Death of "Hip Austin," and Birth of "MAINSTREAM" Austin

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by Austinite

As any other 5th generation Austinite would tell you, the hipness isn't dying; it's just changing form. Austin was cool before it was hip; and it was mellow before it was cool; and it was sleepy before it was mellow; and it was wild, wild Apacheria before that. Whatever it'll have become in a few years' time, it'll be fun. Don't worry about it.

Comancheria.

[NThomas]

Originally Posted by tgbAustinite

well said.

Agreed.


I still fail to see how Austin has turned in a Dallas or Houston. Austin is eclectic and still has an identity, something Dallas and Houston are working on. When people think of Austin word associations with things like Town Lake, parks, trails, live music, UT, and all the other things the Genral mentioned make Austin, well, Austin are still associated to the city.


I started a thread for the sole purpose to see how many here think Austin is still Austin and not just another mainstream metropolis. Make your vote heard here.

[JACKinBeantown]

I grew up in San Antonio, spent seven years in Austin from the ages 18-25 (perfect age to live in Austin), and have lived in New York for 15 years, I can say from experience that a city can become one of the biggest cities in the world and still be an amazing place with all kinds of cool, hip, weird, offbeat things. New York City has all kinds of freaks and crazy neighborhoods for all walks of life as well as Wall Street and all the suits that go along with it. I've been to Seattle a few times and it is still a very cool place with weird neighborhoods. Don't lose hope for Austin.

[Austinite]

Originally Posted by alexjon

Comancheria.

Comanches raided deep into Mexico on occasion, but Austin was Lipan country after they forced the Tonkawas out. Comancheria started on the other side of the scarp.

[Scottolini]

Early settlers

Two of the oldest Paleolithic archeological sites in Texas, the Levi Rock Shelter and Smith Rock Shelter, are located southwest and southeast of present-day Austin. For several hundred years before the arrival of European settlers, the area was inhabited by a variety of nomadic Native American tribes. These indigenous peoples fished and hunted along the creeks, including present-day Barton Springs[1], which proved to be a reliable campsite.[2] At the time of the first permanent settlement of the area, the Tonkawa tribe was the most common, with the Comanches and Lipan Apaches also frequenting the area.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Austin,_Texas

[hookem]

So we are in agreement, then -- Austin's best times were during the age of the Comanches, Apaches, and Tonkawas. Barton Springs has really become commercialized since then. Used to be you could just fire up the peace pipe and kick back after a hunt, those were the good ol' days. Back before Mirabeau Lamar and his cohorts had to come and overdevelop the place.

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by Austinite

Comanches raided deep into Mexico on occasion, but Austin was Lipan country after they forced the Tonkawas out. Comancheria started on the other side of the scarp.

Several of my ancestors lived near what is now Austin toward the mid 19th Century until the Council House Massacre. They mostly stuck it out in the creeks just NW of what is now the city proper, but frequently moved toward the SE for raids and hunting.

[Austinite]

Originally Posted by alexjon

Several of my ancestors lived near what is now Austin toward the mid 19th Century until the Council House Massacre. They mostly stuck it out in the creeks just NW of what is now the city proper, but frequently moved toward the SE for raids and hunting.

Sounds right.

[alon504]

Originally Posted by Spaceman

I grew up in Louisiana...I would visit NO and it's was the best place....It was fun, CLASSY, and safe...Then look what happened...it's a crime ridden ghetto...my relatives that still live there won't leave their homes after dark...I've been to most big cities in this country and I've never seen a city collapse so totally as NO...As a Louisiana native I have very strong feelings about a once great city going to hell.....NO today makes me sick..Bring back Katrina #2...

LOL.....it's OK, you can trash New Orleans since I said something negative about Austin. This thread isn't about New Orleans, but, here's a couple of photo links to your "crime ridden ghetto," which is 77% back in the City of New Orleans and 93% back metro-wide in population (not bad if you ask me considering what happened 4 years ago). What in the hell was the NFL thinking when they recently awarded New Orleans the Super Bowl for 2013?!?

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=876818

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=895022

BTW, I still love Austin and look forward to my future visits. I think I've made myself clear in my posts. I'm sad to see some elements of Austin gone, it does make me disappointed. But, I haven't said one "bad," thing about Austin in any of my posts and you wouldn't find me doing that anyway if you tried, because I love Austin!

[JAM]

Originally Posted by alon504

I'm in mourning. I recently visited Austin and was terribly sad to see the Austin I once knew and loved is dead. It is gone. I'm referring to the HIP Austin--the one with the deadheads hanging out on the streets with club after club of hip music. Those days are gone. I'm afraid it is forever gone. Austin is now a mainstream city with a booming population infiltrated by a bunch of money hungry outsiders who could careless about the "hip" Austin I once knew and loved. They don't care about cool live music and an underground scene that was once one the best in this country. No more. It is over and gone. I know some think it is wonderful to see explosive growth, but, I am one who mourns the loss of the old Austin and am extremely sad to see Downtown Austin blazen with a bunch of glassy condo towers. It's horrible. Austin of the old is no more. Now, it is just like the rest of the big cities in this country. The character of the streets of Austin are gone and I am sad. I'm horrified by the expansion and growth I saw. But, I'll never forget the Austin I once knew. It's now just a memory.

Give me a break. Half of the people I know that live downtown are the same people who made Austin the hip cool place that it "used" to be. They just happen to have jobs for several years now, have saved their money, are in their 50's and 60's and still hip and cool as ever. They just happen to move in to a D.T. condo. Enough of the stereo types.

