Please explain why Marfa, TX appeals to so many people in Austin.

[LordyLordy]

The simple answer is the same as the answer of why does Santa Fe appeal to so many (rich) Californios?

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by LordyLordy

The simple answer is the same as the answer of why does Santa Fe appeal to so many (rich) Californios?

Is that why Sta Fe is SOOO expensive? When I first went to have lunch at a little ol hole in the wall, I was shocked, thought that it was an outlier. I then discovered that they were ALL like that.

[borgerboy]

Have to disagree on all santa fe restaurants being expensive. We spent a week there last summer and found many good and reasonable places to eat well. I could start the list with tomasito's. But this subject is about marfa.

[gooch2000]

One word: HYPE.

Marfa was, and still is to a certain extent, written up in many major periodicals, lots of fashion layouts in huge periodicals, several big name international artists live there and spread the good word internationally, it's always popping up on the internet, etc. But yeah, it started with Judd (and Dan Flavin), which made it instantly "interesting," I mean, Judd was/is big-time.

Anyway, I'm pretty familiar with the place, had a relative who owned a vacation house there for several years, which is basically what happens over and over, you arrive, you're instantly either smitten or annoyed by the town (it can be seen as a mini-Austin of sorts, or a pretentious clich'ish town, one that doesn't care for outsiders, heck, they even printed "Keep Austin There" bumper stickers), and you either wanna buy a house there or get out as fast as you can. The eight hour drive gets really old really fast as well.

It also suffers from a weird economic divide, the "newbies" with money and their vacation homes, and the locals, living in mobile homes, so it's a bit odd, there's two factions, artsy moneyed hipster types and low income blue collar types...and they don't mix well, if at all. There's also a strong (and dangerous) drug culture beneath the calm facade, I mean it's a hop and a skip to Mexico.

In summation, yeah, I don't really get it. Nice place to visit, once, but you would NOT want to live there.