Austin, I have a lot to say about you….
This is probably going to ramble but this post sums up all of what I hate about Austin, Texas. I know, I know – everybody hates their home town for one reason or another, but this place is its own circle of hell. If I ever tell you I hate Austin, this is why.
Austin did not always suck. I thank the city for the weird circumstances that I met my husband under. When I was young and going to college, and just getting started in the world, Austin was a fun place to live and work. There were weirdos and fun people. All that changed around the Dot Com Boom and Bust of the late 90’s….
I worked at various internet agencies in the late 90’s and everyone in Austin was talking a big game. One of the hottest game companies at the time, Origin Systems, was kicking ass with Ultima Online. Several big game companies were investing in the small teams and internet services were popping up everywhere. AMD, Applied Materials and Sematech were lighting up processor technology. IBM and Texas Instruments were the big guys in town. The city took on the moniker of “Silicon Hills” and South By South West started up their Interactive track.
Fast forward a few years and the weirdest things started to happen.
It really started with the game companies in town, before the dot com days but companies weren’t hiring unless you were from out of town. Origin was a big offender however, the attitude trickled down to every media related company. We moved to Houston for a year or so and the “No Austinites” trend was worse when we moved back. If you did video, graphic design, or 3D, companies were not interested in your work unless you came from LA or New York. I started doing project management work and Lee had random agency jobs but the one that kicked us off the fence about moving to LA is an insane story. He lost a contract because the agency bid more than the client budget (by 20k) and told him he couldn’t charge Hollywood rates by said agency.
People in Austin seem to have a little bit of a complex. They want to be big shots but it is all talk. They want to be the big fish but they don’t want to do anything to get a project done. God forbid if you actually try to work. @_@
Some people made the choice to stay in a smaller city and be a big fish in a little pond. A lot of those people still didn’t make it to big fish. When they have the opportunity, those people do what they can to make themselves feel better – up to & including being a jerk to the people they perceive being lower totem pole around them. It sucks and every time I hear about the job market in Austin it makes me cringe.
One of the more obnoxious aspects is that everyone in Austin keeps talking about how it is changing all the time but every time I visit it is the same but more worn down. Nothing looks different – the same businesses are in the same place with peeling paint and a bad attitude. The city keeps getting more and more expensive on top of it. No one I know even lives in Austin anymore – everyone lives in the suburbs outside the city. The housing prices and property tax rose pretty quickly and rent outpaced what people could pay. It’s hard to “Keep Austin Weird,” when none of the weirdos can afford to live in town.
It also feels strange to live in a large city and go back to Austin. People act like they live in a metropolis when, in reality, they live in a small town.
I don’t read or link to Vice, but this is a great send up. Reasons Why Austin is the Worst Place Ever.
What do you think?