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Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the country so that's not a fair comparison.
And the idea that an area needs to be filled with 100 different nationalities to be diverse is silly.
I agree to an extent but it isn't just Houston or DFW, there are many cities that strike harder in more cosmopolitan nature. Austin and its ethnicities are more resemblance of metro's such as Seattle, San Fran, Portland, Minneapolis, ect whom also cater toward certain ethnicities while seemingly alienating (or at the very minimum, dis-including) others. I don't think Austin is trying to alienate any specific races, but it is heavily geared toward certain classes of people and not very welcoming to anything non white-collar, or anything that is not within a certain niche. I love Austin but I have to be honest about the place. Not everyone can have a great time in Austin. You pretty much NEED a six figure salary to enjoy the place unless you're content with renting and its professions are not widely diverse across all races.
I am not lashing against Austin but, Austin feels rather like its own bubble with its own agenda than DFW and Houston to me, and of all the metro's in TX, Abbott seems to have the most trouble with Austin. (I'm no fan of Abbott, but generally stating here.) The mayor of Austin (Steve Adler) was rooted within Pacific Heritage and brought pretty much everything from that region such as laxed homeless policies allowing them to camp in plain view in front of private property (which Abbott quickly revoked), Plastic Bag bans (which were also revoked by Abbott) and the recent defunding of the police (which Abbott is trying to revoke)
The interesting thing to me is Dallas is the city most associated with Texas, but it is nowhere near the most "Texan" city in culture. It feels like a Great Plains city. Houston isnt either. It feels more Southern. In culture Austin feels much more Texan than the other two, though I will say Fort Worth and San Antonio feel the most Texan.
I agree with Georgetown. Georgetown and McKinney feel pretty much interchangeable. Same for Liberty Hill and Lago Vista. Those are the far out burbs which I kind of expect to be red. Leander kind of surprised me by how many anti-conservatives I’ve found here though for someplace fairly far from the city proper. I guess it also is attributed to the fact that it’s the next affordable place still close enough to live for those who have been pushed out of the city proper. Round Rock is hit or miss. I would say it’s purple much like most of Dallas burbs are.
Im in Dallas every week, and Atlanta and Houston every month, and commute to all three from Austin.
I just never really felt Austin as a Texan city especially it’s core areas. The suburbs I guess can pass for Texan but Austin feels kind of like a hippie mecha to me and lacks vast attributes of what makes Texas stand out (infrastructure, sports, diversity, diverse economic activities)
Those attributes your describing sound more like Houston and DFW not the entire state of TX. Aside from sports (Austin is still a UT football town btw) much of TX doesn’t look exactly like DFW or Houston. San Antonio isn’t even built like Houston and DFW. Austin from a infrastructure perspective is kind of built like a much more cosmopolitan Waco imo. They both are in the I-35 corridor and both have bodies of water near their downtowns. Of course it’s not exactly like Austin AT ALL but if I had to choose a similar looking city as far as infrastructure then maybe. Also the limestone buildings that are so popular in Austin can be found in other parts of the Hill Country.
As far as diversity...Austin might not be as diverse as Houston and DFW but isn’t Austin and San Antonio pretty similar in that department? I’m pretty sure Austin is more diverse than El Paso. I know Austin is more diverse than any city in East Texas or Central Texas. So the diversity bit is confusing. Also other parts of TX doesn’t have diverse economic activists.
Houston and DFW are just as far apart from TX as Austin is. Even if they’re interwoven with the state, they’re still their own bubble to an extent. Matter fact I stay in athe Woodlands. It’s the furthest North burb of the metro down the street from Conroe which is considered imo fringe East Texas. Even with Woodlands being heavily green and being conservative it’s completely different from my region of North East Texas. Even Lufkin feels different.
I get the hipster eclectic vibe your talking about. You can find pockets of those in Houston,Dallas and San Antonio as well. Austin hipster community is just a lot bigger and could be seen as the motherland of the Texas hipster scene. You don’t find that outside big cities in TX though.
