Which City Is The Next Austin?

[CooterBrown 18287]

I know next to nothing about the tech scene in SA. Do you see that situation changing in the future, given the cost of living in Austin and its proximity to us? It seems that it'd make sense for some operations to be shipped down there if they could grow/retain/attract the talent.

Over the next decade or so,I honestly don’t think we will see boom towns like we have in the past due to remote work, which will just continue to grow even if there’s a blip back to the office post COVID. The boom towns will be driven by HQs looking to minimize taxes and not to leverage an existing workforce. No one thinks of Delaware as some dynamic power even though it’s the HQ for many companies due to no taxes. These would be boom towns in name only beacause they won’t reap the benefits of a highly paid and educated workforce at the levels currently seen by Austin, Denver, etc.

I’d guess the existing tech cities will continue to be hubs for companies that need a physical presence but companies wanting to plant 1,000+ jobs in a single physical location are going to be increasingly rare.

Now, cities with amenities, outdoor space, good schools will attract those high income earners that are remote. It just won’t be for a job or at the level we see today.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

On 2/28/2021 at 7:07 PM, Neonmoon said:

Ha they had Columbus, Ohio in the top 7 for Tech 

 

Having just lived there for 7 years it is remarkably comparable to mid 90s Austin for moving from the largest small town around, built on state government and the state's flagship university, to developing its own unique urban identity. It too is the liberal magnet in a sea of conservatives. Midwesterners come to go to school at tOSU and don't want to leave.

Edited June 13, 2021 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

One not mentioned yet is Johnson City, Tenn.

Good weather and a good jumping off point for the Smokies and Blue Ridge Mountains. Three reservoir lakes within about an hour's drive and two more about 2 hours away.

Edited June 13, 2021 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[Parliament 14593]

On 4/28/2021 at 11:07 AM, Al_4_ISU said:

Des Moines continues to grow steadily and has a growing tech sector.

It's not the next Austin, but it's surprisingly happening and out punches slightly larger similar metros, like Omaha specifically, from a cultural standpoint.

Colder Busch Light?

Rapid City, SD was mentioned upthread.  Deadwood is just down the road and they voted in sports gambling last fall.  I'm told that'll give them a 50% bump in overall gambling.  Then you have Ellsworth AFB to the east.  Sounds like they're getting the hot few B21 stealth bomber.  Sweet Military patronage money, Baby!

[TexasPride10 598]

Nashville. The answer is Nashville. 

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2021/05/04/oracle-nashville-deal-approved-metro-council-east-bank-cumberland-river/4924010001/ 

[Al_4_ISU 12623]

On 6/13/2021 at 11:11 AM, Parliament said:

Colder Busch Light?

Rapid City, SD was mentioned upthread.  Deadwood is just down the road and they voted in sports gambling last fall.  I'm told that'll give them a 50% bump in overall gambling.  Then you have Ellsworth AFB to the east.  Sounds like they're getting the hot few B21 stealth bomber.  Sweet Military patronage money, Baby!

In all seriousness, the beer scene would be an area where Des Moines is out ahead of Omaha.  El Bait Shop is one of the best beer bars in the country, and definitely in the Midwest.  Several of Des Moines' breweries would be the best brewery in Omaha, by a comfortable margin.

[Parliament 14593]

I may have a work meeting in Des Moines late this month.  If so, I'll pm you for recs.

[Al_4_ISU 12623]

I may have a work meeting in Des Moines late this month.  If so, I'll pm you for recs.

Sounds good

[TKthunder2 5059]

I just took over managing a team based out of Lincoln (only because they promised me I don’t have to move there), so I’m being told Lincoln is the next Austin.

[Neonmoon 38130]

12 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

I just took over managing a team based out of Lincoln (only because they promised me I don’t have to move there), so I’m being told Lincoln is the next Austin.

It’s not. 

[KYHorn 17613]

On 6/15/2021 at 9:41 AM, TexasPride10 said:

Nashville. The answer is Nashville. 

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2021/05/04/oracle-nashville-deal-approved-metro-council-east-bank-cumberland-river/4924010001/ 

You mean the city with a metro population of 2 million is the next Austin?

[ztejas 44223]

On 6/13/2021 at 8:20 AM, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Midwesterners come to go to school at tOSU and don't want to leave.

Slogan: "Columbus: It's less shitty than Green Bay!"

And really I'm kind of stealing that joke...

https://youtu.be/oZzgAjjuqZM

[TexasPride10 598]

13 hours ago, KYHorn said:

You mean the city with a metro population of 2 million is the next Austin?

