Everybody's Moving to Austin
No, it's not just your three friends from college and your ex-girlfriend and your cousin and those guys who used to be in your band: all the kids these days are moving to Austin, Texas. I heard Austin's cool, yeah.
From 2007-2009, more Americans aged 25-34 moved to Austin than to any other city. In that short period of time, they've all already learned how to operate food trucks and complain about how SXSW is "amateur hour."
The #2 destination city was Dallas, where all the young people who aren't cool moved.
[NYT. Photo via austinevan/Flickr]
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Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.I lived in Austin and I loved it, but the one thing I'm glad to be rid of is that damn cedar fever. I'll take the traffic (I live in LA now, so I'll definitely take the Austin traffic over this) and the hot summers and the torrential downpours and all the hipsters.... but that cedar fever is nasty stuff. Reply
Film Festivals, Spill.com, great food, awesome bars, the best live music scene in the country, celebrities all over the place, Alamo Drafthouses, and beautiful weather year-round?Yeah, who wouldn't want to live here? (seriously though, stop moving here - we're all stocked up and jobs are tough to come by)
And sorry Portland people... as much as you want to be us (even swiping our motto).. you just aren't. Have fun in your feet of snow and massive meth problems. Reply
gretchasketch approved this comment
Bioware is in Austin.This is the only thing that made me seriously consider it as an option. Looking at real estate and geography made me less of a fan. Reply
Paul_Is_Drunk promoted this comment
I moved away from Austin (I'm a native) this year. In my 23 years there, it's amazing how much that place has grown and how little the infrastructure can handle it. I mean there are still only 2 real highways and they're only 3 lanes. People say LA and Boston have bad traffic, but they have never tried to drive anywhere from 2 pm-7 pm in Austin. It also wasn't until recently that Austin's zoning laws allowed buildings taller than the capitol.That being said, I live in Denver now, and Denver sucks. Boulder is nothing like Austin. Nowhere is like Austin. And us expats sit around in our snobbery complaining about how everyone other than native Austinites (because non-native Austinites aren't as cool) suck. Reply
kansasgirl promoted this comment
Gawker,Please stop, just stop. You and the rest of the American media need to stop advertising how awesome our small town is - you are ruining it.
Yes, Austin is a small town and was built to be as such - hence the impossible traffic situation. We have very small highways with the city built right up to the roads. There is no correcting it without destroying tons of private property. There is no room for all the people that want to live here.
People somehow got it into their heads that there are jobs in Austin, well there isn’t, so turn around and go back. We have so many unemployed Californians that moved here with no job expecting to find one…who moves to a city with 0 job prospects?!?! Do people not realize that we have one of the largest universities in the country in Austin? Every year there are thousands of highly qualified graduates from UT and almost all of them want to stay in Austin…but can’t, because there aren’t any jobs. Even the food service industry is saturated.
You probably can’t afford to live here now, or at least ever afford to buy property here.
SXSW isn’t THAT cool…expect for partying all night with Bill Murray at Shangri-la, that was cool.
The point is, Austin simply cannot handle this influx of people. The urban sprawl is starting to become ridiculous. I’m sorry if you wanted to live here, but you are too late. We are at capacity.
Sincerely,
A Dirty Austin Hippy (Just kidding! I showered…yesterday) Reply
yourfriendandneighbor promoted this comment
I lived in Austin for several years in the 90's, cool town. Back then there were a lot of people talking about how Austin "isn't nearly as cool as it was back in the day," and I imagine there's a lot of that going on right now in some of these comments. Having said that, I've visited Austin a couple of times since I left, and I certainly found myself having some of those same curmudgeony thoughts, but I think that's just the jaded cynic in me.However, there was always something I found odd about Austin, and it basically boils down to this: It's "Stuff White People Like" made into a city - the East Side has the hipsters and all their annoying artifacts, and the West Side has the yuppies and the boho-yuppies, and all their annoying artifacts. It's a bastion of white liberal entitlement that is so smug about its own awesomeness that it's blissfully oblivious that, in that most Southern of traditions, it is an extremely racially segregated city , split down the middle by an interstate highway, and its wider cultural/arts life is Austria-white (and, of course, the city's working class neighborhood are being gentrified by the hipster scourge, pushing its largely minority population outside the city).
