How much longer does Austin have? (neighborhood, camp, to live)

[Port Pitt Ash]

With over 100 people a day moving in and an infrastructure scrambling to keep up how long do you think it'll be before what makes Austin special is lost/greatly diminished?

[love roses]

It's already happening.

[Raskolnikov]

It depends on how many more people move here who don't appreciate Austin and wish it to be more like California.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

With over 100 people a day moving in and an infrastructure scrambling to keep up how long do you think it'll be before what makes Austin special is lost/greatly diminished?

5 Years.

Then Austin will be special for different reasons that old timers don't want or need, but that newcomers will appreciate.

[Idlewile]

Originally Posted by love roses

It's already happening.

THIS. Some friends and I had a conversation about this recently. Everyone agreed that, even in the last few years, Austin has become less great every year. And now everyone is paying more to live here, putting up with more traffic and general angst for a place that's not that unique any longer... and missing things that other places with increasing traffic and higher COL offer.

I must say I am shocked by the severe uptick in 'Thinking of Moving to Austin' posts on here in the last two months too. There's always been a good drumbeat of these posts (I've been on this board for 5 years) but recently they have exploded. I have always been in the welcoming camp and shook my head and the "Don't' move here" movement. But at this rate, this place seems, well, doomed to lose everything that made it special and different in a good way.

[sxrckr]

Yep, already happening. Especially the last few years.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by sxrckr

Yep, already happening. Especially the last few years.

;

I chose to move to Austin in 1985, hoping to find it as I remembered it in the 60s-70s. It had already "boomed" by then to the point where I no longer felt I made the right decision. I left in 1997 when the new Samsung plant on NE side was built, ruining my quiet neighborhood and my enjoyable bike rides into the adjacent farm lands as they were being paved over and developed.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

With over 100 people a day moving in and an infrastructure scrambling to keep up how long do you think it'll be before what makes Austin special is lost/greatly diminished?

Already happened. There's still some "Austin" there, but as usual, it's hiding from the onslaught and you have to be really motivated to find it.

Originally Posted by Raskolnikov

It depends on how many more people move here who don't appreciate Austin and wish it to be more like California.

Or wherever else they came from.

[Port Pitt Ash]

I figured it was in trouble when a lot of people wanted to move there just because of the hype. Almost spent a year there to help out a friend who needed a roommate, but she couldn't cover her half for the areas I was looking at.

It'll probably be another TX city with over a million people before it is all said and done, but what type of city that'll be I have not idea.

[orngkat]

A long time ago whenever I visited out of state relatives or friends, they would ask me to describe Austin. The one word that always came to mind was laid-back. For newcomers who arrive from high stress places, perhaps it still is. After being here so long, I think that attribute is mostly gone. To me, it feels like a new culture is developing of people very concerned with money, status and appearance - anything but laid-back.