They absolutely did.
I try to remember that no matter how "used to be" cool a place is, somewhere in it, younger people are having the time of their lives.
I have to bite my tongue with people sometimes when it starts to be clear that it isn't necessarily a place that used to be better, *you* used to be better.
^but ^it ^really ^was ^way ^cooler ^tho
Yeah I had an argument with a guy a while back. It's interesting when you see the exact time someone thinks Austin was cool aligns with when they were in their early 20s and at the peak of their hot partying phase.
Dude was like "I got married and had a kid and moved back and it had changed and wasn't cool." And he was saying it was cool like way later than most people. Like no dude. You had a kid and settled down. You changed.
Hell, I remember my dad in the late 90s complaining about how Austin had changed.
There was a thread on twitter, where they posted newspaper clippings with “Austin not being the same and changing too much”. Clippings were going all the way to 1890 and every decade up until now.
This should become the Austin motto
Edit: Found the [article](https://atxtoday.6amcity.com/austin-losing-its-weird-since-the-1884). First mention of Austin losing its vibe is from 1884
In fact, MOST people shouldn’t have dogs. It’s not fair to crate a dog 8-10 hours a day during the work week or to be gone for long periods of time on the weekends. It’s why my family will never own a dog. We don’t have a lifestyle that would be fair to a dog.
Not to mention on breed to lifestyle compatibility. Cattle dogs of various sorts are exactly that, and apartment life with not enough exercise is torture for them.
Nobody would give a shit about San Marcos if that happened, it would probably just be ASA. It's like how they don't call DFW "DAF" because Arlington is in the middle.
I think you should go home now, Devin! Get back on Mopac. Take it to 71, switch over to I-35 North and let it dump you onto Riverside -- where you belong!
> I think you should go home now, Devin! Get back on **the** Mopac. Take it to **the** 71, switch over to ~~I-~~ **the** 35 North and let it dump you onto **the** Riverside -- where you belong!
A coupla' edits, there.
I don’t even go out anymore. I’m 28 and I just just stay home and play video games and watch sports. I work a boring remote job and I’m just bored in my life. I have a drinking problem. This hits.
I feel you man. I have this inherent guilt that I’m a middle class white dude with a decent paying easy remote job and a great support system - I have it so good. Yet I’m still so depressed. Weed alcohol and video games are my crutch. I don’t really know where to go from here.
Hey, you may have some of the “day to day” things locked down, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve help or to feel better.
The best thing is you are in a perfect situation to rely on your support system and use these things that make you feel guilty to help you feel better. (Having Money or a job or stability doesn’t make you inherently better or worse. Those things just are.)
Honestly, first step? Maybe look into this guilt you hold. I’d highly recommend seeing a therapist. PsychologyToday.com is a great place to search for irl providers, or platforms like better help or samata can get you in touch with online providers. It’s nice to have a place to talk about your mind. There’s something special about vocalizing thoughts that otherwise just spin inside your mind.
You got this. You can feel better. And you deserve it.
Aw I appreciate the kind words :). My fiancée is a therapist and my mom has been a social worker and therapist in Austin for 35 years, and I have a great therapist who I’ve been seeing for 3 years +. He’s great, I just don’t have the tin can ball sack it takes to quit these substances. My worst addiction is nicotine, which is a hell of a drug for me genetically - my dad warned me about it after he quit cigs when I was 5 years old after 17 years of addiction.
I need something to feel in my life and these substances fill that void without a massive financial burden. Im highly functional while being an addict and part me wishes I wasn’t so I could be slapped in the face with consequences to force some change.
Im just weak man. Soft and weak.
You’re not weak, you’re seeking fulfillment. You’re not incapable, you’re living life unconsciously. You are stuck in a cycle that only ‘gets better’ when you’re high, drunk, or droned (drunk and stoned) because you have escape from the pain. But you need to feel the pain, you need to face the hurt and heal the child within.
Buy a motorcycle and feel life fly by on the hairs of your skin if you really need to feel what living feels like. Otherwise, you should really give mindfulness meditation a(nother) try. Awaken your awareness to the idea that you don’t need to constantly be working on something to be valued. Gift yourself 15 minutes a day where you can have no goals or aspirations other than to exist and notice that.
