Don't worry, be happy... more ›

Author Richard Florida and demographer Gary Gates compiled information to rank the country's top twenty gayest cities for The Daily Beast. The rankings were based on Gates' "Gay/Lesbian Index Value," which quantifies how the proportion of same-sex couples in a given metro area compares to the average for the entire U.S. For example, An index value of 2 would mean that a metro area has twice the number of same sex households as the national average. more ›

Pop culture travel site Jaunted.com took a stab at ranking the nation's Five Best Airports across the country to get your Fast Food Fix and—surprise, surprise—ABIA makes the cut. more ›

Austin beat out Manchester, New Hampshire for the ninth spot in a new ranking of America's Most Dangerous Cities for Drivers. The Insurance.com study incorporates various metrics, such as number of fender benders and incidents of vandalism of theft. Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York were left out, as the website has no insurance quote data for those states. When it came to the Least Dangerous Cities, three other Texas cities made the list—Harlingen (#6), Sherman (#15), and Corpus Christi (#16). The full list is reposted after the jump. more ›

The latest Airport Service Quality passenger survey ranks Austin-Bergstrom International Airport the best airport in North America. more ›

Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, Austin's best place to play chicken shit bingo, earned the dubious distinction of being listed among Comedy.com's "20 Worst Bars In America" list. Others on the list include The Big Easy Social & Pleasure Club in Houston, a dive in Phoenix that "smells like puked up urine," and a laundromat-plus-bar in Chicago. (Thanks Annie) [20 Great Bars to Throw Up In] [Ginny's] more ›

Austin might lag slightly behind Dallas when it comes to popular cities where people would like to live, but when it comes to smarts, there's no comparison: a recent study by The Daily Beast ranks us as 12th most intelligent among major metropolitan areas. more ›

On behalf of this staff of writers, photographers and section editors, we'd like to offer our heartfelt thanks to you guys for voting us Best of Austin for the fourth year in a row! Like in 2008, our incredible readers voted us 'Best Local Blog' and 'Best Local Entertainment Website' for 2009; we're truly honored, and vow to keep up our daily coverage of what's going on around town. more ›

A recent ranking of pet-friendly cities by Rent.com puts Austin in sixth place, for such amenities as Zilker Botanical Gardens and off-leash parks. more ›

Olivia, the upscale eatery on South Lamar that, in true South Austin fashion, sits next to a former porno mag shop and a taxidermy store, has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Best New Restaurants in America by Bon Appetit magazine. more ›

Travel + Leisure magazine's annual “America’s Favorite Cities” survey is out and accepting submissions now. Last year, Austin tied with New Orleans for "Live Music/Bands," and took the number two spots for the “Athletic/Active” and “Friendly” categories. This year, the magazine's added five new contenders to the list: Cleveland, Houston, Kansas City, Providence, and St. Louis — the latter, if you recall, having already been compared to Austin earlier this year. Now's your chance to chime in on how Austin stands when it comes to such qualities as "Singles/Bar Scene," "Environmental Awareness," "Intelligent People" and much more. The survey closes July 31. [America's Favorite Cities 2009] more ›

A new survey by Priceline.com ranks Austin's downtown area as the 13th hottest destination for Memorial Day vacationers. As the rankings are based on hotel bookings, other cities on the list are listed multiple times, split into various districts — New York City, for example, is listed no fewer than four times among the top 15. Among cities, Austin is the 9th most popular for this upcoming holiday. [Austin Business Journal] more ›

Texas continued its downward descent in the "Annual Health Rankings" published by the United Health Foundation, dropping from 37th to 46th in the United States. more ›

Forbes magazine's latest survey of America's Best-Value Cities places Austin at the top of the list, thanks to our stellar job growth projections (also ranked at #1), low inflation rating (#24), and respectable median cost of living rank (#5). We weren't the only place in the Lone Star State to earn such recognition, either: San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston are all among the top ten. more ›

This couple has so far cost HEB $10,000 in forged checks. Cyclist who ran a red light at N. Lamar and Rundberg is in the hospital after being hit by a police car. Billy Carroll will be granted a public defender after all. Authorities trying to piece together what caused a bus full of Vietnamese religious pilgrims from the Houston area to crash near Sherman this morning. more ›

In the August issue of Hispanic Magazine, Austin is listed as one of the Top Ten Cities for Hispanics. This is the seventh year our city has been included on the list, which remarks on the importance of education to our city, the moderate cost of living here, and Austin's dedication to the environment. The magazine says that our fair city has earned "a reputation as a place that not only supports artists, but where artists can make a living at their craft." more ›

