Range Rovers, Bottle Service, and Plastic Surgery, Is Austin Changing? (Dallas: salons, apartment)

[jdevelop2]

Hasn't Austin always carried the reputation as being a non-pretentious, laid back, and non-materialistic town? Since I have been in Austin now for about 5 months, I have been amazed at the number of luxury cars on the roads, plastic surgery ads in local magazines, and high end night clubs. Not even to mention the mind boggling number of multi-milllion dollar houses covering the west side of town.

I don't really think this is a good OR bad thing, just really surprising to me. Is this a relatively new phenomena or something people have just ignored and pretended was not apart of the Austin they know?

[mimimomx3]

I would say that's more Westlake than Austin. Not hating, just not me or my (central) Austin friends.

[dick1973]

Ya, It's not the 70's any more.

[HappyTexan]

It's gotten more yuppish and materialistic.

[inthecut]

Well, depends what part of Austin you are talking about...I don't think that hardly describes the metro in general. Much of the east side is crime-ridden and struggling, much of the NW is mega-apartment buildings for days where a large number of people just getting by live, and a fair share of the south part of the city is working class or bohemian...I do think Austin is getting a large injection of wealth from outside the metro, and has been getting that for a number of years. While Dell wealth, amongst other tech entrepreneurial wealth, was generated here, I would say a very large % came from outside the metro, with California leading the way.

This trend has been a long time coming, and you can say it started when Dell took off in the 90's, around RR, and has vectored ever since, attracting many wealthy folks from all over the country, especially tech orientated folks...

[hoffdano]

Expensive cars and homes are not new. Austin's technology employers, especially Dell in its early days and when it was located in Austin, produced tremendous wealth in the 1990s. Developments like Rob Roy and Davenport Ranch have been around a long time.

Many things developed over the years like better restaurants and upscale entertainment venues like One World Theatre.

But Austin is still sloppy and laid back. The person driving a Porsche might be wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt.

[mark311]

It isn't just Austin, it's the entire U.S. There are tanning salons everywhere and most of them look like they've been there for a long time. I actually think that Austin has very few bottle service clubs for the amount of wealthy people that live in the Austin area.

[passionatearts]

Originally Posted by jdevelop2

Hasn't Austin always carried the reputation as being a non-pretentious, laid back, and non-materialistic town? Since I have been in Austin now for about 5 months, I have been amazed at the number of luxury cars on the roads, plastic surgery ads in local magazines, and high end night clubs. Not even to mention the mind boggling number of multi-milllion dollar houses covering the west side of town.

I don't know what part of town you're hanging out in, but I don't think Austin is any worse than many other cities its size when it comes to conspicuous consumption. If you really think we've got it bad, then you ought to spend some time in Dallas or Los Angeles and gain some perspective.

[Nor Cal Wahine]

I think Austin has a little bit of everything. That's precisely what I've come to love about this city - limousine liberals rubbing shoulders with college kids, hippies, cops, and thong-wearing eccentrics while waiting in line at an Airstream trailer in a parking lot full of BMW's, SUV's, beater VW's, and bicycles varying from $50 to $1500 to buy tacos at 2:00 a.m.

I dig this city, warts and flaws and all.

[jdevelop2]

Originally Posted by passionatearts

I don't know what part of town you're hanging out in, but I don't think Austin is any worse than many other cities its size when it comes to conspicuous consumption. If you really think we've got it bad, then you ought to spend some time in Dallas or Los Angeles and gain some perspective.

I have spent plenty of time in both Dallas and LA. The difference is that both Dallas and LA have reputations for being like this. Austin has the opposite.