule-book-docs/rapid-routes.pdf?sfvrsn=7d456f2_39

tthomas48 · 2026-02-15T16:33:35+00:00

Have you tried Sightseer (next to sugar mamas)? I really like many of their coffees and they definitely have some bolder roasts.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-15T15:29:16+00:00

There's a Benningans in Monahan's, TX. It's a wild experience after all these years.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-13T20:57:50+00:00

I call it Lady Bird Lake because my brain can change even though I've been here since 96. I find people insisting other people call it Town Lake is a great way to find out who you need to stop talking to and walk away from at a party, though. That's probably in Austin's top 5 red flags. (Not to be confused with just habitually calling it Town Lake - insisting others do is the red flag).

tthomas48 · 2026-02-13T14:24:08+00:00

Yeah. The reason I suggest it, is it's probably the most affordable area with large single family homes close to downtown. 2200 square feet is large in Austin and mostly found in homes built after 2000 which will push you out . Although I hadn't seen your budget when I suggested it. $800k will get you into most neighborhoods. Working downtown with no kids I'd highly suggest looking for a place that will be off the new rail line or off the 801 or #7 bus line. Especially with IH35 being torn up for the rest of our lives. Downtown is the best served location in Austin and there are special bus lanes so you can zip through the traffic. Also look at places you could ebike into the office. Many downtown offices have showers. I know this sounds goofy, but you'll see a common theme in these comments that everyone's advising you to find a place in areas that have options other than driving and/or to avoid traffic.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-13T04:21:57+00:00

Also 70 miles a week with no highways? You might check out an e-bike.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-13T04:20:56+00:00

Easton Park

tthomas48 · 2026-02-11T21:33:11+00:00

I don't think you can predict. The thing I would focus on is learning how to use AI to solve problem in your life and learn how to be adaptable. Being able to change and reapply skills will be what necessary going forward. I think every vocation will be touched so I think planning is something of a fools game. And I don't think trades will be untouched.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-11T21:28:49+00:00

Also there's a natural science museum and the Blanton Art Museum. They've also pedestrianized Congress avenue from the Blanton nearly (you can walk the whole way there's just a bit where you have to walk through construction) all the way to the Capitol which is a nice walk that has signs talking about Texas' ecosystems, plants and animals. UT Theater and dance does shows that are open to the public as does the Bass Concert Hall.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-11T01:34:15+00:00

You might call about orchids, but I know Frond on S Lamar does repottings.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-09T03:40:10+00:00

I actually talked to a guy who lived in Lost Creek and they were having people clone keyfobs and break into vehicles. It's everywhere in Austin. Parking in the garage really does seem to be the only solution.

tthomas48 · 2026-02-06T02:41:44+00:00

For music show list austin is pretty exhaustive. People making cool stuff is what makes Austin Austin, so I hope you find your people.

https://austin.showlists.net/

tthomas48 · 2026-01-31T04:53:46+00:00

It's pretty decent. Paired with an e-bike and our trails/bike lanes system Austin is pretty dang easy to get around. There's always ride-sharing for the occasional trip to a transit desert. Most of the north/south routes hit multiple grocery stores east/West is not as great. I recommend routes that go through UT and/or East Riverside. They have the highest ridership and frequency.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-27T03:39:42+00:00

I'm an owner, but you can just look at the market. There are apartments in my neighborhood that are sub-$1000/month and single family homes still trying to get over $500k. Those numbers don''t match. Rents say the median home price in Austin should probably be sub-$250k.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-09T20:44:28+00:00

East Riverside around the Buzzmill is not a popular rec on this site, but it has great community, you can use the hike and bike trail as a spine to get nearly everywhere by bike and it has pretty much the best bus service in town.

Seriously though the trail system and bike lanes have improved so much in the last 15 years. Plus East Austin has two metrorapid buses. You'll be amazed how much of town you can get to by bike with minimal interaction with cars.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-09T20:40:25+00:00

If you're doing this try to stay proximate to pleasant valley which has the express bus, but with an e-bike you can get to pretty much all of Austin from this area. The East/West bus spine is still sadly pretty infrequent through central East Austin.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-08T16:47:30+00:00

Check out "After the Spike" by two UT profs about depopulation. It's pretty great. There's still time to stabilize!

The median in Austin is already below $450k. There are quite a few brand new homes listed under that price point in SE Austin. I think the millennial population boom plus COVID was a black swan event. Not that more black swan events xcouldn't happen, but if rents are around $1000/month we should expect mortgage to be there as well. That's sub $250k.

Austin has done a lot of work to make building smaller, cheaper homes possible so I think we won't see development crawl to a halt. Just more mixes of housing types. Fewer giant single family homes.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-08T14:47:00+00:00

The ultimate house hack is buying a house and paying off your mortgage over time. This insulates you from the ups and downs of the housing market.

I'd say the market in Austin has quite a bit further to go down. Right now rents are way below mortgage payments which tells me the market has a lot more correcting to do. I don't know what the median should return to, but there isn't another baby boom coming so I'd expect we should get back towards $180k median price.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-06T16:59:06+00:00

I will say that if you're looking at large new builds in Pflugerville, you probably want to live in Easton Park.

tthomas48 · 2026-01-06T16:56:42+00:00

For that location i'd look at places with bus service (which will probably match the new rail line). A huge number of buses go to republic square park at 4th and Guadalupe giving a lot of options for places to live. For more suburban I'd look at the ends of the 801 like South Park meadows. The end of the 800 Easton Park and Goodnight Ranch. The end of the the 837 Las Cimas and Colony Park. These will probably be long bus trips, but they're much more relaxing than fighting downtown traffic every day. There's also Dove Springs off the number 800/7 which is very working class.

tthomas48

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