austin front: Austin Texas Starting to Suck. Envy not real.

by Owen Bay in what's left of Austin Texas
theowenbay@gmail.com

Quit selling Austin Texas.
Articles like this, Austin Envy : Forbes by

Marian Salzman, Contributor I target Brand Me, or personal branding, including mine: trendspotter.

Here's the real story Big developers have repackaged Austin now they need to sell it to you. Now you are being sold a bill of goods. Get ready for the slow sinking of a city.

in the article it states, "If you took the best qualities of Palo Alto and Berkeley and put them together—minus the former’s overambitious striving and exorbitant cost of living, and the latter’s business-unfriendliness and occasional burnout factor—you’d end up with a place like Austin. It has kept itself weird."

Guess what, the cost of living in Austin is going up. Residence are being squeezed out. What you now have is an Austin Theme Park. The city is being rebuilt for the new yuppie. No hippie could live in this new economic mess called Austin Texas.

comments from the Forbes Austin Propaganda Article:

this is the best comment that describes Austin Texas:

Bruce Darling 6 days ago

Whatever made Austin a “weird” city has long been buried beneath gaudy MacMansions, ugly high-rise condos, traffic that moves like frozen molasses, skyrocketing real estate values and property taxes, and a raft of pointless and very expensive “green” ordinances shoved down the throats of residents by a gaggle of hare-brained left-wingers on the City Council. The soul of old Austin is now dimly lit, if not extinguished. Its once authentic “weirdness” has been replaced by slogans plastered on bumper stickers (“Keep Austin Weird”) adorning BMWs, Audis, and Hummers. Austin is weird no more.

- William Pate II You’re right: There aren’t jobs in Austin, unless you’re in a highly specialized field. Our governor can run around talking up the great business climate in Texas, but that doesn’t mean it creates a lucrative jobs market.
  It’s really too bad people can’t realize there is life outside of Austin, SF, San Jose, NYC . . .
  
  Reply
  
  bird watching by paul beck shirt by thepman
  Look at other Artsprojekt T-Shirts at zazzle.com
Alexander Jon 6 days ago

As a longtime Texas resident, I must say that Austin is a very fun place to visit. That being said, I would never want to live there. There are many better job opportunities in Dallas/Houston/San Antonio. Also this article forgets to mention all of the jobless hipsters begging you for change on every corner.
- Called-out comment
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- Anon 6 days ago
  
  Well that would be a matter of opinion on what a “better job” might be. Unemployment rate is lower in Austin than those other metro areas. Are there some bigger companies HQed in those cities, sure, but not much happening in SAT, pretty horrid weather in HOU and super conservative pretentious DAL, as well as such sprawl that most ppl don’t even live in Dallas, do they? All have their upsides and downsides… Oh and crime rates much lower in Austin. Just a safer city
  
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- WarrenP1 6 days ago
  
  So true! It seems like Austin’s homeless population has exploded in recent years, with beggars on every corner. You can’t even have peace at any off-ramp on 183 without some sob story knocking on your car window. If we have such a great job market here, why are there so many people now living under bridges?
  
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- John Mays 6 days ago
  
  Austin hasn’t been “weird” in 20+ years. It used to be, no doubt. Now? Not so much.
  
  Reply
- Bruce Darling 6 days ago
  
  Whatever made Austin a “weird” city has long been buried beneath gaudy MacMansions, ugly high-rise condos, traffic that moves like frozen molasses, skyrocketing real estate values and property taxes, and a raft of pointless and very expensive “green” ordinances shoved down the throats of residents by a gaggle of hare-brained left-wingers on the City Council. The soul of old Austin is now dimly lit, if not extinguished. Its once authentic “weirdness” has been replaced by slogans plastered on bumper stickers (“Keep Austin Weird”) adorning BMWs, Audis, and Hummers. Austin is weird no more.
  
  Reply
- Parajit Patel 6 days ago
  
  AUSTIN NOW HAS 170 PEOPLE MOVING HERE PER DAY, PARTIALLY THANKS TO FORBES! the job market is ultra tight, traffic is miserable, apartment inventories are 97% occupied, and the cost of living withing 10 miles of downtown has grown by around 30%.
  Forbes is simply advertising for commercial real estate developers. If you want to move here, I hope you can afford a $500,000 condo downtown! suckers!
  
  Reply
- Marian Salzman 6 days ago
  
  I am amazed by the enthusiasm for Austin that is everywhere. This blog posting has inspired a zillion more shares than most of my blogs, and it’s not my writing … it’s Austin. I bet Tucson, Flagstaff, and Tempe wish they knew the secret sauce:)
  
  Reply