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With the year close to an end, there has never been a better time to take a look at all of the rewards and accolades the Austin metro area has enjoyed throughout the year. According the Examiner, the city of Austin has been included on around 60 different lists and has enjoyed high rankings in a number of areas, including living affordability, business climate, population density, pollution, education, cost of living, weather, employment and quality of life issues. Some of the lists on which Austin has enjoyed top rankings in 2009 include:

· #1 out of the 100 largest cities in terms of job creation according to Portfolio.com
· #1 American city most likely to bounce back from the recession according to The Austin Business Journal and IHC Insight
· #2 out of 100 metro areas for metropolitan growth potential and employment potential according to Business Week and The Brookings Institute
· #9 best place to start a business according to CNN Money
· #1 least stressful city to live out of 40 cities, based on factors such as housing values, unemployment and traffic congestion, according to Forbes
· #1 city for creating jobs according to the Milken Institute
· #8 best city for entrepreneurs according to Fortune
· #5 best place for young people to live according to The Wall Street Journal

Considering the fact that Austin has managed to maintain a more stable housing market and employment rate than the rest of the country during the recession, it doesn’t come as much surprise to learn that the capital city has enjoyed the top position on so many surveys and polls. In fact, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, unemployment levels within the Austin-Round Rock area was 7.2% in October, while the state average was 8.1%. In November, unemployment rates in the Austin-Round Rock area fell to 6.9%, while the state average was 7.9%. On a national level, on the other hand, unemployment rates were 10.2% in October and 10% in November.

The city of Austin has long been recognized for its eco-friendly initiatives, so it should come as no surprise that the city is now proposing a wastewater project with portions that have been labeled as “green” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

According to a report in the Austin Business Journal, the Texas Water Development Board has approved a loan in the amount of $31.8 million to be used by the city for wastewater system improvements. The loan, which will be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will help finance the improvements that need to be made to the water and wastewater infrastructure.

To improve the water and wastewater infrastructure, the city is proposing two major projects. The first involves constructing aeration facilities, while the other involves upgrading the treatment equipment that is currently located at the Hornsby Bend Bio-Solids Management facility.

Currently, the Hornsby Bend Bio-Solids Management facility is used to treat and to covert the wastewater sludge that is created by the city’s wastewater treatment plants. This sludge is converted into a Dillo-Dirt, which is a reusable compost that was first developed by the City of Austin in 1989. Dillo-Dirt meets all EPA and Texas requirements for enjoying unrestricted use, which means it can be used on all types of gardens – including vegetable gardens. Not only does Dillo-Dirt add valuable microbes to the soil, it also successfully recycles wastewater sludge as well as yard trimmings and other waste.

Of course, the pending infrastructure upgrades to be made to the water and wastewater treatment facilities aren’t the only eco-friendly activities taking place in Austin. In fact, Austin Community College has also recently announced that it has joined with other agencies in the area in order to start the Austin Conservation Corp.

“The Austin Conservation Corps gives the city a very inexpensive way to clean and repair the trails along Lady Bird Lake and to improve other parks. It also gives young people a positive way to earn money and a great way to advance their education,” said former Texas Gov. Mark White, who is a member of the board of the Austin Conservation Corp’s Center for Public Policy and Political Studies, in an Austin Business Journal article.

Currently, the Austin Conservation Corp is slated to have nine members who have committed to a 12-week stint. Next spring, however, the group plans to expand to 25 members. With major organizations such as Austin Energy, Goodwill Industries Inc. and The Austin Parks and Recreation Department all providing support to the organization, it is likely that it will be around for quite some time.

The city of Austin was recently listed by the Wall Street Journal as being one of the country’s next “youth magnet” cities. More specifically, the Wall Street Journal has listed Austin as one of the cities where young people are most likely to head once the economy achieves a greater amount of stability.

In order to draw this conclusion, the Wall Street Journal took a poll with a panel of experts ranging from economists to demographers. The major focus of the poll was to determine where the experts believed young college graduates were likely to move over the next few years. Austin made the list for a number of reasons, including the fact that the city has a low unemployment rate as well as a median household income that is relatively high. In fact, of the top five cities included on the list, Austin’s unemployment rate is the lowest.

The top 10 list of cities cited by the experts include:

·    Washington D.C. and Seattle, Washington (tied for first)
·    New York, New York
·    Portland, Oregon
·    Austin, Texas
·    San Jose, California
·    Denver, Colorado
·    Releigh-Durham, North Carolina
·    Dallas, Texas
·    Chicago, Illinois

When compared to top-ranking Seattle ad Washington D.C., Austin did fall short in terms of educational levels. While 61.3% of D.C.’s 25 to 35-year-old residents hold a bachelor’s degree or hire and 64.2% of Seattle’s residents also fall in this category, only 41.8% of this demographic holds at least a bachelor’s degree in Austin. Still, this is higher than the national average and Austin has many other desirable characteristics that help draw in the younger crowd.

