Why Abilene, TX Is a Great Place To Live
If you’re looking for a community with a big heart, a low cost of living and a thriving civic and cultural life, take a look at Abilene, Texas.
This city of 120,000 people in West Central Texas is a living tribute to the pioneering spirit that settled the West and a modern community focused on the challenges of building a vibrant future. This is a city where friendly, welcoming people look after one another.
“Twenty-five years ago we were named an All American City because we are a community that is truly civic-minded. We’re about not just giving people fish, but making fishermen out of folks in our community,” says Anthony Williams, longtime city councilman and mayor pro-tem. “We believe in giving not a handout, but a hand up. It’s part of our DNA as a community.”
Williams, who was born, raised and attended college in Abilene, is passionate about his community’s attitude of caring, having benefited from it as a young child after his father’s death.
“A lot of folks in this community provided a hand up for me and my sisters,” he says. “We’re close as a community. There’s not a lot of racial unrest, not a lot of schism. We work together well.”
Stable, Consistent Economy
Founded as a center for the cattle business in the mid-1800s, Abilene today enjoys a stable economy largely based in agriculture and petroleum, though the area’s largest employer is Dyess Air Force Base, located 7 miles outside town.
The city was the first in Texas to institute a downtown redevelopment corporation, which invests a portion of tax revenues in attracting and retaining business. While Abilene did not profit from the fracking boom, neither has it encountered any of the problems that attended it elsewhere. The result has been consistent, manageable growth with a low cost of living and a stable economy.
Abilene’s two independent public school systems rank well above average, and the community is also enriched by such higher-education options as Abilene Christian University, McMurry University, Hardin-Simmons University, Cisco Junior College and Texas State Technical College.
“One of the great things about having a significant amount of college students in Abilene is that their excitement, their enthusiasm and their belief that they can conquer the world is infectious,” Williams says. “The diversification in our community provides discourse and makes the conversations richer.”
Cultural Life
Higher education also enhances the cultural life of the city. Abilene boasts a number of museums, including the Grace Museum, which includes a children’s museum, art museum and history museum in its downtown historic building. The well-respected Abilene Zoo is popular with locals and visitors, and the beautifully restored 1930s-era Paramount Theatre is a downtown gem that hosts film, theater, dance and opera performances, and more.
Abilene is also home to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, and the popular Frontier Texas!, a regional museum dedicated to Texas history and the area’s visitor welcome center. The richness of the cultural scene is one of Abilene’s outstanding features, Williams believes.
“For a community our size, Abilene has really invested in the fine arts. I really embrace that because it provides a larger picture of the world for our children,” he says. “We’ve done a good job there.”