What do you do for a living?

[The ATX]

We've had threads in the past about where everyone was originally from or what part of the Metro they lived in. But I was wondering what our members do for a living and if anyone actually works in the local real state, development, or construction industries. I have no connection to any real estate/development/construction business, and I currently work downtown and manage a group of about a dozen employees in an Austin based Tech company. But I have loved skyscrapers ever since I was a little kid growing up in Michigan and first visited Detroit.

[lzppjb]

I'm a federal employee. No connection to real estate/construction.

Not sure why I got into this site. I was never interested in skyscrapers as a kid (because we didn't really have any in Austin). I found this site when DKR was getting its North endzone. I think I enjoy just seeing new development.

[the Genral]

I am semi retired doing sales job and such a few years here and there, currently managing a Storage facility, easy money great benefits, for the extra cash and to get out of the house. Growing up spent a lot of time in NYC and was always fascinated with the tall buildings and architecture. Since my move here, I've been intrigued by the skyline progress and growth. Still waiting for the breakthrough signature tower though.

[427MM]

This is a fun thread. Born and raised in Atlanta--I witnessed firsthand how terrible endless highway expansions and sprawl are to the environment, our health and to existing communities. Though for some reason even as a child I could recognize the value of density/walkability/transit.

When I moved to ATX in '97 as a HS dropout I stumbled into the renovation/repair industry. Thankfully, UT let me in a few years later and some infill builders brought me on to work on their central east Austin projects (condos starting at $140k). I then left to be project manager for the developer on the 360 Tower (tallest in Austin for one year. When the RE industry bellied up I went back to school and worked in public policy until '15 when I started with an affordable housing developer looking to build in a more compact and connected style.

There are an unfortunate number of headwinds to building smart, fiscally responsible, transit friendly homes and businesses in Austin. Let's hope that with CodeNEXT this changes. But to do so, we all must get involved!

[LiveattheOasis]

I cannot remember how I found this site, but I think I was in high school visiting my grandmother's house. I grew up in Fort Worth and came to UT for school in 04, saw that Spring, the Monarch, and 360 were all planned to go and I was excited to follow. I've always taken a lot of pride in how my community grows and want to know what's going on in it. Since finishing at UT I've worked 8 years in the tech industry, mostly in product and product marketing, which is what I do now.

[Syndic]

I currently work downtown, on 6th Street, at Facebook in advertising support. I was born and raised in Austin, grew up going downtown and exploring its haunts and I've loved to see the city grow as well. My interest in urban development arose from a desire to see less suburban sprawl and more density in Austin, for environmental reasons. I think I found this site after Googling local construction projects a lot. I always visited austintowers.net, back in the days of the proposed Museum Tower and other undeveloped projects that I can't remember right now.

[clubtokyo]

Grew up in several boring Midwest states. Came to Austin for work, Marketing at a technology company. I have always been interested in urban development, I followed the Dallas development forum before coming to Texas. Now since I live in the Austin area, I follow this forum, dallas, houston, seattle, and boston.

[wwmiv]

I'm getting my PhD in political science at USC, but worked in campaign politics (campaign finance compliance) in TX before that.

My research focuses on how the way that different groups of voters being distributed differently across space affects the electoral, legislative, and bureaucratic processes. In a more fundamental sense, I study the way that political geography affects distributive politics (the distribution of public provision of goods). Segregation for instance, has a political geographic legacy that affects the benefits that individuals get from government. Ergo, I care a lot about housing and transportation policy (a natural applied extension of which is following development) because those policy areas are intimately causally intertwined in determining the way that different groups of people are distributed differently across space.

[austlar1]

At age 70, I am probably one of the oldest regular participants on this thread. I am retired. Had two careers more or less. After graduating from Tulane in New Orleans in 1969, I spent early adult years working in retail and moved all over the country- SF, LA, and DC mostly. I later (early 1980s) went to Social Work School at University of Southern California (the real USC) and got an MSW. I spent the next couple of decades working in mental health settings mostly in state government facilities. I grew up in Fort Worth in the 1950s and 60s. My family operated a small chain of catalog discount stores (Edison's) that included a couple of locations in Austin. That provided me with a lot of exposure to Austin in the late 60s and early 70s. I also briefly attended (Fall of 1969) UT Law School, but left after just one semester. I had too many wild oats to sow and was not cut out for the law. I returned to Austin in 1996 but lived mostly out in Dripping Springs or over near Bastrop. I love big cities, but I also love country living. I finally moved into Austin after I was burned out in the 2011 Bastrop wildfire. I have been fascinated (and at times horrified) by the growth of Austin over the past several decades. I may be the crankiest regular contributor to the Austin thread.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by austlar1

(the real USC)

No offense, but you can't wear a trojan without a cock. We were founded first, and in my particular field, the USCs are pretty much equivalently ranked. However, I'll also say that at least our program has one poli sci subfield (public law) that is top 10 ranked nationally.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

No offense, but you can't wear a trojan without a cock. We were founded first, and in my particular field, the USCs are pretty much equivalently ranked. However, I'll also say that at least our program has one poli sci subfield (public law) that is top 10 ranked nationally.

Guess you are right. University of Southern California only holds the legal rights to the interlocking SC. They are the "real" SC. We have to share the USC designation. I have no comment on the relative academic merits of either school.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...n=ncaaf-274469

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Guess you are right. University of Southern California only holds the legal rights to the interlocking SC. They are the "real" SC. We have to share the USC designation. I have no comment on the relative academic merits of either school.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...n=ncaaf-274469

Oh, I have no disagreement with the idea that, generally speaking, the University of Southern California is significantly better than Carolina, except in three areas - Intl Business, Political Science (part. in public law), and Public Health - where we narrowly edge you. Everything else here sucks.

