Austin

Austin, TX 

Austin is a city, the state capital of Texas, and the county seat of Travis since 1840. It is situated in the south-central region of the state, about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of San Antonio, where the Colorado River crosses the Balcones Escarpment. The metropolitan region of Austin includes the towns of Round Rock and San Marcos as well as the counties of Hays, Williamson, Bastrop, and Caldwell. Population: 790,390 (2010); 1,716,289 in the Austin-Round Rock metro area; 961,855 in the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metro area; and 2,283,371 overall. 

The Contemporary City 

One of the city's largest jobs is the business, research and development, and manufacturing sector for computers, computer equipment, semiconductors, telecommunications, software, and biotechnology. Primary economic factors also include the government, education, and health care sectors. The majority of international cargo is transported to international ports by railroads, which are crucial to trade. A former US Air Force facility served as the foundation for the 1999 opening of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. 

Ethnic diversity is present in the city's population. More than one-third of the population is Hispanic, less than one-tenth of the population is African American, and less than half of the population is of European heritage. The University of Texas (1881), which has its main campus in Austin, is one of the city's educational resources. Other educational institutions include Concordia University at Austin (1926), Huston-Tillotson College (1875), St. Edward's University (1885), and Austin Community College (1972). 

At dusk, "artificial moonlight" from mercury vapour lamps atop 17 165-foot (50-meter) tall towers illuminates parts of the central city (erected in 1894). The Elisabet Ney Museum is located in her former studio and houses a collection of Ney's sculptures. Ney produced numerous life-size figures, including those of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston standing in the national and state capitols. The O. Henry Home and Museum is housed in what was O. Henry's residence from 1893 to 1895. Alphonse Dubois de Saligny, the French chargé d'affaires, who was to represent the French government in the Republic of Texas, erected the French Legation Museum in 1841; if he ever lived there, it was presumably for a very little time. On the University of Texas campus is the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum (1971), which houses archival materials, records, and artifacts related to Johnson's public service. Exhibits about the state's history are on display in the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum (2001). On the university campus, there is a famous collection of Latin American art at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art. The Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum, the Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Austin Museum of Art are other facilities. A professional symphony orchestra, opera company, ballet troupe, as well as a variety of art galleries and theater companies are just a few of the cultural institutions supported by the city. 

Austin has a thriving music culture that is well-known. It used to be a hub for country and blues music, but now it also promotes Latino, rock, folk, and jazz music. The Warehouse District and Sixth Street are home to more than 100 live music venues, and the long-running public television program Austin City Limits features musical talent. Numerous local record labels and recording studios contribute significantly to the local economy. Every year in March, there is a conference called South by Southwest that is all about music, movies, and interactive technology. Numerous musicians and filmmakers call the city home, and it is a favorite setting for movies. 

Annual celebrations honor the ethnic communities, including Mexicans, African Americans, Germans, and French, who have contributed to the culture of the city. Every spring, the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo is held. Sightseers are drawn to the hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats that fly from their roosts on summer evenings near Austin's Congress Avenue Bridge. One of the highest peaks in the city is Mount Bonnell, which has a height of 785 feet (239 meters) and a 99-step ascent to the summit. Along with a wildlife center, botanical gardens, and Barton Springs, a natural swimming pool, Zilker Park stretches along the river. In the city's southern region is McKinney Falls State Park. 

The Hill Country west of Austin is a recreational area with the chain of Highland Lakes (including Town Lake and Lake Austin, which wind through the city) impounded by dams along the Colorado River. The Hill Country is dotted with charming small towns that were initially settled by mostly central European immigrants in the 19th century. There are unusual rock outcrops, tunnels, and springs nearby. 

Climate 

Austin is situated in the heart of a distinctive, constrained transitional zone between the arid Southwest of the United States and the lush, verdant, and more humid regions of the Southeast. Its geography, vegetation, and climate all have elements of both. According to the Köppen climate classification, Austin has a humid subtropical climate in reality. Long, extremely hot summers, brief, mild winters, and warm to hot spring and fall seasons characterize this climate. Austin receives an average of 34.32 inches (872 mm) of precipitation year, with the rainiest months being spring and fall. With 2,650 hours, or 60.3% of the possible total, of bright sunshine each year, sunlight is prevalent throughout the year. 

