Hyde Park, Austin, TX

Hyde Park is often mentioned as having a "front porch" policy, meaning many of its residents spend many hours on their front porches, talking and catching up with neighbors. As with many of the city's areas, Hyde Park has a varied array of people who reside here, including University of Texas faculty and graduate students, as well as young professionals and local business owners. Hyde Park definitely has a friendly and very neighborly population, with neighbors helping neighbors whenever they can.

Hyde Park's social scene is definitely very laidback and casual. You won't find many dive bars or dance clubs here, rather, the social scene revolves around meeting a friend for a cup of coffee at Quack's 43rd Street Bakery or Flightpath Coffeehouse or having brunch at Hyde Park Bar and Grill. Vegetarians and heath food lovers alike flock to the famous Mother's Cafe and Garden, which serves delicious and fresh fare. Those looking for an amazing gourmet meal without all the fuss in their neighborhood can check out Asti Trattoria, serving some of the best pasta, pizza and entrees in the area. Residents can kick back and try some different wines and Vino Vino, a great wine bar. If you're not hungry for food, Hyde Park also sports its own award-winning theatre. Of course, a large part of the social scene of Hyde Park is just getting together with neighbors for an inpromtu dinner party or drinking some beers on a back patio on a cool night.

Without doubt, the rents are pricey here in Hyde Park. But, the good news is that many apartments and homes in the neighborhood are newly renovated and very well taken care of, so while you might be paying for the location, you're also getting a high quality place to live, too. Hyde Park is definitely one of the most popular places to live in Austin, and it's because the area is close to UT and a short drive or bus ride to downtown, not to mention gorgeous-looking. Rents can very pretty wildly, with smaller apartments in the $650-$900 range and larger or nicer apartments easily going over $2500 a month. While there are plenty of actual apartment complexes in the neighborhood, Hyde Park also offers a large number of garage apartments of small duplexes in the area. The average price of home for sale in the area is anywhere from the low $300,000s - $450,000s, but there are also million dollar homes in the neighborhood.

With several major roads running through it, like Guadalupe, Red River and Duval, Hyde Park traffic can get congested during peak times. But, with several streets sporting bike lanes, biking is a sometimes faster and safe option in the neighborhood. Hyde Park is definitely a bike area, so be sure to be extra careful driving through it. A few bus lines do run through Hyde Park, and direct access to UT and downtown is relatively painless. You can find more information on the Capital Metro website. Residential parking is ample and usually confined to driveways and the streets, which most are wide enough to accommodate both driving and parking on both sides of the street. Only a few areas with dense businesses activity become difficult to park in, but almost always parking can be found on residential streets neighboring the businesses.

Craigslist and other traditional apartment locating resources are a fine way to find places to rent in Hyde Park. But because so many people want to live in the area, it can be pretty competitive. You might want to consider hiring an apartment locator (which work for commission and so are free to you) or even checking community boards at local businesses. Deals can be found in Hyde Park, but you have to dig pretty hard for them.

Hyde Park is certainly a pet neighborhood. Any given time of the day you'll find dogs being walked, cats napping lazily on front porches or even chickens and roosters pecking around certain yards. Streets are wide enough to safely walk your pet and the geography is hilly, but overly so. You and your pets will get a good exercise on a walk. No leash-free dog parks exist in Hyde Park yet, but there are numerous green spaces where your dog can get some grass-time in. While not within walking distance, Hyde Park is centrally located enough to be within driving distance of greenbelts and dog parks like Red Bud Isle. For any emergencies or illnesses, there are three to four vet offices within close proximity of Hyde Park neighborhood.

Because of the great amount of history of Hyde Park, there are numerous historical things to do around the area. Museums like the Elisabet Ney Museum, Col. Monroe M. Shipe House and Hildreth-Flanagan-Heierman House educate visitors about some of the influential first residents of Hyde Park neighborhood. A tour of the Shadow Lawn Historic District will give a great view of the neighborhood how it stood when it first began. Hyde Park also boasts an annual historic homes tour. Festivals like the annual Fire Station Festival are exciting and draw visitors from all over the city. Residents looking for more exercising entertainment are lucky to have the Hancock Golf Course so close to the neighborhood. And while not quite in the neighborhood, the new Triangle Development is very close, and features restaurants, shopping, spas and a weekly farmer's market.

It's hard to recommend one are of Hyde Park. There really is beautiful architecture and landscapes and interesting things to see in nearly every area of the neighborhood. Probably a resident favorite would be the Duval Street area. Featuring local businesses mentioned above like Quacks, Mother's, Hyde Park Bar and Grill and Asti, it's a dense area with a lot to offer. The Duval area of businesses is located roughly between 40th street and 43rd street on Duval Street.

Even though it's a historic neighborhood, Hyde Park is lucky to have modern conveniences, like the Hancock Shopping Center, featuring a large HEB grocery and lots of other amenities and eateries. Smaller grocery staples of the neighborhood are the original Avenue B Grocery & Market‎, Pronto Food Mart‎  and Fresh Plus Grocery‎.

Hyde Park features many gym and athletic options, like a 24 Hour Fitness‎, Still Point Aikido Center‎, and Maximum Results Fitness Studio‎, but certainly the neighborhood favorite has to be Hyde Park Gym‎. Sporting a huge arm lifting weight statue on its front, you can't miss this no frills, no contract gym. It's small, but more than makes up in personality.

University Federal CU‎ and Washington Mutual‎ are two large walk-in banks in the neighborhood and a few ATMs can be found sprinkled around the neighborhood.

The area has a few dry cleaners, like Austin Cleaners‎ and Mesa Cleaners‎.

Two main pharmacies, Walgreens‎ and HEB Pharmacy‎ service the area.

Hyde Park is definitely a very family friendly neighborhood. With low crimes and helpful neighbors, you often see kids running around the front yards playing and laughing. Not boasting many major schools, Hyde Park is definitely an area of small, well-run schools. Some schools in the area are: Huntington-Surrey High School‎, Ridgetop Elementary School‎, Sri Atmananda Memorial School‎, Griffin School‎, and the Montessori Center‎, to name a few.

There are also plenty of churches to choose from, such as Hyde Park Baptist Church‎, Hyde Park United Methodist Church‎, Trinity United Methodist Church‎, Hyde Park Christian Church‎, Red River Church‎ and many more.