From "Austin Has Been Invaded by Texas/The progressive paradise is over for some, and they’re fleeing to bluer pastures" (Intelligencer).
November 16, 2022
Too many Republicans "is precisely why he is moving out of what Rick Perry once described as the 'blueberry in the tomato soup,' a predominantly Democratic city full of liberal expats..."
"... like himself seeking progressive politics and an urban lifestyle at a red-state cost-of-living discount. 'It was easy to just be in Never Neverland, floating with a bunch of other transplants having a good time,' said [somebody named John] Stettin, who relocated from Dallas to Austin five years ago.... [He's moving to] Massachusetts.... What was once seen as an affordable, creative haven is now a runaway boomtown, pricing out most of whatever was left of Austin’s proclaimed weirdness.... In the past year, rent soared more than 20 percent, and the median home price rose almost as much over the same period (before home prices dropped thanks to interest-rate hikes). The airport has new direct flights to Vail, Colorado, and Texas’s first Soho House opened there last year. Elon Musk has built a $1.1 billion 'gigafactory' nearby, turning 'Tesla' into shorthand among some to describe the city’s bougification. 'There’s nothing weird about Austin,' said one Soho House patron, who recently flew home to California for an abortion...."
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My son and his daughter were looking at colleges a couple of years and both said Austin was "a dump." She is a sophomore at Alabama and loves it.
They won’t be missed.
I had to search on "Soho House". What an oligarchic pustule of an idea! Texans should gather outside and spit into dip cups while listening to loud mariachi music.
Good thing they found one person leaving Texas to move back to Massachusetts.
2 people are going the other direction for every one of him.
Good riddance to the locusts.
The actual Austinites that I know haven't mentioned it. And the Beto signs stretch well outside Travis county. So I'll take this story with a grain of salt.
I was happy when Abbott was busing the illegals out of here. Now he is getting them to self-relocate.
WAHHH....go wallow in Shit filled San Francisco. Plenty of tents there for you to live in.
I wonder when Progressives are going to realize that they do more to ruin this cherished weirdness than any Republican has ever done.
What pussies! Try being a Reagan Republican in 21st century California.
Gentrification?
It sounds like there's a disconnect between what's happening and how the interviewees perceive things. Companies and people move in. Rents go up. The city becomes more square and businesslike and less "weird." And the "liberal expats" blame Republicans. Austin is going to stay Democrat. It's not Texas or Republicans encroaching. It's the modern competitive economy.
Austin is becoming Boston. And he thinks he will get away from what's happening by moving there. He will find people in Boston who share his political views. He won't find "weirdness" or the bohemian atmosphere he was looking for in Austin. It could be a little different if he ends up in some other part of the Massachusetts, but he won't find what he had in Austin.
The overturning of Roe seemed to remove the last obstacle in the state’s march to the far right.
One 25-year-old woman said she had her tubes tied, fearing the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy.
One couple may relocate to the Northeast to carry out their pregnancy.
wait a minute... What the?
One couple may relocate to the Northeast to carry out their pregnancy.
huh? WTF?? How, Exactly, are they planning to "carry out their pregnancy"?
Am i missing something?
"Good thing they found one person leaving Texas to move back to Massachusetts.
2 people are going the other direction for every one of him."
He'll probably get a good deal on a returning U-Haul.
Portland is cheaper, and weirder than Boston.
Has better wine and beer as well.
Richard Linklater's great film SLACKER is the one movie that makes some part of Texas appear to be a tolerable place to live. It was set in Austin when it was still "weird." Too bad it changed, but it's the same in New York's East Village, once a low-rent (in all senses of the term) area, a slum, really, where young artists and musicians could live on minimal incomes while working on their art: music, painting, writing, dance, etc. It was a vivid (if grimy) metro area that was an incubator of artists still active (or remembered) today. (The Bronx in the same era birthed rap music, which changed global popular music.) Now, the area is becoming gentrified, and it is dead as a location where art or music are being made.
Oh i see, i got towards the end of the assignment, and saw this beauty..
However many people leave, it will be small in comparison with how many keep coming. Austin is the fastest-growing metro in the U.S., and its population has increased by one-third over the past decade
In the words, of the Great Yogi Berra.. No goes There anymore; it's way too crowded
"'There’s nothing weird about Austin,' said one Soho House patron, who recently flew home to California for an abortion...."
What an odd detail.
Wait, "flew home to California for an abortion" has to be from an SNL skit. LOL.
From the article: However many people leave, it will be small in comparison with how many keep coming.
To this reader, the excerpt in your post reads like an entry from the Bee. I'm guessing that might be a reason I'm looking at it here. I clicked through - it isn't the Bee.
When they started with the "frog in a pot" analogy I snorted out loud. Armageddon may be around the corner, but we humans are damned entertaining.