Austin drivers are the worst in Texas, according to a new report from Allstate Insurance Co. Their recent analysis found that Austinites, on average, enjoy about 7.4 years between collisions, and are over 35% likelier than other Americans to get in an accident. El Paso and Fort Worth, on the other hand, were repeatedly among the top ten cities with the best drivers, when ranked according to gender and age. [Data] more ›

Yesterday the EarthLab Foundation announced its annual list of the top 10 greenest cities in America. Austin ranked 9th in this year's list. The list is compiled by sampling the one million plus users of the website's carbon and lifestyle calculator that has been featured in Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The Eleventh Hour, at the 2007 Emmy Awards, and by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. more ›

At least that's according to Travel + Leisure magazine, which just released its annual rankings of America's Favorite Cities, as based on a survey taken by over 60,000 people. Austinites are ranked as the fourth Most Attractive, and first in "Overall" characteristics. The results, presented from both the visitor and resident's perspective, also give a pretty accurate general indication of how we feel about the state of things here, from what we're most jazzed about... more ›

Austin and Round Rock bested nearly 400 metropolitan areas to be named the number one place for business in the country, according to results recently released by independent research firm Economy.com. Since 2001, Economy.com has published the Economic Vitality Index, a closely-watched ranking of the nation's largest metropolitan areas based on current economic conditions, future trends, and potential risks. The Index also takes into consideration such factors as employment growth (Austin's job market grew by... more ›

A recently released survey by the Corporation for National & Community Service ranks Austin as having the third highest rate of volunteerism in the nation, bested only by Minneapolis-St Paul and Salt Lake City. more ›

According to the 2007 Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report™, Austinites get into more crashes than drivers in any of the 20 other Texas cities on the list. Austin ranked 179 out of 197 cities nationwide and Austin drivers are 31% more likely to get into a crash than the average American driver. Motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans aged 4 to 34. more ›

Kiplinger released their picks for the top 5 cities for young singles, and Austin is among them. D.C. is their first pick; we actually place in the middle of the rankings (between Denver, CO and Raleigh, NC). Kiplingers views folks ages 25 - 29 as "young singles," and places Austin on the higher end of their Bohemian Indicator (which means we have a larger amount of people involved in the arts than the national average). By their calculations, given our artsy scene and the somewhat decent cost-of-living here, Austin is a nifty town to live solo and young in. Here's the full list of the top 5:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Denver, CO
3. Austin, TX
4. Raleigh, NC
5. Lexington, KY

We all know that Austin is a great city for kids looking to date around or have a drink, but according to a new study, it's also among the top ten job markets for college grads. Bizjournals, the national publisher of metropolitan business newspapers with branches in over forty cities, reports that current economic conditions couldn't be better for the million-plus college seniors entering the workforce this year. "The outlook this year is very good,"... more ›

We realize that we often harp on about street-level retail, but it looks like we're justified in doing so: Austin recently ranked second in Prevention magazine's list of the top 10 "most walkable" American cities. Citing each city's use of mass transit, the percentage of folks who walked for exercise, parks and points of interest per square mile, climate, and (oddly enough) how many athletic shoes were sold, the list was heavily skewed towards states... more ›

Despite lackluster sales growth and a stock price that plummeted nearly 40% last year, Whole Foods Market was again rated highly among Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. The annual rankings puts the organic food mecca in fifth place overall, and number two among large companies. Tech firm National Instruments was the only other Austin-based company making it onto Fortune's list, coming in at 86th place. more ›

Hot on the heels of Emo's being listed as one of Playboy.com's top rock clubs, Nightclub & Bar magazine today published their annual Editors' Choice Top 100 rankings of bars and clubs in the country. VICCI and Stubb's BBQ both made the list. The two venues couldn't be more different: the former is a ritzy, bleached-blonde dance club in the swanky Warehouse District, while the latter serves up Texas-sized helpings of rock and roll... more ›

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Austin remains the nation's fifth safest large city, according to the latest annual rankings published by Morgan Quitno Press. The Lawrence, Kansas-based research firm placed Dallas and Houston on the other side of the spectrum -- both are among the country's most dangerous, at sixth and tenth, respectively. Meanwhile, our northern neighbors in Round Rock should be happy to know that they're still living in of the overall safest cities, despite dropping to thirteenth... more ›

We all know that "Austin City Limits" is one of the finest television shows in the country. The intimate venue provides an enchanting atmosphere in which musicians can feel at home. Ever since we started watching it as wee ones in the 70s, we've been in love. It seems others share our passion. Paste Magazine's The Best 24 Hours on Television issue has named "Austin City Limits" the best place for music on television. "Austin... more ›