Is there any fair an balanced opinion from the people of Austin (San Marcos: college, live)

[mimimomx3]

Unless I hire them as babysitters, I very rarely bump into UT students. Granted, I don't go to 6th street, ever, but I just don't see them much. The area around UT is definitely makes Austin seem like a 'University Town', but 10 miles away is totally different.

[readymade]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

I ask people I meet here, where the "coolest / funnest place to go is." I'm always looking for interesting tidbits of info like this. Continually, I hear: "Oh, 6th street." No, I didn't mention drinking and I don't look like a drinker or partier. Even people on this forum mention that "6th street is not Austin and is kind of too big these days." Yet commonly, this is the opinion I get back. This is likely a university phenomenon too. No, I'm not just asking university people.. I'm asking random service people I meet in the course of living here. Any university town has to deal with absorbing the "university drinking population".. (unless it's a religious university town, hah.) So that's another drawback.

Weird, I have NEVER been told that 6th St is the coolest place to go. Maybe it's because I'm in my 30s? We're ALWAYS asking everyone "where should we go? what should we do?" and 6th street never came up. More recently, I was told to visit Istanbul by this dude who works at Kerby Lane and who has pretty much lived everywhere, heh. Interesting guy.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

There is one thing wrong with austin demographics, and that is the strong percentage of UT students or employees vs. the rest of the population. University towns always have their problems because university culture is.. well.. different than normal life. This is an objective statistic which can be compared to other cities, and would show Austin as handicapped. To illustrate this, I sold something on craigslist recently. I received several emails from "starving college students" who wanted what I was selling for maybe 1/4 the price. Why? Because "I'm a starving college student." What! Come on, I was starving in college as well (I mean it; really starving, not the fake "I'm starving but I just bought a new pack of cigarettes and some bud and a Dell PC for gaming" type starving). So I have some sympathy... However when this demographic dominates the population, there's going to be some unhappy skew going on. Rental real estate is especially hammered by college kids and lowers overall quality of housing while increasing price, in a university town. ..etc..

I ask people I meet here, where the "coolest / funnest place to go is." I'm always looking for interesting tidbits of info like this. Continually, I hear: "Oh, 6th street." No, I didn't mention drinking and I don't look like a drinker or partier. Even people on this forum mention that "6th street is not Austin and is kind of too big these days." Yet commonly, this is the opinion I get back. This is likely a university phenomenon too. No, I'm not just asking university people.. I'm asking random service people I meet in the course of living here. Any university town has to deal with absorbing the "university drinking population".. (unless it's a religious university town, hah.) So that's another drawback.

The university does have a big influence on this town -though I might not say that it is "wrong." If the university was not here there is no way Austin would be like it is. It would just be a state capitol located in a reasonably pretty area of Texas.

Perhaps these people recommending 6th street are just giving the tourist answer.

[TexasHorseLady]

Well, I confess that within the past year, I have run into a UT student fairly frequently, mainly because she was my daughter. And I've helped UT grad students find housing, so that likely counts. But none of them recommended that I go to 6th Street (heck, I was the one who introduced my daughter to 6th Street, but that was for things like Pecan Street Festival or Swamp Romp or some such - there are MUCH better places to have a drink and listen to some live music, in my opinion).

[artsyguy]

UT alumni often stay in Austin because they have connections there. I don't blame them. It makes sense to do so.

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Unless I hire them as babysitters, I very rarely bump into UT students. Granted, I don't go to 6th street, ever, but I just don't see them much. The area around UT is definitely makes Austin seem like a 'University Town', but 10 miles away is totally different.

[ILikeSmartHippies]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

The university does have a big influence on this town -though I might not say that it is "wrong." If the university was not here there is no way Austin would be like it is. It would just be a state capitol located in a reasonably pretty area of Texas.

Perhaps these people recommending 6th street are just giving the tourist answer.