Left meet right, right meet left. Don't get caught next to a picture of Pepe.
I'm so old I remember when the blueberry was going to turn the state blue.
So New York magazine doesn't much like Texas or Texans.
I just now checked Uhaul rates for Austin to Boston and back.
A newly redpilled Masshole will pay $2445 for a 20 foot truck picked up in Boston and driven to Austin.
The (mythical?) John portrayed in the article gets a bargain- $1172.
The market speaks.
If it weren't for the gas expense, one could make a decent living just ferrying empty trucks back to Boston.
In any event, the mag is preaching to its choir.
As am I.
One 25-year-old woman said she had her tubes tied, fearing the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy.
-----
It's going to be hilarious in five or six years when she learns that it's not easily reversible. Hopefully, whatever loser she conned into marriage will be able to ditch her for a real woman capable of starting a family.
Would that it were true that enough non-Woke are moving in and enough Wokerati were moving out to make Austin at least a balanced metropolis. Doubt that will happen but a girl can dream.
"'There’s nothing weird about Austin,' said one Soho House patron, who recently flew home to California for an abortion...."
It requires more than six weeks to come to terms with the mystery of sex and conception, a weird faith, an inconvenient link in evolutionary theory.
"Relax, " said the night man
"We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave"
- Eagles: Hotel California
They must have been inspired by Planned Parenthood, Planned Parent/hood in several Democrat districts, politically congruent and inclusive. California is a sanctuary State.
Six weeks to baby. Six weeks to baby. Send out your fetal-babies.
The "burden" of sex and conception. The plague. The horror.
Shucks I thought Austin was getting ruined by all the Californicators moving in--and now like the cowbird having beshat and spoiled the other birds nest, they are going elsewhere.
A slightly less transient variation on tourists complaining about too many tourists.
RC, I seldom find common ground with you but SLACKER is perhaps my favorite movie…
I had to search on "Soho House". What an oligarchic pustule of an idea! Texans should gather outside and spit into dip cups while listening to loud mariachi music.
I doff my cap to this fantastic comment
the one movie that makes some part of Texas appear to be a tolerable place to live
You're on the right track, Bob. Don't ever set foot here. It's not remotely tolerable. Especially the parts that are not Austin. You'd melt like the Wicked Witch of the East. I warn because I love.
This is fantastic news although I still hold to the opinion that Austin needs to nuked from orbit and the remains buried. The historical downtown Central Presbyterian Church has a giant PROTECT TRANS KIDS banner on it as of last week. Somehow I don't think they mean "protect trans kids from being talked into having their sex organs sawn off." There are homeless people and tents fucking everywhere. I35 will never ever be functional. The 130 toll road used to be an awesome way to bypass all the Austin corridor bullshit but it's now clogged with Teslas going 60 in an 80. Austin is a complete shithole full of insane people.
What an odd detail.
Jake, Austin advertises to "keep Austin weird". It is weird for Texas. Yet to a Californian, it is normality.
See they don't really believe those COEXIST bumper stickers. If they have to abide icky Republicans in their midst they'd rather not live there at all. This actually explains a lot. Meanwhile another type of hardier progressive has moved steadily into AZ and turned it blue, maybe within the rules, maybe not. Trends are only trends so long. Everything is cyclical and entropy rules eventually.
That put the Bee to shame. What a wicked sense of humor that writer has! ROFL. Good find, Althouse.
Well...you can have homeless in the streets and an increase in crime, or you can have some bougification. There is nothing rational about preferring more homeless and more crime over nice things. The bars can still have music. The tattoo parlors can still operate. The vegan restaurants can still open, though they may find fewer customers coming to enjoy today's special cauliflower steak.
Geographically, Texas sucks. Peter Zeihan is bullish on Tx tech and manufacturing growth.
This is all part of the post-COVID Remote Work Reshuffle. People are moving to find their favored culture, climate, and congregation. Some places stand to become more purple, while others become the deepest blue or deepest red or just a fake Disney-themed community.
Austin was never very weird, just weird by Texas standards. If one went to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, or West Hollywood 10-20 years ago...they defined USA weird. Austin housed left-wing-of-Texas (U. of Texas) people who saw alien California stuff on TV and then cosplayed what they thought being weird would be like. But, it was just cookie-cutter movie-formula suburban weird.
True weird requires a good percentage of people to have mental illnesses and drug addictions. It goes way beyond academic and ideological left intellectual weird.
Austin is becoming Boston. And he thinks he will get away from what's happening by moving there. He will find people in Boston who share his political views. He won't find "weirdness" or the bohemian atmosphere he was looking for in Austin. It could be a little different if he ends up in some other part of the Massachusetts, but he won't find what he had in Austin.