Austin experiences extremely hot summers, with average highs in July and August frequently exceeding 90 degrees (34–36 degrees Celsius). There are 123 days per year with highs above 90 °F (32 °C), and 29 days with highs above 100 °F (38 °C); every year from 1991 through 2020 has at least one of the latter.  Between March 1 and November 21, the average daily high is 70 °F (21 °C) or warmer. Between April 14 and October 24, it rises to 80 °F (27 °C), and between May 30 and September 18, it reaches 90 °F (32 °C) or warmer.  The two days with the highest recorded temperatures, September 5, 2000, and August 28, 2011, were both 112 °F (44 °C). Austin's climate is unusual in that humidity is very changeable and frequently changes depending on the shifting patterns of air flow and wind direction. It is typical for very warm and humid days to periodically interrupt a long stretch of warm, dry, low-humidity days, and vice versa. When air moves inland from the Gulf of Mexico, it tends to rise with winds from the east or southeast, but it tends to fall sharply with winds from the west or southwest, which bring air moving from the Chihuahuan Desert regions of West Texas or northern Mexico. 

Although occasional, transient cold spells known as "Blue Northers" might occur, Austin winters are generally moderate. The average daytime high in January, when it comes to temperature, is 62.5 °F (17 °C). The nightly low falls to or below freezing 12 times annually and dips below 45 °F (7 °C) on 76 evenings annually, primarily between mid-December and mid-February. With an average growing season of 288 days and an average first and last date for a freeze of December 1 and February 15, respectively, Austin falls inside USDA zone 9a. The coldest temperature of the year is typically around 24.2 °F (4 °C) under the 1991-2020 climate normals.  On the other hand, there are frequently warm days during the winter. Every January had at least one day with a high of 70 °F (21 °C) or more, and most (60%) had at least one day with a high of 80 °F (27 °C) or more. On average, 10 days in January hit or surpass 70 °F (21 °C), and 1 day reaches 80 °F (27 °C). On January 31, 1949, the city's lowest ever recorded temperature of 2 °F (19 °C) was recorded. Approximately every two years, Austin is hit by an ice storm that causes the city's roads to freeze over and severely hinders traffic for 24 to 48 hours. On January 24, 2014, Austin experienced 0.04 inches (1 mm) of ice, which resulted in 278 auto accidents.  Snowfall is also unusual in Austin.  On February 4, 2011, a snowfall of 0.9 inches (2 cm) led to more than 300 auto accidents.  The most recent significant snowfall happened on February 14–15, 2021, when 6.4 inches (16 cm) of snow, the heaviest two-day snowfall since records first started being kept in 1948, fell at Austin's Camp Mabry. 

Severe weather is a threat year-round in Austin, as it is throughout Central Texas. However, springtime is when it happens most frequently. Although many sources place Austin outside of Tornado Alley entirely, most categories place Austin within the far southern edge of Tornado Alley.  As a result, Austin experiences tornadoes less frequently than places further north. To the city, this can occasionally result in flash flooding, damaging winds, lightning, and supercell thunderstorms that can last for several days. The twin tornado storm of May 4, 1922 was the worst storm to ever hit a city, while the Central Texas tornado outbreak of May 27, 1997 was the deadliest tornado outbreak to ever hit the metro area. 

Economy 

Gross domestic product (GDP) for the Greater Austin metropolitan statistical region was $86 billion in 2010. Austin is regarded as a significant high-tech hub. The University of Texas at Austin's engineering and computer science schools produce tens of thousands of graduates each year, serving as a consistent source of labor for Austin's defense and technology industries. In their annual study, Forbes ranked the Austin metropolitan area first among all major cities for jobs in 2012, and WSJ Marketwatch ranked the area first for expanding businesses. Both rankings were a result of the city's strong expansion. Austin was severely impacted by the dot-com boom and bust in the late 1990s due to the region's large concentration of high-tech businesses. The Austin Independent School District, the City of Austin, Dell, the U.S. Federal Government, NXP Semiconductors, IBM, St. David's Healthcare Partnership, Seton Family of Hospitals, the State of Texas, Texas State University, and the University of Texas at Austin are some of Austin's largest employers. 

A few more high-tech businesses with offices in Austin are 3M, Apple, Amazon, AMD, Applied Materials, Arm Holdings, Bigcommerce, BioWare, Blizzard Entertainment, Buffalo Technology, Cirrus Logic, Cisco Systems, Dropbox, eBay, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Hoover's, HomeAway, HostGator, Intel Corporation, National Instruments, Nintendo, Nvidia, Oracle, PayPal, Polycom, In 2010, Facebook agreed to accept funding for the construction of a downtown office that might result in the creation of 200 new jobs. The influx of tech firms gave the area the moniker "Silicon Hills" and sparked growth that significantly increased the size of the city. 

