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  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Californians moving here in droves started happening in the late 90's. They're still coming of course, but now people are moving here from every-fucking-where. Traffic is now out of control with every 9th car looking like they don't know where they're going with their out-of-state plates. My commute time has literally doubled from a half an hour to an hour within the last 4 years. And don't even get me started on the culture here being destroyed by such an influx of mainstream American mediocrity.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    I moved to Texas in the last wave of influx in the late 70's early 80's.......in the Dallas/Fort Worth area more than half of the residents are transplants from other states. We have no state tax, very few unions(Right to work state) and low cost of living. We have more undocumented immigrants than any other state and have 3 of the top growing cities in the U.S.

    The irony of the negative stereotype of Texas and Texans is that our population has doubled since 1980 and the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    This is a bit misleading, though, as the great majority of the American population lives in the Northeast and West Coast.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    This is a bit misleading, though, as the great majority of the American population lives in the Northeast and West Coast.

    What's misleading about it?

    Those people from those heavily populated areas are not moving to other states at the same rate.

  • parallaxparallax no-style-having mf'er 1,266 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    I moved to Texas in the last wave of influx in the late 70's early 80's.......in the Dallas/Fort Worth area more than half of the residents are transplants from other states. We have no state tax, very few unions(Right to work state) and low cost of living. We have more undocumented immigrants than any other state and have 3 of the top growing cities in the U.S.

    The irony of the negative stereotype of Texas and Texans is that our population has doubled since 1980 and the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    Oil

  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    This is a bit misleading, though, as the great majority of the American population lives in the Northeast and West Coast.

    What's misleading about it?

    Those people from those heavily populated areas are not moving to other states at the same rate.

    I don't dispute that. I just mean that there isn't a greater rate of people moving to Texas from the Northeast compared to the Midwest when adjusted for relative population. In other words, if say, 1 in 100 people in the Northeast moved to Texas, that rate would be about the same as from Indiana, or Wyoming.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    This is a bit misleading, though, as the great majority of the American population lives in the Northeast and West Coast.

    What's misleading about it?

    Those people from those heavily populated areas are not moving to other states at the same rate.

    I don't dispute that. I just mean that there isn't a greater rate of people moving to Texas from the Northeast compared to the Midwest when adjusted for relative population. In other words, if say, 1 in 100 people in the Northeast moved to Texas, that rate would be about the same as from Indiana, or Wyoming.

    Is this a guess or a fact?

    In the 80's MANY large corporations from the Northeast either moved their corporate headquarters down here (Exxon, American Airlines, JC Penny, etc.) or built facilities down here and brought many of their employees with them.

    In recent years the same thing is happening with California companies (Raytheon, Occidental Petroleum, Visa, Apple, etc.)

    The main reason is that Texas is a lot more attractive to these large companies than specifically the Northeast or West Coast.

    Harvey is not exaggerating when he says Austin is becoming Cali East and the influx right now from California dwarfs all other states in both numbers and ratio.

    It won't be long now before some dude from the Northeast comes in to this thread and touts the greatness that is Texas.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    parallax said:
    Rockadelic said:
    I moved to Texas in the last wave of influx in the late 70's early 80's.......in the Dallas/Fort Worth area more than half of the residents are transplants from other states. We have no state tax, very few unions(Right to work state) and low cost of living. We have more undocumented immigrants than any other state and have 3 of the top growing cities in the U.S.

    The irony of the negative stereotype of Texas and Texans is that our population has doubled since 1980 and the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    Oil

    A big part but not exclusively by any means.

  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    This is a bit misleading, though, as the great majority of the American population lives in the Northeast and West Coast.

    What's misleading about it?

    Those people from those heavily populated areas are not moving to other states at the same rate.

    I don't dispute that. I just mean that there isn't a greater rate of people moving to Texas from the Northeast compared to the Midwest when adjusted for relative population. In other words, if say, 1 in 100 people in the Northeast moved to Texas, that rate would be about the same as from Indiana, or Wyoming.

    Is this a guess or a fact?

    A guess. My main point is that, due to the large population center in the Northeast and West Coast, if people were moving fom all areas of the country at an equal rate, the great majority of the migrants would be from the Northeast and West Coast.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    Rockadelic said:
    the great majority of that growth has come from the Northeast and West Coast.

    This is a bit misleading, though, as the great majority of the American population lives in the Northeast and West Coast.

    What's misleading about it?

    Those people from those heavily populated areas are not moving to other states at the same rate.

    I don't dispute that. I just mean that there isn't a greater rate of people moving to Texas from the Northeast compared to the Midwest when adjusted for relative population. In other words, if say, 1 in 100 people in the Northeast moved to Texas, that rate would be about the same as from Indiana, or Wyoming.

