Is Austin an example to be followed in Texas? (comparison, bigger, population)
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Well, as someone who has lived in Houston and visited Austin Dallas etc on numerous occasions its not much to do and its not diverse, at all. Now, the question is, have you been to Austin?
Austin in 2017 is a majority minority city. It is actually pretty diverse, not not "diverse at all" ???? it is obviously not as diverse as Houston which is by some metrics the most diverse city in the United States, but with a rough demographic breakdown of 40% white, 40% Hispanic, 10% black and 10% Asian, Austin is more diverse than most American cities??
Otherwise, in certain ways, Austin got lucky. It did not have its central core decimated by highway construction like Dallas and Houston. Dallas is starting to undo some of that damage with the Klyde Warren park, which is fantastic and allows for uptown and downtown to merge more seamlessly. Houston is gonna have a helluva hard time producing neighborhood cohesion. The Heights is a wonderful walkable urbanesque neighborhood. It is separated by the urban blight of god knows how many lanes of I 10. Most of the good urban neighborhoods of Houston are separated from downtown by huge and ugly highways. True, but bit less true for Dallas. I think eventually Austin will have to follow Dallas and bury or move the stretch of 35 that cuts off the East Side of downtown. Because it never built those kind of highways, Austin has terrible traffic for a city its size, but its central core remains much more intact than Dallas or Houston.
Austin also got lucky that it has much prettier topography than Houston or Dallas and has embraced that topography effectively. Houston is cleaning up the Buffalo bayou and trying to make it a feature rather than a bug and Dallas has it ass backwards by building a beautiful and expensive bridge over the Trinity river, which despite nearly decades of plans to make it into something like a usable waterfront, still looks like a drainage ditch. White Rock lake in Dallas is lovely but not really near downtown.
As for the name recognition, the crowning irony is that both Houston and Dallas spend WAY WAY more promoting their cities than Austin which simply relies on its festivals and word of mouth. The differences between the cities, which are not as huge as their respective boosters maintain can be nicely summed up in the differences between their biggest events: the Houston Rodeo versus The Texas State Fair versus South by South west. All 3 cities could learn from each other, both positively and negatively.
Last edited by homeinatx; 06-19-2017 at 04:21 PM..
As for the name recognition, the crowning irony is that both Houston and Dallas spend WAY WAY more promoting their cities than Austin which simply relies on its festivals and word of mouth.
I highly doubt that was the case historically for Dallas and Houston. It seems to be a more recent thing for them to actually promote other aspects of themselves in addition to the usual practical qualities -- COL, jobs, amenities, etc. Austin has packaged itself as a "brand" for a much longer period of time and really doesn't need to spend that much $$ on it anymore.
We all know the fame Austin has; a city a bit too liberal to be in Texas and a city of innovation and arts. Almost every list has Austin ranked pretty high for livability and jobs. Some call Austin the silicon valley of Texas. So with all this praise Austin has received, do you think Houston, Dallas and San Antonio will follow its footsteps
Well, as someone who has lived in Houston and visited Austin Dallas etc on numerous occasions its not much to do and its not diverse, at all. Now, the question is, have you been to Austin?
Not sure what you mean by that but to answer your question yes, i have been to Austin, mainly because of UT Austin. I've been there 3 times. 2008, 2011 and 2012 for a wedding. Plenty to do, tons of music venues, great bars and places to eat. Live music, theater, burgers, beer, bars you name they have got it and it's all top notch. Houston sucks at things to do compared to Austin, at least for a guy my age(late 20's). Nightlife is not nearly as good as Austin. Dallas i've never gone out there, but it didn't seem impressive to me
Not sure what you mean by that but to answer your question yes, i have been to Austin, mainly because of UT Austin. I've been there 3 times. 2008, 2011 and 2012 for a wedding. Plenty to do, tons of music venues, great bars and places to eat. Live music, theater, burgers, beer, bars you name they have got it and it's all top notch. Houston sucks at things to do compared to Austin, at least for a guy my age(late 20's). Nightlife is not nearly as good as Austin. Dallas i've never gone out there, but it didn't seem impressive to me
So how would you know that it is "unimpressive" if you've never been there? For someone in their late 20's, Dallas offers a lot especially nightlife-wise. Austin has actually improved in the post-college/young professional nightlife scene, which wasn't quite as good 5 years ago.
Austin in 2017 is a majority minority city. It is actually pretty diverse, not not "diverse at all" ???? it is obviously not as diverse as Houston which is by some metrics the most diverse city in the United States, but with a rough demographic breakdown of 40% white, 40% Hispanic, 10% black and 10% Asian, Austin is more diverse than most American cities??
Otherwise, in certain ways, Austin got lucky. It did not have its central core decimated by highway construction like Dallas and Houston. Dallas is starting to undo some of that damage with the Klyde Warren park, which is fantastic and allows for uptown and downtown to merge more seamlessly. Houston is gonna have a helluva hard time producing neighborhood cohesion. The Heights is a wonderful walkable urbanesque neighborhood. It is separated by the urban blight of god knows how many lanes of I 10. Most of the good urban neighborhoods of Houston are separated from downtown by huge and ugly highways. True, but bit less true for Dallas. I think eventually Austin will have to follow Dallas and bury or move the stretch of 35 that cuts off the East Side of downtown. Because it never built those kind of highways, Austin has terrible traffic for a city its size, but its central core remains much more intact than Dallas or Houston.
