
The City of the Eternal Boom - arcanus
http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/austin-and-the-city-of-the-eternal-boom/
======
NotSammyHagar
Contrast this article with the techcrunch one
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11190942](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11190942)).
It's just like Seattle really. It almost makes me want to move there from
Seattle :-) How hot is it there in the summer, really bad, right? Seattle is
where people come to die, don't move here either.

Are we just going to centralize ourselves in entrepreneurial Athenian city-
states, while the rest of America groans under job loss and decay? I want to
believe it's not true, but it seems like we are heading that way.

~~~
techsupporter
Native Texan here: the "average" is in the high 90s but July and August
regularly hit--and stay at--100-and-above afternoon temperatures. The hot
weather starts around late May and doesn't really wrap up until September.
Temperature swings can also be brutal, 101 at 2pm, 50 at 10pm.

Yes, there's air conditioning but you will pay handsomely and but you have to
be inside to "enjoy" it. My two-month bill from Seattle City Light last August
was 1/3rd what my last one-month August bill was in Texas.

One of the big reasons I left Texas for Seattle was the weather.

~~~
RangerScience
I don't know about Austin, but 90 in LA is more like 80 somewhere else, due to
our lack of humidity, so there's that to consider.

~~~
sehr
The humidity in Austin is absolutely ridiculous. It's not Houston by any
means, but it's not okay.

I used to think San Diego got a bit humid around May gray, I was fucking
wrong.

------
notthegov
Austin is an interesting town as an example of the flaws of law enforcement.
It widely considered this liberal paradise, as noted by the article, but the
abuses by the police and city government are like anywhere else. Power
corrupts and the system is flawed-

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Buehler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Buehler)

[http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/29/is_filming_a_police_o...](http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/29/is_filming_a_police_officer_a)

~~~
astrocat
I live in Austin and have to agree that the headlines made by the Austin
Police Department are just as depressing as anywhere else. Interestingly
though, I've heard (but can't say I know for fact) that APD actually pays
well, is highly competitive to get in to, and recruits nationally. If
accurate, it makes it all the more unfortunate that they can't seem to be an
exemplary law enforcement institution.

I think what is most disheartening is how divergent the culture of the law
enforcement community and the culture of the communities they serve* have
become increasingly divergent. From my own perspective, it appears that law
enforcement nationally is predominantly white and conservative, while the US
population is growing more diverse and culturally more liberal. I believe this
divide is really what exacerbates the tensions with police and communities
we're seeing a lot of right now. They're fundamentally different cultures the
power relationship between the two makes conditions ripe for conflict (its not
inherent, just more likely). Perhaps that's why Austin, the "liberal" outpost
of Texas sees this "surprising" degree of police conflict - the cultural chasm
between the law enforcers and the citizens.

* Also depressing, when it seems more like law enforcement is terrorizing the communities within their jurisdiction rather than serving them.

~~~
jsprogrammer
If a department is recruiting outside of their communities, it would seem that
it might be more likely that the culture of the department and the community
_would_ diverge.

------
rdlecler1
In this new world of sub 3% growth, Austin is lucky to have this problem. The
only thing worse than getting pushed out of an area because of it's success,
is no success at all--especially for a younger generation who just wants to
make a go life. There are boom towns in every generation.

~~~
doseofreality
Maybe, but no growth towns like Austin was in the late 80s/early 90s are
pretty great for younger people who aren't all that concerned about making "a
go at life."

~~~
NotSammyHagar
Sounds so similar to Portland, and maybe Seattle in the 70s and 80s after
Boeing shrank and before Microsoft came to town.

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elliotec
Most talked about city in the world? What?

~~~
xyzzy4
Probably sounds better than "300th most talked about city" which would
probably be more accurate.

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doseofreality
This article sure smells like it may be calling the "top" in the current
Austin "unstoppable" growth phase.

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gstn
The problem with Austin - I grew up there, went to school there - is, as nice
as it is, it is surrounded by Texas, which is fine if you can stand the right-
wing politics and the pushy religious people.

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microengine
Grew up in Austin and turned out to be a hardware/software engineer - no
surprise with the number of tech jobs. I recently moved away to raleigh, nc
due to the heat (you never get used to it), traffic, and cost of living.
Raleigh reminds me of austin 25 years ago.