    Is this a guess or a fact?

    A guess. My main point is that, due to the large population center in the Northeast and West Coast, if people were moving fom all areas of the country at an equal rate, the great majority of the migrants would be from the Northeast and West Coast.

    Agreed....but they have not moved here at an equal rate.

    That's why before the Texas Rangers started playing well a Ranger fan would be in the great minority when the Red Sox or Yankees vistied

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    DB_Cooper said:
    A guess. My main point is that, due to the large population center in the Northeast and West Coast, if people were moving fom all areas of the country at an equal rate, the great majority of the migrants would be from the Northeast and West Coast.

    New York was once the most populous state in the country and is now the 4th, so it seems like some kind of population shift is in effect.

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Horseleech said:
    DB_Cooper said:
    A guess. My main point is that, due to the large population center in the Northeast and West Coast, if people were moving fom all areas of the country at an equal rate, the great majority of the migrants would be from the Northeast and West Coast.

    New York was once the most populous state in the country and is now the 4th, so it seems like some kind of population shift is in effect.

    For sure.
    Historically the South was a place to leave. With the advent of air conditioning that has changed.
    Texas is #2 and Florida #4 in population now.
    What is interesting is that no state is losing significant population.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population


  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Check the stats for the last 3 years


  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,471 Posts
    HarveyCanal said:
    Californians moving here in droves started happening in the late 90's. They're still coming of course, but now people are moving here from every-fucking-where. Traffic is now out of control with every 9th car looking like they don't know where they're going with their out-of-state plates. My commute time has literally doubled from a half an hour to an hour within the last 4 years. And don't even get me started on the culture here being destroyed by such an influx of mainstream American mediocrity.

    Common quote around the Bay Area (especially around SXSW time): "Man, fuck the Bay. I'm sick of it. I wanna move to Austin!"

    So they move to Austin and proceed to import the worst aspects of the Bay Area and beyond. I'm sure you're loving that dynamic.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Austin has not been the Music Capitol of anything for almost 20 years!

  • I'm gonna be the northeast guy..... I moved to Austin pretty recently from Portland Maine with my wife. I've lived in Maine all my life. I decided to move down here because I FUCKING HATE SNOW!...hahaha also my wife's family and some of mine live down here. It's a good change of pace to try something new. I can see that the city's road system was not designed for this amount of traffic. I went from walking everywhere in Portland to now driving everywhere and sitting in traffic for hours . While I like Austin I don't think of it the same way as many people who transplant themselves here from another part of the country. I didn't plan on moving here because of the music scene as a lot of people do (I think I've been to 2 shows) I don't really hit the bars much (I prefer walking to bars not driving or public transportation)I'm not the artsy type looking for a chill new coffee shop to hang with all my hip friends (if i wanted to do that I could've stayed in Portland) I just needed a drastic change in my life and it just so happened I chose Austin (my other choice was upstate New York, but like I said snow sucks) But there are great opportunities for good careers down here, not so much in Maine. I feel like I made a great choice coming down here, i'd rather be down here making enough money to support my family then trying to find good work in a bad job market.
    Well shit.... thats my spiel.. What do I know though... I'm just a goddam yankee!

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts

  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    used to visit/perform in Austin frequently in the mid-90s til the early aughts. Loved it. Dj'd there back in late January and I can say I fell outta like with Austin. Traffic was fucking insane (recent NPR report stated that in 20 years, the metro Austin population will top 3 million..and a commute that currently takes 45 minutes will top out at 90 minutes...traffic infrastructure was only designed to handle around 300,000)...leaving Austin by entering 35 from Manor, it took me over a hour to hit Round Rock, ridiculous. My buddies rent a thousand square foot home in east Austin, in a semi-crappy neighborhood for $1,300. Absurd. Just not a very fun place to hang out anymore.

  • discos_almadiscos_alma discos_alma 2,164 Posts
    The_Hook_Up said:
    used to visit/perform in Austin frequently in the mid-90s til the early aughts. Loved it. Dj'd there back in late January and I can say I fell outta like with Austin. Traffic was fucking insane (recent NPR report stated that in 20 years, the metro Austin population will top 3 million..and a commute that currently takes 45 minutes will top out at 90 minutes...traffic infrastructure was only designed to handle around 300,000)...leaving Austin by entering 35 from Manor, it took me over a hour to hit Round Rock, ridiculous. My buddies rent a thousand square foot home in east Austin, in a semi-crappy neighborhood for $1,300. Absurd. Just not a very fun place to hang out anymore.