The metro population of Nashville is only 1.2 million. The OP mentioned mass migration of people, tech companies, and money in general when qualifying "the next Austin". Nashville is about to add a $1.2 Billion Oracle campus which will bring 8,500 new tech-based jobs to the city, and there's an Amazon campus currently under construction which is expected to bring about 5,000 tech-based jobs to Nashville. But... yea, I guess my answer was way off. Sorry. 

[South Austin 53220]

On 6/15/2021 at 11:50 PM, TKthunder2 said:

I just took over managing a team based out of Lincoln (only because they promised me I don’t have to move there), so I’m being told Lincoln is the next Austin.

Austin already owns Lincoln.

[Newdoc 3511]

On 4/22/2021 at 11:28 AM, Cajun said:

As long as people from Waco live in Waco, I will never regret "sleeping" on Waco.

Waco certainly won't be an Austin but on the plus side, it's still maintains a cheaper cost of living than Texas' major metro areas. Lot of semi-retired, retired and tele workers moving in due to the cost, low congestion and proximity to the major metro areas. This includes a lot of people from California cuz Chip and Jo.  Real estate has the same frenzy as much of the state with houses going off market same day with multiple cash offers. These include homes well over 500K.

There is definitely young and more progressive leadership at the city level that is helping to drive innovation even if they drag the Waco blue hair racist crowd into the 21st century.  There has been a flurry of new industrial and some higher tech facilities choosing Waco as an expansion area. At some point, new residents will reach a critical mass of the population that overcomes the Baylor insular, don't change my Waco, bubble people that have controlled the old money Waco. Those people have left Waco stagnant for decades.

And if Waco can keep from hosting some type of mass shooting event for more than a decade, then there are ingredients for Waco to be a successful small to mid-size metro area.

[Al_4_ISU 12623]

Waco had the most eerie, unwelcoming, downright creepy vibe of any place I've ever been.  There is truly something dark embeded in that community.

[Newdoc 3511]

2 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Waco had the most eerie, unwelcoming, downright creepy vibe of any place I've ever been.  There is truly something dark embeded in that community.

There's a seedy underbelly to every community if you look hard enough. Waco's is people who pay lip service to piety but live a life not becoming of their church credentials. There is also old Waco money that thinks it competes with the big towns and a few families who hold dearly to their family's control of the city politics and socioeconomic divide. For those who just want to live a peaceful life, people of all skin tones live together without pretense in Waco.  Either you are a psychic empath or you brought prejudice into your visit to Waco, but I don't believe people can judge a city based on a "vibe". 

[StassneyHorn 6767]

50 minutes ago, TexasPride10 said:

The metro population of Nashville is only 1.2 million. The OP mentioned mass migration of people, tech companies, and money in general when qualifying "the next Austin". Nashville is about to add a $1.2 Billion Oracle campus which will bring 8,500 new tech-based jobs to the city, and there's an Amazon campus currently under construction which is expected to bring about 5,000 tech-based jobs to Nashville. But... yea, I guess my answer was way off. Sorry. 

Nashville has already blown up. Calling it the next Austin makes no sense

[Al_4_ISU 12623]

45 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

There's a seedy underbelly to every community if you look hard enough. Waco's is people who pay lip service to piety but live a life not becoming of their church credentials. There is also old Waco money that thinks it competes with the big towns and a few families who hold dearly to their family's control of the city politics and socioeconomic divide. For those who just want to live a peaceful life, people of all skin tones live together without pretense in Waco.  Either you are a psychic empath or you brought prejudice into your visit to Waco, but I don't believe people can judge a city based on a "vibe". 

Neither.  I had a full expectation that tailgating at Baylor would be fun, and Waco would have been a normal town.

Our entire group, and almost everyone I've met who's been there agrees that there is something very off about Waco.  I've been to every corner of the US, and a lot of different places in Texas, and Waco is just different.

[Cajun 11772]

1 hour ago, Newdoc said:

Waco certainly won't be an Austin but on the plus side, it's still maintains a cheaper cost of living than Texas' major metro areas. Lot of semi-retired, retired and tele workers moving in due to the cost, low congestion and proximity to the major metro areas. This includes a lot of people from California cuz Chip and Jo.  Real estate has the same frenzy as much of the state with houses going off market same day with multiple cash offers. These include homes well over 500K.

There is definitely young and more progressive leadership at the city level that is helping to drive innovation even if they drag the Waco blue hair racist crowd into the 21st century.  There has been a flurry of new industrial and some higher tech facilities choosing Waco as an expansion area. At some point, new residents will reach a critical mass of the population that overcomes the Baylor insular, don't change my Waco, bubble people that have controlled the old money Waco. Those people have left Waco stagnant for decades.

