Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

texasmonthly.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 502 posts

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#31

Post by travisjungroth »

geoduck14 wrote: post #13
ryandrake wrote: post #3

Real estate law has this concept of “Coming to the nuisance” where if you know that there is some kind of “nuisance” nearby and you move next to it anyway, you can’t complain about it later. I’m not a lawyer so I’m probably pedantically wrong about it in some way but that’s my understanding of it. People do this with small local airports all the time. They move in, knowing full well (or should know full well) that th…

There is an asphalt factory 10 miles from where I live, on the access road to a major highway, and in the middle of lots of urban development. The factory has been around since the mid 80s. There is a nearby new housing development with residents complaining about the air pollution (apparently it is really smelly) - and their response is "yeah, we've been here since before you were born, so whatev". It cracked me up.…

> Edit: Oh! I almost forgot, there are people who built their house next to a NASCAR track! WHO thinks that is a good idea?

People who don’t mind noise and want to make a shitload of their mortgage back on Airbnb.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#32

Post by wutbrodo »

chrisco255 wrote: post #5

"The new arrivals have forced many Black residents to move out of the city: In 2000, about 10 percent of the Austin’s 656,000 residents were Black. By 2017, that percentage had dropped to around 7.5" Well, article definitely commits a statistical fallacy there. Austin is one of the fastest growing cities, especially from 2000-2017 period. The fact that the percentage went down (from 9.5 to 7.5), while the city's popu…

I'm not surprised. The article struck me as particularly amateurish, which is unfortunate because the situation is an unusually nuanced and interesting one on a topic that's constantly talked about.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#33

Post by wutbrodo »

ryandrake wrote: post #3

Real estate law has this concept of “Coming to the nuisance” where if you know that there is some kind of “nuisance” nearby and you move next to it anyway, you can’t complain about it later. I’m not a lawyer so I’m probably pedantically wrong about it in some way but that’s my understanding of it. People do this with small local airports all the time. They move in, knowing full well (or should know full well) that th…

> They move in, knowing full well (or should know full well) that there is an airport there, then a year later they bitch and moan about the noise and try to shut it down.

Would this be relevant for something that is in violation of the letter of the law? I ask this purely legally, as the ethical question of community rights and the tyranny of bureaucracy is a separate one.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#34

Post by olivermarks »

A variation of this rinsing out of any local culture is going on in Sacramento County California, where arguably gentrification has resulted in a 2019 autocratic edict that residents are not allowed to work on cars in their homes except fluid changes, with fines if you are found to have professional tools on the premises.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/it-is-illegal-to...

Since Sacramento County is approx 50% white, 50% hispanic/black, a case can be made this is a racist law given the relatively high number of hispanics and black who work on their cars, including car clubs such as the Austin tradition.

This is culturally very unhealthy given how fundamental freedom of movement is to the US zeitgeist, and how important car culture is as the core of US life.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#36

Post by adjkant »

At the general level, I doubt anyone is surprised to see this story, and there will likely be more to come as tech flocks to Austin (though it was already a notable tech hub with some of these pressures already before the billionaires decided to give it the seal of approval).

To me, the more interesting question here is how does Austin avoid what happened to SF, where tech hollowed out nearly all of its existing culture and then tech workers began to complain it was bland.

Real estate and zoning policy is going to be key here. I've seen a decent deal of discussion about "Yuppie Fishtanks" [0] recently and generally it seems to be supported that massively increasing the housing supply is one of the best ways to keep rents intact and avoid hollowing gentrification. For the existing Austin residents here, how is the city approaching it thusfar? Do people think this is another SF gentrification story in the making, or is something different?

[0] http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2018/07/yimbyism-explaine...

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#37

Post by wahern »

gowld wrote: post #21
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #15

alas, these Austin locals did not learn the SF lesson, real estate lesson 101 As soon as foreigners invade your shores (er, real estate spaces) move to grandfather a cap property tax that is particularly beneficial for long time real property owners. I understand that at first, this would do nothing to alleviate the attack on the local culture. The same foreigners would still call the cops. Yet, with enough time, the…

Renters don't get to profit from real estate appreciation. That's the problem with gentrification.

Many areas of Texas and California have had large, stable, resident latino communities for over a hundred years or more, and thus far greater percentages of property ownership than in most other areas.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#38

Post by shiftpgdn »

wutbrodo wrote: post #32
chrisco255 wrote: post #5

"The new arrivals have forced many Black residents to move out of the city: In 2000, about 10 percent of the Austin’s 656,000 residents were Black. By 2017, that percentage had dropped to around 7.5" Well, article definitely commits a statistical fallacy there. Austin is one of the fastest growing cities, especially from 2000-2017 period. The fact that the percentage went down (from 9.5 to 7.5), while the city's popu…

I'm not surprised. The article struck me as particularly amateurish, which is unfortunate because the situation is an unusually nuanced and interesting one on a topic that's constantly talked about.

Texas Monthly has a strong political agenda over anything else. They don't do much serious reporting other than overly dramatic fluff stories.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#39

Post by fortran77 »

gowld wrote: post #19
Bukhmanizer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That stood out to me too. I didn’t know the exact figures, but the peculiar wording of it felt like the author was trying to slip one by me.

It's more likely that author doesn't even understand what they are writing, and is just grasping at factoids to mock up an argument.

Facts don't matter for certain people. That being said, I'm sympathetic to the people who like to parade and show off their custom cars. I used to see that in California when I first moved here. No drag racing, or dangerous stunts, just people driving cars slowly down the street.
Post reply on HN