    You'd fucking HATE California

  • parallaxparallax no-style-having mf'er 1,266 Posts
    MusicaDelAlma said:
    The_Hook_Up said:
    used to visit/perform in Austin frequently in the mid-90s til the early aughts. Loved it. Dj'd there back in late January and I can say I fell outta like with Austin. Traffic was fucking insane (recent NPR report stated that in 20 years, the metro Austin population will top 3 million..and a commute that currently takes 45 minutes will top out at 90 minutes...traffic infrastructure was only designed to handle around 300,000)...leaving Austin by entering 35 from Manor, it took me over a hour to hit Round Rock, ridiculous. My buddies rent a thousand square foot home in east Austin, in a semi-crappy neighborhood for $1,300. Absurd. Just not a very fun place to hang out anymore.

    You'd fucking HATE California

    All of Cali?

    I ask because I'm thinking of making a move to San Diego.

    Good idea? Or :walkaway: ?

  • dukeofdelridgedukeofdelridge urgent.monkey.mice 2,453 Posts
    I don't know if I'll ever make it to Texas.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    It's not that Austin isn't fun anymore. You'd really have to be doing it wrong not to have fun here. Town Lake, Barton Creek, Lake Austin, Bull Creek, Walnut Creek, Lake Travis, McKinney Falls, Hamilton Pool, Pedernales River, Guadalupe River, Comal River, Canyon Lake, Buchanon Lake, Lake LBJ, Enchanted Rock, and so on forever to the west of here.

    Whenever in doubt about Austin being a great place to live, just go for a hike, run, bike ride, swim, kayak, ski, go fishing, or just lie down on a rock somewhere. The reasons will instantly become abundantly clear.

  • discos_almadiscos_alma discos_alma 2,164 Posts
    parallax said:
    MusicaDelAlma said:
    The_Hook_Up said:
    used to visit/perform in Austin frequently in the mid-90s til the early aughts. Loved it. Dj'd there back in late January and I can say I fell outta like with Austin. Traffic was fucking insane (recent NPR report stated that in 20 years, the metro Austin population will top 3 million..and a commute that currently takes 45 minutes will top out at 90 minutes...traffic infrastructure was only designed to handle around 300,000)...leaving Austin by entering 35 from Manor, it took me over a hour to hit Round Rock, ridiculous. My buddies rent a thousand square foot home in east Austin, in a semi-crappy neighborhood for $1,300. Absurd. Just not a very fun place to hang out anymore.

    You'd fucking HATE California

    All of Cali?

    I ask because I'm thinking of making a move to San Diego.

    Good idea? Or :walkaway: ?

    Hahahaha. California is great dude.

  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    DJ_Enki said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    Californians moving here in droves started happening in the late 90's. They're still coming of course, but now people are moving here from every-fucking-where. Traffic is now out of control with every 9th car looking like they don't know where they're going with their out-of-state plates. My commute time has literally doubled from a half an hour to an hour within the last 4 years. And don't even get me started on the culture here being destroyed by such an influx of mainstream American mediocrity.

    Common quote around the Bay Area (especially around SXSW time): "Man, fuck the Bay. I'm sick of it. I wanna move to Austin!"

    by and large it seems to be the assholes round here who wanna move to Austin. which explains (a) Harvey's distaste for those CA residents who move there (only in small part of course; I'm sure he'd complain about whoever was mvoing there) and (b) why I love the Bay during SXSW!!!! I swear it's almost as good as Burning Man week. Had such a great weekend; I wish it was always like this here. They already trickling back tho....

  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    parallax said:
    MusicaDelAlma said:
    The_Hook_Up said:
    used to visit/perform in Austin frequently in the mid-90s til the early aughts. Loved it. Dj'd there back in late January and I can say I fell outta like with Austin. Traffic was fucking insane (recent NPR report stated that in 20 years, the metro Austin population will top 3 million..and a commute that currently takes 45 minutes will top out at 90 minutes...traffic infrastructure was only designed to handle around 300,000)...leaving Austin by entering 35 from Manor, it took me over a hour to hit Round Rock, ridiculous. My buddies rent a thousand square foot home in east Austin, in a semi-crappy neighborhood for $1,300. Absurd. Just not a very fun place to hang out anymore.

    You'd fucking HATE California

    All of Cali?

    I ask because I'm thinking of making a move to San Diego.

    Good idea? Or :walkaway: ?

    Hey Parallax,

    While San Diego is physically beautiful, I found its cultural climate generic and boring (reminded me of a beach-like version of Houston suburbs). Also, I found LA disappointing, sort of plastic in feel (soulless), and lacking in charm and character. Go to the Bay area!

