71–77 of 77 posts
I spent 8 months on a death march of a project that colored Austin for me but that aside, infrastructurally, Austin sucked getting around and didn't have a ton to offer that didn't revolve around UT (6th primarily) or Rainey. The public transit (what is that streetcar thing even?) is horribly underdeveloped and heavily car dependent. Downtown is "bridge and tunnel"-y. Maybe if I had ventured out to the burbs more, I…
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Honestly, Tulsa and Oklahoma City are pretty darn good these days and represent good options for a lot of people. Oklahoma also sneakily has a lot of great outdoor recreation and some of the best bouldering in the U.S. Oklahoma is interesting, it's got some unique issues but I feel like most people born there never really leave.
This sounds like Louisiana.
I understand the nostalgia for a youth and place that is gone, but it’s interesting to point out in one sentence — “Austin was beset by racial divisions” and in the next paragraph discuss the hope that the city would institute strict zoning to keep out newcomers or as the writing says “if we won’t build it, they won’t come”. So much of this piece is dedicated to the problem of housing, but ignored is the problem in i…
It's bizarre when people only move to a city AFTER it's been deemed the new "It" city - then complain about how unlivable it is. The point is to find a city you like before it gets saturated. My bet is on Chicago next.
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> - The City Council here is undoubtedly the worst part of the problem. They consistently buckle to NIMBYs, and allocate money in just unreasonably idiotic ways. ("No one riding the train that cost $1.1 billion? Easy fix! Spend $7 billion more!") They are making the change much more painful. Are you referring to Project Connect here? Right now nobody rides the train, but the answer to that problem _is_ to spend more…
They spent $1.1 billion on the first round of the train, and in FY2021 it brought in $55,000 in gross fares. We won’t be able to spend our way to adoption at that rate. And people aren’t going to adopt public transit in a city built around cars (93.4% of Austin families own a vehicle). Sounds like we both wish mass public transit was the reality, but sadly it’s just not realistic.
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Not bad points but you didn't mention how incredibly friendly and safe the city of Austin is. Austin bashers always fail to mention the intangibles that make Austin Austin.
> incredibly friendly This has NOT been my experience as a relatively recent resident. Literally the first questions anyone you meet asks is (A) when you moved here, (B) from where, and (C) why. One of the first people I met practically spat in my face when I told her I moved for work in tech, possibly saved only by the fact that I didn't move from CA. I don't blame them for the hostility, they're being priced out of…
The governor of Colorado at the time was a native of Wisconsin, and had a generally anti-growth platform.