And if Waco can keep from hosting some type of mass shooting event for more than a decade, then there are ingredients for Waco to be a successful small to mid-size metro are

My point had solely to do with Waco people, not real estate, not shopping, not anything of the sort.  As long as Waco people live in Waco, it will continue to creep me the fuck out.  And now you throw Californians in the mix?

Fuck to the no.

[Cajun 11772]

1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Waco had the most eerie, unwelcoming, downright creepy vibe of any place I've ever been.  There is truly something dark embeded in that community.

Yup.

[Cajun 11772]

Having just driven through a few days ago I can tell you one town that will NOT be the next Austin -

Austin

What an implosion.

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Cajun

[billfromlaketravis 11817]

55 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Neither.  I had a full expectation that tailgating at Baylor would be fun, and Waco would have been a normal town.

Our entire group, and almost everyone I've met who's been there agrees that there is something very off about Waco.  I've been to every corner of the US, and a lot of different places in Texas, and Waco is just different.

Decades and decades of weird history. There’s a sociological trauma there. Chip and Joanna can’t unring that bell. 

[gmr548 16688]

And if Waco can keep from hosting some type of mass shooting event for more than a decade

Surely the AR-15 cult or whatever they’re called that just relocated there will help this

[Guest Lobo]

An AR-15 cult relocated to Waco?  What?  Like a gun rights group moved offices there?  Or just a pack of hundreds of AR-toting morons moved to waco?  

I like guns, but how fucking insanely in love do you have to be with an inanimate firearm to choose it over a decent quality of life?  I wouldn't move to Waco if my children lived there.  Let alone a fucking firearm.  

[bolverk 30314]

21 minutes ago, Lobo said:

An AR-15 cult relocated to Waco?  What?  Like a gun rights group moved offices there?  Or just a pack of hundreds of AR-toting morons moved to waco?  

I like guns, but how fucking insanely in love do you have to be with an inanimate firearm to choose it over a decent quality of life?  I wouldn't move to Waco if my children lived there.  Let alone a fucking firearm.  

They're not really in Waco but a town called Thornton 40 miles away but, yes, a weird ass cult nonetheless:

Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’

[Newdoc 3511]

3 hours ago, gmr548 said:

Surely the AR-15 cult or whatever they’re called that just relocated there will help this

It’s at the south end of a lake not even in the same county as Waco. It would take an hour and a half to get to that part of the lake from Waco.  I’ll make sure I blame all the wacky crap in Dallas on Fort Worth.

[South Austin 53220]

20 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Our entire group, and almost everyone I've met who's been there agrees that there is something very off about Waco.  I've been to every corner of the US, and a lot of different places in Texas, and Waco is just different.

It’s like Derry, Maine.

[Al_4_ISU 12623]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

It’s like Derry, Maine.

Absolutely.

When we were tailgating at Floyd-Casey, one of my buddies made the comment that "it feels like we're on some kind of Indian burial ground; we shouldn't be here".

[drt 645]

13 hours ago, bolverk said:

They're not really in Waco but a town called Thornton 40 miles away but, yes, a weird ass cult nonetheless:

Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’

That is the weirdest shit I've read in a very long time.

[Neonmoon 38130]

11 hours ago, Newdoc said:

It’s at the south end of a lake not even in the same county as Waco. It would take an hour and a half to get to that part of the lake from Waco.  I’ll make sure I blame all the wacky crap in Dallas on Fort Worth.

Branch Dividians were technically in Axtell, Texas. To the rest of the world, it’s Waco. 

If AR cult drinks mass kool-aid, the news will say in Thornton, outside Waco. Then the story will be, another cult near Waco. What’s in the water in Waco, etc. 

No ones got time for small town geography 

[Js1 87174]

53 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Branch Dividians were technically in Axtell, Texas. To the rest of the world, it’s Waco. 

If AR cult drinks mass kool-aid, the news will say in Thornton, outside Waco. Then the story will be, another cult near Waco. What’s in the water in Waco, etc. 

No ones got time for small town geography 

Media: A cult in Thornton, TX
The rest of the country:

Media: A cult in a town 40 miles/90 min from Waco, TX
The rest of the country:

The media: A cult in some shithole town in Texas between Houston and Dallas
The rest of the country:

[Parliament 14593]

21 hours ago, bolverk said:

They're not really in Waco but a town called Thornton 40 miles away but, yes, a weird ass cult nonetheless:

Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’

WTF did I just read?

[bolverk 30314]

2 hours ago, Parliament said:

WTF did I just read?

I dunno, man, but you just briefly dipped your head in the crazy waters of the Brazos and saw the crazy fish that swim therein.

There's just something about the Waco area that seems to attract these sorts. Is it in the water? Maybe...but most of these groups are outsiders who've relocated there. Is it the aura generated by the ghosts of the Branch Davidians? Maybe...but Baylor had been around those parts long before they arrived.

