Growth in Austin is insane! (Dallas, Cleveland: house, to buy, school)

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by CapitalCityTodd

My wife has lived here for 25 years, and she still loves it as much as I do. Some people just can't take change, and EVERY city is always changing.

And I arrived in 1969. In fact, we moved to the ranch (because 4 horses and growing wouldn't fit on and weren't allowed on our lot 5 minutes from downtown Austin) probably just after your wife arrived (while still keeping our house in town), and it was endangered then.



Yes, change is inevitable. But there is good change and bad change. Whenever someone says or implies that change in inevitable, I always think of Clayton Williams, who lost the governorship of Texas by comparing weather to rape, saying "If it's inevitable, just lie back and enjoy it." Sorry, but I'm not inclined to and didn't lie back and enjoy rape (of myself or of the City of Austin). Its character has been bought and sold like a mess of pottage.

[Sedona Joe]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

And I arrived in 1969. In fact, we moved to the ranch (because 4 horses and growing wouldn't fit on and weren't allowed on our lot 5 minutes from downtown Austin) probably just after your wife arrived (while still keeping our house in town), and it was endangered then.



Yes, change is inevitable. But there is good change and bad change. Whenever someone says or implies that change in inevitable, I always think of Clayton Williams, who lost the governorship of Texas by comparing weather to rape, saying "If it's inevitable, just lie back and enjoy it." Sorry, but I'm not inclined to and didn't lie back and enjoy rape (of myself or of the City of Austin). Its character has been bought and sold like a mess of pottage.

Amen!

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by CapitalCityTodd

Well ... I mean, I would leave for Oregon/Colorado tomorrow if I could. The wife won't move so far from her family though ... and inside of Texas? There's nothing close to Austin for what I'm looking for in a city. I still think this is the best place in the state. Just too stupid hot ... but then that is the entire state. At least it's not doubled up with ridiculous humidity like it is in Houston.

Originally Posted by CapitalCityTodd

Obviously personal taste and all, these things are subjective. But as someone who lived in Houston for over 30 years, and whose children and grandchildren live there still so I'm back all of the time - I think it's a giant *&#@stain of a city that I would never willingly live in again. Traffic there is far worse than Austin. One of the ugliest cities anywhere. Of the 4 major metros in Texas, Houston is an extremely distant 4th to any of the other big 3.

I moved from Nashville to Austin in '75. You guys not experiencing Austin in the '70's have no idea of that legendary time and the charms of a small Austin with its big smorgasborde of entertinment and laid back diversions. You could go hear future famous people at Soap Creek Saloon where 360 and Bee Cave road now intersect. Or then famous people at the huge Armadillo World Headquarters and beer garden. You could ride your bike to the closest Good Food Store, all of which were in frame houses with trees and easy street access. The city was perfused with the sentiment "don't you just love it"

But about Houston. You know the watering restrictions in July/August up there, and droughts? We don't have them in Houston. I can keep my lawn green year round here. We can get rainstorms in August that take the temps down to 80 when you guys are at 98, admittedly causing humidity when it gets ack to the 90's. Plus Houston has a booming arts scene that Austin will never have nor any other city in the South for that matter. Yeah large parts of the city are ugly and any city with a gigantic lower middle class income population is going to have difficulty with beautification in those districts. But you know what? Those people need jobs and Houston provides for them. And parts are beautiful like the Museum District and residential neighborhoods inside the loop like Southhampton or West U or Bellaire or River Oaks or Upper Kirby. Austin nor any other Texas city have fabulous/ slightly funky urban districts comparing to The Heights or Montrose. More trees are planted every year in Houston than any other city in the country and it is becoming an urban forest. The city has probably a hundred miles or more of live oak lined streets like other Texas cities will never have. And frankly the shear vastness of the the place and its expansion is really mind blowing and does not detract from the historical character - unlike what growth has done to Austin. I find myself frequently asking questions of Houston natives about the history of the place, and I never did that in the two times I lived in Austin.

[Hopeful for Life]

Originally Posted by groovamos

I moved from Nashville to Austin in '75. You guys not experiencing Austin in the '70's have no idea of that legendary time and the charms of a small Austin with its big smorgasborde of entertinment and laid back diversions. You could go hear future famous people at Soap Creek Saloon where 360 and Bee Cave road now intersect. Or then famous people at the huge Armadillo World Headquarters and beer garden. You could ride your bike to the closest Good Food Store, all of which were in frame houses with trees and easy street access. The city was perfused with the sentiment "don't you just love it"

But about Houston. You know the watering restrictions in July/August up there, and droughts? We don't have them in Houston. I can keep my lawn green year round here. We can get rainstorms in August that take the temps down to 80 when you guys are at 98, admittedly causing humidity when it gets ack to the 90's. Plus Houston has a booming arts scene that Austin will never have nor any other city in the South for that matter. Yeah large parts of the city are ugly and any city with a gigantic lower middle class income population is going to have difficulty with beautification in those districts. But you know what? Those people need jobs and Houston provides for them. And parts are beautiful like the Museum District and residential neighborhoods inside the loop like Southhampton or West U or Bellaire or River Oaks or Upper Kirby. Austin nor any other Texas city have fabulous/ slightly funky urban districts comparing to The Heights or Montrose. More trees are planted every year in Houston than any other city in the country and it is becoming an urban forest. The city has probably a hundred miles or more of live oak lined streets like other Texas cities will never have. And frankly the shear vastness of the the place and its expansion is really mind blowing and does not detract from the historical character - unlike what growth has done to Austin. I find myself frequently asking questions of Houston natives about the history of the place, and I never did that in the two times I lived in Austin.