I'm in Boston as I write this- we're here trying to sort out the staff. The ones that were insulted to be told to work in the office on Fridays are gone (mostly...we didn't have to fire them, they left). We're now trying to piece together who will do all the work...
Boston isn't what Boston was, either but it sure ain't Austin. Those kids headed here for the Austin lifestyle are in for a surprise...
Bonus tip: it's looking more and more that Q2 isn't going to be pretty economically. Anywhere. Batten down your hatches....
'There’s nothing weird about Austin,' said one Soho House patron, who recently flew home to California for an abortion...."
[Spit take and laugh.]
Are we supposed to pretend to believe this actually happened?
"Nobody goes there anymore, too crowded." - Yogi Bera, who says he never said most of the things he's said.
Howard: "Geographically, Texas sucks."
Then don't go there.
Howard: "Peter Zeihan is bullish on Tx tech and manufacturing growth."
That is impossible. You told us Texas was a wasteland of nothingness and losers. How is it possible they have tech and manufacturing?
You are really going to have to start cataloging your criticisms so you don't end up contradicting yourself every 15 minutes in the same way that Inga does.
That is some piss-poor writing
Had to read most dentences several times to glean what was being said.
As Enigma said, Austin has never been that weird by Progressive Liberal standards, just by the standards of normal Texans. When I used to go there, it reminded me of Boston, oddly enough, because I grew up outside of Boston and remember well the Progressive Liberal sensibilities that permeate existence there. So the Prog-Leftists are migrating back to their origin? That is terrific news. A thousand thank-you's and well-wishes, while we fumigate.
Austin hasn’t been weird since Earl Campbell was a running back for the Longhorns.
Like Madison, Austin is a state capitol with a giant university. Madison has about 250,000 population.
In 1980, Austin had about 350,000. It’s now at almost 1 million. So is Columbus, Ohio.
How many people have lived there since 1980?
The older carpet baggers whine. Now the recent carpet baggers whine.
The only thing they don’t whine about is that Texas has no income tax.
Blueberries are notorious for progressive rot from within, and transmission to surrounding berries in darkness. Not all blueberries, but a few, one will spoil the bunch.
Interesting that Republicans will only leave Democratic areas if the local government gets too oppressive for them to lead their lives (i.e., New York and California). The fact that these areas are filled with liberals is not itself a problem for them. Whereas all it takes for a Democrat to leave a Republican area is for it to have Conservatives in it.
with Abbott crying invasion it is time to flee from being drafted to fight for Alamo (movie theaters)
I read that article the other day and laughed out loud. A prog deciding to ditch Austin for Boston? Good luck to him, and I say that as a longtime ex-resident of the Bay State. Hilarity will ensue after he moves the lawn chair and parks in the space on the street his neighbor spent all afternoon digging out post snowstorm. Or the misery of commuting on a transit system that stops running when the switches freeze in the winter or overheat in the summer. Yeah, I don't miss Boston.
"a list of places that are what Austin used to be to him before he moved here from New York. It read, “Pittsburgh, Durham, Boise, Columbus, Jackson Hole, Chattanooga."
BOISE?!? Granted, Boise's been fucked up by progressive locusts invading from Portland and Seattle for some time now but I've been to Eugene. And Boise is nothing like that. Yet.
If you're moving to Massachusetts because housing is too expensive in Texas, you are in for a cold dose of reality.
But if you want to be around a lot of shiny, happy people who agree with your progressive politics, this is a good place to be.
Austin is an OK place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. More dust and sprawl than here.
A younger friend of mine went to school at UT and got married in Austin, but other than the campus attractions I never experienced any of the notorious Austin Weird that he and others talked about, on my handful of visits. Of course I didn't have any time to look for the scene, which was part of the Austin image.
We could have gone anywhere for his bachelor party but we did Hooters early and a real titty-bar later. Not my idea--I was a visitor and by far the oldest, along for the ride.
His big RC marriage didn't last and now he's happy in Las Cruces with a new love.
So the El Paso gunman is now a right wi ger. As I recall, he wanted to kill brown immigrants to stop their supposed depredations on the environment. He was an enviro-joony, a leftist. I stopped reading there.
So the El Paso gunman is now a right winger. As I recall, he wanted to kill brown immigrants to stop their supposed depredations on the environment. He was an enviro-loony, a leftist. I stopped reading there.
“The airport has new direct flights to Vail, Colorado...”
Hee. If Blues actually cared about climate change, Vail, Aspen, etc. would not exist.
I was born there but never lived there. Sounds like I can safely remove a return visit from my bucket list.
My understanding is that Gavin Newsom will send a private jet for any Texan who wants to have an abortion in CA. Not a joke!
Just for yuks I checked on "direct" flights from Austin to Vail. Couldn't find one.
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