Just know that Waco ain't the next Austin and never will be.

[bolverk 30314]

@ParliamentAlso, keep in mind that AnM is also near the banks of the Brazos.

[bolverk 30314]

Austin is still the next Austin for now.

Three Hollywood Stars Recast Their Lives Deep in the Heart of Texas
As the pandemic upended Tinseltown, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Haylie Duff and Becca Tobin made a pact to abandon Los Angeles and join the mass migration from California to Texas.

During the blockbuster plot twist that was 2020, three Los Angeles-based actors and longtime friends wrote themselves a scene that was playing out in cities across the United States. Early into lockdown, Becca Tobin, best known for her role as Kitty Wilde on the Fox series “Glee,” formed a pandemic pod with her fellow actors Haylie Duff and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, gathering for regular backyard confabs about shifting priorities, family demands and their future in Hollywood.

“We had been able to work from home successfully and set up our careers from anywhere,” Ms. Tobin said. “And we were all kind of ready for a change.”

Ms. Tobin, 35, Ms. Duff, 36, and Ms. Sigler, 40, had all moved to Los Angeles in their 20s for work and, like so many others, spent much of 2020 wondering if they wanted to live somewhere else. Hollywood the town and Hollywood the job had been cleaved apart, with acting classes going online, self-tape auditions replacing in-person, and the offscreen demands of the job — red carpets, award shows, interviews — going virtual or extinct.

“We found our conversations shifting more toward life,” said Ms. Sigler, who made her mark playing Meadow Soprano on “The Sopranos.” “And then we started to fantasize about what it would be like to live in different cities, and would we ever want to leave L. A.?”

They were far from alone. For the first time in more than a century, California lost people last year, according to population estimates released by the state in May. Some of that was a result of Covid-19 deaths, falling birthrates and the Trump administration’s efforts to limit immigration. But for many, it was simply a matter of finding better prices in greener pastures.

The three made a pact to relocate their “quaranteam,” leaving Hollywood together for a new city where they could keep working but enjoy a less hectic, and less expensive, life.

“It reminded me of being in high school and being like, ‘You’re gonna go home tonight and shave your legs, right? Because I’m going to do it, too,’” Ms. Tobin said of the agreement. “Like adult peer pressure.”

Spoiler

 

During the summer, Ms. Duff, the native Texan in the group, had visited her parents in Houston and felt the pull back home. The older sister of the actress Hilary Duff, she has been acting since she was a teenager and had always planned to move back to Texas eventually, and after the trip, she cut her family’s five-year plan to a five-month plan. As more friends relocated, there was “an energy around people choosing to make a change in their life, for a positive reason, for a self-care reason,” she said.

The friends considered different cities they had heard of people moving to, like Nashville or Atlanta, but they kept coming back to Texas. “We liked the idea of being in a progressive city, but not necessarily something so overly populated,” Ms. Tobin said.

The obvious choice was Austin, the booming southern crossroads of culture and technology, where they could more or less split the distance between Los Angeles and New York. It was a madcap move in the rush of a red-hot sellers market, a once-in-a-century chance to pause, then fast-forward.

“Even though we were together so much during quarantine and Covid, it really chipped away at us as a family, like many families,” said Ms. Sigler, who had only been to Austin once, for a film premiere at the South by Southwest festival. “Coming to this new city all together on this adventure offered a lot of repair for us, as well.”

Ms. Tobin, a Georgia native who had lived in Los Angeles for 12 years, said of Tinseltown: “As easy as it was to come, it was as easy for me to say goodbye.”

The three families made a common checklist, headlined by ample outdoor space and good public schools. They “hit the Zillow hard,” Ms. Sigler said, lobbing listings at one another from film sets and playgrounds. In October, they embarked on a house-hunting tour with partners and children in tow (Ms. Duff has two daughters; Ms. Sigler has two sons), and settled on a neighborhood about 20 minutes northwest of downtown Austin.

When they arrived in the spring, the culture shock came by way of small-town hospitality and everyday conveniences. “You mean I can get in my car, drive five minutes and not fight people when I’m in the grocery store to get in a lot?” said Ms. Tobin, who arrived in April after filming a TV reboot of the 1989 film “Turner & Hooch” in Vancouver, British Columbia. “Oh, and you don’t pay for parking anywhere.”

In decamping to Austin — home to an ever-expanding ecosystem of film festivals and production studios — they were joining a wave of high-profile Californians like Tesla founder Elon Musk and podcaster Joe Rogan, as well as the other roughly 70,000 people who moved to the area last year, according to U.S. census data, making it the fastest-growing metro area in the United States.

