South Austin vs North Austin - which is cooler?

[mark311]

Originally Posted by jobert

so you can be south of downtown, and still be in "north Austin"?

Why do some folks in north Austin try to claim that entire side of the river? That's like saying everything north of the Trinity River is North Dallas.

Not really, but if you are telling someone where something is on Lamar, you would be sure to say North Lamar if it's North of the River. The purpose of this thread was probably to argue how much better South Austin is over North Austin, but people always include SoCo as part of South Austin. SoCo doesn't qualify as an affordable alternative to North Austin anymore and just because it's South of the River, does that mean it's "South Austin" still in 2009? Go to the intersection of Brodie Lane and William Cannon in South Austin and compare that to an area of North Austin or even to SoCo. My point was that you can't compare the areas as a whole. You can pick specific areas, but you can't accurately make any general statements between "North Austin" and "South Austin".

[TexasHorseLady]

And then there's the whole "Central Austin", which is everything from Anderson down to Ben White, just to confuse the issue. Barton Hills, for example, and Zilker, are definitely Central Austin, as is Bouldin and Travis Heights - they're just the "south of the river" part of Central Austin. And Allandale and Hyde Park and Crestview and such are definitely Central Austin, just the "north of UT" part of Central Austin.

[ATX Homeboy]

Originally Posted by jobert

I've also found that the compass directions N/S/E/W do not apply to Austin until you rotate the city about 30 degrees clockwise when referring to any direction.

for example:

The Arboreteum is due north of downtown, but is in NW Austin
Onion Creek is 10 miles south and 2 miles west of downtown, but is in SE Austin
Sunset Valley is 5 miles south and 6 miles west of downtown, but still considered South Austin

Technically (Geographically) you are correct. The River runs from the NW to the SE.

Historically and demographically, however, the river divides North from South.