[KevinFromTexas]

If you want to see some old school Austin alive and kicking, just go to one of KGSR's Blues on the Green concerts. They used to have them at Zilker Park, but moved them to Waterloo Park this year because they're re-sodding the soccer fields. Anyway, lots of old school Austinites there. I swear, those Blues on the Green concerts bring out the die hard old hippies. I went to the Jimmie Vaughan show last month with my brother and sister-in-law and there were several thousand people there. Although there must have been 5,000 people there, it didn't feel crowded at all and was easy to get away from once it was over.

http://www.kgsr.com/Other/blues/

[TXAlex]

Austin here, born in 76...Lived here most of my life accept for those years I lived in Oakland, Berkeley, Seattle, Portland, Annapolis and Southborough Mass. I have to say I keep coming back here and while some of the coolest music venues are dead I don't really miss them as great music can be found elsewhere. I don't miss drag rats. I don't miss vacant abandoned warehouses. I don't miss the surface parking lots that have been put to better use. I don't miss the old Ben White. Change is a good thing and if done correctly is can be a great thing. Besides most of the best is still here and has been augmented by what is going on. Minus a few bad apples Austin seems to be moving in the right direction. Besides do you really think that the people who made Austin what is was back in "the day" just wanted stagnation?

[nixcity]

I was born in Wichita, Kansas and after graduating college chose to move here. I did not choose however to be born in Kansas and was between Austin and Portland and chose Austin for the qualities that we have supposably lost and some things that Portland does not have (lots of sunshine (too much now, agreed)) and a more diverse population especially the Hispanic one which helps employ me...Bilingual teacher

[BlueEyes_Austin]

Originally Posted by alexjon

Several of my ancestors lived near what is now Austin toward the mid 19th Century until the Council House Massacre. They mostly stuck it out in the creeks just NW of what is now the city proper, but frequently moved toward the SE for raids and hunting.

I'm not surprised. I found a core stone (used for knapping arrowheads) while digging in my backyard off of 38th Street and my neighbor found some broken Indian pottery. There was an old spring...you can see some of the drainage system used to divert the water in the alley behind our house.

[Onward]

Ha Austin is still the same Austin it's always been to me. Just more transplants thats all. I wouldn't worry too much.

[austlar1]

Alon is not worried. He is just stirring things up. He can't stand the fact that Austin gets good press while NO gets regularly trashed. He does these kind of posts from time to time. They tend to be crocodile tears from the swamps of Louisiana.

By the way, I first came to Austin for a brief stint at UT Law School in 1969. I grew up in FW in the 50's and early 60's. I went to college in New Orleans at Tulane. I was only in Austin for about a year (I never finished law school) before going off to live all over this country over the next 25 years or so. I have some Austin roots. My family had a branch of a FW based retail business that operated here until the early 1990's. I have been back in the area since 1996.

I kinda miss the smaller and slower-paced Austin, and I am not crazy about all the condos downtown. I would rather see office buildings AND condos. Having said that, Austin is still pretty slick. The hip and cool thing has kind of edged out from downtown in many directions. A visitor from out of town, especially one that does not have a nose for these things, might be forgiven for not understanding about the explosion of hip on the south side, the east side, and north of campus.

[alon504]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Alon is not worried. He is just stirring things up. He can't stand the fact that Austin gets good press while NO gets regularly trashed. He does these kind of posts from time to time. They tend to be crocodile tears from the swamps of Louisiana.

By the way, I first came to Austin for a brief stint at UT Law School in 1969. I grew up in FW in the 50's and early 60's. I went to college in New Orleans at Tulane. I was only in Austin for about a year (I never finished law school) before going off to live all over this country over the next 25 years or so. I have some Austin roots. My family had a branch of a FW based retail business that operated here until the early 1990's. I have been back in the area since 1996.

I kinda miss the smaller and slower-paced Austin, and I am not crazy about all the condos downtown. I would rather see office buildings AND condos. Having said that, Austin is still pretty slick. The hip and cool thing has kind of edged out from downtown in many directions. A visitor from out of town, especially one that does not have a nose for these things, might be forgiven for not understanding about the explosion of hip on the south side, the east side, and north of campus.

That is completely unfounded. Don't you dare make assumptions about me or my posts on an internet board. Got it? You need to learn a little internet message board etiquette. This has absolutely nothing to do with New Orleans and all about how I felt about some things I saw on a recent visit to Austin. Don't troll me on the board. It is against the rules of this board and could get you a permanent ban.

[Jdawgboy]

I was born and raised in Austin and honestly I think its still as weird of a city as it was when I was younger, it has just changed. Go down the drag sometime and you will see. Times may have changed, people may have changed, styles may have changed but the overall feel is the same. In my opinion I say downtown Austin has expanded on its hip feel. 6th street is no longer the main entertainment center in downtown. We have alot of new clubs in areas that 10 years ago were dead sections of downtown. Im not from the oldschool generation (I was born in 80), but lets not forget about my generation. I love live music but Im also a Raver Kid and love Dance/Electronica music. I am glad that we are getting more actual dance clubs rather than the same ol 6th street mix mash of mostly hip hop music. Don't get me wrong I grew up on hip hop but the new music is not the same. I think Austin will keep its vibe, but as other have said, it has always had a vibe, its just changed over the years.

[MichaelB]

My ONLY lament is that I have lived here 22 years and it took me most of that time to get a place downtown and now some of my fav places are east! ( I know I will get no tears here for that!) Damn it! Still wouldn't live anywhere else.

[KevinFromTexas]

Chill out guys.