Besides Austin, is Stephenville, TX the best small town to live in?

Question

Thank you for all the info - which has been real helpful! Yes, I 've heard that Austin must be a real nice place to live, and of course it's not a small town - I just want to get more info. from Texans themselves who personally know about between Stephenville and Austin & the surroundings, plus other towns. I do want to know about whether they both have hills, valleys or whatever and their climate (did some research on their climate, but vague info); employment-wise (steady or rising unmemployment rate, something like that) and crime rate. I did look up some chamber of commerce websites already, but still not good enough. So, your feedback will help me and my husband to determine whether or not it would be a good move from Colorado to Texas within 2 years or so. I would like to think that Texans are real friendly out there *smile*

Answer 1

Hate to break it to you, but Austin is no small town. Not by a long shot. Lovely city though, and I highly reccomend it! I know, I have lived here for 20 years!

Answer 2

The two are completely different. They are NOTHING alike.

I lived in Stephenville as a child and live in Austin now. I would NEVER live in Stephenville again, never. It's entirely homogenous, right-wing conservative and snobby. Stephenville has somewhere around 20,000 population and Austin is somewhere around a half a million (more if you count the suburbs that come right up to Austin's city limits). Stephenville would be good for you if you want to live in a cowboy town; it's all about the rodeo and people pretending to be "old money."

Tarleton is pretty well insulated from the rest of the town, though. It's its own thing. The town is all white, maybe a few Hispanic couples. By comparison, Tarleton was moderately more diverse. (But if you want to go to Tarleton, you could go to Killeen instead. I've lived there, too, and hated it, too, but it's better than Stephenville.)

I don't know if it's still like this, but when I lived in Stephenville from 1989-1995, the KKK still had rallies outside the courthouse. They were small and no one attended or gave them any notice or press (I would never have known it happened except that my dad worked near the courthouse and saw them), so as scary hate group meetings go, I suppose they were quiet. Of course, the mere existence of an active clan cell completely freaks me out. In the 1990s! If there were a bi-racial couple, they might return to the car and find a sticker that reads, "The knights of the Ku Klux Klan have been watching you, and we don't like what we're seeing." I guess they probably left it on cars in other situations, but I only ever met anyone who had the sticker left there for that. In and of itself, the klan is sufficient reason not to live there, in my opinion.

Answer 3

huh? Austin has almost 2 million residents!

I think that town is outside of Dallas Ft. Worth. Very smelly and trafficky up there. Towns outside of Austin at least have lakes and pretty scenery. But yeah, I'm sure it's fine, depends what you're looking for in a town.

Answer 4

Austin is not small as the others pointed out and why are those your two choices? Give us more details and maybe we can help you find the right place. Good luck

Answer 5

My brother went to Tarleton and I visited him a lot. I think it depends on what you're looking for. It's a college town, no doubt, but it's okay. There are a lot of great small towns in Texas.

Answer 6

yes it is, friends live there, creedmore is a nice small town near austin, mustang ridge too

Answer 7

I LOVE AUSTIN TX!!!!!!!!!!