The Austin Reputation... (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio: Home Depot, buy, public schools)

[AK123]

Originally Posted by theloneranger

The beach is on the seawall, and most of the hotels, including nice hotels like the San Luis Hilton and the Galvez, are on Seawall Blvd.

There are beaches along the seawall, yes. Mostly the public beaches. And yes, the older hotels across Seawall Blvd.

But all of the new development is taking place on large beaches nowhere near the seawall. The seawall does not extend the entire island, only a portion in the middle. Pointe West, Beachtown (http://www.vrbo.com/127312 - broken link), and Palisade Palms are all newer. The Seascape is an older one directly on the beach, right after the seawall ends. It's still not going to be anything like Florida beaches, but I think many unfamiliar with it will be pleasantly surprised with the positive changes in Galveston over the last 4-5 years. Ike did some damage, but it was the much more remote Bolivar Peninsula to the north that was really wiped away, not Galveston Island.
As far as things to do/events I think someone had asked about... the two largest I know of are the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally, and Dickens on the Strand. Take place in Nov/Dec (which I actually think is the best time to go because it's off-season.)

[capcat]

I think you're less likely to like Galveston if you're one who wants to be entertained. If you are the type who likes the history of a place and trying to imagine, or using pictures to help you know, what the city was like in the 1800's in the very spot where you are standing, it's a different story. The Victorian homes, the magnificent arches that once stood over the Strand, the Galvez and its history. Researching the names of immigrants on passenger lists from ships' logs for whom Galveston was their port of entry to the United States. One of the concrete ships from WWII, partially sunken. It has a lot of history. Even now, the commerce is fascinating, although it is nothing like it once was. Approaching the docks and seeing a huge Dole Pineapple cargo ship moored is something you don't see every day. That part of the city near the Strand is as interesting to me as the Seawall side. Galveston is a different experience than just going to the beach.

[AK123]

Sorry to go off topic on Galveston (just hate to see inaccurate comments about it!) so back to the original question --

Originally Posted by silvad242

I'd like to pick your brains as to whether or not the Austin reputation is valid. I've always heard that it's a very weird city, with a lot of conspiracy theorists and extreme politicos on both sides. Is this correct? I'm seriously considering relocating my family to there. Thanks.

I don't know... maybe compared to SLC it is. Overall, Texas seems to be more libertarian than anything.

Is it that you're trying to find that sort of thing, or trying to get away from it?

[artsyguy]

So is your group of friends a mix of hippies, gays, lesbians, transgendered, emos, goths, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, Atheists, Skeptics, Muslims, Buddhists, and so forth? Or is pretty much everyone white and loves to tailgate at Long Horn games? The latter isn't socially liberal FYI. Let's be honest

Originally Posted by LeoZ

but it's more kind of socially liberal and chill than anything else. Most people are cool with people in general and their differences. Of course, you have your hardcore communists, and your snobbish and pretentious types, but overall people here are just themselves and cool with it. It's a fairly liberal city, but then again, it is in Texas, so our liberal is really more moderate than anything, politically anyway. Most people are at least socially liberal

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

So is your group of friends a mix of hippies, gays, lesbians, transgendered, emos, goths, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, Atheists, Skeptics, Muslims, Buddhists, and so forth? Or is pretty much everyone white and loves to tailgate at Long Horn games? The latter isn't socially liberal FYI. Let's be honest

Well, now that you mention it - to be honest, yes, it is. (The former mix, not the latter - I don't think I've ever tailgated at any game, for one thing.) Hadn't really thought about it until you asked the question, and started thinking about it in those terms. Mostly, I just think of them as my friends and acquaintances rather than categorizing them in that fashion - took you to make me try to do that, in fact. Wonder what that means.

[jread]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

So is your group of friends a mix of hippies, gays, lesbians, transgendered, emos, goths, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, Atheists, Skeptics, Muslims, Buddhists, and so forth?

Yes. Next?

