Fantastic Family Living

Texas boasts 10 of America's best cities for families, and Austin's one of them

Plano scores again as the country's second-best place to raise a family, according to WalletHub.

Photo courtesy of Texas Health Resources

Family friendliness is, for some people, top of the list when they're looking for where to settle down and buy a home. But how exactly do you measure that?

WalletHub recently analyzed the 150 most populated cities in America based on 30 key metrics that indicate whether an area is good or bad for families. Things such as the relative cost of housing, the quality of local school and healthcare systems, and the opportunities for fun and recreation were considered.

The results? Ten Texas cities rank among the 30 best for families.

Plano nabbed the No. 2 spot. It has the highest median family salary (when adjusted for cost of living and the most affordable housing (which we already knew). Its divorce rate and percentage of families living below the poverty line are also some of the lowest around.

Austin comes in at No. 22 on the list.

As for the other family-friendly Texas towns, Grand Prairie came in 10th overall, followed by Amarillo (12), Arlington (13), Fort Worth (16), Corpus Christi (19), Irving (20), Lubbock (22) and Garland (28).

WalletHub says the overall best place for families to live is Overland Park, Kansas. (Overland Park and Plano are Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on Livability's list too.) Rounding out the top five are Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The worst? Jackson, Mississippi.

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From Music to Park Maintenance

New basketball court and more changes for Austin parks from ACL Fest funds

Photo courtesy of Austin Parks Foundation

Dottie Jordan Neighborhood Park also received a grant for youth tennis programming.

Yes, Austinites do need to give up their favorite park during the Austin City Limits Music Festival each year. But grants derived from festival revenue get spread around to improve Austin's parks throughout the year. Austin Parks Foundation (APF) has announced this year's grant recipients and what that will mean for those parks, including a new basketball court, dog park amenities, and more.

The ACL Music Festival Grants this year total more than $600,000. A press release specifies that the funds go toward '"improvements and amenities identified by community members and park adopters." Those upgrades are split into two categories; $500-$5,000 projects get Neighborhood Grants, while larger projects have no upper limit. However, the funds are reserved for "specific amenities or improvements" and not major redesigns.

"These grants are in addition to the millions of dollars APF invests in our parks each year, ensuring that our parks continue to serve individual neighborhoods," said APF CEO Colin Wallis in a press release. "Each project represents a partnership between APF and dedicated community members who intimately understand their neighborhoods' needs. The strength of these grants lies in their direct connection to community vision and their proven effectiveness in creating lasting positive change across Austin."

The timeline for the projects in this round of funding varies. Some are finished, some are in final stages, and some others are yet to come.

Two projects are already complete. The Onion Creek Dog Park now has new limestone block seating ($4,870) so that dog owners can rest while their pets roam off-leash. Georgian Acres Neighborhood Park completed a small task in commissioning a Little Free Library ($800) that was painted by a local tattoo artist.

Two more projects are seeing the horizon on their efforts. The Clarksville Community Garden is creating the Haskell House Heritage Garden, which is located near the preserved late-1800s home with ties to multiple generations of Black Austinites. It'll also include interpretive signage, invasive bamboo removal, and updates to the irrigation system ($26,900). The Elisabet Ney Museum, which is currently closed for major renovations, got support for its landscape overhaul and connection to the Shipe Park next door ($25,000).

Finally, three more are coming soon. Roy G. Guerrero Metropolitan Park received the largest grant by far, totaling $550,000. It'll get a new basketball court and a shade structure, which is a direct reaction to local needs since the Montopolis community recently lost three courts. The new one is in the works at the end of Grove Boulevard and should be ready by the end of 2025.

More sports are coming to Dottie Jordan Neighborhood Park in the form of youth tennis programming ($6,100), while a new mural commissioned by the East Austin Youth Foundation honors community leader L.D. Washington at Rosewood Neighborhood Park ($4,000).

These grants aren't the only way APF benefits from ACL sales, which also support capital projects and volunteer days for taking care of the parks through actions like picking up litter, including It's My Park Day. The grants are offered twice a year; the next deadline for proposed projects is April 1.

festivals parks grants