Any long-time residents think of all the Austin growth? (San Antonio: sale, rental)

[twange]

Originally Posted by jimmyjack

Hooooweeee! It is hard to keep up with this one. For the record, I was most likely conceived after a good night at the skyline club out on the Dallas Highway way back when. Things come and go and if they stay the same it gets a bit monotonous. If you don't like change and you want to live in a smaller city, it's not like there are any shortage of them 100 miles in any direction. I think most of the folks wishin things were like the used to be are talking out of both sides of their mouths cause there are a lot of new things here that make this city just as special as the old things that are gone. If you're an old timer and can't have yourself a time in this city today, the problem might be with you and not the city.

I don't have a stake in any of this one way or the other but the reason I keep coming back here to have a little fun is that for the most part I am impressed with how nice the folks are who want to move here are. There's a lot of that same spark that caused my people to hop into a wagon with nothing more than a promise and a chance that with some hard work they could make themselves a good life. Texas has always been home for people like this.

Personally, I think AustinTexan is an aggie just giggin yall to see how high he can make you jump.

Best post yet.

And you know what? That thought has crossed my mind as well. This forum is probably "good fishin' "

[TexasGirl@Heart]

Originally Posted by jimmyjack

Personally, I think AustinTexan is an aggie just giggin yall to see how high he can make you jump.

Well, this Longhorn fan is growing quite tired of his little tirade It's time he gets over whatever he is torn up about. Good Lord, he acts as if he owns the state of Texas, or should I say the city of Austin People can move where ever they darn well please. This IS a relocation forum...if he doesn't like the talk on here of people relocating then maybe he shouldn't read the forums, because obviously they are very upsetting to him.

So heads up y'all...I'll be rollin' into town mid-August hopefully! (Oh, and I will have a job the day I roll into town!)
Can I meet any of you for a drink at the Spoke?

[TexasHorseLady]

Just let me know when!

[TexasGirl@Heart]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Just let me know when!

You got it girl! Do you think Mr.White will let me roll the wheel around the dance floor?!?!

[scongress1234]

I take the blame for much of this dissension on here per Austin's rapid growth. Indeed it seems like we are going over the same ground, ala Twange's great cul-de-sac analogy. We need to focus on stats and hard data if we want to even approach an intelligent discussion on here, and we seem to just have vehement flaming and trolling. Let's jump into a quick reality check here, folks. Every city has had massive influxes of newcomers, much of it forced by the newcomers in the guise of raping and pillaging, ala the Vikings and Visigoths. That's why they built city walls. Around say the 1700's, when the US of A came along, we slowly got away from such inbred city wall stuff, and free trade and movement of people as well took place. Countryside moved to the city, and large masses of entire ethnic tribes such as Germans and Jews moved enmasse to regions, to trade and live. Some ports, such as Amsterdam and Hamburg, were known as cosmopolitan world trade centers. Our own ports, on the east coast, such as Boston, Philly, NYC, and Charleston, became centers of teams of immigrants, along with New Orleans, over which more flags hung than a ballpark on opening day. This trend just increased over time, becoming more asian as the immigration laws became more lenient, much because of the shame of interring the american Japanese during WW2. More of the same from the 50's on, centered on California this time. All the things Austinites are complaining about, Californians were dealing with since the 50's. I still remember a guy leaning out of the car in LA and yelling "Welcome to California, now go home!" in '84. That had to be the most popular bumper sticker that year. And now? A different time, and place, and Austin, along with much of Texas, is the current hot spot. Will it last? Hell no! When will it ebb? Sooner than later....probably half spent already, with maybe 5 years more at best to go before it flattens out all through the state, and other places become the hot places du jour. In other words, its the same old same old, ever since they built city walls! And please, native Austinites, don't get any ideas from that!

[TexasHorseLady]

Let's jump into a quick reality check here, folks. Every city has had massive influxes of newcomers, much of it forced by the newcomers in the guise of raping and pillaging, ala the Vikings and Visigoths. That's why they built city walls. Around say the 1700's, when the US of A came along, we slowly got away from such inbred city wall stuff,

Wait. So, it was the people who built the walls who are to blame (based on your "inbred city wall stuff" comment, and the rapers and pillagers who had the right idea?

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Let's jump into a quick reality check here, folks. Every city has had massive influxes of newcomers, much of it forced by the newcomers in the guise of raping and pillaging, ala the Vikings and Visigoths. That's why they built city walls. Around say the 1700's, when the US of A came along, we slowly got away from such inbred city wall stuff,

Wait. So, it was the people who built the walls who are to blame (based on your "inbred city wall stuff" comment, and the rapers and pillagers who had the right idea?