“Once you come here, it’s hard to leave,” said Ms. Duff, whose film roles include “Napoleon Dynamite” and “The Wedding Pact,” and who spent time this year shooting a movie in Fort Wayne, Ind. She noted that each of the friends booked gigs not long after closing on their Austin homes, which felt like a nod from the universe.

“I almost feel more connected to my craft and why I love acting,” said Ms. Sigler, who had just returned from recording dialogue at a studio in downtown Austin for an ABC pilot she shot in Los Angeles. “When the calls come in, it’s a beautiful surprise. I’m still on things and I’m still a businesswoman and it’s still my career, but I don’t feel the pressure around it because we took a stand for ourselves and we made decisions for our families.”

With its bohemian charms, natural splendors and lack of state income taxes, Austin has been courting California’s twin economic engines, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, for years, all while trying to maintain its cherished “Keep Austin Weird” credibility. According to Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, about 90,000 Californians moved to Texas in 2018 and 2019. The pandemic has only deepened the romance. Austin enjoyed a P.R. blitz of high-profile corporate relocations and expansions last year, with tech giant Oracle moving its headquarters there from Redwood Shores, Calif., and Mr. Musk announcing Tesla’s $1 billion “gigafactory” on the southeast edge of town.

The housing market, already in a decade-long development frenzy, wound up defying the pandemic and roaring back to life. In May 2021, the median sale price in the Austin metro area hit an all-time high of $465,000, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. High-end home prices spiked 24 percent, according to Redfin, the most of any area in the country.

Still, anyone used to California prices sees Texas as a bargain, said Scott Michaels, an Austin real estate agent with Compass, who described cutthroat, all-cash bidding wars that drew 40 to 60 offers on a single property. “It’s a challenge because we’re competing with people moving from out-of-state, and there’s just not a lot of inventory on the market,” he said.

For Ms. Sigler, who is from Long Island, Austin’s square footage and outdoor space were revelatory. “There was a lot of like, ‘Oh my God, look what we can get for this. Look at the life we can give ourselves,’ you know, compared to what we’re able to afford here in L.A.,” she said. “I just feel like we’re taking a big, deep breath since we got here.”

Ms. Sigler and Ms. Duff started their careers as teens but wanted a different lifestyle for their children in Austin, where space and nature are plentiful, and paparazzi aren’t. “That was a big choice for us, wanting our kids to stay young,” Ms. Duff said.

Austin has been contending with growing pains since the early 1980s, during its first hint of what locals call Silicon Hills, said Natasha Harper-Madison, the city’s Mayor Pro-Tem. Born and raised in East Austin, Ms. Harper-Madison said the changing cityscape was best described by her mother: “She said, ‘I really like my neighbors. I just wish I didn’t have to lose so many of the old ones to get new ones.’ And I think, in large part, that’s how folks feel. It’s not any sort of absence of the desire to welcome people to our communities. It’s the exact opposite. In fact, people want to preserve and sort of steward the evolution of their communities.”

Despite some natal cries of “Don’t California My Texas” from both ends of the political spectrum, what’s fueling the migration are the states’ similarities. Sitting on the border with relatively sunny climates, “they’re both super diverse, in every possible way — ethnically, economically, geographically,” said Jake Weggman, an associate professor of community and regional planning at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It’s an incredible burst of prosperity for the city, but it’s also just terrifying from a housing affordability standpoint, what that means for people living here,” Mr. Weggman said.

Ms. Tobin has sensed some side-eye when she tells locals where she’s from, but she tries to put them at ease. Voting and donating are two ways to do it, she said, and she has contributed to causes that support homeless outreach and abortion rights through local nonprofits like Mobile Loaves & Fishes and the Lilith Fund.

“I get it, they don’t want us to L.A. their Austin,” she said. “My husband and I personally are going to really try to do our best to help out in the community and get involved where we can.”

 

 

[Trey3216 15452]

On 6/18/2021 at 7:58 AM, Al_4_ISU said:

Absolutely.

When we were tailgating at Floyd-Casey, one of my buddies made the comment that "it feels like we're on some kind of Indian burial ground; we shouldn't be here".

Tailgating at FCS sucked because back then the cops would literally come by and tell you to pour your beer out.  It's nothing like that at McLane   

[Al_4_ISU 12623]

Just now, Trey3216 said:

Tailgating at FCS sucked because back then the cops would literally come by and tell you to pour your beer out.  It's nothing like that at McLane   

There was just no one there for the first couple hours besides a couple hundred ISU fans.

I went to take a leak in a far off porta-pot on the east side of the stadium.  There was no one around, and no one line.  I walk up to open the john door (it was unlocked) and I was horrified to find an old woman in some kind of prairie bonnet squeezing one out.  I froze in horror and she slowly raised her head, looked me in the eye, and scowled.  I just slammed the door shut and ran away screaming in terror.  

