From the Austin American-Statesman:

Austin struggling to recruit, retain black professionals

By Laylan Copelin 

American-Statesman Staff 

Central Texas is a fixture on national lists as one of the best places to live, work, start a business or retire. The region, according to its press clippings, is attractive whether you are young and single, gay or straight, or a retired couple. 

But not necessarily if you are black. 

“We’re on all those lists, but I’m not aware of Austin being on a list for African-Americans,” said Ashton Cumberbatch Jr., chairman of the Capital City African-American Chamber of Commerce. “Austin has never been marketed to blacks.”[More]

Austin is, traditionally, the most liberal metropolitan area in Texas, and has long been fashionable among the nicer sort of white people. When I was at Rice in Houston way back in the 1970s, for example, everybody at Rice thought Austin was much better than Houston. (Austin has some hills to provide scenery, there are some German-Americans to provide civic cooperativeness, and the huge UT supports popular music and a little bit of film culture: Terence Malick and Mike Judge live there. Idiocracy was made in Austin, which you can take one of two ways.)

In general, however, all else being equal, blacks seem to prefer the less liberal burghs, such as Houston (which is home to the biggest West African community). The Atlanta region in Republican Georgia has become particularly attractive to educated African-Americans. If you were a black college graduate and wanted to raise your children amidst other black college graduates, Atlanta would be near the top of your list, not Austin.