Well, cities that build social and cultural walls are to blame, at least since free trade became common around 1700 or so, during the dawn of the mercantile era, the whole Adam Smith thing. Raping and pillaging is how mauraders of old dealt with walls, and they never did work for long, excepting China, who essentially pulled out of world trade for 600 or so years, much to their detriment, until they came back with a vengeance the last 30 years or so Post Mao. I don't think any city in our modern world can keep social walls up for long. Frankly, it will not stop the newcomers. Never did, never will. Didn't stop them from coming to California enmasse for 40 odd years, and won't work in Texas either. Texas is a very schizoid state, in that it does everything in its power to encourage growth, and advertises almost spamlike per all the great qualities about their state to out-of-area businesses and relocatees, then, when they come, they wring their hands over all the people swarming in. Yes, there IS an inbred nature rearing its head in all that. Texas will always hold on to that "singularity" they have per the free republic period, and its ideosyncratic ways, while at the same time encouraging one and all to partake of the feast. Sort of like having a big to-do, and inviting everyone in the neighborhood to come, than complaining about how everyone is eating all the food and crowding out the hosts. It's very simple. If Austin and Texas in general is tired of all the relocatees, all they have to do is stop advertising the state in the media, hyping the cities via the chambers of commerce, pushing the cities on the web and top 10 lists, and courting out-of-state business with their lack of unions and heavy corporate taxes, not to mention environmental standards and lenient zoning rights and rules for developers of commercial and residential development. Evidentally someone wants the growth to continue, because it's still pushed by Texans as hard as it ever was. Either they want the growth or they don't. There is no in-between.....

[TexasHorseLady]

Well, I didn't even realize that Texas was being advertised (by someone, not me) outside of the state (and in California in particular) until told about it on City-Data. I do acknowledge talking about how much I love it.

But you seemed to indicate in your original post about raping and pillaging that the walls were built (quite reasonable, I would think) in response to the raping and pillaging, rather than the raping and pillaging being a response to the walls being built, and then switched them around in your response to my query. That was what I was questioning - the idea that the appropriate response to rape and pillage is open arms. That's entirely too close to, "Well, she should just relax and enjoy it" for my taste.

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Well, I didn't even realize that Texas was being advertised (by someone, not me) outside of the state (and in California in particular) until told about it on City-Data. I do acknowledge talking about how much I love it.

But you seemed to indicate in your original post about raping and pillaging that the walls were built (quite reasonable, I would think) in response to the raping and pillaging, rather than the raping and pillaging being a response to the walls being built, and then switched them around in your response to my query. That was what I was questioning - the idea that the appropriate response to rape and pillage is open arms. That's entirely too close to, "Well, she should just relax and enjoy it" for my taste.

Well, I saw where you were going with the blame the victim for wearing revealing clothing analogy. Again, city walls were old hat by the 1600's, with Quebec City being the last new city in the western hemisphere to build them (still there for all to see). The discoveries of the new world, and all the trade that followed, tore down that paradigm for good. After that, every city and country was tied into regionaL OR WORLD trade in one way or another, and there was little off the grid, build walls, stop them from coming and invading way of life anymore. Everyone was essentially on the grid, in lessor or greater respects. The result, while walls still existed, is that they were eventually breached over time, until they were torn down and stopped being built. The lesson is that you can't keep out the outside world. Austin is a strange case, in that they advertise and push the city like the dickens, then wring their hands over the growth. They are proud that the city is becoming world renowned, but sorrowful of the changes that threaten to change the tenor and spirit of the town. You simply can't have it both ways......either you want the city on the map, or you want it to stay insular, provincial, and singular. It is esssentially impossible to thread the needle that way, trying to straddle both sides of that. Hence my point that cultural walls do not work once you have instigated that growth, and the horse is long out of the barn(Sorry, had to throw out a horse analogy for THL).

[AustinTexan]

Originally Posted by LookingtoLeave

I agree up until the last part. I respect his/her passion for Austin, but it's not spirit. I think they're too full of hate.

I have a passion for Austin that none of you will probably ever understand. I love Texas as well, obviously, but I don't have the same passion as I do for Austin. I'm not full of hate whatsoever! In fact, if you met me in person, you'd never believe I was the one posting on here. I don't mean to come across as a "hater", believe me. I just want others to someday share that "spirit" that most Texans have with others that someday come along. If my ranting convinces anyone to come here with an open mind, a kinder heart, and a sensitivity to the culture, environment, and its people, then I've been successful. I'm a Longhorn at heart, graduated from there in 1995 and I bleed orange. I want Austin to remain a special place and I want it to retain it's identity. There are too many people coming here with the same ideals, standards, and mannerisms as they had in California, Ohio, etc. and it doesn't mesh well with the locals. I had a good friend who moved here from Michigan who was absolutely HATED by everyone in our company because of the way he treated everyone. After 3 years here, he's finally coming around and starting to act more "Texan." Seriously, he is already night and day different from the moment he arrived in Austin. Now that his "shell" has been broken, he's such a nice guy and he's fun to be around. Seriously, I don't mean anything personal against anyone from California or wherever, I just love this city so much, it often comes out a me just being a "jerk." I just don't know how else to get my points across. If you had seen your beloved city endure the kind of change we have seen here the past 5 years, you wouldn't be questioning my posts. It's like seeing a loved one slowly die right before your eyes and know that there was absolutely nothing you could do but sit there and watch. Well, instead of just sitting there, I'm on here trying to make people more "aware" of what's going on and hoping to change a few people...........from coming here. LOL!! No, I'm kidding.