When the handful of Baylor fans started trickling in, people just felt very unwelcoming.  A totally different vibe than I've received at the 3 other Texas schools I've been to games at (UT, Aggy, TCU).

Like I said, it just felt like the universe wanted us to just move on.

['stache 22131]

There's talk of massive investments in Black entrepreneurship to rebuild the Greenwood neighborhood north of Downtown Tulsa. It's about as good a story as I've heard recently. Won't work though if the fucking governor and rural lawmakers keep fucking around with bullshit. There is so much wasted potential in downtown and midtown Tulsa and we won't be making any of these lists for a while. I'd put my money on Ashville, NC.

[South Austin 53220]

1 hour ago, Trey3216 said:

Tailgating at FCS sucked because back then the cops would literally come by and tell you to pour your beer out.  It's nothing like that at McLane   

I only went to one game at Floyd Casey, the 2005 game during our championship season.  I drove up with a friend and we made it just before kickoff without any chance to find a Longhorn tailgate.  All I remember is shitty access points to the stands, shitty food vendors, and shitty number of restrooms.  Fuck that whole place.

[billfromlaketravis 11817]

On 6/22/2021 at 8:06 PM, bolverk said:

Austin is still the next Austin for now.

Three Hollywood Stars Recast Their Lives Deep in the Heart of Texas
As the pandemic upended Tinseltown, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Haylie Duff and Becca Tobin made a pact to abandon Los Angeles and join the mass migration from California to Texas.

During the blockbuster plot twist that was 2020, three Los Angeles-based actors and longtime friends wrote themselves a scene that was playing out in cities across the United States. Early into lockdown, Becca Tobin, best known for her role as Kitty Wilde on the Fox series “Glee,” formed a pandemic pod with her fellow actors Haylie Duff and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, gathering for regular backyard confabs about shifting priorities, family demands and their future in Hollywood.

“We had been able to work from home successfully and set up our careers from anywhere,” Ms. Tobin said. “And we were all kind of ready for a change.”

Ms. Tobin, 35, Ms. Duff, 36, and Ms. Sigler, 40, had all moved to Los Angeles in their 20s for work and, like so many others, spent much of 2020 wondering if they wanted to live somewhere else. Hollywood the town and Hollywood the job had been cleaved apart, with acting classes going online, self-tape auditions replacing in-person, and the offscreen demands of the job — red carpets, award shows, interviews — going virtual or extinct.

“We found our conversations shifting more toward life,” said Ms. Sigler, who made her mark playing Meadow Soprano on “The Sopranos.” “And then we started to fantasize about what it would be like to live in different cities, and would we ever want to leave L. A.?”

They were far from alone. For the first time in more than a century, California lost people last year, according to population estimates released by the state in May. Some of that was a result of Covid-19 deaths, falling birthrates and the Trump administration’s efforts to limit immigration. But for many, it was simply a matter of finding better prices in greener pastures.

The three made a pact to relocate their “quaranteam,” leaving Hollywood together for a new city where they could keep working but enjoy a less hectic, and less expensive, life.

“It reminded me of being in high school and being like, ‘You’re gonna go home tonight and shave your legs, right? Because I’m going to do it, too,’” Ms. Tobin said of the agreement. “Like adult peer pressure.”

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During the summer, Ms. Duff, the native Texan in the group, had visited her parents in Houston and felt the pull back home. The older sister of the actress Hilary Duff, she has been acting since she was a teenager and had always planned to move back to Texas eventually, and after the trip, she cut her family’s five-year plan to a five-month plan. As more friends relocated, there was “an energy around people choosing to make a change in their life, for a positive reason, for a self-care reason,” she said.

The friends considered different cities they had heard of people moving to, like Nashville or Atlanta, but they kept coming back to Texas. “We liked the idea of being in a progressive city, but not necessarily something so overly populated,” Ms. Tobin said.

The obvious choice was Austin, the booming southern crossroads of culture and technology, where they could more or less split the distance between Los Angeles and New York. It was a madcap move in the rush of a red-hot sellers market, a once-in-a-century chance to pause, then fast-forward.

“Even though we were together so much during quarantine and Covid, it really chipped away at us as a family, like many families,” said Ms. Sigler, who had only been to Austin once, for a film premiere at the South by Southwest festival. “Coming to this new city all together on this adventure offered a lot of repair for us, as well.”

Ms. Tobin, a Georgia native who had lived in Los Angeles for 12 years, said of Tinseltown: “As easy as it was to come, it was as easy for me to say goodbye.”