[artsyguy]

Wow. You sound cool if you are being honest.

Originally Posted by jread

Yes. Next?

[artsyguy]

Those are socially liberal groups. And I was wondering if the Austinites actually had friends that met those requirements.

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Well, now that you mention it - to be honest, yes, it is. (The former mix, not the latter - I don't think I've ever tailgated at any game, for one thing.) Hadn't really thought about it until you asked the question, and started thinking about it in those terms. Mostly, I just think of them as my friends and acquaintances rather than categorizing them in that fashion - took you to make me try to do that, in fact. Wonder what that means.

[homeinatx]

OK, this thread is now dumb enough that I am happy to weigh in with my own treatise. First off, Galveston is a delightfully decrepit Victorian sea-side town living on past glories, the threat of hurricanes and proximity to the biggest city (not MSA in the state). It is a little Blackpool, a little New Orleans, has the best residential architecture in the state - who cares that half of it is falling down! And you can walk to a gay bar, an exotic dancer cabaret, a tapas bar and in the east end, there is not a strip mall in sight. It is Texas's version of Provincetown, without the whales or puritan edge, but with dolphins, views of refineries, and friendly, slutty and a bit mafiosa - by far the most interesting small city in the state of Texas for my taste. The beaches are tragic when sober but quite delightful after a few margaritas. Now ito the big Texas cities, it has often puzzled me why Austin has by far the best reputation nationally, and contrary to urban legends the Austin Chamber of Commerce spends way less money promoting the city than its equivalents in Dallas, Fort Worth or Houston. I don't know about San Antonio? Problem is that coastal opinion makers in the U.S. have a big Texas problem - from the assassination of JFK in Dallas, to the death penalty, to the Branch Davidians - Texas looks genocidal and insane. At the same time there is a big Texas love which is hard to acknowledge- the cowboy myth central to national imagination, wide open spaces, a half-repressed wish for the long history and superior culture of Mexico. Austin, and to a lesser extent Fort Worth - the latter remains undiscovered - allows the liberal imagination to have their Texas love without embracing the shameful episodes in Texas History. Austin and central Texas (if they think that far) gets exempt. They know that Karl Marx had an uncle in the area, that most of the area was founded by German socialists fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848 in central Europe, that Travis county voted against secession. And then they only ever come to Texas for South by Southwest to sell their films or report on their friends trying to sell their films or make record deals etc. And all they see is downtown, and So Co and maybe Hippy Hollow and there are a couple of thousand of their friends and the margaritas are cheap and excellent, and there is tons of music, most of which is much better than what is here for the other 51 weeks of the year, and they think all of Austin is always like that. Why wouldn't they? They don't see that 90% of Round Rock is like a cheaper version of Plano, or that there is no good public transport - they are stumbling around or flirting with pedi-cab drivers. For that week, Austin does Texas much better than anywhere else does Texas. It feels fabulous! If these opinion makers ever go to another major Texas city, it is immediately clear to them, that L.A. does Dallas a thousand times better than Dallas does Dallas; we already have a flat, sophisticated city close to water with great restaurants. It is Chicago, not Houston. Monterrey, not even Mexico City is a much more vibrant and attractive version of San Antonio. So the other 3 major Texas metropoles get dissed! Few national journalists ever go to Fort Worth - why would they? Plus it is not weird enough and Tarrant County is the only major urban county besides Oklahoma City ( and I have my doubts about the urbanity of OKC) that did not vote for Obama. So Austin does not have to do a thing to generate its hype besides throw the best party in the state perfectly catered for opinion makers who want Texas friendliness without Texas fascism. They go back to their editors in love - the numbers around inexpensive housing and employment growth crunch, and Austin ends up on every top 10 list. That's my cynical take.