Around 85 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are based in Austin, which is becoming into a major hub for these industries. In 2004, the Milken Institute named the city as the 12th-best biotech and life science hub in the country, and in 2018, the CBRE Group ranked Austin as the third-best rising life sciences cluster. There are businesses there including Hospira, Pharmaceutical Product Development, and ArthroCare Corporation. 

Austin is the birthplace and headquarters of Whole Foods Market, a global grocery store chain that specializes in fresh and packaged food items. 

NXP Semiconductors, GoodPop, Temple-Inland, Sweet Leaf Tea, Keller Williams Realty, National Western Life, GSD&M, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Golfsmith, Forestar Group, EZCorp, Outdoor Voices, Tito's Vodka, indeed, Speak Social, and YETI are a few other businesses with their headquarters in Austin. 

$1.33 billion was invested in enterprises in the Austin metro region in 2018. In 2018, Austin's venture capital figures were so robust that they accounted for more than 60% of all investments made in Texas. 

Culture 

For many years, "Keep Austin Weird" has served as the city's motto and appeared on bumper stickers and T-shirts. This tagline is intended to increase support for regional independent companies as well as Austin's eccentricity and diversity. A local Austin Community College librarian named Red Wassenich and his wife, Karen Pavelka, are credited with coining the word because they were alarmed by Austin's "rapid fall into commercialism and overdevelopment," according to the 2010 book Weird City. Since its inception, the phrase has been used in a variety of ways, but it continues to be a significant symbol for many Austin residents who want to express their concerns about the city's rapid growth and development. Residents of Austin have a long history of speaking up against development plans that they believe would harm the environment or jeopardize the city's natural and cultural landscapes. 

Adults in Austin read and participate in blogs more than adults in any other U.S. urban area, according to the Nielsen Company. In all of Texas, Austin citizens use the most Internet. Reddit's most active city in 2013 was Austin, which also had the most views per resident. Money magazine ranked Austin as the No. 2 Best Big City in "Best Places to Live" in 2006, No. 3 in 2009, and the "Greenest City in America" according to MSN. 

Shopping can be found in South Congress, which extends southward from Downtown. Coffee shops, oddball shops, eateries, food trucks, trailers, and festivals can all be found here. It takes pride in "Keeping Austin Weird," especially in light of the nearby development (s). Many locals in Austin credit the spectacular and unimpeded view of the Texas State Capitol for the city's lasting popularity. 

A section of Downtown Austin known as the Rainey Street Historic District historically included bungalow-style houses constructed in the early 20th century. The street, which was formerly a working-class neighborhood, has evolved into a thriving nightlife area since the early 2010s. Many of the ancient residences have undergone renovation to become hotels, apartments, pubs, and restaurants, many of which offer guests spacious porches and outdoor yards. [140] The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center is another building located in the Rainey Street neighborhood. 

Austin is a member of the Media Arts category of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. 

Sports 

The Texas Longhorns, the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin, are popular among Austin residents. The Longhorns baseball team won the College World Series during the 2005–2006 academic year, and the Longhorns football team was awarded the NCAA Division I FBS National Football Champion. The second-largest sports venue in the state, Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, which has a capacity of nearly 101,000, is where the Texas Longhorns play their home games. At UFCU Disch-Falk Field, baseball games are played. 

Prior to Austin FC's admission to the MLS in 2021, Austin was the most populous city in the US without a major-league professional sports team. In 1996, the Austin Ice Bats, who were eventually succeeded by the AHL Texas Stars, introduced minor-league professional sports to Austin when they started playing at the Travis County Expo Center. The Austin Spurs of the NBA G League, the Austin Aztex of the United Soccer League, the Austin Outlaws of the WFA football, and the Austin Aces of the WTT tennis have all played their home games in Austin. 

Austin is the location of numerous endurance and multi-sport races and communities thanks to its natural qualities, including the bicycle-friendly Texas Hill Country and a usually temperate climate. The Capitol 10,000 is the biggest 10-kilometer race in Texas and ranks at around fifth in the US. Since 1992, Austin has hosted the annual Austin Marathon. The Turkey Trot, which is held in the city every Thanksgiving, is also the biggest 5-mile race in Texas. The local sandwich shop Thundercloud Subs founded the race in 1991, and it is currently sponsored by them. Since then, it has expanded to attract more than 20,000 runners. All earnings are given to the neighborhood organization Caritas of Austin. 