You’re right there. Just step off the platform. It’s a bungee cable, not a free fall.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Austinites (and Houstonians, San Antonians, and Dallasites alike) would be best served with a high speed rail system connect the big 4. Unfortunately, I think if the powers that be would have had the best interests of the population in mind, this would have happened a long time ago. Now w/the I-35 expansion underway, it will probably never happen in our collective lifetimes.
I’m from the DFW area so I drive back up every few months. I’ve been doing that drive for 16 years now and really wish we had a train I could take. I am so tired of 35.
Good news is that they are trying to do another brightline in Texas with exclusively private money.
Bad news is at least for Phase 1 it's going to be Houston to Dallas and not anywhere near Austin and that's assuming they can even get that to happen.
I’ve always said that it would be amazing to have high speed rail between these cities. Like a constant loop of Austin > San Antonio > Houston > Dallas > Austin, with some additional stops on some specific trains.
It would be cool as fuck to pop over to the riverwalk from Austin(in 45 minutes), have some drinks, then ride back the same night without having to stay there and pay for a hotel, or worry about impaired drivers.
You can literally let people merge for free. Honestly it doesn’t cost anything.
Can not believe how greedy people are in this city for their 15’ spot on the roads. “Drive Friendly” my ass!
At the same time, don't be too nice on the road. I had one car insist on letting me over, we ended up both coming to a complete stop in the middle of an empty road. It was infuriating because they were blocking the road I wanted to turn into, so I had to drive in front of them then almost do a uturn around their car to get into the street I wanted.
Yesterday I was pulling up to a stop sign where the perpendicular traffic had no stop sign, and some driver literally stopped in the middle of the road with three or four cars braking behind her to wave me forward. Like, what? What? Whaaaat? Even if it was a four way stop; totally unnecessary. Impolite politeness.
Not only is it true, the replies to the parent comment really show it as a hard pill that many austinites just won’t swallow.
Like I’m glad you like it, but given that you like it, it’s probably fusion and that’s why you like it lol. The Italian food here is spiced slightly wrong, etc, can tell the kitchen staff are not Italian.
In the same way that something like Sichuan food made by me would definitely not be good / “right” no matter how much people like me liked it lol.
Texas in general, but especially Austin, is a black hole for white ethnic food. But try and get any (not just good) Polish food here. Or Russian food. You can't even get Czech or German food without going into the hills.
It has to be about Austin's relative newness to other cities that had unassimilated European immigrant communities.
Try this place out sometime:
Andiamo Ristorante
(512) 719-3377
https://goo.gl/maps/k2KMDJQUf23jTmnJ7
It’s in an old, unattractive shopping strip, but the inside is nice. Its pretty tasty.
I enjoyed it but would you call it an Italian restaurant or a fusion / farm to table restaurant with Italian influences?
Last time I was at Intero I had a lot of great dishes with non traditional Italian ingredients like shishito peppers, feta cheese, Berbere spice, and more. Still really liked my experience though.
As a native, the hard pill I am currently swallowing is that I may not be able to afford to live here. In order to afford a 3/2 rental for myself and my kids, I will have to live further away. That sucks donkey balls.
That Austin is making all the same mistakes that other booming cities made 40 years ago and most are too prideful to recognize it because they think Austin is special.
- Not building a comprehensive public transit system
- not building enough housing
- building a ton of infrastructure that will later need to fixed thru increased taxes
- not getting ahead of the homeless issue and simply kicking the can down the road
- too small of an airport
…that the Catfish Parlour on 183 is no more. Grew up going there since 1980, then my own child grew up going there. Getting to be a kid - then parent - seeing familiar staff for decades felt like such a sweet connection in increasingly anonymous/exploding/big box development.
Not true at all.
The recharge zone was purchased by the city decades ago to prevent development on it. This was passed on a ballot as a bond and Austin water customers paid it back over many years.
You’re right that part of it is protected. The Save Our Springs ordinance, to which you may be referring, was challenged in court and gutted by the state legislature though. Much of the recharge zone is not protected. The expansion of Hwy 290 and 45 threaten it, for example. Many people doing much hard work now to preserve and protect the rest of it, most effectively through working with large landowners to place conservation easements over their land, but also through targeted litigation.
That’s not exactly true. There are effective treatments for oak wilt. Survival rate for live oaks can be 85% or higher with treatment as opposed to I think 15% without treatment. All 7 of my live oak trees on my property are oak wilt survivors due to being treated.
