austin is wonderful

... and those of you who aren't blessed enough to live in this amazing city may not realize just how wonderful it is. i've heard time and time again from people who live here how austin is a very 'green' city and virtually 'recession-proof' and well, there's actual data backing up these claims.

in a recent survey/study conducted by popular science magazine, ranking cities on criteria including electricity, transportation, green living and recycling/green perspective, austin ranked in the top ten greenest cities in the united states and the greenest city in texas. austin ranks highest in the recycling/green perspective category with nearly a perfect score. surely, there's room for improvement in other areas, but these issues are actively being addressed by capital metro's efforts for increased ridership and austin energy's greenchoice program.

us news and world reports has also called austin one of the top ten green cities to retire in. these polls put austin in the company of such great cities as portland, chicago, and albuquerque.

austin is also considered by forbes magazine to be one of the top ten most 'recession-proof' cities in the country with its low unemployment rates, affordable housing prices and a growing tech sector.

with all these factors, i couldn't imagine that you'd want to live anywhere else. :)