\-- edit should say if your life goal is launching a tech startup austin is
the place to be (outside of excessively expensive silicon valley)

~~~
navbaker
I've lived all over the US, but went to college in Raleigh and it is still the
only place I actively miss.

------
danielvf
Charlotte, NC has seen a similar growth over a similar time period, with the
area population quadrupling over the last twenty five years. Unlike Austin, it
seems like the majority of people who move to the Charlotte area are families.

It's not a "cool" city like Austin or Boulder, but it's seams to have no end
of jobs, or comparatively inexpensive housing.

Does anyone have a graph of US cities growth rates over the last 25 years?
Maybe these aren't outliers?

~~~
caminante
I wondered the same. Here's the Current-dollar GDP for the top 50 metro areas
(2009-2014)[1]. The top 10 metro areas by 5 year CAGR are...

    
    
      7.417%	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA
      7.230%	Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX MSA
      7.167%	Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX MSA
      7.062%	Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, TX MSA
      6.310%	San Antonio–New Braunfels, TX MSA
      5.542%	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN MSA
      5.290%	Oklahoma City, OK MSA
      5.086%	Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC MSA
      4.928%	Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA
      4.885%	Detroit–Warren–Livonia, MI MSA
    

4/T5 were TX metros. Austin isn't even the top in TX.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_area...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP#Current-
dollar_GDP_by_metropolitan_area_.28millions_of_dollars.29)

~~~
Nicholas_C
Everyone is talking about and gravitating towards Austin but the DFW area is
an absolute hotbed for jobs. It seems like every other month some large
corporation is moving their HQ to Dallas or the suburbs. It's a seller's
market for labor.

~~~
sremani
Dallas vs Austin is like Enterprise vs Startup. DFW is where the most growth
is and by end of the decade DFW will be hitting 8 million. Texas boom may have
slowed in Houston because of Oil woes, but DFW and Austin are still high-
flyers. Lot of OLD MONEY in DFW though.

~~~
Nicholas_C
That's a great analogy. Definitely a lot of old money as well.

------
bm1362
I can't wait for Austin salaries to catch up to the other tech epicenters. I
graduated and left to Seattle for a 2x pay increase over many of my peers. Now
in NYC riding the tech bubble and missing the rich family and social networks
I have down there. I've never come across any interesting jobs in the area
that didn't feel 2nd rate.

~~~
Nicholas_C
Have you adjusted for cost of living? Austin salaries are lower but probably
not much lower if at all when adjusted for cost of living.

~~~
jseliger
_Have you adjusted for cost of living?_

Seattle's raw rent / housing costs are much higher than they used to be (i.e.
see [http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/home-
prices...](http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/home-prices-in-
seattle-pop-nearly-19-percent-for-the-year/) for one example), but Washington
State still has no income tax and its land-use policies are somewhat more sane
than tech hubs like SF or NYC ([http://www.geekwire.com/2016/redfin-ceo-glenn-
kelman-shares-...](http://www.geekwire.com/2016/redfin-ceo-glenn-kelman-
shares-data-on-the-seattle-housing-crisis/)).

Austin is much, much less expensive than SF, but not that much less expensive
than Seattle. A 2x salary or even 1.5x salary is going to make Seattle much
more appealing on a purely financial basis.

NYC is costly but has interesting dating dynamics for straight guys:
[http://jakeseliger.com/2015/09/19/briefly-noted-date-
onomics...](http://jakeseliger.com/2015/09/19/briefly-noted-date-onomics-how-
dating-became-a-lopsided-numbers-game-jon-birger/).

------
Nicholas_C
Awesome read. Austin has been such a large part of my life I really enjoy
hearing opinions about the city's changes over the years.

"The only way to stop people from coming to Austin is to make this an
unattractive place to live."

I thought this really resonated. Austin, if changed for the worse, really is a
victim of how cool it is. Since Austin I've lived in Lubbock and now Dallas.
There really aren't people who move to these two cities for things other than
work or school. On the other hand I have countless friends who move to Austin
just to be a part of the city and experience all it has to offer.

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jshaqaw
I love the navel gazing attitude that Austin is the most talked about city in
the world. Um... no.

------
laurentoget
Is it just me or there has been a wave of posts about Austin on HN? Is it the
pre-SXSW anxiety?

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DrScump
All my friends are buried there.

.

And, some of them are dead. [0]

.

[0] "That Godforsaken Hellhole I Call Home", The Austin Lounge Lizards