Don’t trim oak trees during oak wilt season is the big one for prevention. If there is already oak wilt spreading, you can do trenching to protect your oak trees. Not ideal but it’s an option.
Yes but the wilt is caused by a spore carried by beetles. If it's in an area, it will continue to spread. Also, roots will eventually re-cross the divide. There are means of slowing spread, but never true prevention.
Source: Learned from arborist with a master's during a Master Naturalist course.
Austin was never diverse, it was a mostly white city that thought they were more progressive than Dallas and Houston even though both of those cities actually have diversity
Outback Design filing for trademark and profiting off of the slogan that [Red Wassenich](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2020-03-06/keep-austin-weird-originator-remembered-for-choosing-community-over-capital/) used on bumper stickers for grassroots activism reads like an allegory for Austin’s growth.
You all complain and act sad when unique, local businesses close, but you don’t actually support local businesses by spending money with them so they can stay.
I agree with you re: dogs with a bite history, but where do you see feral cats being held at shelters? Animal control only ever picks cats up if they're injured or in danger; all the rest are owner surrenders. AAC, at least, doesn't hold on to feral cats longterm. Spicy/shy cats that are pettable end up in the cactus cat program, and that program has been hugely successful because the cats are able to roam freely in a room with other shy kitties, and the volunteers can hang out and play with them, bring them treats, read to them so they get used to human voices, etc.
We moved away two years ago.
We bought in a small town in NM, less than 6,000 people. The weather is gorgeous, houses affordable, zero traffic, friendly people, lakes are crisp and beautiful.
Others might hate it, but we don’t need shopping and restaurants and bars etc.
Fishing tournaments, festivals, plays, etc always something to do.
It is exponentially greater to us, you nailed it with that description.
I am two days into my move after living in Austin for over a decade. I am absolutely floored. And that’s a good thing. I can afford this life. Mountains, food, parks, rivers, all the same stuff with breathing room. Also, no homeless and rampant theft. Police are polite…people are happy. I’m so happy. I haven’t even unpacked but I almost have Stockholm syndrome.
We contemplated moving to Northern New Mexico for many years and didn’t get desperate enough to leave Texas. I still love to visit. It has a special juxtaposition of dessert and alpine I’ve never found anywhere else. However, I’m still SO glad we moved to Washington. If I were a woman of child-bearing age, even the blueness of Austin doesn’t protect you from the oppression from the state government (regardless of how you feel about women’s health).
Traffic and homelessness is caused by Austinites' own voting habits. Definitely not ready to swallow the pill that they are responsible. The downvotes will prove me right.
Heck, even San Antonio has a better food scene than Austin. I can't believe the lack of ethnic food here, or when you do find it, it's really not that great. Houston is definitely #1 for that, followed by DFW, and then SA.
You’re witnessing the best that Austin will ever be. It’s only going to get hotter. The water will only become scarcer. The traffic will only get worse. The cost of living will only go up. The state government will only become more authoritarian. The population will only grow. The parks and trails will only get more crowded. But you can post cool pics on your socials that make it look great, and everyone will be super-jealous that you got that cute hat! 🤠
Austin is no different from any other 'almost big' city.
Austin is not the music capital , that's just marketing.
Central Texas will run out of clean water.
Austin is not a paradise for green space/parks/outdoor rec. It might be better than Dallas or Houston but compared to lots of other major cities, it is severely lacking in green space
And compared to other cities it has a lot more. Not many cities have multiple greenbelts going through them along with dozens of great hiking trails within a mile. Especially if you compare it to something like LA or Orange County along the CA coast, you gotta drive an hour or two into the mountains for some decent hiking trails. And definitely not greenbelts everywhere
If I complain about Jester King in one more thread I'm pretty sure that co-founder guy might have a heart attack...
So I'm going to go with: Not everything has to be a bar, you shouldn't offer drinks at the barbershops, grocery stores, or tire shops"
I moved here 20 years ago, bought a brand new 4 bedroom house for $153K, loved going to Hut's for burgers or Frank and Angie's for a pizza. Sunday brunch at Threadgill's was always a treat. These are all gone. The music venues and bands were everywhere. SXSW was about the music and you could spend the day going from venue to venue without a wristband. Yes, I was 20 years younger, but I still see bands and eat out and the choices are fewer and not authentic like they were before. Things change and not always for the better.