Numerous swimming competitions are held throughout the city by the Austin-based American Swimming Association. A number of cycling organizations as well as disgraced racer Lance Armstrong have their roots in Austin. A growing number of triathlons combine these three sports, including as the Capital of Texas Triathlon, which is held every Memorial Day on and near Lady Bird Lake, Auditorium Shores, and Downtown Austin. 

Austin is home to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), a 3.427-mile (5.515 km) Formula One United States Grand Prix venue built to grade 1 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile specifications. 

For ten years, the State of Texas has promised to cover the sanctioning fees for the race using public monies totaling $25 million per year. The course, which was constructed for an estimated $250–300 million, opened in 2012 and is situated close to Austin Bergstrom International Airport. A new soccer-specific stadium will be constructed at COTA between the Austin360 Amphitheater and the Grand Plaza, it was announced in August 2017. In 2019, Austin Bold FC, a professional soccer team, will debut in the United Soccer League. 

The World TeamTennis team Austin Aces, formerly known as the Orange County Breakers in the southern California region, played their maiden season in the summer of 2014. The Austin Aces, which included current WTA tour player Vera Zvonareva as well as former professionals Andy Roddick and Marion Bartoli, competed in their matches at the Cedar Park Center to the northwest of Austin. After the 2015 season, the squad disbanded. 

Precourt Sports Ventures revealed plans to relocate the Columbus Crew SC soccer team from Columbus, Ohio, to Austin in 2017. 

Precourt, who had first expressed interest in Butler Shores Metropolitan Park and Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Park, secured a deal with the City of Austin to erect a $200 million privately funded stadium at 10414 McKalla Place. 

Austin FC was announced as Major League Soccer's 27th franchise on January 15, 2019, with the expansion team starting play in 2021. This was done as part of an agreement with the league, which saw the operational rights to Columbus Crew SC sold in late 2018. 

Top 2 News Websites 

KXAN News 

In order to make Austin, Round Rock, the Hill Country, and the rest of Central Texas better places to live, KXAN News provides you regional news and weather reports. 

Austin Monthly 

AUSTIN MONTHLY portrays our hometown through articles, editorials, restaurant reviews, personal essays, listings of events, fashion, shopping, dining, the arts, and business. 

Population 

Texas's Travis County and Williamson County both contain the city of Austin. Additionally, Travis County's county seat is there. It is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the eleventh-largest city in the United States as of 2020, with a population of 996,147. Austin's population has grown by 3.13% from the most recent census, which showed a population of 965,872 in 2020, and is now rising at a pace of 1.75% year. Austin has a population density of 3,114 persons per square mile, spanning over 327 miles. 

With a poverty rate of 14.77%, Austin's average family income is $102,876. The median monthly cost of rent in recent years has been, and the median value of a home is. In Austin, the median age is 33.7 years, with 33.5 years for men and 34 years for women. 

The only ethnic group in Austin that is declining is African Americans, despite the fact that the city has a substantial Hispanic population. Moving out from the city center and increased mortality rates are two significant factors that are contributing to the decrease of the African-American community. 

Current City Mayor 

After being chosen as Austin's 52nd mayor in December 2014, Steve Adler is eager to take significant steps to raise everyone's standard of living in the city. Mayor Adler intends to take Austin's government to a new level of inclusive civic interaction between citizens and their elected officials in her capacity as mayor of this historic first new 10-1 Council. 

The mayor and his brother were the first members of their family to earn a college degree. Mayor Adler relocated to Austin after completing his undergraduate studies at Princeton to pay for his legal education at The University of Texas. He fell in love with Austin like many others and has lived there for about 40 years. 

After spending several years practicing civil rights law, Mayor Adler established a prosperous eminent domain law firm that represents landowners. Additionally, for nearly 10 years, Mayor Adler worked for Texas State Senator Eliot Shapleigh as his chief of staff and general counsel, primarily focusing on problems related to education funding, equity, and access. 

Over the past twenty years, Mayor Adler has actively participated in and served as head of numerous civic and nonprofit organizations in Austin. 

Mayor Adler is a joyful father of three amazing girls with his wife, Diane Land.