Where do Austinites consider Austin to be regionally? (El Paso, Round Rock: transplants, unemployment)

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by jdevelop2

It seems to me that when you cross I-35 in Austin you have left the South and entered the Southwest.

Yes, but oddly enough you have to go EAST to get to the SouthWEST!

[Acuda]

The blueberry in a patch of strawberries

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by Acuda

The blueberry in a patch of strawberries

And rapidly turning into one of several blueberries in a patch of grapes.

[doctorjef]

I wonder if the opinion that Austin is in the South is partly a generational thing, or maybe a social class thing, given the reported Tarrytown predilection for Southern universities. The truth about that is that most Texas residents go to Texas universities. Most of my own HS friends in Lubbock (where I graduated from HS) went to universities in the North, or the undisputed SW (NM), the Mid-Atlantic (DC), or Scotland in one instance (U of Aberdeen). Where would that reasoning put Lubbock geographically and culturally? I also suspect that those who place Austin in the South have an ideological axe to grind.

[doctorjef]

To try to expand on the above a bit, over on the Delaware forum there was a long-running thread over the issue of whether DE is in the South. Most people agreed that the state is Mid-Atlantic and at least somewhat Northern. However, the minority partisans of Delaware being in the South couldn't be persuaded and largely based their arguments on history (DE was still a slave state at the time of the Civil War, although there were very few African-Americans still held in bondage there, no large scale slaveholders, and a large number of free blacks). What people like Steve the Realtor here on the Austin subforum miss is that demographic and cultural developments in more recent times have overshadowed historical factors and are now more germane to identity than the earlier history of the place. Texas has a strong identity rooted in its history, especially as an independent republic, but except for the eastern quarter of the state, the Southern identity has been made anachronistic by the demographic changes that have taken place over the past 40 years in particular.

[polo89]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

To try to expand on the above a bit, over on the Delaware forum there was a long-running thread over the issue of whether DE is in the South. Most people agreed that the state is Mid-Atlantic and at least somewhat Northern. However, the minority partisans of Delaware being in the South couldn't be persuaded and largely based their arguments on history (DE was still a slave state at the time of the Civil War, although there were very few African-Americans still held in bondage there, no large scale slaveholders, and a large number of free blacks). What people like Steve the Realtor here on the Austin subforum miss is that demographic and cultural developments in more recent times have overshadowed historical factors and are now more germane to identity than the earlier history of the place. Texas has a strong identity rooted in its history, especially as an independent republic, but except for the eastern quarter of the state, the Southern identity has been made anachronistic by the demographic changes that have taken place over the past 40 years in particular.

VERY NICE post. And I agree 100%. The demographic shifts have altered the "southern" character of Austin. It happened to DC and Maryland, I don't see why it can't happen to Austin.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by theloneranger

Yes, but oddly enough you have to go EAST to get to the SouthWEST!

I hope your being sarcastic.. either that, or your west-austicentricity POV is shining through.

[paul6835]

Originally Posted by polo89

VERY NICE post. And I agree 100%. The demographic shifts have altered the "southern" character of Austin. It happened to DC and Maryland, I don't see why it can't happen to Austin.

MD and DE both have a small minority who call themselves southern. A friend who grew up in DE refers to Southern DE as "Lower Slower DE", so you can guess where he falls on that map.

As far as MD, I grew up 10 minutes from the PA-MD border in PA, it never even crossed my mind that MD would ever be considered a Southern state until I met people (not from MD) from the South who called it a Southern state. The people I knew in college from MD did not consider themselves "Southern" either.

[doctorjef]

If I can be indulged a brief tangent to respond to the above post, the southernmost of the three counties in DE, Sussex, is indeed referred to commonly as lower Delaware (or downstate, if you live in the northermost county, New Castle). The cute characterisation of Sussex is likewise lower, slower Delaware. However, that really describes its traditionally rural character, rather than being a description of Southern culture. Still, it's also been said with a certain degree of truth that in our three counties we encompass the North (New Castle), the Midwest (Kent) and the South (Sussex). Our Atlantic coast beaches are in Sussex, so everyone in the state goes down there frequently and on my trips downstate I've never encountered Southernisms like "y'all" or the custom of routinely using "sir" and "m'am" attached to "Yes" and "No" when answering questions.

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by jobert

I hope your being sarcastic.. either that, or your west-austicentricity POV is shining through.

I'm not from West Austin at all and have never lived there, but West Austin is more Southern than East Austin is, and I don't believe there is a soul who can legitimately argue with that.

Downtown/Central Austin, South Austin, and NW Austin are all more Southern than West Austin is, but all of these areas are more southern than East Austin, which is either Southwestern or Mexican culturally for the most part.