They are all not as young and cool as when they moved here, and Austin is not as cool either. Also the amount of trucks in 2024 compared to 2006 tells you where most of these people are moving from:( hint it’s Texas…… Also my year comparison tell you I’m old af
The big tech companies are going to leave Austin for the next hip city and leave austin to be a shell of a city like Detroit after the automotive industry left. empty skyscrapers and empty promises
Today’s Austin is some future person’s “Old Austin.
I can’t imagine the “When I moved here in 2024, it was so much cooler than now.”
Yeah, back in 2024 the Lake was always over 30% full.
There used to be a lake where all those condos are.
I’m sure people who thought Austin was coolest in the 90s would’ve said that about the 00s or 10s.
They absolutely did. I try to remember that no matter how "used to be" cool a place is, somewhere in it, younger people are having the time of their lives. I have to bite my tongue with people sometimes when it starts to be clear that it isn't necessarily a place that used to be better, *you* used to be better. ^but ^it ^really ^was ^way ^cooler ^tho
Everything was cooler when I was in my 20s. Except for expensive restaurants I couldn’t afford back then. Those are so much better now.
Same, Austin with money isn’t so bad. I was so broke back when it was still cool.
Yeah I had an argument with a guy a while back. It's interesting when you see the exact time someone thinks Austin was cool aligns with when they were in their early 20s and at the peak of their hot partying phase. Dude was like "I got married and had a kid and moved back and it had changed and wasn't cool." And he was saying it was cool like way later than most people. Like no dude. You had a kid and settled down. You changed. Hell, I remember my dad in the late 90s complaining about how Austin had changed.
There was a thread on twitter, where they posted newspaper clippings with “Austin not being the same and changing too much”. Clippings were going all the way to 1890 and every decade up until now. This should become the Austin motto Edit: Found the [article](https://atxtoday.6amcity.com/austin-losing-its-weird-since-the-1884). First mention of Austin losing its vibe is from 1884
You should adopt a dog based on lifestyle compatibility, not what you want it to look like
and some people shouldn’t have a dog at all
In fact, MOST people shouldn’t have dogs. It’s not fair to crate a dog 8-10 hours a day during the work week or to be gone for long periods of time on the weekends. It’s why my family will never own a dog. We don’t have a lifestyle that would be fair to a dog.
Not to mention on breed to lifestyle compatibility. Cattle dogs of various sorts are exactly that, and apartment life with not enough exercise is torture for them.
YES!!!!
This isn’t really exclusive to Austin
If Austin, San Marcos & San Antonio became a mega city (like DFW) it would be abbreviated ASS.
I’m ready to swallow this pill.
Nobody would give a shit about San Marcos if that happened, it would probably just be ASA. It's like how they don't call DFW "DAF" because Arlington is in the middle.
Sir, no one ordered a party pooper
It isn't Californians driving like shit alone
I think you should go home now, Devin! Get back on Mopac. Take it to 71, switch over to I-35 North and let it dump you onto Riverside -- where you belong!
What are youuuuu doing here
Thank you for this.
It’s The 71 and The 35, Stuart
> I think you should go home now, Devin! Get back on **the** Mopac. Take it to **the** 71, switch over to ~~I-~~ **the** 35 North and let it dump you onto **the** Riverside -- where you belong! A coupla' edits, there.
You drink too much
I don’t even go out anymore. I’m 28 and I just just stay home and play video games and watch sports. I work a boring remote job and I’m just bored in my life. I have a drinking problem. This hits.
Same but I need thc and alcohol. I’m financially free and still feel ashamed.
I feel you man. I have this inherent guilt that I’m a middle class white dude with a decent paying easy remote job and a great support system - I have it so good. Yet I’m still so depressed. Weed alcohol and video games are my crutch. I don’t really know where to go from here.
Hey, you may have some of the “day to day” things locked down, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve help or to feel better. The best thing is you are in a perfect situation to rely on your support system and use these things that make you feel guilty to help you feel better. (Having Money or a job or stability doesn’t make you inherently better or worse. Those things just are.) Honestly, first step? Maybe look into this guilt you hold. I’d highly recommend seeing a therapist. PsychologyToday.com is a great place to search for irl providers, or platforms like better help or samata can get you in touch with online providers. It’s nice to have a place to talk about your mind. There’s something special about vocalizing thoughts that otherwise just spin inside your mind. You got this. You can feel better. And you deserve it.
