austin is not diverse? (Houston, Dallas: crime rate, college, subdivisions)

[Nomadic9460678748]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Okay, now this is an example of what I was talking about.

What I said was that I didn't particularly click with people in Dallas or Houston regardless of race. (Exact quote, with emphasis added: "I find it more comfortable to talk to people of any color in Austin than I do to many people of any color in Dallas, in certain demographics, simply because we don't have a lot in common, our interests aren't the same."

What you took away from that was that I don't feel comfortable talking to other races in Dallas.


RED=THL
GREEN=Nomadic's 3rd Party observations

Interesting, don't you think, how you interpreted what I said as meaning pretty much the exact opposite of its meaning? (This happens all of the time on the internet. No intonation, no facial expressions, no physical body cues. Result, as I believe it to be the case--so that means it's not an empirically proven fact--is that people attempting to get to the same end are often communicating in trajections which parallel but never quite converge, though such a convergence could very logically be what both posters are hoping to achieve.) I think it makes my point admirably, though I wasn't speaking of you in particular in that post, just something I'd observed that I think makes it more difficult for true equality to be achieved (I, personally, would use another word than 'admirably'. But that's just me. It appears to automatically reify your viewpoints without acceding the very real possibility that perhaps he wasn't responding to your comments with preconceived notions, but in fact, he simply and quite honestly did read your post as having conveyed a certain meaning. I doubt he's a mind reader. It could have been an honest mistake. Again, I really do think most of everyone who has contributed to this thread is essentially on the same page in terms of the original question: Is Austin diverse? Yes, but it depends on how you want to define diversity. And of out of curiosity, how do YOU define TRUE equality?).

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[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by VIBЄ

And it does go both ways. I'm pretty sure that there are Caucasians and other groups of people who may or may not feel comfortable living in a city like Atlanta, which rocks an urban culture that isn't too inviting to those who are not African American or share a similar background. Or people having difficulties fitting in to a city that have a predominate Hispanic population, or a city that is heavily geared towards Asians.

I was going to attempt to articulate something along these lines, but you've already said it quite well.

[JudyBlue]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Austin proper is an expensive city to live in- no matter the ethnicity. The suburbs are less expensive and therefore, more diverse (Westlake and the lake areas excluded).

Yes Mam, very expensive!
Ethnicity and "diveristy" is overrated.
The terms are not at the top of Westlake vocabulary.
Good education and financial success are.

[opalminor]

As someone who is sick to death of the "diversity" obsession we are having in this country, Austin is as "diverse" as any city needs to be. And somehow, the crime is much lower than most other cities of the same size. hhhhmmmmmm................. (??)

[tongpa-nyi]

There is a lot of tacit winking and implicit friendly nudging in this thread. Laws have changed, public behaviors have changed, social norms have changed, but the human heart and mind remain as they were from beginningless time.

The primary way in which I experience a lack of diversity in Austin is that there are far fewer species of plants that can be grown here relative to coastal California. I suppose this should come as no surprise, what with the very challenging climate.

[love roses]

I'd say Antarctica is a challenging climate. I don't miss growing tropical plants, but Central Texas isn't really a sub-tropical climate, like say Corpus or Houston is. You can grow quite a bit here really. A peach orchard owner in Fredricksburg finally managed to successfully grow olive trees here.

[riaelise]

As a mixed race woman who has a multiracial daughter, diversity is not overrated. Austin is lower in crime because it doesn't have a very large population. The population of all of the Austin area is the equivalent of the smallest borough of New York City.

I like being immersed in various cultures and races.

[Southern Soul Bro]

Originally Posted by riaelise

As a mixed race woman who has a multiracial daughter, diversity is not overrated. Austin is lower in crime because it doesn't have a very large population. The population of all of the Austin area is the equivalent of the smallest borough of New York City.

I like being immersed in various cultures and races.

This doesnt make sense at all. For one thing, you come off as saying the pop of Austin "isnt very large" because of how it compares to NYC's boroughs. LOL, NYC is the largest city in the country by far, its boroughs by themselves are larger than 90-95% of the country's other cities, so basically everywhere in the nation besides about 8 cities "isnt very large" using those standards.

Austin is one of the top 15 largest cities in the country, by city population.

You also said "Austin is lower in crime because it doesn't have a very large population"....actually the direct opposite is true. It's low because it DOES have a large population.

Crime is calculated on per capita basis.
The smaller the city population is, the greater the weight each individual crime holds.

NYC isnt ranked high on any "crime" or "most dangerous cities" list. Of course it has tons of crime in several areas, but the overall population is so large...each individual crime holds so much less weight than it would in a town like where I'm from which has 97,000 people. The same thing holds true for Austin (757,000 people) compared to 90% of the rest country which doesnt have a city population near as large. 1 murder in Austin = barely raises the murder rate, 1 murder where I'm from makes it skyrocket.

lol with all that said I agree with your overall stance, but those examples were just not correct.

I'm just going to be real. I dont agree with someone stereotyping me because I'm black, but until most of my fellow young adult blacks stop trying to be "gangstas" they see on BET, then alot of white people arent going to like "diversity"

example??? Austin = 757,000 people, around or less than 10% black.......I'm from Macon, GA......97,000 people...over 60% black...........yet we have similar numbers of yearly murders. Shame.

[austinnerd]

Seems to me that one of the largest factors in Austin having a low crime rate is the all mighty dollar. Austin has enjoyed a rather prosporous economy now for a couple of decades (highs and lows to be sure, but overall very positive). The fewer people you have that feel that they need to resort to crime to get whatever it is they need, the smaller the crime rate will be. Education factors rather heavily into this equation as one of the reasons Austin has enjoyed economic success is that employers are attracted to the large educated population which is helped tremendously by having a major university in town.

As to the question of diversity, Austin obviously isn't quite as "diverse" as other large cities. As to how much of an advantage or disadvantage that is really depends on the person asking the question more than any generalization that can be made.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by austinnerd

Seems to me that one of the largest factors in Austin having a low crime rate is the all mighty dollar. Austin has enjoyed a rather prosporous economy now for a couple of decades (highs and lows to be sure, but overall very positive). The fewer people you have that feel that they need to resort to crime to get whatever it is they need, the smaller the crime rate will be. Education factors rather heavily into this equation as one of the reasons Austin has enjoyed economic success is that employers are attracted to the large educated population which is helped tremendously by having a major university in town.

As to the question of diversity, Austin obviously isn't quite as "diverse" as other large cities. As to how much of an advantage or disadvantage that is really depends on the person asking the question more than any generalization that can be made.

I thought the property crime rate here was rather high, but the violent crime rate is low. If that's the case, I don't know that your theory is accurate.