The three families made a common checklist, headlined by ample outdoor space and good public schools. They “hit the Zillow hard,” Ms. Sigler said, lobbing listings at one another from film sets and playgrounds. In October, they embarked on a house-hunting tour with partners and children in tow (Ms. Duff has two daughters; Ms. Sigler has two sons), and settled on a neighborhood about 20 minutes northwest of downtown Austin.

When they arrived in the spring, the culture shock came by way of small-town hospitality and everyday conveniences. “You mean I can get in my car, drive five minutes and not fight people when I’m in the grocery store to get in a lot?” said Ms. Tobin, who arrived in April after filming a TV reboot of the 1989 film “Turner & Hooch” in Vancouver, British Columbia. “Oh, and you don’t pay for parking anywhere.”

In decamping to Austin — home to an ever-expanding ecosystem of film festivals and production studios — they were joining a wave of high-profile Californians like Tesla founder Elon Musk and podcaster Joe Rogan, as well as the other roughly 70,000 people who moved to the area last year, according to U.S. census data, making it the fastest-growing metro area in the United States.

“Once you come here, it’s hard to leave,” said Ms. Duff, whose film roles include “Napoleon Dynamite” and “The Wedding Pact,” and who spent time this year shooting a movie in Fort Wayne, Ind. She noted that each of the friends booked gigs not long after closing on their Austin homes, which felt like a nod from the universe.

“I almost feel more connected to my craft and why I love acting,” said Ms. Sigler, who had just returned from recording dialogue at a studio in downtown Austin for an ABC pilot she shot in Los Angeles. “When the calls come in, it’s a beautiful surprise. I’m still on things and I’m still a businesswoman and it’s still my career, but I don’t feel the pressure around it because we took a stand for ourselves and we made decisions for our families.”

With its bohemian charms, natural splendors and lack of state income taxes, Austin has been courting California’s twin economic engines, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, for years, all while trying to maintain its cherished “Keep Austin Weird” credibility. According to Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, about 90,000 Californians moved to Texas in 2018 and 2019. The pandemic has only deepened the romance. Austin enjoyed a P.R. blitz of high-profile corporate relocations and expansions last year, with tech giant Oracle moving its headquarters there from Redwood Shores, Calif., and Mr. Musk announcing Tesla’s $1 billion “gigafactory” on the southeast edge of town.

The housing market, already in a decade-long development frenzy, wound up defying the pandemic and roaring back to life. In May 2021, the median sale price in the Austin metro area hit an all-time high of $465,000, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. High-end home prices spiked 24 percent, according to Redfin, the most of any area in the country.

Still, anyone used to California prices sees Texas as a bargain, said Scott Michaels, an Austin real estate agent with Compass, who described cutthroat, all-cash bidding wars that drew 40 to 60 offers on a single property. “It’s a challenge because we’re competing with people moving from out-of-state, and there’s just not a lot of inventory on the market,” he said.

For Ms. Sigler, who is from Long Island, Austin’s square footage and outdoor space were revelatory. “There was a lot of like, ‘Oh my God, look what we can get for this. Look at the life we can give ourselves,’ you know, compared to what we’re able to afford here in L.A.,” she said. “I just feel like we’re taking a big, deep breath since we got here.”

Ms. Sigler and Ms. Duff started their careers as teens but wanted a different lifestyle for their children in Austin, where space and nature are plentiful, and paparazzi aren’t. “That was a big choice for us, wanting our kids to stay young,” Ms. Duff said.

Austin has been contending with growing pains since the early 1980s, during its first hint of what locals call Silicon Hills, said Natasha Harper-Madison, the city’s Mayor Pro-Tem. Born and raised in East Austin, Ms. Harper-Madison said the changing cityscape was best described by her mother: “She said, ‘I really like my neighbors. I just wish I didn’t have to lose so many of the old ones to get new ones.’ And I think, in large part, that’s how folks feel. It’s not any sort of absence of the desire to welcome people to our communities. It’s the exact opposite. In fact, people want to preserve and sort of steward the evolution of their communities.”

Despite some natal cries of “Don’t California My Texas” from both ends of the political spectrum, what’s fueling the migration are the states’ similarities. Sitting on the border with relatively sunny climates, “they’re both super diverse, in every possible way — ethnically, economically, geographically,” said Jake Weggman, an associate professor of community and regional planning at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It’s an incredible burst of prosperity for the city, but it’s also just terrifying from a housing affordability standpoint, what that means for people living here,” Mr. Weggman said.

Ms. Tobin has sensed some side-eye when she tells locals where she’s from, but she tries to put them at ease. Voting and donating are two ways to do it, she said, and she has contributed to causes that support homeless outreach and abortion rights through local nonprofits like Mobile Loaves & Fishes and the Lilith Fund.