I can easily compare to another state capital city I lived in for many years: sacramento. It has a very middle-class-white-bread style + stable suburbia. (Ignoring the housing & market turmoil of the past 2 years.) The population is pretty varied. There is a state university that is relatively large, however it doesn't create the same overwhelming student demographic (plus a nearby UC school that some ppl commute to). There are a ton of government workers in that city (city, state, federal) which acts as a permanent float to the economy & social environment. There is no "austin-like-6th-street" in Sacramento. There are some roads with a couple bars, there is a nice old town (that is more tourist than bar), there are some college-bar-hopping-triangles. The worker demographic is not dominated by college kids "graduated from university but can't find a decent job so I'm stuck flipping burgers" either. One difference is a huge immigrant population (the countries of origin have shifted over the years). It is a good "state capital town" (and it's also a little boring) with a small city downtown where everyone commutes in & out to the burbs. (Austin beats it for entertainment, in my opinion.)

What I'm saying is this: Austin would be better if the demographics were not skewed by UT. Keep UT and simultaneously grow other aspects of the city so it is a more even balance. This is a limitation of Austin as it exists today.

[austin-steve]

What I'm saying is this: Austin would be better if the demographics were not skewed by UT. Keep UT and simultaneously grow other aspects of the city so it is a more even balance. This is a limitation of Austin as it exists today.

I'm not sure how government and UT hurt Austin. I disagree.

How do you define "skewed"? The greater Austin metro area has a population of about 1.8 Million people. Of those, about 120K are students(including Texas State in San Marcos), or about 6%. 50K students are enrolled in UT, which is about 3% of the total population. At what percent would UT not be "skewing" the population, and how does the percentage compare to other major cities in the U.S.

Austin has a government workforce of about 20% compared to 16% nationwide, which isn't a huge difference.

The presence of government and a flagship university provide Austin with numerous benefits, including an economic ballast that provides stability we otherwise would not enjoy. I'm not sure that whatever downside one might think exists because of 120K students and a lot of government workers would offset all the economic benefits of the same.

Steve

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

There is one thing wrong with austin demographics, and that is the strong percentage of UT students or employees vs. the rest of the population. University towns always have their problems because university culture is.. well.. different than normal life.

So...maybe I missed it, but what exactly are the problems Austin has due to UT students and employees?

All I could get from your post was 1) 6th Street is recommended a lot for fun, 2) students try to find things cheap on Craigslist, and 3) rent is high.

The last one is valid if you're near the university. But rental rates really are pretty comparable to other Texas cities (except maybe SA) when you move further out. And do you really consider the first two as "problems"?

I think any negative effects to Austin from hosting the flagship university of the state are far outweighed by the benefits. But I might be biased since I'm alumni. (and, FYI, I don't go to 6th street for "fun" and I've never recommended it to anyone)

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

I'm not sure how government and UT hurt Austin. I disagree.

How do you define "skewed"? The greater Austin metro area has a population of about 1.8 Million people. Of those, about 120K are students(including Texas State in San Marcos), or about 6%. 50K students are enrolled in UT, which is about 3% of the total population. At what percent would UT not be "skewing" the population, and how does the percentage compare to other major cities in the U.S.

Austin has a government workforce of about 20% compared to 16% nationwide, which isn't a huge difference.

The presence of government and a flagship university provide Austin with numerous benefits, including an economic ballast that provides stability we otherwise would not enjoy. I'm not sure that whatever downside one might think exists because of 120K students and a lot of government workers would offset all the economic benefits of the same.

Steve

When I first came to Austin to college, the overall population (Austin, not the entire region) was 250,000 and there were about 25,000 students that disappeared every summer. So at that time, the students made up about 10% of the population.

Sounds to me like the percentage of students to the rest of the population is going down dramatically.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

UT alumni often stay in Austin because they have connections there. I don't blame them. It makes sense to do so.

Oh, I'm a UT alum '84, and I stayed! I have several UT professor friends, but the students? Don't see them much.