"Austin Weird" (San Antonio, Round Rock: real estate, Home Depot, construction)

[0558053fudan]

talk about "Austin Weird"~ What makes the city "weird"?

[fil]

Have you looked at all of the weird people on the street corners in this town?

I've never seen so many pan handlers in one city and that's saying something. I think we're worse than Philly and Atlanta combined it's so weird to me.

[TheHarvester]

I have a visitor from California (who used to live in Austin) this week and she's been very happy to see that so much of what makes this a unique city is still thriving. But it's almost all concentrated in a couple zip codes. If you're looking for "Austin Weird" north of Koenig or west of Mopac, good luck. It's all about Bouldin, Soco, SoFi and the zip south of 04 now. That's where people have hunkered down to fight off the chain stores and generic developers. The rest of the city is a lost cause.

About panhandlers, I travel all over the country and I see them everywhere. Walk down lower State Street in Santa Barbara and you'll get aggressively panhandled. The big difference in Texas is that people are allowed to stand in the middle of huge intersections and other dangerous places so they're highly visible as you drive around. And we probably do attract a lot of people who don't fit in, as San Francisco does, and these folks often end up on the street. Teen runaways from all over the South Central US come to Austin, for example, because they know it's a safe place to be "weird" and meet other kids like them. Unfortunately this leads to a pretty high rate of drug abuse and other associated problems that you find anywhere there's a high concentration of aimless non-conformists, many of whom may have untreated mental illness or have been abused.

[mimimomx3]

There's a great guy who 'works' the NW part of the city...He's really tall/big with a huge beard and wild hair, our kids call him 'Hagrid' (from Harry Potter). His signs are pure genius..."Why work for a $200,000 house when you can live under a million dollar bridge for free?" and my favorite..."I don't suffer from mental illness..I enjoy it!" There are dozens more. We like to give him water bottles and food. Guy's got a sense of humor.

[love roses]

That IS pretty funny

[twange]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

There's a great guy who 'works' the NW part of the city...He's really tall/big with a huge beard and wild hair, our kids call him 'Hagrid' (from Harry Potter). His signs are pure genius..."Why work for a $200,000 house when you can live under a million dollar bridge for free?" and my favorite..."I don't suffer from mental illness..I enjoy it!" There are dozens more. We like to give him water bottles and food. Guy's got a sense of humor.

That's pretty funny I don't mind folks panhandling provided:

a.)They are reasonably polite and not aggressive or threatening
b.)They are willing to do some sort of service to get my money. For example, clean windows, help carry something, sweep floors etc...
c.)Make me either think or laugh with their wit. For example, the guy at Fisherman's Warf in San Fran who hides behind some hand cut branches, posing as a shrub who suddenly jumps up and scares the beJesus out of folks. Hilarious! I'll give him a dollar every time.

Oh, and if you are playing a musical instrument at least half-way reasonably.

Different cities seem to handle this differently. Here in Cleveland, they don't do anything...it's a real problem and is literally strangling the downtown center

[southaustingal]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

our kids call him 'Hagrid' (from Harry Potter). .

I've heard of him but have never seen him. He sounds like a remnant of weird old Austin, which is pretty much obliterated, IMO. I'm with TheHarvester on this one.

[southaustingal]

About Austin's lack of weird, about five years ago I was at a party with some friends who lived in Austin back in the late 70s and early 80s and were back in Austin to visit. They came back thinking they would find the Austin they left, despite the growth they heard about. All of them agreed that "Austin is too new, too trendy, and too corporate" and they realized they didn't want to move back and watch the change continue.

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by twange

I don't mind folks panhandling provided:

a.)...
b.)...
c.)...

Oh, and if you are playing a musical instrument at least half-way reasonably.

I'm glad you mentioned this. Buskers get my Benjamins. Ok, I lied, I don't give them $100, but I always give a buck if they're making a decent effort to play real music.

Last night when we were at First Thursday I made sure to drop a buck in the guitar case of every busker on the street. There were only 5 of them (as I recall) because the weather has been cutting down on the crowds at all outdoor events lately.

But there were people playing for tips who would have been famous and wealthy with that talent if they had been playing in the 1960s when all you needed was a basic sense of rhythm, a gimmick, and a knowledge of 4 chords on the guitar. There is so much musical talent in Austin, I've heard better music from homeless people playing on the street than I used to hear in concerts in the 1960s. I LOVE AUSTIN MUSIC!!!!

[mimimomx3]

Hagrid...yes, he is very 'wierd' Austin. He'll probably end up as a the subject of a coffee table book. There are probably people driving around with their digital camera at this very moment looking for him! The old, wierd Austin is still here...but it's well guarded and buried in Austin proper....there are tons of other things 'wierd' about Austin that just shouldn't be made mainstream.