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Originally Posted by Frustratedintelligence
Even that is pushing it honestly. Obviously, being in a state that borders Mexico you will find Mexican influence, but my point is that this is not significantly more true for San Antonio than it is any of the other Texas cities; at least not to the degree that one would assume for a city that identifies predominantly as Hispanic.
"Hispanic" in SA literally just means descended from Spaniards. It doesn't necessarily mean Mexican and it doesn't mean they speak Spanish either.
Felt that way to me especially the way Mexican culture is promoted in San Antonio.
H-town AKA Houston. I wonder how popular Dallas would be without the Cowboys, because during the NFL season is the only the city is relevant here. Meanwhile, Houston has NASA, Oil, arguably the best Hip-hop scene in the south, BBQ, ect; It's bought up more than Dallas, so I associate Houston with Texas.
As far as diversity...Austin might not be as diverse as Houston and DFW but isn’t Austin and San Antonio pretty similar in that department? I’m pretty sure Austin is more diverse than El Paso. I know Austin is more diverse than any city in East Texas or Central Texas. So the diversity bit is confusing. Also other parts of TX doesn’t have diverse economic activists.
Check out my Demographics 2019 thread. Ive got all the data in there.
H-town AKA Houston. I wonder how popular Dallas would be without the Cowboys, because during the NFL season is the only the city is relevant here. Meanwhile, Houston has NASA, Oil, arguably the best Hip-hop scene in the south, BBQ, ect; It's bought up more than Dallas, so I associate Houston with Texas.
Are we just going to forget Atlanta? Dallas has some amazing BBQ. Houston may or may not be brought up more than Dallas, but Dallas is seemingly a little more associated with Texas. Really all the things you named about Houston are tied to Houston alone instead of the state as a whole.
Compared to Houston and DFW, definitely. The Austin proper city limits are 40% Hispanic and 50% Caucasian with a sprinkle of everything else in between. I’ve nothing against Austin and very much love it here but it is a very niche city compared to Houston and DFW.
I think that’s not the reason we don’t see Austin as diverse. I think it has more to do with Austin being a hotbed for “things white people like” and white liberal culture (or white conservative culture in the suburbs). I hate to say it but the Hispanics and blacks that are in Austin really are made to seem like an afterthought. Which is one of the reasons Austin is my least favorite big city in Texas.
I think that’s not the reason we don’t see Austin as diverse. I think it has more to do with Austin being a hotbed for “things white people like” and white liberal culture (or white conservative culture in the suburbs). I hate to say it but the Hispanics and blacks that are in Austin really are made to seem like an afterthought. Which is one of the reasons Austin is my least favorite big city in Texas.
I think that’s not the reason we don’t see Austin as diverse. I think it has more to do with Austin being a hotbed for “things white people like” and white liberal culture (or white conservative culture in the suburbs). I hate to say it but the Hispanics and blacks that are in Austin really are made to seem like an afterthought. Which is one of the reasons Austin is my least favorite big city in Texas.
I think that first sentence really explains it. Austin is a hotbed of white culture. That doesnt mean it doesnt have anything else or no diversity, but that is what Austin is and what it is known for. Its basically liberal white Disney Land to the extent Portland is liberal white Disney World. Austin is obviously a lot more diverse than Portland but demographics cant always pinpoint the culture of a city.
Ill gladly say that demographically Austin is far more diverse than people give it credit for, but I wouldnt say the same thing about the culture of the city.
I think that first sentence really explains it. Austin is a hotbed of white culture. That doesnt mean it doesnt have anything else or no diversity, but that is what Austin is and what it is known for. Its basically liberal white Disney Land to the extent Portland is liberal white Disney World. Austin is obviously a lot more diverse than Portland but demographics cant always pinpoint the culture of a city.
Ill gladly say that demographically Austin is far more diverse than people give it credit for, but I wouldnt say the same thing about the culture of the city.
I.e., it's highly segregated.
A city that is statistically less diverse but also less segregated is more functionally diverse than one that is statistically more diverse and more segregated.
Yet Houston is both more statistically diverse and less segregated, but those liberal Californians dismiss it outright. That 'soft' bigotry on the left is something else.
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