Why do Californians seemingly ALWAYS want to come to Austin vs the other big cities? (Houston: college, live in)

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by SmartGXL

Let me clarify what I meant: SA is more international,

say what now??? I don't think I am seeing this clearly. I think my eyes are deceiving me. You think SA is more international than Houston or Dallas???

Originally Posted by SmartGXL

or more like a South American city, than any other city in TX, or at least the central business district is. To me, it resembles cities in Mexico.

ohhhh now I understand. You think San Antonio is more Mexicany? well yes. San Antonio was built under Spanish and Mexican rule, why would it not have SOME aspects of Mexican towns, it once was one.

Originally Posted by SmartGXL

However, the cities that were built in Latin America, were built by Europeans in a European format...so..by proxy, it is somewhat similar to a European city.

You lost me again. what about SA that makes it look like a European town? 99% OF San Antonio looks like any southern town. You throw in some Southwestern Buildings and you have San Antonio. San Antonio's narrow streets in downtown is a product of the time it was built not anything to do with Europe.

[ClarenceBodiker]

UT is a huge school. To generalize the entire school as pretentious and arrogant seems a bit unfair. Maybe their football team's fanbase, but the school is far too diverse.

You could easily generalize snooty private school kids at SMU or TCU the same way.

[artsyguy]

That's true because I do associate myself with professionals who graduated from Harvard and Yale: they are older professionals and most of them are not shunning of me or jerks to my face.

I also agree with Hamilton's other fine points. Good job Hamilton.

I do tend to favor SMU only because it has been so welcoming and accepting of legendary Spanish fine arts i.e., The Meadows Museum. You feel connected not only with the timeless art but with a pleasant community of artists rather than a cult of Longhorn fanatics.

Originally Posted by hamiltonpl

Even people who went to Harvard and Yale don't have the egos of a UT Grad in Austin.

UT is a huge state school in the second most populous state in the richest country in the world. It better be in the top 15 schools in the nation. Otherwise it would be an absolute unmitigated failure. Frankly, its ranking is pretty low accounting for the size of the school, its endowment and massive funding by Texas taxpayers (like me, artsyguy and the 21 million other Texans who paid for you to go to UT while you insult us).

Going to UT doesn't make you smart. But it does tend to make you an a$$hole.

[artsyguy]

Most minorities, except for blacks, are tight lipped and very inarticulate about the discrimination or oppression that they face: plus if they did bring it up don't you think there would be a herd of arrogant dimwits to tell you "No. Stop projecting."

Originally Posted by hamiltonpl

I agree with you that artsyguy's comments appear exaggerated based on my experience with Austin. But I'm not gay or a minority. I have heard from other gays and minorities that Austin has a small town atmosphere for those groups.

But I stand by my comments about UT. My experiences are all based on personal knowledge with UT Austin students and graduates in Austin. It is, regrettably, not an outdated stereotype at all. The statement that "you are simply jealous of an institution that is well out of your reach, and you seem to enjoy trying (in vain) to debase it with total conjecture and/or lies" is completely exclusionary, pompous and nauseatingly pretentious. So is the statement "if I moved out of Austin, I'd have to move out of Texas." Both of these pretentious attitudes were invented by the supposedly liberal, welcoming, laid back people of Austin.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

I agree that Dallas is an amazingly liberal city. I wasted one year of my life in Austin: the most horrible year of my life. And I am not even black! People keep making this about being black and the downfalls of Austin have nothing to do with being black. I am so tired of black people griping that they are targeted: it is anyone that isn't wearing khaki shorts and boat shoes, who is not devoted to The Longhorns, and doesn't have pale skin that gets snubbed and pushed away.

A classic Artsyguy post.

In this post you make it sound like everyone in Austin looks like a frat boy. In another you would say they are all aloof hipsters. In another you would characterize it another way. But all of these groups, according to you, hate you.

Austin is a city of lots of college students, most who are not frat boys or sorority girls. They are just college students. Austin also has many lawyers, software nerds, chip designers, teachers, Olympic athletes, and just families.

I am no fan of UT. But I have worked with hundreds of UT graduates in my career and they are only slightly more arrogant than they deserve to be. If they by chance don't care about sports, they are just about like any other graduate from a large, quality, public university. The UT athletic department is unquestionably arrogant and throws its weight around like no one else. No one is worse than DeLoss Dodds ("we are the Jones").

