Actually, no, not at all. Austin is the a$$h*le of the country. Despite the stereotypes of San Francisco, there are only some areas that are messed up. Much of the city is rich, beautiful, having scenic views and many upscale neighborhoods with trendy restaurants, stores and museums, beaches, trails, lakes and gardens. The crappy areas are limited to a few downtown neighborhoods.
Austin is more like Berkeley California. Ugly, a bunch of young bums and a few strips of mediocre stores and bars. I've been to Austin many times, and there is pretty much nothing there, similar to Berkeley with a college campus and young students wandering around. Austin is a wannabe town, and nothing more.
Thank goodness for online shopping so we don’t have to drive to Austin. The malls just aren’t worth the hassle. The traffic is horrible. You can’t pay me enough to go to Sixth St. and I’d rather do the touristy thing in San Antonio. And it has sprawled out miles and miles and miles. Glad it didn’t get Amazon or it’d be 10 times worse.
The only time we go now is just to take care of paperwork that has to be done in person and medical so nothing for fun. It gets more depressing each time. 4-5 years ago was the worst. It had a downright creepy weird vibe. Very communist. 1970s Russia was more cheerful, btdt. Downtown offices were dark and dingy. Government and private office doors were locked and you had to call ahead to be allowed in or someone had to escort you and they acted like you were some weirdo just being there. Several had no directories at the elevators to discourage people from showing up unannounced.
Used to be a treat to eat out in the city and try something different. It’s been 10 years since we’ve done that. We don’t even take time to eat when we HAVE to be there. It’s get what needs done and get the heck out as fast as possible.