Simultaneously, Austin knows how to turn its greatest weakness- the lack of world class or even nationally competitive cultural or tourist institutions, no Nasher, no Kimball, no Menil, no Riverwalk - into its greatest strength - I can see a Matisse, a Caravaggio, eat a perfect creme brulee in any major city in the world, including Dallas and Houston, but I can't go see a very pretty girl sing a few songs in the room above the Clay Pit with about 40 people one March evening after eating excellent chili at the Texas Chili Parlor, before fighting with some drunk closeted Republican Congressional Aide at Charlies across the street. The singer was Nora Jones. I was out with a friend who works for NPR, and an acquaintance who writes for the NYT. When Nora Jones became mega-famous, they would not know that she was a nice girl from Dallas, they would know that she was Ravi Shankar's daughter and that the first time they saw her was in small room above a mediocre Indian restaurant in Austin that has beautiful 19th century limestone walls in the shadow of the state capitol. What is not to love?

A lot of the time, I find Austin a mildly pretentious, self-important collection of bad retail in the hillocks of Central Texas, but when this town is on its game, it is way more interesting than anything within a thousand miles except New Orleans. If you are a creative TX teenager, who wants to make something other than money, and does not have bus fare for L.A., or Chicago, or New York, you come to Austin, not DFW or Houston or S.A. 90% of the time what you make will be rubbish, but when it hits it hits and it hits here! Austin can fire a dream in the way that nowhere else in TX can, except perhaps Marfa. It also, at this point in its history is not defined by the horror of its suburbs. Colin County outside Dallas is regrettably what most people think of when they think of DFW ( apologies to downtown McKinney). Thankfully Houston is not yet defined by Fort Bend County. These are two of the blandest, most generic affluent suburban areas in the U.S. - miles of tract housing - a little cash entirely devoid of taste - faux grecian, faux Tuscan, pick your faux - all interior architectural details molded from styrofoam and spray- painted -shellac is too classy, adjacent to a highway with a strip mall on boulevard de frontage with a Best Buy next to a Home Depot, with a Starbucks drive thru if you are lucky - leading candidates for the most boring places in the WORLD. You might as well be in Johnson County outside Kansas City. Williamson County outside Austin is getting there in sheer suburban tedium, but downtown Georgetown is still delightful and there are still wild rivers and rolling pastures there. But otherwise nothing to see, nothing to eat - except for nutrition, nothing to do except drive to Houston or Dallas or FW or Austin and send your kids to good public schools and watch your flat screen tv and worry about whether or not your neighbor has a more expensive car. I exaggerate but not by much. The suburbs outside the major TX cities are BAD- flatter versions of the inland Empire of L.A., with similar air quality and no mountains!

There is no doubt that Austin is overhyped and if you want an interesting Texas life 12 months of the year, you would be better off in Montrose and adjacent in Houston, or in East Dallas (Lakewood, Junius Heights etc) or in King Williams/Southtown in San Antonio, but visit Austin for a week in March and a week in late November for the East Austin Arts tour and listen to some Bongos at Eyeore's Birthday (much better stoned!), and skinny dip in Lake Travis, and eat BBQ at Franklin's on the side of highway, and the genius Texas fusion sushi at Uchi, and watch a thousand migrating monarch butterflies destroy your backyard, and give a bum $2 for playing Pachelbel's Canon (a little unevenly) on the Drag, and buy a few atrocious western pearl button shirts on South Congress, and if you don't fall just a little bit in love, Texas ain't for you, baby. ( You don't have to listen to that half-wit, Alex Jones at all- there is way too much good live music in this town to ever bother with the radio!!)

[LeoZ]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

So is your group of friends a mix of hippies, gays, lesbians, transgendered, emos, goths, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, Atheists, Skeptics, Muslims, Buddhists, and so forth? Or is pretty much everyone white and loves to tailgate at Long Horn games? The latter isn't socially liberal FYI. Let's be honest

Well you seem to know me pretty well, why don't you tell me?

And for your information, the former assumption actually does fit my group of people, more or less.

Any thing else you'd like to guess about me?