    Peace

    Big Stacks from Kakalak

  • parallaxparallax no-style-having mf'er 1,266 Posts
    Big_Stacks said:
    parallax said:
    MusicaDelAlma said:
    The_Hook_Up said:
    used to visit/perform in Austin frequently in the mid-90s til the early aughts. Loved it. Dj'd there back in late January and I can say I fell outta like with Austin. Traffic was fucking insane (recent NPR report stated that in 20 years, the metro Austin population will top 3 million..and a commute that currently takes 45 minutes will top out at 90 minutes...traffic infrastructure was only designed to handle around 300,000)...leaving Austin by entering 35 from Manor, it took me over a hour to hit Round Rock, ridiculous. My buddies rent a thousand square foot home in east Austin, in a semi-crappy neighborhood for $1,300. Absurd. Just not a very fun place to hang out anymore.

    You'd fucking HATE California

    All of Cali?

    I ask because I'm thinking of making a move to San Diego.

    Good idea? Or :walkaway: ?

    Hey Parallax,

    While San Diego is physically beautiful, I found its cultural climate generic and boring (reminded me of a beach-like version of Houston suburbs). Also, I found LA disappointing, sort of plastic in feel (soulless), and lacking in charm and character. Go to the Bay area!

    Peace

    Big Stacks from Kakalak

    Thanks Stacks!

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    rootlesscosmo said:
    DJ_Enki said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    Californians moving here in droves started happening in the late 90's. They're still coming of course, but now people are moving here from every-fucking-where. Traffic is now out of control with every 9th car looking like they don't know where they're going with their out-of-state plates. My commute time has literally doubled from a half an hour to an hour within the last 4 years. And don't even get me started on the culture here being destroyed by such an influx of mainstream American mediocrity.

    Common quote around the Bay Area (especially around SXSW time): "Man, fuck the Bay. I'm sick of it. I wanna move to Austin!"

    by and large it seems to be the assholes round here who wanna move to Austin. which explains (a) Harvey's distaste for those CA residents who move there (only in small part of course; I'm sure he'd complain about whoever was mvoing there) and (b) why I love the Bay during SXSW!!!! I swear it's almost as good as Burning Man week. Had such a great weekend; I wish it was always like this here. They already trickling back tho....

    SXSW Music hasn't even started yet. Begins Wednesday then ends Saturday/Sunday.

    My distaste for the California transplants is first and foremost just far too many. At this point, you're right that I'm not liking anybody moving here from anywhere but from inside Texas (this is an accepted given in the state capital with UT here) because there are just too many people now in general.

    But then also...yes, it's the type of people moving here now that sucks. Used to be that Austin was known to be a quirky little liberal college town in the midst of republican Texas and the people who moved here were likely to fit that description. Now that we're a city of opportunity, we've got all of these top40 mainstream, cultural dolts coming here and it's changing the fabric of our former oasis of "weirdness".

    Nice that you've found a job and I suppose you might be here a while, but plaese to get with the program while you're at it.

    Step one: Stop dressing like you are at work 24/7. In Austin, you probably don't even have to dress that way to work, let alone in your off-time.

    Step two: When someone smiles or says hi to you, return the favor. Heck, even strike up a conversation with them. This can't be stressed enough.

    Step three: There is no place whatsoever for closed-mindedness here...ever. It used to be Mexico and Native American land before that and African-Americans pretty much built everything. So have some some common respect in not thinking that Wonder Bread is the center of the universe. And oh yeah, professional women are revered here and there are tons of gay people here who are all well loved. So here's your chance, if you've never had one, to get used to what is actually normal in the world. Thank you.

    Step four: Map out your route before leaving your home in your car. Nobody likes to follow behind someone clearly second-guessing themselves at every intersection.

    Step five: Support local businesses over national chain stores. It's painful to even have to say that aloud. But it's something else that can't be stressed enough.

    Okay, I'll leave it at that for now.

  • jleejlee 1,539 Posts
    Harvey -
    Do you get the sense that Austin is fighting the growth with the hope of returning back to the "Keep Austin Weird" days? When I left 9+ years ago, you could start to see the East side opening up to more development (and traffic was already pretty crappy), but there still seemed to be a large contingent that expected Austin to plateau at "mid sized" level and thus never seemed to really plan for this expansion that has happened over the past 5yrs.

    I've suspected that the bust of the S&L and Oil industry in the 80's and the Tech-bust in the early 00's had lead people to think that the ebb-and-flow of various industries and economies was always going to keep the population somewhat level. Also, I don't think many people expected Austin downtown proper to expand as much (instead assuming that yuppies would just live in West Lake or up north closer to Dell).

    While I cannot comment on the influx of new people moving into Austin anymore, I get the feeling that the existing population really did a poor job of anticipating for this --- and as was alluded to earlier, Austin has always been pretty desirable place to live (barring traffic), so I just don't feel that all can be blamed on the transplants.

    B/W, let's hope you guys get this fixed soon...I may be moving back there in a few years ..
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