Shhhh!! Stop spreading the word about Houston. Let all the Californians continue to ruin Austin and DALLAS and leave Houston for us.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by groovamos

I moved from Nashville to Austin in '75. You guys not experiencing Austin in the '70's have no idea of that legendary time and the charms of a small Austin with its big smorgasborde of entertinment and laid back diversions. You could go hear future famous people at Soap Creek Saloon where 360 and Bee Cave road now intersect. Or then famous people at the huge Armadillo World Headquarters and beer garden. You could ride your bike to the closest Good Food Store, all of which were in frame houses with trees and easy street access. The city was perfused with the sentiment "don't you just love it"

But about Houston. You know the watering restrictions in July/August up there, and droughts? We don't have them in Houston. I can keep my lawn green year round here. We can get rainstorms in August that take the temps down to 80 when you guys are at 98, admittedly causing humidity when it gets ack to the 90's. Plus Houston has a booming arts scene that Austin will never have nor any other city in the South for that matter. Yeah large parts of the city are ugly and any city with a gigantic lower middle class income population is going to have difficulty with beautification in those districts. But you know what? Those people need jobs and Houston provides for them. And parts are beautiful like the Museum District and residential neighborhoods inside the loop like Southhampton or West U or Bellaire or River Oaks or Upper Kirby. Austin nor any other Texas city have fabulous/ slightly funky urban districts comparing to The Heights or Montrose. More trees are planted every year in Houston than any other city in the country and it is becoming an urban forest. The city has probably a hundred miles or more of live oak lined streets like other Texas cities will never have. And frankly the shear vastness of the the place and its expansion is really mind blowing and does not detract from the historical character - unlike what growth has done to Austin. I find myself frequently asking questions of Houston natives about the history of the place, and I never did that in the two times I lived in Austin.

plus houston is only 30 minutes (or less) from the coast.

I really do like houston and would def be willing to live there.

[ScoPro]

I thought it sucked when the old national guard armory that had been converted to a roller skating rink in the 1950s was taken over by Wilson and made into a hippie music venue. Lots of good high school memories were made while skating around with the girls.

[CapitalCityTodd]

Originally Posted by Austin97

plus houston is only 30 minutes (or less) from the coast.

I really do like houston and would def be willing to live there.

Galveston has the worst beaches I've ever seen anywhere. You couldn't pay me to go there 🤢🤢

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

I thought it sucked when the old national guard armory that had been converted to a roller skating rink in the 1950s was taken over by Wilson and made into a hippie music venue. Lots of good high school memories were made while skating around with the girls.

Yeah right all those hippies like Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willis Alan Ramsey, Charlie Daniels, they just ruined the place. They so much more boring than kids on skates.

[ScoPro]

I wasn’t into Country or Outlaw in the 60s, was a Beatles fan.

But learned to love Waylon in the 90s.

[Trainwreck20]

I can tell you that most of the people that lived here in the 80s - artists, musicians, students, etc - were all trying to achieve better than what they were living in at the time. Most were very poor and not thinking 'wow, we love being poor, I hope it stays this way!'. Yes, it was 'cheap', but we all had to have roommates and share costs and eat ramen noodles because you couldn't find a job that paid more than minimum wage. We scraped money together to pay the rent and buy gas. Yes, we also managed to have a lot of fun, but the fact that times were very difficult seem to be somehow forgotten. I had many a friend that couldn't afford to stay and finish school even back then. Others, like myself, busted our butts waiting tables and trying to make ends meet. Sure, we had some free time to enjoy Austin, but it definitely came at a price.

For people that had money, it was, of course, great - cheap music! No crowds! Lots of college kids! But that was not the experience of most of the 80s Austinites. Those of us that lived here back then decided we did want to stay. We ended up making some money. We wanted to buy a nicer house and actually raise kids w/o hookers walking down our street in S. Austin. The Austin now is as much a result of the 70s and 80s residents as it is a result of people moving here from elsewhere.

The real comparison is to look at the college-aged kids now and compare to then...are they still struggling to pay rent? They still working jobs to make ends meet (and not quite succeeding)? Are they still having fun when they aren't working/studying/whatever? My bet is that they are, but in 30 years they will be bitching about the loss of the character of Austin and how it was destroyed by people moving here.....