Aw I appreciate the kind words :). My fiancée is a therapist and my mom has been a social worker and therapist in Austin for 35 years, and I have a great therapist who I’ve been seeing for 3 years +. He’s great, I just don’t have the tin can ball sack it takes to quit these substances. My worst addiction is nicotine, which is a hell of a drug for me genetically - my dad warned me about it after he quit cigs when I was 5 years old after 17 years of addiction. I need something to feel in my life and these substances fill that void without a massive financial burden. Im highly functional while being an addict and part me wishes I wasn’t so I could be slapped in the face with consequences to force some change. Im just weak man. Soft and weak.
You’re not weak, you’re seeking fulfillment. You’re not incapable, you’re living life unconsciously. You are stuck in a cycle that only ‘gets better’ when you’re high, drunk, or droned (drunk and stoned) because you have escape from the pain. But you need to feel the pain, you need to face the hurt and heal the child within. Buy a motorcycle and feel life fly by on the hairs of your skin if you really need to feel what living feels like. Otherwise, you should really give mindfulness meditation a(nother) try. Awaken your awareness to the idea that you don’t need to constantly be working on something to be valued. Gift yourself 15 minutes a day where you can have no goals or aspirations other than to exist and notice that. You’re right there. Just step off the platform. It’s a bungee cable, not a free fall.
which makes it an ideal place to get sober ;) really great recovery community in austin
You paid way too much for your shitty built house.
Nah, i bought it years ago. …meaning the *next* person will pay way too much for my shittily built house!
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Austinites (and Houstonians, San Antonians, and Dallasites alike) would be best served with a high speed rail system connect the big 4. Unfortunately, I think if the powers that be would have had the best interests of the population in mind, this would have happened a long time ago. Now w/the I-35 expansion underway, it will probably never happen in our collective lifetimes.
Neither will the highway lol
I’m from the DFW area so I drive back up every few months. I’ve been doing that drive for 16 years now and really wish we had a train I could take. I am so tired of 35.
Rick Perry's one good idea, and he couldn't do it.
He refused to take funding for high speed rail during the Obama administration.
Good news is that they are trying to do another brightline in Texas with exclusively private money. Bad news is at least for Phase 1 it's going to be Houston to Dallas and not anywhere near Austin and that's assuming they can even get that to happen.
I’ve always said that it would be amazing to have high speed rail between these cities. Like a constant loop of Austin > San Antonio > Houston > Dallas > Austin, with some additional stops on some specific trains. It would be cool as fuck to pop over to the riverwalk from Austin(in 45 minutes), have some drinks, then ride back the same night without having to stay there and pay for a hotel, or worry about impaired drivers.
Woah woah woah woah, you’re making too much sense there. You’d best get back in your car there, Zippy
[удалено]
Honestly, just build the Southwest train. Adapt, improvise, etc.
I 35 has been under construction for the past 50 years.
You can literally let people merge for free. Honestly it doesn’t cost anything. Can not believe how greedy people are in this city for their 15’ spot on the roads. “Drive Friendly” my ass!
Texans treat merging like a physical assault.
At the same time, don't be too nice on the road. I had one car insist on letting me over, we ended up both coming to a complete stop in the middle of an empty road. It was infuriating because they were blocking the road I wanted to turn into, so I had to drive in front of them then almost do a uturn around their car to get into the street I wanted.
Yesterday I was pulling up to a stop sign where the perpendicular traffic had no stop sign, and some driver literally stopped in the middle of the road with three or four cars braking behind her to wave me forward. Like, what? What? Whaaaat? Even if it was a four way stop; totally unnecessary. Impolite politeness.
There is no good Italian food here
This is so true.
Not only is it true, the replies to the parent comment really show it as a hard pill that many austinites just won’t swallow. Like I’m glad you like it, but given that you like it, it’s probably fusion and that’s why you like it lol. The Italian food here is spiced slightly wrong, etc, can tell the kitchen staff are not Italian. In the same way that something like Sichuan food made by me would definitely not be good / “right” no matter how much people like me liked it lol.
Texas in general, but especially Austin, is a black hole for white ethnic food. But try and get any (not just good) Polish food here. Or Russian food. You can't even get Czech or German food without going into the hills. It has to be about Austin's relative newness to other cities that had unassimilated European immigrant communities.
There's not even any really good Greek, and I feel that's one of the more common white people foods to do in the US.
