2023 Bum Steer of the Year

[TexPx 2,326]

“How a funky little college town became the unbearable-traffic, unaffordable-real-estate, insufferable-tech-bro, inanely-precious-restaurant, expensive-BBQ capital of the world”

 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/2023-bum-steer-of-year-austin/

[South Austin 52,673]

I’d rather read about the 100 best dentists in Texas.

[TexPx 2,326]

I’d rather read about the 100 best dentists in Texas.

BEST DENTISTS IN AUSTIN

https://www.uniteddentists.com/best-dentists/austin/

Good luck with your procedure

[After irth 1,245]

That is some rather scathing commentary.  When Texas Monthly shits in its own back yard and gives the stiff middle finger to Austin, that's how you know that shit is, indeed, quite fucked up.

[Bateshorn 9,942]

Show me the lie.  
 

When my mom finally threw in the towel and retired out of state her simple comment was “This place sucks now.”

[troph 24,916]

It’s pretty fucked up. I mean an occasional night out on the town is fun, but other than that, we are here for kids’ school, my network, lake Travis, a few Texas country music shows a year, fishing (coast mostly some of the rivers) and Texas baseball. Not much of that is really Austin. 

[CooterBrown 18,039]

Didn’t we already have a surf park that lasted about 3 months a decade ago?

[Ghost of LL 15,566]

That whole article is the “Austin was cooler when I got here” that it purports to mock.

 

[RPM 26,382]

Honestly, I've only spent a scant few days in Austin and it was back in the day. I can only imagine the culture overtake by the political and economic climate. The same thing has happened here in BFE North Texas.

[ftf82 486]

Quote

The Austin of 2022 isn’t just different, it’s unrecognizable. Not only is it a surf-park town, it’s a prohibitively expensive one, ranking among the priciest metropolitan areas in the nation. The bang you get for your buck is terrible traffic, doubled property taxes, annual rent hikes, chain restaurants from Denver and Portland, Oregon, sidewalks littered with electric scooters lying flat on their sides, and a “culture” owned primarily by Live Nation.

And it's causing Xavier Worthy to transfer

[BrickHorn 18,298]

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

Show me the lie.  
 

When my mom finally threw in the towel and retired out of state her simple comment was “This place sucks now.”

Your mom is right. I’ve been frog-boiled by Austin’s unyielding descent into douchiness since the mid-90s. Every once in a while, I’ll stumble into an oasis of Old Austin Weird and it makes clear just how different (in a bad and depressing way) this city is now. Last week we hit up the 37th Street lights and it hit me like smelling salts: “This is what Austin used to be like, back when I fell in love with the place.” 

The city still offers plenty of good things. But so do most cities. The things that differentiate Austin from the average town now are negatives: cost, traffic, trendy overpriced food, and vapid tech culture. Didn’t used to be that way. 

[Steel Shank 9,435]

A soon as my kid gets out of school, Austin can my sweet ass goodbye.

[Hank Scorpio 17,731]

Current Austin sucks ass, it was so much better when it was called Waterloo. 

[Sawbonz 27,721]

Nobody lives there anymore. It’s too crowded

[Brisketexan 105,490]

Your mom is right. I’ve been frog-boiled by Austin’s unyielding descent into douchiness since the mid-90s. Every once in a while, I’ll stumble into an oasis of Old Austin Weird and it makes clear just how different (in a bad and depressing way) this city is now. Last week we hit up the 37th Street lights and it hit me like smelling salts: “This is what Austin used to be like, back when I fell in love with the place.” 
The city still offers plenty of good things. But so do most cities. The things that differentiate Austin from the average town now are negatives: cost, traffic, trendy overpriced food, and vapid tech culture. Didn’t used to be that way. 