I have always believed since I started reading Artsyguy's posts that whatever misery he experienced in his time in Austin he somehow inspired others to behave that way. Austin people are by and large just as decent as the people in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by feconi

I highly doubt the steady stream of migration into Austin is going to stop anytime soon. Keep in mind too that Dallas, Houston, and SA face many of the same challenges which are detrimental to their qualities of life as well. It's not like those cities don't have traffic problems, corruption/ineptitude in local government, crime, etc.

What's probably much more than likely to happen is that as the city of Austin gets more and more congested and expensive, more and more people and businesses will move to the suburbs, and population and economic growth in the city proper will slow significantly.

Yeah, but Austin is just horrible. It's freeway system is poorly planned, unlike the other three major Texas metro areas. Austin's freeways/tollways looked like they were placed wherever they would fit. The other cities have actual plans that are obvious if you look at maps of them.

Originally Posted by feconi

Actually, over the past decade, the average annual domestic migration (in terms of raw numbers) into Austin has been nearly the same as Houston. DFW does have a significantly larger amount of domestic migration than Austin, but the disparity is not at all proportional to the size difference between the two metropolitan areas.

Assuming the share of Californians coming into each city constitutes roughly the same fraction of domestic migration, it seems Houston and Austin have seen a very comparable influx of Californians over the past decade. See the growth profiles for the following cities:

Austin-Round Rock, TX MSA Population and Components of Change -- Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University Home
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA Population and Components of Change -- Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University Home
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA Population and Components of Change -- Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University Home

You see how Austin is declining, while Houston and DFW's domestic migration numbers are increasing? And we can't even compare the international migration numbers.

[feconi]

Originally Posted by Scarface713

Yeah, but Austin is just horrible. It's freeway system is poorly planned, unlike the other three major Texas metro areas. Austin's freeways/tollways looked like they were placed wherever they would fit. The other cities have actual plans that are obvious if you look at maps of them.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's not just their placement that's bad, but also the traffic congestion, which along certain corridors is far worse than it should be for a city Austin's size.

It's also frustrating to see nothing being done about some of these problems--for the life of me, I cannot understand why some Austinites are so adamantly opposed to expansion of I-35 by just a lane or two without expanding the right-of-way (for example, see the latter half of this thread: SH130 to be the new I-35?).

[eepstein]

I do not agree. Austin has BY FAR the most arrogant, self-centered people in the state. I have lots of friends in North Dallas, Denton, and Houston and everyone of them would hole heartedly agree with me.

Originally Posted by hoffdano

A classic Artsyguy post.

In this post you make it sound like everyone in Austin looks like a frat boy. In another you would say they are all aloof hipsters. In another you would characterize it another way. But all of these groups, according to you, hate you.

Austin is a city of lots of college students, most who are not frat boys or sorority girls. They are just college students. Austin also has many lawyers, software nerds, chip designers, teachers, Olympic athletes, and just families.

I am no fan of UT. But I have worked with hundreds of UT graduates in my career and they are only slightly more arrogant than they deserve to be. If they by chance don't care about sports, they are just about like any other graduate from a large, quality, public university. The UT athletic department is unquestionably arrogant and throws its weight around like no one else. No one is worse than DeLoss Dodds ("we are the Jones").

I have always believed since I started reading Artsyguy's posts that whatever misery he experienced in his time in Austin he somehow inspired others to behave that way. Austin people are by and large just as decent as the people in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.

[theSUBlime]

It's funny, I was just talking to my friend who moved from Santa Cruz about this yesterday.

1. Media and word of mouth
If you absolutely had to move to Texas and you heard from your friend that Austin is cool, where do you think you are more likely to move? Many families from California have moved to Austin and their friends have followed them.

Austin is more of a "pretty picture," undeveloped type liberal. Given its size and demographics, it sparingly deals with the issues that actually face the larger metropolitan areas---it's getting there though. Yes, it's great to protest, go to shows, hear live music, frequent taco trucks...but what about the real issues?

[pjoseph2]

Originally Posted by eepstein

I do not agree. Austin has BY FAR the most arrogant, self-centered people in the state. I have lots of friends in North Dallas, Denton, and Houston and everyone of them would hole heartedly agree with me.

This proves beyond a doubt that eepstein has no heart