[urbancore]

I moved to Austin in 8th grade for a brief 6 months, then returned to attend UT in '87. I tended bar at the Four Seasons while attending UT for 7 years. I remember working downtown when it was DEAD. I have always enjoyed seeing progress of the city. As I grew up, so did my city. I've always lived central, and believe in dense walk-able cities. I eventually began a real estate career in '99. I've founded a couple of RE brokerage firms, built homes for my family in Rosedale, and 2 in Zilker. I also own a music festival in San Marcos called Float Fest, and I am a founder of a RE app in development now. I am proud to say I founded "Friends of Zilker" with 2 of my neighbors in 2012. My day job is primarily working with infill builders to help them find suitable properties to develop. I owned a Milago condo for 4 years that I rented, and I lost my earnest money on a 360, because I was supposed to close the week Lehman's went down, and decided to walk and lose $30k than close and lose more. That was a tough week. I've got a family with 2 kids and a live in MIL in a "granny flat" that I built for her. Much to the consternation ANC.

[ahealy]

So many interesting backgrounds!
Born and raised in San Antonio/Austin... and LA for a few years. I work for a well known local hospitality group--we're renovating an old motel on South Congress. I've been on SSP for nearly a decade and probably found it from Austin Towers back in the day.

[resansom]

Born in Austin, then raised there after spending the first 4-5 years in CA. While growing up, I loved my home town and was always interested in seeing it become a big city, with skyscrapers, freeways, entertainment venues (amusement parks, water attractions, music venues, golf courses, etc.), and an international airport. I still have an old copy of the airport master plan from the mid-1960s which envisioned an enclosed concourse, jetways, and baggage carousels. I still have newspaper clippings of the "new" Brackenridge hospital, Dobie tower, the "double decker" I-35 expansion, the curved, upper level of what was then Texas Memorial stadium, the (originally gold-foil) American National Bank building, the (ugly) Austin National Bank building, the (what was then, very modern looking) City National Bank building, and Mopac expressway (speaking of which, I remember going for a drive on Mopac on the night it opened - I drove it from north to south and then back and I don't remember seeing another car on the freeway, at the same time!). I used to draw my own versions downtown Austin with skyscrapers, observation towers, and elevated mass transit and I came up with about a zillion freeway maps with 3, 4, and 5 level interchanges. I envisioned Town Lake becoming a major recreation center/attraction and even wanted to see a full-blown marina developed near Longhorn dam.

Eventually, I grew up and became a computer programmer/software engineer, returning to Southern CA, where I've remained for ~30 years, now. I discovered this site after visiting Austin in late, 2006, to attend my mother's funeral. At that time, I was very impressed with all of the downtown development and the new airport, but was disappointed that Austin's freeway system had failed to keep up with the growth. I also got the sense that a lot of Austin's charm had been replaced by something else - call it "hype," for lack of a better word. Don't get me wrong - I still love my home town and I'm excited for its future. I just hope the city can solve its transportation problems while maintaining its unique identity and personality as it continues to grow and prosper as the "big city" I always hoped it would become.

[Geckos_Rule]

Born in Austin, and have lived here all my life (24 yrs). I went to UT for undergrad, and now am finishing up law school, so at UT for 7 years total. Not going into real estate law, or really anything that has to do with construction or development. But still, I've always been interested, and it's nice to know more about this stuff than my commercial real estate buddies do...

[We vs us]

I'm an Austin newbie. I moved here less than two years ago with the hotel brand that I was with at the time to work at a local hotel they'd recently purchased. I'm in sales, fwiw. I've switched brands and switched hotels, but have remained in Austin. I'm an older (43) emigre, have kids and a spouse, don't do the festivals or the bars, but am finding it to be very much a worthwhile place to live, even for an adult. A little hot, though.

I've lived in a bunch of different places: Fayetteville, AR, Chicago, Tulsa, Louisville, now Austin. Each one of them had an online community of folks tracking and discussing community development, real estate, buildings, etc. I've hunted that group of folks down in every city, and have never been disappointed. Sometimes it dovetails with what I do, but other times I just have an interest in it. I was the kid who played Sim City relentlessly, endlessly when I was a kid, and whatever was underlying that is the reason I'm here.

[AustinGoesVertical]

I'm a management major at McCombs. I've always been really interested in architecture and grew up in Chicago, so I became acclimated with skyscrapers at a young age. I moved to Austin a little over 4 years ago. I did 2 years of high school at a small private school in Hyde Park called the Griffin School and have been at UT for the last 3 years.

I'm just really into the development going on in Austin. I lived in the Monarch and got to watch the Bowie get built. Now I live in a studio in the Bowie and get to watch the Independent, Third + Shoal, and Austin Proper rise . Having moved here as recently as 2012, it's amazing that it takes more than two hands to count all the significant towers that have broken ground and been delivered since I arrived.

I appreciate everyone on this site btw. I'm glad to have a forum to discuss shared interests.

[jbssfelix]

Moved here in 2015 from Indianapolis after finishing grad school. Accepted an offer with General Motors working in enterprise-level software configuration.

[tie_guy]

Born and raised in Houston. Being queer, I always heard Austin was the place I wanted to be. I moved here at 19 in 2010. I've just be captivated by the amount of change I've witnessed in my time here. When I first visited Austin the Frost tower had barely been completed! I've never witnessed such evident change on this scale. At any rate, I work with floodplains and maps and pretty much certify flood determinations for insurance purposes.