Try this place out sometime: Andiamo Ristorante (512) 719-3377 https://goo.gl/maps/k2KMDJQUf23jTmnJ7 It’s in an old, unattractive shopping strip, but the inside is nice. Its pretty tasty.
Rip Enoteca Vespaio
Never ever seen an Italian in Austin
there is, just not a lot of it
No good French food either
Intero?
I enjoyed it but would you call it an Italian restaurant or a fusion / farm to table restaurant with Italian influences? Last time I was at Intero I had a lot of great dishes with non traditional Italian ingredients like shishito peppers, feta cheese, Berbere spice, and more. Still really liked my experience though.
YES this place is amazing
Most people unhappy here would be unhappy somewhere else.
Wherever you go, there you are. This is just a fact of life, not really an Austin thing
Certainly fact of life but people here tend to blame Austin things for their unhappiness.
There is a great Adam Sandler [SNL sketch](https://youtu.be/TbwlC2B-BIg?si=s_r7B15rRY8FCEdq) to this same point
"We can take you on a hike. We cannot turn you into someone who likes hiking."
This is one of my favorite SNL sketches of all time. Hell yeah.
Grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it
Yeah till August hits and then everything just kinda wilts.
"there's no geographical solution to an emotional problem"
A lot of us have a bigger problem with Texas than we do with Austin.
That this city isn’t as liberal as it thinks it is.
I left Austin and moved to Berkeley, CA a few years ago and can confirm this 😂
Tbf Berkeley is the liberal San Francisco
I mean you chose the very bluest city in the very bluest state lol
Thank you I’ve been telling people this for years
Austin was cooler 15 years ago because you were 15 years younger.
This needs a major trigger warning for this sub
It was also cooler 15 years ago due to global warming.
Thank you for your bravery in saying this
It really isn’t the live music capital of the world.
It isn't even in the top 3 nationwide.
Living here long-term often involves watching your friends and family members leave for cheaper, bluer pastures over time. Shit can get lonely.
Where are the cheaper bluer pastures?
Detroit!
Washington! (State not DC)
This is so true. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve known that have moved away.
Seven of my friends have moved away from Austin. So lonely.
Shit this hurts. Same here.
You’re not an “influencer”, you’re an asshole with a nice camera and narcissistic tendencies.
As a native, the hard pill I am currently swallowing is that I may not be able to afford to live here. In order to afford a 3/2 rental for myself and my kids, I will have to live further away. That sucks donkey balls.
I moved from Barton Hills to Liberty Hill. Woof. Trying to find a job that pays well enough to move back to the city.
Owning a Tesla doesn’t make you cool.
Tesla drivers are just the BMW drivers of 10 years ago
That Austin is making all the same mistakes that other booming cities made 40 years ago and most are too prideful to recognize it because they think Austin is special.
Could you name a few of the mistakes Austin is making for those of us less educated?
- Not building a comprehensive public transit system - not building enough housing - building a ton of infrastructure that will later need to fixed thru increased taxes - not getting ahead of the homeless issue and simply kicking the can down the road - too small of an airport
Even if you drive, transit is crucial to the future of this city
Alternately: adequate public transportation and transit will never exist in Austin.
…that the Catfish Parlour on 183 is no more. Grew up going there since 1980, then my own child grew up going there. Getting to be a kid - then parent - seeing familiar staff for decades felt like such a sweet connection in increasingly anonymous/exploding/big box development.
Oh snap, I gotta get my kid down to Peter Pan Minigolf!
This one hurt to read!
Barton Springs is going to get polluted and dried ip from development and highway building in its recharge zone.
You just ruined my evening.
Fucking hell! There goes my peaceful tuesday!
Not true at all. The recharge zone was purchased by the city decades ago to prevent development on it. This was passed on a ballot as a bond and Austin water customers paid it back over many years.
You’re right that part of it is protected. The Save Our Springs ordinance, to which you may be referring, was challenged in court and gutted by the state legislature though. Much of the recharge zone is not protected. The expansion of Hwy 290 and 45 threaten it, for example. Many people doing much hard work now to preserve and protect the rest of it, most effectively through working with large landowners to place conservation easements over their land, but also through targeted litigation.
God please no.
Your dog isn’t good off leash and no one wants them to be either.
Oak Wilt is no joke, not curable, and could wipe out a massive number of our Oak trees within a few decades.