Fundamentally, that’s it.
Today, what makes Austin special? Not much. It’s another generic high-end and pricey city full of spendy hipster douchebags as it’s “identity,” and otherwise…it’s just an expensive place to live with shitty traffic.
I can think of one improvement: 25 years ago, there was no great bbq in the city. Now, there’s 10+ places that would be among the best barbecue you ever ate if they were around back then. So, yay.
My wife and I are here because our careers are here. When it comes time to retire, maybe we’ll keep a small place here as our “home base,” but if one of the kids ends up settling back in the US, we may well end up wherever they are. While leaving Austin would mean leaving a lot of good memories, and some good friends, that’s about it.
It’s more than the “old austin was cooler” thing. It really is that Austin no longer has any real unique identity, other than “the latest big thing/hipster place to spend lots of money.” For that, it’s why not be in NY, or LA? Cost of living is the same, and each has an actual identity. NYC is the capital of the world, with something interesting on literally every block. LA at least has a great climate and beaches. Austin has….bars I can’t get into, and even if I could, a cocktail made by some self-important shit would cost me $25.
Shit, we’re looking at buying a flat in Glasgow. Can get a new 2 bdrm place on the waterfront for $250k. Can still get a pint for cheap at a million pubs. The town is just starting to really attract creative types, and is among the most affordable cities in the world. The boy can live in the flat with a roommate while he’s in school.
There’s plenty of places in the US and the world that offer the kind of things/vibe that used to make Austin something special - not exactly the same, of course, but similar. Austin ain’t one of those places.

[Fudge Nuggets 19,242]

As much as you bitch about shitty weather, I'm not sure Glasgow is the place you are looking for.

['stache 21,898]

I considered Austin about 10-15 years ago and glad I didn't follow through. There's some cool vibes in pockets, but nothing seemed cohesive, all connected by congested highways, stroads, and toll roads. I much preferred Portland which I was surprised to find a pretty walkable and livable downtown for its size, but way too expensive, and without the booming jobs of Austin. I'm still considering a move but it'll probably be north or to a coast. Austin is basically Dallas with more hipsters and fewer highways.

[Brisketexan 105,490]

As much as you bitch about shitty weather, I'm not sure Glasgow is the place you are looking for.

I’m kinda done with the heat. I understand that others have different tastes.

[BrickHorn 18,298]

18 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Austin is basically Dallas with more hipsters and fewer highways.

No. DFW is uniquely bland. Its douchebags are comfortable in their banality and don’t feel the need to feign culture through colonization.

Austin is overrun with the kind of douche who wears the city’s bygone weirdness as a badge of cultural legitimacy while helping snuff out the final vestiges of Old Austin with every trendy meal purchase, home tear-down, and scooter rental. It’s like if buffalo hunters posted Instagram photos doing the duckface among a sea of rotting carcasses and tags like #plainslife4ever.

Edited January 1, 2023 by BrickHorn

[Bateshorn 9,942]

I say this with all seriousness: I live in DC, technically second in the nation for traffic after LA pre Covid.

Austin is worse. Noticeably.  When we’d visit my mom, our mantra was be where you needed to be by 3 (usually back in Westlake). Or you were stuck there till 7. 

[Dnaguy 12,187]

54 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

Your mom is right. I’ve been frog-boiled by Austin’s unyielding descent into douchiness since the mid-90s. Every once in a while, I’ll stumble into an oasis of Old Austin Weird and it makes clear just how different (in a bad and depressing way) this city is now. Last week we hit up the 37th Street lights and it hit me like smelling salts: “This is what Austin used to be like, back when I fell in love with the place.” 

The city still offers plenty of good things. But so do most cities. The things that differentiate Austin from the average town now are negatives: cost, traffic, trendy overpriced food, and vapid tech culture. Didn’t used to be that way. 

Damn. 37th street lights.

Thats a blast from the past.

I got an old fashioned handy after taking a Mexican exchange student to see that. She was nice.
I had forgotten about that until now.

Thanks for rekindling that memory.

Austin is no longer a land of quaint tug jobs.

It’s gone full on ‘Euphoria’ now.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Dnaguy

[Cap33 396]

13 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

Austin is overrun with the kind of douche who wears the city’s bygone weirdness as a badge of cultural legitimacy while helping snuff out the final vestiges of Old Austin with every trendy meal purchase, home tear-down, and scooter rental.

This x1000.  My least favorite aspect of what Austin has become: new people who are hell-bent to change Austin into the place they left.  Some chick told me a few years ago with a straight face that Austin dining and shopping got so much better once so many New Yorkers started to move here.

