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Comment by StillBored | Hacker News Reader

I think both Austin and Raleigh have grown large enough that the "college town" effect is in the noise. In both cases the underlying economy is doing more to drive itself than the college is at this point. In those cases 40 years ago it would have made a big difference, but today better examples would have been places like College Station TX, or Gainsville FL, where the college remains the primary employer. UT Austin is the 10th largest employer in a town with a pretty self reinforcing tech economy, and a very long tail of national brand SMBs.

https://www.austinchamber.com/economic-development/austin-pr...

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In both of those cities the colleges have become feeder schools to the tech industry. And they're both desirable places to live on their own.

Austin is gorgeous. Semi-arid but the big river gorge running through it means downtown is lush. Big hills/mountains a mile west. Tons of nature, water. Colorful history. Great downtown thats a regional vacation destination. Within 3 hours of Houston, Dallas, the ocean, and only 45 mins from San Antonio. That means 50 million people within a few hours, densest area you can find besides east and west coast. And of course the capital, which means a lot more in Texas than elsewhere due to secessional tendencies (ex the TX state capitol is taller than US capitol)

Tech triangle is again in a gorgeous area. A few hours from NC coast and Blue Ridge mountains. Weather is an interesting hybrid between cold-winter northeast and humid deep south. It doesn't get very hot or cold. Probably the closest you can get to west coast weather in the east, and the nearby coast and mountains heighten the illusion. Nicely positioned for business, Miami and NYC are less than 2 hours by plane.

They're both safe with great weather and a low cost of living (for tech hotspots). I have deeply considered living in both.

Depends on what you like in terms of "great weather." They're both pretty hot and humid in the summer. (Not as bad as some places but...) So long as you're OK with that sort of weather though, they're two pretty nice areas.

NC is hot and humid compared to the west coast maybe, but the average temp of hottest month is only a few degrees more than Chicago. In contrast the average temp of the coldest month is about 20 degrees warmer. Proximity to mountains and ocean moderates the climate significantly.

Austin, yes, its hot as hell in the summer :)

I found Austin insufferably boring and hipster. San Antonio and Dallas felt much more authentic and fun.

Austin is not semi arid. Salt Lake City and maybe Denver are semi arid, but Austin is humid in the summer and almost swampy in overall climate. You aren’t going to see a hint of beige until you get way into west Texas.

It's definitely not swampy, its quite dry. I looked up rainfall levels and its also not an arid climate like I thought. Much of the rainfall is concentrated in large storms, it doesn't rain very often. Much of the local vegetation is drought tolerant, succulent and cactus.

Houston is swampy because of the coast. Austin is dry and not very humid, like Dallas. The wind often comes from the deserts out west.

Austin isn't dry...from wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas#Climate):

> Austin is located within the middle of a unique, narrow transitional zone between the dry deserts of the American Southwest and the lush, green, more humid regions of the American Southeast. Its climate, topography, and vegetation share characteristics of both. Officially, Austin has a humid subtropical climate under the Köppen climate classification. This climate is typified by very long and hot summers; short, mild winters; and pleasantly warm spring and fall seasons in-between.

> An uncommon characteristic of Austin's climate is its highly variable humidity, which fluctuates frequently depending on the shifting patterns of air flow and wind direction. It is common for a lengthy series of warm, dry, low-humidity days to be occasionally interrupted by very warm and humid days, and vice versa. Humidity rises with winds from the east or southeast, when the air drifts inland from the Gulf of Mexico, but decreases significantly with winds from the west or southwest, bringing air flowing from Chihuahuan Desert areas of West Texas or northern Mexico.[76]

I never saw a cactus in Austin before...at least one that wasn't being cultivated in someone's yard. I do remember my time there for one hot and very humid summer...it made Mississippi feel nice in comparison, it definitely wasn't like Salt Lake City in climate.

Prickly pear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia is a very common sight in the few remaining wild/unkept parts of Austin and surrounding country given that Austin is part of its native range. As cactus goes, it is definitely one of the friendlier ones.

Aren't Austin and Raleigh state capitals too?

Sometimes state capitals aren’t economically that powerful. Denver and Columbus are certainly positive cases, but Springfield and Albany are pretty middling compared to the biggest cities in the same state.

Springfield MA is not the state capital. Boston is. But, to your broader point, there's often been a deliberate decision to site the state capital somewhere other than the main city to balance out political and business power a bit.

[ADDED: Ah. Probably referring to Springfield IL.]

The poster may have been referring to Springfield, IL.

i think he meant Springfield, Oh Hiya Maude!

Ah, probably right. I'm a bit fuzzy on my random state capitals these days. :-)

Springfield IL was what I had in mind, but I didn’t specify that. I used to live in Chicago, so to me “Springfield” obviously meant IL, but in retrospect I should’ve been more clear.

Raleigh is a college town around the college (Western Blvd to Hillsborough St) for sure, but there are enough tech jobs (Citrix, Red Hat, many smaller shops) and state government to keep things going regardless of how universities are affected.

This is to say nothing of RTP and other areas outside of downtown.

Raleigh is well-positioned to handle this and while NC State is a huge draw, not the only game in town.

Out of the three cities in the research triangle I'd say Raleigh is the least like a college town. I'd expect Chapel Hill to be much more affected by this with the impact on Durham being somewhere between the other two cities.

Champaign-Urbana IL, pictured in the article but not named, is characteristic of a campus that I think will be impacted. 32,000 undergrads, 14,000 graduate students, tons of research departments, and increasing (til now) corporate satellites.

Bryan/College Station is already growing beyond A&M for sure, even outsourcing companies like Cognizant are opening offices there, not to mention the oil (that might be a big if now of course) jobs around.

I don't see this at all. Bryan/College Station exist entirely because of A&M, and these towns would do the same as almost every other small town in that area if it weren't for A&M.

What he's saying is that BCS is in it's infancy stages as a city. It's starting to draw in more jobs.

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