Thats because Austin has a much smaller core than Dallas or Houston. Having a ring of freeways around Downtown doesn't mean too much either or else San Antonio's core would be decimated too.
What Im saying is, there's more to the core of Dallas and especially Houston outside of the immediate Downtown area. Dallas' core now is really stretching up into Uptown and down Greenville towards Northpark. With the new streetcar, you can include Bishop Arts too. The deck park has really helped. Houston is demolishing the Pierce Elevated which will open up the western side of Downtown to Buffalo Bayou.
I 10 dissects the Heights from the southern inner loop but you have to go a few miles before hitting 59, which is in a trench for half its route with many pedestrian bridges.
Quote:
Austin also got lucky that it has much prettier topography than Houston or Dallas and has embraced that topography effectively. Houston is cleaning up the Buffalo bayou and trying to make it a feature rather than a bug and Dallas has it ass backwards by building a beautiful and expensive bridge over the Trinity river, which despite nearly decades of plans to make it into something like a usable waterfront, still looks like a drainage ditch. White Rock lake in Dallas is lovely but not really near downtown.
As for the name recognition, the crowning irony is that both Houston and Dallas spend WAY WAY more promoting their cities than Austin which simply relies on its festivals and word of mouth. The differences between the cities, which are not as huge as their respective boosters maintain can be nicely summed up in the differences between their biggest events: the Houston Rodeo versus The Texas State Fair versus South by South west. All 3 cities could learn from each other, both positively and negatively.
Austin has more interesting topography on its western side but why do you have to put down the bug Texas two as if they don't have great urban parks/trails besides what you named? Ever heard of Hermann or Memorial Park in Houston? Katy Trail in Dallas?
So how would you know that it is "unimpressive" if you've never been there? For someone in their late 20's, Dallas offers a lot especially nightlife-wise. Austin has actually improved in the post-college/young professional nightlife scene, which wasn't quite as good 5 years ago.
And nothing to do in Houston?
Wow, alright let me be really specific. I visited Dallas but did not go out. That doesn't mean i didn't drive/walk around to see what was happening. It did not seem as lively as Austin , that's all. Houston nightlife is terrible in comparison to Austin. It is like comparing Memphis nightlife with Nashville. At the time a friend of mine was at Rice university and he showed me around. For a city the size of Houston it's nightlife was lame. You can ask students living in Houston and most of them will say SA and Austin has a better nightlife.
Wow, alright let me be really specific. I visited Dallas but did not go out. That doesn't mean i didn't drive/walk around to see what was happening. It did not seem as lively as Austin , that's all. Houston nightlife is terrible in comparison to Austin. It is like comparing Memphis nightlife with Nashville. At the time a friend of mine was at Rice university and he showed me around. For a city the size of Houston it's nightlife was lame. You can ask students living in Houston and most of them will say SA and Austin has a better nightlife.
If you were in Downtown Dallas (esp. 5 years ago), then it wouldn't have been very lively outside of working hours. So yes, I get that. It just recently started to change from being a primarily 9-5 business district. But there's Uptown and Deep Ellum which are better comparisons to Downtown Austin than DT Dallas is. Both are very lively and have lots of walkable nightlife options
Austin in 2017 is a majority minority city. It is actually pretty diverse, not not "diverse at all" ???? it is obviously not as diverse as Houston which is by some metrics the most diverse city in the United States, but with a rough demographic breakdown of 40% white, 40% Hispanic, 10% black and 10% Asian, Austin is more diverse than most American cities??
Otherwise, in certain ways, Austin got lucky. It did not have its central core decimated by highway construction like Dallas and Houston. Dallas is starting to undo some of that damage with the Klyde Warren park, which is fantastic and allows for uptown and downtown to merge more seamlessly. Houston is gonna have a helluva hard time producing neighborhood cohesion. The Heights is a wonderful walkable urbanesque neighborhood. It is separated by the urban blight of god knows how many lanes of I 10. Most of the good urban neighborhoods of Houston are separated from downtown by huge and ugly highways. True, but bit less true for Dallas. I think eventually Austin will have to follow Dallas and bury or move the stretch of 35 that cuts off the East Side of downtown. Because it never built those kind of highways, Austin has terrible traffic for a city its size, but its central core remains much more intact than Dallas or Houston.
Austin also got lucky that it has much prettier topography than Houston or Dallas and has embraced that topography effectively. Houston is cleaning up the Buffalo bayou and trying to make it a feature rather than a bug and Dallas has it ass backwards by building a beautiful and expensive bridge over the Trinity river, which despite nearly decades of plans to make it into something like a usable waterfront, still looks like a drainage ditch. White Rock lake in Dallas is lovely but not really near downtown.
As for the name recognition, the crowning irony is that both Houston and Dallas spend WAY WAY more promoting their cities than Austin which simply relies on its festivals and word of mouth. The differences between the cities, which are not as huge as their respective boosters maintain can be nicely summed up in the differences between their biggest events: the Houston Rodeo versus The Texas State Fair versus South by South west. All 3 cities could learn from each other, both positively and negatively.
Given that this is Texas (and the South), those number dont represent diversity. Its still a majority white city...
Also the numbers i got were (48% White, 35% Latino, 6% Black & 5% Asian), some sources even say above 50% white...IDK
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