Fuck. Off.

And yes, I know Austin has always had the "it used to be so much better before all these people moved here" attitude, and maybe it's just a function of me getting older, but it's exhausting listening to new Austinites lecture us about everything that needs to be different to suit their preferences.

I've also been thinking about our exit for a few years now. Once the kids are finished with school and we're ready to retire, peace out. 

[Captain Ron 12,936]

4 hours ago, TexPx said:

 

“How a funky little college town became the unbearable-traffic, unaffordable-real-estate, insufferable-tech-bro, inanely-precious-restaurant, expensive-BBQ capital of the world”

 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/2023-bum-steer-of-year-austin/

Didn’t they announce this like 2 weeks ago?

[RDCanecutter 26,515]

34 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:

I got an old fashioned handy after taking a Mexican exchange student to see that. She was nice.
I had forgotten about that until now.

Tall rock-climber girl from Monterrey? Just askin.

[Gatorubet 30,335]

1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

It’s like if buffalo hunters posted Instagram photos doing the duckface among a sea of rotting carcasses and tags like #plainslife4ever.

[Guest]

What is "vapid tech culture?"

serving up a meatball for rivalrous response regarding LBK; but seriously, what is tech culture/ tech bros with regard to living quality?

[chainsaw 9,908]

1 hour ago, Dnaguy said:

 

I got an old fashioned handy

She used a distinctively large cube of ice?

[Brisketexan 105,490]

What is "vapid tech culture?"
serving up a meatball for rivalrous response regarding LBK; but seriously, what is tech culture/ tech bros with regard to living quality?

It’s like rich douchebag NY investment banker bro culture, except with casual dress. They’re unpleasant people who define themselves by consumption and thus 1) drive up prices and costs for everyone else in the area and 2) drive out any business/culture that doesn’t generate gobs of revenue. $300 a head restaurants (with a 20% profit margin) can make it and pay the now exorbitant rents…$10 a head taco places making a $2 profit, not so much.

[Armybrat 40,945]

We got out in 1995, but now the Round Rock area is just as bad.

Someone even opened a Chipotle next to our neighborhood.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Armybrat

[Sbbruin 21,908]

For all of you lamenting the vapidness and douchey culture that has enveloped Austin, I invite you to come to LA, where you will find real, down to earth people who don’t judge books by their cover and who don’t flaunt consumerism and image.  Real salt of the earth types.  Few places like it left in the world.

[Brisketexan 105,490]

For all of you lamenting the vapidness and douchey culture that has enveloped Austin, I invite you to come to LA, where you will find real, down to earth people who don’t judge books by their cover and who don’t flaunt consumerism and image.  Real salt of the earth types.  Few places like it left in the world.

At least LA grew their own. We imported ours.
And again, at least y’all got nice weather and beaches.
I can spend a fortune to be around douche bags in the 100 degree heat, or I can do the same and get a sea breeze and the beach within 5-10 minutes. Not saying LA is perfect by by any means, but we’ve got most of the LA negatives without its upsides.

[staboner 4,988]

5 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

For all of you lamenting the vapidness and douchey culture that has enveloped Austin, I invite you to come to LA, where you will find real, down to earth people who don’t judge books by their cover and who don’t flaunt consumerism and image.  Real salt of the earth types.  Few places like it left in the world.

man, i love LA these days. I hated it when I was in my 20s. I am an aging Douchenozzle I guess

I was happy to vacate Austin ~ 4 years back. Honestly was ready around 2014 or so. For most of the reasons in the article, but the biggest was traffic and no fucking infrastructure to speak of. Now I live in a city of ~ 5M people it feels MUCH less congested than ATX. I have multiple public transport options and I can bike everywhere. Its certainly not perfect and its not just a complaint on just Austin (more like every southern/western city in the US), but its a breath of fresh fucking are after not being able to bike outside of my tiny easy Austin hood comfortably. 

 

[Sbbruin 21,908]

7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

At least LA grew their own. We imported ours.
And again, at least y’all got nice weather and beaches.
I can spend a fortune to be around douche bags in the 100 degree heat, or I can do the same and get a sea breeze and the beach within 5-10 minutes. Not saying LA is perfect by by any means, but we’ve got most of the LA negatives without its upsides.