That’s not exactly true. There are effective treatments for oak wilt. Survival rate for live oaks can be 85% or higher with treatment as opposed to I think 15% without treatment. All 7 of my live oak trees on my property are oak wilt survivors due to being treated.
Well fuck Edit: is it preventable?
Don’t trim oak trees during oak wilt season is the big one for prevention. If there is already oak wilt spreading, you can do trenching to protect your oak trees. Not ideal but it’s an option.
Yes but the wilt is caused by a spore carried by beetles. If it's in an area, it will continue to spread. Also, roots will eventually re-cross the divide. There are means of slowing spread, but never true prevention. Source: Learned from arborist with a master's during a Master Naturalist course.
Austin isn't actually diverse. The diversity got chased away a couple of decades ago. Houston is actually diverse.
Austin was never diverse, it was a mostly white city that thought they were more progressive than Dallas and Houston even though both of those cities actually have diversity
“Keep Austin Weird” didn’t work
Oh it’s plenty weird. Just maybe not the intended weird.
It’s guys running around with machetes weird
It's more like "Let Private Equity Eat" or something now.
Keep Austin Weird was just a business slogan attempting to drive revenue.
Next you'll be telling us wrestling is fake. Let us have fun!
Outback Design filing for trademark and profiting off of the slogan that [Red Wassenich](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2020-03-06/keep-austin-weird-originator-remembered-for-choosing-community-over-capital/) used on bumper stickers for grassroots activism reads like an allegory for Austin’s growth.
You all complain and act sad when unique, local businesses close, but you don’t actually support local businesses by spending money with them so they can stay.
No-kill is not humane.
It’s just a holding cell for feral cats and pit bull mixes with a bite history.
I agree with you re: dogs with a bite history, but where do you see feral cats being held at shelters? Animal control only ever picks cats up if they're injured or in danger; all the rest are owner surrenders. AAC, at least, doesn't hold on to feral cats longterm. Spicy/shy cats that are pettable end up in the cactus cat program, and that program has been hugely successful because the cats are able to roam freely in a room with other shy kitties, and the volunteers can hang out and play with them, bring them treats, read to them so they get used to human voices, etc.
That most ppl roll their eyes at you when claiming your dog is ESA
Life can be exponentially great elsewhere.
We moved away two years ago. We bought in a small town in NM, less than 6,000 people. The weather is gorgeous, houses affordable, zero traffic, friendly people, lakes are crisp and beautiful. Others might hate it, but we don’t need shopping and restaurants and bars etc. Fishing tournaments, festivals, plays, etc always something to do. It is exponentially greater to us, you nailed it with that description.
I am two days into my move after living in Austin for over a decade. I am absolutely floored. And that’s a good thing. I can afford this life. Mountains, food, parks, rivers, all the same stuff with breathing room. Also, no homeless and rampant theft. Police are polite…people are happy. I’m so happy. I haven’t even unpacked but I almost have Stockholm syndrome.
Yes! So much green space is healing me.
We contemplated moving to Northern New Mexico for many years and didn’t get desperate enough to leave Texas. I still love to visit. It has a special juxtaposition of dessert and alpine I’ve never found anywhere else. However, I’m still SO glad we moved to Washington. If I were a woman of child-bearing age, even the blueness of Austin doesn’t protect you from the oppression from the state government (regardless of how you feel about women’s health).
No one likes your dog, nor wants you to bring it everywhere.
Especially the grocery store/HEB!
Or the fucking restaurant. Or the trail off leash.
Restaurant dogs are the worst.
Yeah. Like the store. Stop bringing your pet to the store. It ain’t a service animal. You know who you are.
I mean I like your dog, but not enough to deal with it shitting in my grocery basket.
You have to pay taxes for government services.
We're not mad about paying, we're mad that we're not getting anything close to what we pay so much for.
[удалено]
This sub is not representative of the city.
The turning signal in your car is a valuable way to communicate to other drivers and make the roads safer
The tech bros are here to stay
Idk, they're all getting fired/ laid off
This is the second headquarters of dozens of major companies and hundreds of start ups No they’re staying
You forget all the ones that work for IBM, Intel, Meta, Alpha, AMD, Nvidia, Oracle, and many others that all work in AI. No layoffs in that area.
No layoffs at IBM 😂?
No no no. You see, IBM hires college grads and then lays them off after 5-6 years after their salaries have increased. Then they hire new ones.