“Austin has become a gathering place for tech- and arts-conscious young adults,” writes the Wall Street Journal. Austin is also home to the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, which welcomed such big-name bands as Kings of Leon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dave Matthew Bands and Pearl Jam to its venue at its most recent event.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is just one example of how the city has managed to create such a powerful and respected cultural identity. It is thanks to the city’s low unemployment rates, reasonable housing prices, ample educational opportunities, eco-friendly and tech-savvy mindset combined with its strong emphasis on the arts that so many people find the city to be simply irresistible. It is for those reasons that the experts polled by the Wall Street Journal put Austin at the top of the list of cities recent college graduates will flock to in order to start a new life.

The weather may be starting to get a tiny little chill in the air but downtown Austin was warm this weekend with the fun and exciting Pecan Street Festival. This bi-annual street fair has been a part of Austin’s yearly calendar for almost thirty years now and it never fails to bring the city’s residents out in droves to enjoy the treats of arts and crafts, live music and great food. The festival seems to get bigger and better with each year that passes and residents attending this year’s event report that it continues to be a great featured event of downtown Austin.

The Pecan Street Festival is held on 6th Street, home to downtown Austin’s entertainment scene. The music scene that the city is known for thrives here and this is reflected in the live music that is an important part of the festival. There were six different stages set up this year including everything from a Latin stage to a children’s stage. These offered not only performances but also dance lessons and provided a good time to everyone in Austin who made it out for the event.

Although the music is an important part of the Pecan Street Festival, most people go primarily to check out the arts and crafts that are sold by the vendors who come to share their wares at the event. Local and regional artists were out there selling everything from hand carved djembe drums to watches made from wood, coconut and fiber. Traditional jewelry and painting crafts were also represented here.

The Pecan Street Festival is representative of a lot of the things that are really great about Austin and it’s fitting that the event is held in downtown Austin which is where the heartbeat of the city really is these days. The merging of music and art, the coming together of a community and the blending of both a historic event and a modern one are all what downtown Austin seems to be about right now. The Pecan Street Festival offered a tangible way to celebrate that!

A lot of people have started to move in to downtown Austin in order to take advantage of the stylish lifestyle, the eco-friendly urban lifestyle and the many activities that take place in the area. If you are one of those people that has a budding interest in making the move to downtown Austin but you aren’t quite sure if you are ready to do so then you might want to learn more about what life is like as a downtown resident. A great way to do this could be to take a tour of the living accommodations in downtown Austin which you can do next month when the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Alliance (DANA) holds its 5th annual tour of downtown living spaces.

The tour allows people who are interested in downtown Austin to see what it’s actually like to live there. Downtown residential projects that are going to be featured on the tour this year include the Austonian, Gables West and the 360 Condominiums. Those people who opt to purchase VIP tickets (which only run $30 each) can enjoy a pre-tour poolside party at the 360 Condominiums which are considered to be one of the hottest places to live in downtown Austin today. (Incidentally, the condos at this development are sold out but there’s a waiting list for those people who hope to get lucky and get a space in there at some point.)

The annual tour has been taking place for five years now but this year is really exciting because people attending the tour are really going to see a different Austin than what they might have seen just one or two years ago. The urban development in this area has been intense and the result is that there are not only residential spaces to see downtown but also a wealth of entertainment and retail hot spots to appreciate.

One of the best things about the revitalization of downtown Austin is that people are going to be spending time down in this area on a more frequent basis for the variety of events that are being held here. The bad news is that this means that traffic is going to increase in downtown Austin particularly during times when big events are being held. This weekend demonstrated a clear example of that with road closures put into place for events including the season’s first Longhorns game and several foot races like the Austin Triathlon and the Nike Human Race. These closures caused redirection of traffic that choked up some of downtown Austin.

There are two pieces of good news in regards to this influx of both event-based and daily traffic in downtown Austin. The first is that the city has some good controls in place in terms of traffic enforcement to make sure that residents driving through the area know exactly where it is that they are supposed to be going when roads are altered due to events. The second is that downtown Austin has now become such a multi-use area that it is possible to get around in downtown Austin without needing to use a car.

Downtown Austin is really being developed with an eye towards keeping people centralized in the area. This means that commutes can be avoided by those living in the area who now also choose to do their shopping and get their entertainment within walking distance of their downtown homes. The installation of new bike racks and the improvement of public transportation in the area are making it so that people have many options in terms of car-free transportation here. As more and more people move into the area to experience the lifestyle and events that are available, it will be increasingly important for those living in downtown Austin to make lifestyle choices that involve getting around without a car.

The Downtown Austin Alliance has issued a Request for Proposals asking artists for designs that will serve as sculptural bike racks along Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. These bike racks will be both aesthetically pleasing and functional. Furthermore, they represent three important concerns for the development taking place in downtown Austin: the interest in beautifying downtown Austin, the support and development of creative endeavors in the city and the eco-friendly value of having a multi-use downtown area in the city.

