Twelve things about Austin

1. Austin is the state capital of Texas.
   
2. It's the 11th largest city in the U.S., with a population of nearly a million people.
3. It's also one of the fastest-growing U.S. cities (fastest in the nation in 2015).
4. The weather is mild to hot.  See the table at right.
5. Austin is politically liberal.  Clinton beat Trump by more than 2 to 1 in Travis County in 2016, and Obama beat Romney 60% to 32% in 2012.  As is true across the U.S., the cities are blue and the suburbs/rural areas are red.
6. Crime is low, at least by U.S. standards.  Austin ranks 71st in violent crime among cities with 100,000 or more people, and 40th for property crime. (source)
7. The education level is high.  Austin is the 9th-most educated city in the U.S., partially a result of having three universities here as well as two more in neighboring cities.
8. It's a music mecca.  There are shows all over town, seven nights a week.  For musicians, that means there are always people to play with and it's easy to start a band, but the competition means that it's tough to make a living at music, especially with the high cost of living.  Which leads us to...
9. It's expensive.  The cost of living is 17% higher than the national average.  Housing alone is 61% more expensive.
10. The transit system is lousy.  Unlike other cities of its size, Austin doesn't have light rail or a subway, just buses and a single hard-rail train that doesn't travel through the city's core.  It's hard to get around Austin without driving, which is why...
    
11. Austin has the fourth-worst gridlock in the country.
    
12. Austin is not bike-friendly.  The hills make biking difficult.  The populace is openly hostile to cyclists.  The hit-and-run rate in Austin is 50% higher than the national average, and about half the serious car-bike collisions are hit-and-runs.  The city officially lets cars park in many of the bike lanes.  WalkScore.com gave Austin a dismal Bike Score of 52 out of 100.  Twelve cities have bicycle boulevards, but not Austin.  The DWI culture is so strong that the alternative weekly newspaper included "Best DWI Lawyer" in its annual reader's poll.