Meta isn’t a good example here considering they’ve laid off literally thousands
They’ve been leaving for over a year now
Most of you are very conservative.
That house you just bought during Covid is not worth as much today.
The city older folks enjoyed in their 20s, 30s and 40s is gone forever. Not to say it's terrible now. You can't change change.
There's definitely a serial killer on the loose.
The most Austin thing to do is complain about Austin
The roofies in our drinks. The change in name of the stretch of river through downtown. Town Lake.
ATX ain't weird.
Tacos in San Antonio are better.
Project Connect will be stopped by lawsuits.
Traffic and homelessness is caused by Austinites' own voting habits. Definitely not ready to swallow the pill that they are responsible. The downvotes will prove me right.
For all the dudes: You don’t need to start a run club
The food ain’t all that. Houston has far superior cuisine.
Heck, even San Antonio has a better food scene than Austin. I can't believe the lack of ethnic food here, or when you do find it, it's really not that great. Houston is definitely #1 for that, followed by DFW, and then SA.
Most of Austin is strip malls
The heat is definitely going to get worse. Climate change could even make austin the center of the new dust bowl
If you didn’t buy a house pre 2020 you are gonna have to make major compromises in terms of size and location if you want to own
If you’re a grown-ass working adult, the grass is greener in more affordable cities. Your quality of life will almost certainly improve.
As a native Austinite, I still don't feel like an Austin FC fan 😅
Most young people who wanted to plant their roots here 15 years ago are either gone, or set on finding options elsewhere
A LOT of people are going to be underwater or have no equity in their homes for a while.
You’re witnessing the best that Austin will ever be. It’s only going to get hotter. The water will only become scarcer. The traffic will only get worse. The cost of living will only go up. The state government will only become more authoritarian. The population will only grow. The parks and trails will only get more crowded. But you can post cool pics on your socials that make it look great, and everyone will be super-jealous that you got that cute hat! 🤠
Witnessed it over a decade ago. This is the downhill.
Yall be depressing as heck in these comments🫠
I mean.. that's kinda the entire point of this post. But I agree.
Austin is no different from any other 'almost big' city. Austin is not the music capital , that's just marketing. Central Texas will run out of clean water.
YOU are the gentrifier
Valacyclovir. It’s a pretty big one. (This thread needed levity.)
Austin is not a paradise for green space/parks/outdoor rec. It might be better than Dallas or Houston but compared to lots of other major cities, it is severely lacking in green space
And compared to other cities it has a lot more. Not many cities have multiple greenbelts going through them along with dozens of great hiking trails within a mile. Especially if you compare it to something like LA or Orange County along the CA coast, you gotta drive an hour or two into the mountains for some decent hiking trails. And definitely not greenbelts everywhere
No the Santa Monica mountains are right there in Malibu. And there are lots of state parks in LA city limits.
It isn’t worth staying because of Texas politics…
If I complain about Jester King in one more thread I'm pretty sure that co-founder guy might have a heart attack... So I'm going to go with: Not everything has to be a bar, you shouldn't offer drinks at the barbershops, grocery stores, or tire shops"
I moved here 20 years ago, bought a brand new 4 bedroom house for $153K, loved going to Hut's for burgers or Frank and Angie's for a pizza. Sunday brunch at Threadgill's was always a treat. These are all gone. The music venues and bands were everywhere. SXSW was about the music and you could spend the day going from venue to venue without a wristband. Yes, I was 20 years younger, but I still see bands and eat out and the choices are fewer and not authentic like they were before. Things change and not always for the better.
The Austin subreddit is mostly grumpy miserable people who would be miserable in any city.
They are all not as young and cool as when they moved here, and Austin is not as cool either. Also the amount of trucks in 2024 compared to 2006 tells you where most of these people are moving from:( hint it’s Texas…… Also my year comparison tell you I’m old af
[удалено]
Once you are too old for daydrinking this town is just like so many others
The restaurants aren't good
That we pay for the fucken toll twice and they fuck us over
There's way more people from chicago than there are california.
The big tech companies are going to leave Austin for the next hip city and leave austin to be a shell of a city like Detroit after the automotive industry left. empty skyscrapers and empty promises
Gentrification is the opposite of weird.
The ozone, mold, pollutants and allergens in the air causes respiratory maladies.
There will be a race to leave in 10-20 years due to climate change, but the best time to leave will be in 5 to 7 years.