Ha, you couldn’t be more wrong.  All the douchiest of LA are all imports.  They come here to embrace that.  Natives are typically a far cry from that.  

[JesusSweatDuck 17,814]

3 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

Your mom is right. I’ve been frog-boiled by Austin’s unyielding descent into douchiness since the mid-90s. Every once in a while, I’ll stumble into an oasis of Old Austin Weird and it makes clear just how different (in a bad and depressing way) this city is now. Last week we hit up the 37th Street lights and it hit me like smelling salts: “This is what Austin used to be like, back when I fell in love with the place.” 

The city still offers plenty of good things. But so do most cities. The things that differentiate Austin from the average town now are negatives: cost, traffic, trendy overpriced food, and vapid tech culture. Didn’t used to be that way. 

We're likely gone as soon as my kids are done with school. With remote work now, there's no reason to stay and a lot of reasons to leave

[utee94 15,878]

14 minutes ago, slorch said:

What is "vapid tech culture?"

serving up a meatball for rivalrous response regarding LBK; but seriously, what is tech culture/ tech bros with regard to living quality?

As a UT electrical engineer who has spent my entire professional career working for high tech companies in Austin, this hits close to home.

 

 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, utee94 said:

As a UT electrical engineer who has spent my entire professional career working for high tech companies in Austin, this hits close to home.

 

 

 I only really asked so I could talk shit to 29YO son who works for Bloomburg in NYC.  but he just closed on a house in Jersey,  and his ass is poor now...

On a serious note, I figured it was cost of living related, and appreciated Brisket's response.

Edited January 1, 2023 by slorch

[utee94 15,878]

7 minutes ago, slorch said:

 I only really asked so I could talk shit to 29YO son who works for Bloomburg in NYC.  but he just closed on a house in Jersey,  and his ass is poor now...

On a serious note, I figured it was cost of living related, and appreciated Brisket's response.

Ej, Brisket's Eeyore-like response was nothing more than his usual jaded, fatalistic, ledge-clinging schtick.  But if he truly is so miserable here, he should do himself-- and all the rest of us-- a favor, and leave.  

People bitching about Austin, is just so very Austin.

[troph 24,916]

The best part is locked in equity so now we can lateral to an expensive market for nearly the same level of living. Take $1.5-2m Austin home - which if you’re in tarrytown, 04, certain parts north of campus, parts of lake Travis etc you’re there or more already - and you can easily lateral over to something In CO or elsewhere and do just fine. Used to not work that way.  

[RDCanecutter 26,515]

Y'all just need to put down the screens, and go look at the bats.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Ej, Brisket's Eeyore-like response was nothing more than his usual jaded, fatalistic, ledge-clinging schtick.  But if he truly is so miserable here, he should do himself-- and all the rest of us-- a favor, and leave.  

People bitching about Austin, is just so very Austin.

I actually suspected his response to be the very case.  People with much more expendable incomes entering neighborhoods that traditionally were very different would not necessarily be welcomed with open arms.  $7 tacos is just fucking stupid.

 

Brisket and I hardly agree on everything, but on this topic, i get where he's coming from.

Edited January 1, 2023 by slorch

[mchookem 16,439]

meh. i loved Austin right up until we moved away (6 month texpat anniversary today woohoo!😁).

i broke up with TEXAS, not Austin. i have no plans to move back, but if i ever have to, Austin is the only place in Texas i'd consider. maybe San Antonio. but probably not.

i had a fleeting thought a few months ago that if/when something happens to my dad, we might consider his place in Palestine. it is gorgeous, just a lovely property, 150 year old ranch home...

but then my sister (who is renting out her Austin condo this month and moving into a house in town that they have bought and renovated) tells me last week about hanging out at an actually pretty good restaurant there in town and chatting with some random guy at the bar and he just super casual drops the n-word in conversation... and my dad laughs it off and says 'oh well, you should probably get used to it haha'... and i'm back to 'fuck off, Texas' in general.

not like i don't know you can encounter that anywhere including rural CO...but that's the second time that has happened in Palestine. i mean, just fuck you.

so...yeah. if something happens to my mate and i need to move back to Texas... i'll just rent my sister's condo and put up with Austin tech culture.