But if you dig on vegan food, like to pontificate about "smart growth," and can't get enough of The Decemberists, you'll have a ball. Reply
Dr. Lixx promoted this comment
This is why I visit Austin, but never stay. Or, stay in Lakeway and occasionally venture to Austin when feeling brave. Who the hell is moving to Dallas? I would give my right arm to get the hell out of here. Reply
That's my hometown, and this hurts. It really hurts, I tell you. All the sincere kookiness and laid-backness has now been replaced by a need to convert it to what outsiders thought Austin would be, to make it comfortable for them. Fuck those assholes. I moved to NY and every time I come back home, new gross shit is around. What's with that nasty-ass blue ribcage light thing on I-35? It's SO a not-at-all cleverly disguised way to keep homeless folks from sleeping under the highway. We used to park there for free, then we started getting charged $5, then $10, and now apparently you can't park there anymore?I miss the way it used to be (cliché phrase, I know), the not even distant past of SXSW when we'd go to shows for free, when it wasn't this douchebag self-important "VIP" scene-fest. Shit used to be fun, now it's all posturing and getting roofied by some out-of-town, spiked thinning hair, blazer with jeans and square-toed shoes wearing dickbag (personal anectdote). I miss when people used to be nice and open, and not sarcastic assholes paranoid that someone cool is watching their every move.
Fittingly, the photo is of a god-damn cupcake truck. I can't even eat cupcakes anymore, they've become this "thing": one day everyone suddenly was obsessed with cupcakes.
Sigh, this makes me so very sad. Reply
yourfriendandneighbor promoted this comment
I grew up in Austin. It was nice until too many 'cool' people moved in and made it very cliquish. So, we formed a 'secret' Austin known only to locals. It's called 'San Antonio'. Reply
And do you want to know why. Texas is one of the few states that doesn't have an income tax where every other state these days are raising their state taxes. Replymr_bannana promoted this commentEdited by jabber at 01/12/11 1:46 PM
I like this news, because it makes Austin attractive to hipsters in Houston. On the one hand, Houston gets fewer hipsters, which is always a good thing, but on the other hand Austin is becoming a hipster hellhole with overpriced tacos and housing. Reply
Austin is like any of the other many small college towns around the country. It seems magical and cool and in many ways they are, but ultimately everything revolves around the university and because of that it is limited.Honestly kids, if you want to truly do something then move to a place like NYC. The Austins of the country really are irrelevant when it comes down to it. Reply
Stop moving here! There's too many people as it is! It used to have a more cool, laid back feel to it, but it's turning more and more cosmopolitan by the day, especially with all those blasted condos they built downtown, and the ridiculous house prices in the neighborhoods near downtown that aren't worth the $500K for a teensy house.Think I'll move to Madison, WI. :-D Reply
AraRichards promoted this comment
Note to Californians, you won't like Austin so don't move here. We have locally owned businesses, only the 'burbs has the plethora of Applebees, Chilli's, Lowe's and homogenous/soul-less strip malls that you are looking for. So, just stay in California. Replyje suis prest promoted this comment
My 3 favorite t shirts
Keep Austin Weird
Keep Dallas Pretentious
Keep San Antonio Lame ReplyAraRichards promoted this comment
Nashville has always wanted to be like Austin when she grows up. ReplyPoodle_Heart promoted this comment
For the sake of my sweetheart, lived there for a winter. Knew a lot of long-time locals doing cool-for-Austin stuff. Great, right? No.
1. You have to drive EVERYwhere, and the traffic is horrid.
2. The old neighborhoods in the center of the city are reasonably okay, but the rest of the place might as well be Dallas, politically and otherwise.
3. Not a lot to eat. TexMex, forgive me, is Midwestern bland with a few jalapenos and lots of cheese. Yes, the food trucks are good...but that only goes so far in a place where you can't buy decent produce. Too damn hot in the summer to grow tomatoes, for instance.
4. Violent weather. Violent heat, violent rain, violent wind. Violent.
5. Slacker mentality cute, but incredibly irritating if you are trying to get anything done.
6. Any town in which I see a bumper sticker saying "I brake for ladybugs" is a town in which I cannot live. Replyfemme-bot promoted this comment
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Monday, January 17, 2011
Everybody's Moving to Austin
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