The sculptural art will serve to enhance the appearance of downtown Austin. The art will be chosen to reflect the work of local artists and to encourage people who are being creative in the city to turn their attention to helping beautify the growing downtown area. Downtown Austin is becoming revitalized with attention to the importance of an artistic way of life. Galleries, museums and performance event spaces are all lighting up with events that are designed to help revive the creative spirit in this area. The new bike rack sculptures are another part of bringing art to the daily lives of the people who are residing in downtown Austin.

Those people who are moving into downtown Austin today are encouraged to consider a car-free way of life. The condos that are being erected in the city are multi-use spaces which allow the downtown area to now provide residential, work, retail and entertainment functions. This means that people can do all that they need to do in this one small-but-growing area of the city. This helps to reduce the reliance of people on cars in the city and encourages an eco-friendly approach to living in the downtown area. Having accessible bike racks throughout the downtown area makes it easier for residents to adapt to this twenty-first century approach to living.

There is a lot to do in downtown Austin these days but that doesn’t mean that some of the classic activities and attractions there should now be forgotten. The downtown Austin area has long been the home of several different museums that remain worth checking out even as new opportunities for entertainment become available in the neighborhood.

Arguably one of the best museums in downtown Austin for both locals and visitors to experience is the Austin Museum of Art. This museum actually has two different locations in Austin but the one located downtown is arguably the better of the two because of the fact that it offers more cutting-edge exhibitions than its sister location. People who want to see the creative side of Austin will love this place whether they live in the area or not.

Another must-visit museum in downtown Austin that is appreciated as much by visitors as it is by locals is the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Texas is definitely a state that is proud of its heritage and you can learn all about that history at this downtown museum. Despite being about the past, this is no boring museum; there’s even an IMAX theatre here to provide all-ages entertainment and education about the area.

For families who are living in the downtown Austin area, a favorite pick besides the IMAX at the history museum is the Austin Children’s Museum. The interactive exhibits are designed to engage children and interest them in learning and exploration. What you’ll find as an adult is that you don’t have to be young to enjoy the museum.

Those three museums are the top-rated museums in downtown Austin. They aren’t the only museums, though. You can check out the historic home and museum of author O. Henry, review the archives at the Lyndon B. Johnson memorial museum or experience the culture of Mexican fine arts at the Mexic-Arte museum. There’s plenty to see in downtown Austin – both indoors and out!

One of the downtown accommodations projects that a lot of people have been excited to watch develop is The Sabine on 5th condominiums. They were slated for 2008 completion and have indeed been completed and are now ready for move-in. This shows that downtown Austin development is on track and gives people in the area something to not only be excited about but also to be proud of.

The Sabine is an interesting project in part because it was a conversion project. In the location where it now stands (on Waller Creek) was an office space that was mostly empty and unused. That space was converted into a great condominium offering eighty different condos across ten floors. The fact that this conversion was successful speaks to the value of the many repurposed construction efforts going on in the downtown area.

The Sabine is considered one of the most cutting-edge condo communities to crop up in downtown Austin in recent months.  If you are the kind of person who likes the style of European furnishings (like IKEA) and the accommodations available in boutique hotels then you’re going to be the kind of person who feels comfortable in the trendy, edgy, modernly-designed condos that make up The Sabine.

You’re also going to like these condos if you’re a fan of the spa and fitness amenities at hotels that you visit when vacationing. That’s because The Sabine is located right next door to Hilton Garden Inn, a hotel that happily shares its spa, fitness and resort-like amenities with the new residents of the modern condo building.

In addition to the fresh and funky design of the new condo building, the location makes The Sabine on 5th a great condo choice for those people who are interested in being immersed in the emerging life of the city. It’s situated in the entertainment district so there is absolutely always something to do here. And with views of downtown Austin, the homes here are going to make sure that you always know what it is that’s going on.

One of the major reasons that people are interested in the revitalization of downtown Austin is that this trend is going to make Austin a greener city. People are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of taking citywide actions to become more environmentally friendly. Encouraging people to live, work and play in the downtown area will reduce commute lengths and gas usage and will therefore increase the “greenness” of Austin. However, some say that being green in Austin is still more difficult than it should be and that the city should be making greater efforts to improve the ease of being green.

One example of this that has come up in the news recently is the fact that prices are being raised on garbage collection fees. The plan to raise the fees was initially intended to be a green plan; fees were going to be high for large trash cans but they were going to remain low for the smallest trash cans. If this had happened, it would have encouraged recycling in Austin because people would want to keep the amount of trash that they had low enough to fit in the small trash cans. However, this wasn’t the case. Instead, fees were raised on all sizes of trash cans. Many residents argue that this decreases the incentive to recycle and makes it less likely that Austin is going to be a city where people will recycle instead of throwing their stuff in the trash.

Recycling is just one example of what Austin can do to encourage green living in the city. It is likely that green actions taken by the city are going to be more welcome in the emerging downtown Austin area because of the fact that there is such an emphasis in this area on the “greenness” of downtown living. If an effort is made, this area could become a highly important area in terms of motivating the green movement in Austin and increasing the overall eco-friendliness of the city.