I lived there back in the late '70s, when it was only about one-quarter its current size. Back then, it was kind of like the Berkeley of the Southwest. Nowadays, it is more 'millenial'. In the '70s, if you wanted to live in a Yurt, or Teepee, or Geodesic dome, on the city's outskirts, you could. If you wanted to go skinny-dipping at 'Hippy Hollow', you could. Nowadays, I think there are laws against that stuff.

The University of Texass is there and it is the capital and it is progressive. But it has also gotten popular so housing and crowding is high. Also, if you don't mind the heat and all the nutty conservative politicians it might do.

As an Atheist, Austin would be my choice in Texas. I am originally from Houston. My only concern is It has been 35 years since I lived in Texas the predjudice culture and of course all the Religion.

Haven't been there since 1982, but it was pretty progressive for Texas even back then.

Amazing little city

It's a big live music city, but not my thing. It's in Texas, so not favorable for riding out climate change. It's also gerrymandered to uselessness. It can be the most progress city in the world, but something serious has the change before it is worthwhile.

The show, 'The Atheist Experience' is made there. There are a bajillion clips of it on youtube.

I was amazed to see palm trees when I visited

It's the most progressive city in Texas.

Houston is known for its diversity and has been called the most diverse city in the U.S. (https://patch.com/texas/houston/houston-named-most-diverse-city-u-s-recent-survey ).

What glennlab said is very true. It's like night and day when you compare metropolitan areas to rural ones.

Austin is possibly the most progressive city in Texas. Most of the major cities in Texas are progressive, it is the rural and smaller cities and towns that give Texas its conservative reputation. gerrymandering has insured that these rural areas maintain an out sized influence in the state.