“I get it, they don’t want us to L.A. their Austin,” she said. “My husband and I personally are going to really try to do our best to help out in the community and get involved where we can.”

 

 

Which one of you super studs is going to bang Meadow Soprano? I think telling her you're a Surly 1 percenter should be enough. 

[Guest Lobo]

I was getting some to-go months ago from that nice seafood joint at the HCG and thought, "That woman looks just like Meadow Soprano (I couldn't remember her real name)", but then thought, "Nah, what the fuck would she be doing in this random restaurant, maybe she visits Austin, not during a pandemic, and not all the way out here...so far from downtown."  I guess it was her.  She looks fucking smoking hot for her age.  No hollywood wardrobe or makeup and she looked twice as beautiful as she did 15 years ago on the show with all the trappings.  

Did I read that right, she married the douchebag son of douchebag Dykstra?  

[Neonmoon 38130]

On 6/23/2021 at 12:05 PM, 'stache said:

There's talk of massive investments in Black entrepreneurship to rebuild the Greenwood neighborhood north of Downtown Tulsa. It's about as good a story as I've heard recently. Won't work though if the fucking governor and rural lawmakers keep fucking around with bullshit. There is so much wasted potential in downtown and midtown Tulsa and we won't be making any of these lists for a while. I'd put my money on Ashville, NC.

Know some Trumpers that recently moved to Tulsa because their city was getting too liberal. That should be fun for them, 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Neonmoon

[HRSchenker 2340]

I love Tulsa. It has a lot of elements that remind me of Austin. The downtown area and around St John (I think north of 41st street and riverside) are just ripe for gentrification. I've thought about opening up a pharmacy there but Oklahoma has a lot of burdensome regulations that make doing business up there annoying and not very worker friendly. 

[CooterBrown 18287]

There's talk of massive investments in Black entrepreneurship to rebuild the Greenwood neighborhood north of Downtown Tulsa. It's about as good a story as I've heard recently. Won't work though if the fucking governor and rural lawmakers keep fucking around with bullshit. There is so much wasted potential in downtown and midtown Tulsa and we won't be making any of these lists for a while. I'd put my money on Ashville, NC.

When I started going to Tulsa weekly for work in 2010, the change downtown has been remarkable. It was utterly dead after 5pm. It was a glorified office park. My employer offered to buy me a condo above Billy’s downtown so I didn’t have to stay in a hotel. They were like $40K. I passed.

Now there’s a lot more businesses, restaurants and bars. It’s definitely headed quickly in the right direction.

[Trey3216 15452]

19 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

When I started going to Tulsa weekly for work in 2010, the change downtown has been remarkable. It was utterly dead after 5pm. It was a glorified office park. My employer offered to buy me a condo above Billy’s downtown so I didn’t have to stay in a hotel. They were like $40K. I passed.

Now there’s a lot more businesses, restaurants and bars. It’s definitely headed quickly in the right direction.

<Winston Zeddemore> When your employer wants to buy you real estate, you say YES!! <Winston Zeddemore> 

[CooterBrown 18287]

When your employer wants to buy you real estate, you say YES!!  

Haha. Yeah, in hindsight. At the time I felt it was the first step to make me move there so I passed.

[crash_davis 23468]

23 hours ago, HRSchenker said:

I love Tulsa. It has a lot of elements that remind me of Austin. The downtown area and around St John (I think north of 41st street and riverside) are just ripe for gentrification. I've thought about opening up a pharmacy there but Oklahoma has a lot of burdensome regulations that make doing business up there annoying and not very worker friendly. 

...and it's full of dipshit okies.

[Macanudo 13314]

I've wondered why some of the towns and cities in NW Texas (Amarillo), NE New Mexico (Raton) and E/SE Colorado (Limon, Trinidad and Pueblo) haven't blown up.   

Say what you want about places like Amarillo or Pueblo but land is cheap to some degree and for some of those places you're only a couple of hours from tons of outdoor stuff (fishing, skiing, etc.)    In those two cities cases, you either have an airport with direct flights to Houston, DFW, OKC and Vegas (Amarillo) or you're only a short drive to one (Pueblo to Colorado Springs).   Obviously places like Raton, Trinidad and Limon are problematic with regard to air travel  but if my employer told me I could move go Trinidad I might consider it one day.  

I always find it funny that places in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama aren't usually in the mix.   I know Birmingham has gotten some love lately but I guess corporate America still just can't wrap its head around employees showing up to work sporting Confederate flag t-shirts and having to allow for spit cups on their desks.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Macanudo

[Hefeweizen 5443]

The answer in most of those cases is water.  Humans need a lot of it.