Austin's transformation - the next 10 to 15 years (San Antonio, San Diego: how much, neighborhood)

[love roses]

Originally Posted by LibertysFate

Okay, you lost me at "some are black, some Asian..."
Are you talking about multiracial?

I don't think the poster was talking about actual skin color.

Anyway, I hope Austin become ethnically more diverse as well. I'm happy there's finally a Chinatown but still, it's nothing like Houston.

I subbed in a high school class last week and there was a black hispanic boy in it. Mixed race most likely, but he didn't speak much English so I guess you learn something new every day

[Mike78613]

Originally Posted by love roses

I subbed in a high school class last week and there was a black hispanic boy in it. Mixed race most likely, but he didn't speak much English so I guess you learn something new every day

How did this kid get this far w/o speaking a lick of english and is in High School?

Oh I see.... he was passing in classes that had subs

Ok.... bad joke, but pretty funny IMHO, but not funny for the Principal.
Which High School was this?

[love roses]

High school kids leave their home countries just the same as young kids. Believe it or not, they have ESL programs in HS. He spoke English, but not real proficiently. He understood enough to know what I was talking about. Since I was just the sub, couldn't say whether he was passing or not, since I'm not privy to that info.

BTW, I'm a pretty cool sub (or so a lot of the kids tell me ) Since I'm currently working on a degree in education I'm not that far out of the loop and actually am one of the few who actually try to help them with whatever the teacher has them do that day but I'm pretty bad at math, so I'm not much good in going beyond what the teacher left written out.

It's in Hutto (the HS).

[orbius]

If the economy takes another dive I think Austin could shrink in the short term, say 5 years. Theres a ton of people moving here and no new industries. If the economy dives again and real estate tumbles it'll be the late 80's all over again. Too much property, not enough industry.

[woodinvilleguy]

It is pretty important that the city of Austin work hard to attract technology industries. They hopefully will be able to attract alternative energy technology companies.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Well, if it follows your prescription, I see there being no "Austin" per se in the next 10 to 15 years, just a replication of huge cities where some would prefer to live rather than the lovely, non-cosmopolitan (Austin never claimed or wanted to be "cosmopolitan"), down to earth small city that it's been and that's been what drew people here. That will be destroyed in the quest by newcomers and those who never knew the beauties of Austin as Austin, not mini-Dallas/San Francisco/Houston/NYC to make it something it was never meant to be (it was actually where people went to escape those cities, especially Dallas and Houston). And the world will be a poorer place for it, just as you can drive from one end of I35 to the other and see the exact same chain restaurants and businesses and malls and never know where you are without looking at a map, because every place is just the same as every other.

Understand, I don't mind growth, and I don't mind change. I just mind growth and change that strives to make every place the same as every other place, and that's what I'm seeing being pursued.

I think Austin is just too large now to ever go back again to the older, quainter, more iconoclastic days.....Any city whose population is the better part of a million people is far past the point of not being part of the standard metropolitan grid......only small cities and metros can maintain the ambience THL describes....Austin outgrew that stage in the late 80's, and is many years into the remaking of the same..... One who pines for that old ambience of Austin past simply has to go to a smaller metro, one as off the grid as Austin was before it caught fire in the late 80's.....Madison, Wisc. might be an an example of a place that DID maintain that ambience.... Again, with a ton of people, you will water down the general ambience every time, especially when they come fast, and in massive waves.....what you get then are massive mega-apartment complexes and cookie-cutter subdivisions, along with nondescipt retail, as THL describes.......a large city can only have so much ambience, except for very few exceptions, ala
San Francisco......

[orbius]

After the tech bust the population of 2001 wasnt equalled until 2003 in Austin. So thats 2 years of stagnant growth.
That was a relatively minor blip. If the world economy goes into a down period lasting years then in 5 years time I could see Austin's population shrinking to the mid 500's.

[love roses]

Originally Posted by inthecut

I think Austin is just too large now to ever go back again to the older, quainter, more iconoclastic days.....Any city whose population is the better part of a million people is far past the point of not being part of the standard metropolitan grid......only small cities and metros can maintain the ambience THL describes....Austin outgrew that stage in the late 80's, and is many years into the remaking of the same..... One who pines for that old ambience of Austin past simply has to go to a smaller metro, one as off the grid as Austin was before it caught fire in the late 80's.....Madison, Wisc. might be an an example of a place that DID maintain that ambience.... Again, with a ton of people, you will water down the general ambience every time, especially when they come fast, and in massive waves.....what you get then are massive mega-apartment complexes and cookie-cutter subdivisions, along with nondescipt retail, as THL describes.......a large city can only have so much ambience, except for very few exceptions, ala
San Francisco......

I keep hearing that Marfa, Tx is the new Austin.

[VIBЄ]

I'm not understanding why people are considering the Latinos in Austin, or in Texas in general white.

While I do understand that people of Hispanic heritage come from a random assortment of all sorts of ethnicities, and I also know that there are still some pure blooded people all over Latin America (the Natives in Costa Rica, Asians from Chile, White Europeans from Argentina and Afro Brazilians, to name a few)...

...but the vast majority of the Latinos I've encountered in Texas (and much of the Southwest) have ranged from tan/olive to brown skinned. I've rarely came across 'pure' white Latinos out there, and even the lighter skinned Hispanics were still a shade or two darker than the Anglos I've met there.

Even if they are considered to be white Caucasians, their language and cultural barriers skew more to Mexico, and that alone would place them in a completely different race. And artsyguy is right. A lot of the Caucasians from Spain tend to have more of an olive/tan appearance (I keep on forgetting that Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz are from Europe).

Enough with the rant, I agree that it would be cool to see an increase of blacks to the city. And know that Asians are booming there, which is awesome, but it feels kinda strange for a city for its size and location to be lacking in the African American department.

Besides that, I'd love to see a big push towards opening up more art districts, theaters and museums. Because the art scene there is pretty bogus and almost nonexistant. At least Austin has some great music!

[imaterry78259]

I see Austin as San Antonio's biggest suburb in the next 10 to 15 years. The city will get a Trump Tower