 

[mchookem 16,439]

3 minutes ago, troph said:

The best part is locked in equity so now we can lateral to an expensive market for nearly the same level of living. Take $1.5-2m Austin home - which if you’re in tarrytown, 04, certain parts north of campus, parts of lake Travis etc you’re there or more already - and you can easily lateral over to something In CO or elsewhere and do just fine. Used to not work that way.  

ha! you literally described what we just did 😁🤘

[utee94 15,878]

1 minute ago, slorch said:

I actually suspected his response to be the very case.  People with much more expendable incomes entering neighborhoods that traditionally were very different would not necessarily be welcomed with open arms.  $7 tacos is just fucking stupid.

If this were somehow limited only to Austin, or only to high tech, there might be a point.  It's not, and there isn't.  Just random old people yelling at clouds.

[texasdago 7,589]

Bitching about the loss of old Austin is an Austin tradition. I need to find the articles that I came across online showing people from the 1940s and 50s complaining about the loss of old Austin.  Having moved back from houston, I laugh so hard at the people complaining about traffic.   

And please Round Rock and Pflugerville are as Austiny as Sugar Land and Katy are to Houston.

Yes... it's terrible here.  Don't move here.

[NAVY 6,765]

6 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Didn’t we already have a surf park that lasted about 3 months a decade ago?

Yeah, and it was a bodacious tres months too brah 

[DaysOff 7,988]

This is kind of the crux of the issue.  Nowhere in Texas really has great climate or natural beauty, so it all depends on the people.  
We pretend Austin and the Hill Country are beautiful, but that’s just because we’re comparing it to the rest of the state.  Everywhere east of the Mississippi has actual forests and hill country that is prettier than Texas, places with mountains are prettier, places with Pacific and Atlantic coastlines are prettier than our Gulf Coast, etc.  It isn’t hot as balls 9 months of the year and then cold as balls for the other 3 months everywhere else.
If the people in Texas are going to act like the people everywhere else … then lots of other places are better.  Texas is a harsh place, and it’s problematic if you aren’t offsetting that with the culture you grew up loving.

I could handle it better if we'd win all the football games.

[South Austin 52,673]

35 minutes ago, utee94 said:

People bitching about Austin, is just so very Austin.

It’s every growing city – Seattle, Denver, Nashville, etc.

Cool place. Everybody wants to move there. Then not as cool. More people means more traffic and houses cost more and ermagod!!!

Yeah, I miss the Austin of my college days. But today it’s still far better than a soulless suckhole like the DFW metroplex, but that doesn’t make for a good Texas Monthly cover story.

[royiv 9,405]

34 minutes ago, troph said:

The best part is locked in equity so now we can lateral to an expensive market for nearly the same level of living. Take $1.5-2m Austin home - which if you’re in tarrytown, 04, certain parts north of campus, parts of lake Travis etc you’re there or more already - and you can easily lateral over to something In CO or elsewhere and do just fine. Used to not work that way.  

And pay significantly less in taxes.

[mdmost 43,104]

6 minutes ago, South Austin said:

a soulless suckhole

Your mom?

[texasdago 7,589]

8 minutes ago, South Austin said:

It’s every growing city – Seattle, Denver, Nashville, etc.

Cool place. Everybody wants to move there. Then not as cool. More people means more traffic and houses cost more and ermagod!!!

Yeah, I miss the Austin of my college days. But today it’s still far better than a soulless suckhole like the DFW metroplex, but that doesn’t make for a good Texas Monthly cover story.

Exactly which is why I LOL nonstop at a friend who moved to Dallas because Austin lost its soul.  Allrightee then 

On a side note, i see people cry about the loss of "old Austin" Rainey Street.  Remember partying on Rainey in the early 90s?  Yeah, me either.  It was a bunch of crappy houses.  Cities evolve.  We can have good memories but let's not pretend it's only happening in Austin.   

Edited January 1, 2023 by texasdago