When the council of experts selecting the country’s best towns includes a brewery owner and an executive from a pro-bike foundation, it comes as no shock that Austin made the list.
Not that anyone has been shocked by our city topping those charts for a while (this year Austin bumped Denver, Colorado from the No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Places to Live). This time around, it’s Outside magazine’s “Best Towns Ever: Where to Live Now,” recognizing the “25 Most Fit, Fun and Adventure Ready Towns” in its July issue.
Though native Austinites, forever nostalgic for that swifter commute and cheaper lunch, may groan every time a new list emerges and attracts out-of-towners in droves, we’re probably safe with this one. Austin only merited the somewhat dubious title of “Shoo-in.” Maybe the more charming superlatives will be of greater interest to readers, like the “Best Unsung Mountain Town” Salida, Colorado or the “Best Rebirth of the American Dream” Dayton, Ohio. (We agree with Outside magazine – seriously, live there please!)
And while Outside magazine’s press release describes Asheville, NC, as beyond peak cool, Austin gets a more meager evaluation: “Over the past decade, so many hipsters have migrated to the Texas capital that the population has swelled to more than two million in the metro area.” Not exactly going to sell our town like local real estate developers might like, but most native Austinites won’t complain. And if we just can’t leave it off the list, at least this treatment promises not to allure as many as a utopian-esque description might, the publicized characterization of Austin it seems locals and list makers alike are tired of by now.
This article appears in June 16 • 2017.