[HN Gopher] Silicon Valley Is Flooding into a Reluctant Austin ___________________________________________________________________ Silicon Valley Is Flooding into a Reluctant Austin Author : donsupreme Score : 39 points Date : 2021-04-11 21:04 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com) | xwdv wrote: | When visiting Austin what are the number one places a Silicon | Valley resident should go to for networking? | EarthLaunch wrote: | San Francisco. Just kidding. Although that's what I did. | | It's weird right now due to Covid, but obviously incubators | like Capital Factory or (if it's still going) Tech Ranch. | | Apart from that, well, culture is online now. | TypeCaste wrote: | Are the tax benefits of Texas offset by Austin's rising home | prices, and the proportional increase owed in property taxes? | rossdavidh wrote: | The cost of housing in Austin is definitely higher than | surrounding parts of Texas, and rising. However, nowhere near | Silicon Valley levels. | Snoozle wrote: | I used to live in Austin in 2007 until 2013. Even back then the | transition to tech hub was well underway. We went from the | Portland of the south to a yuppie paradise in fairly short order. | Who can say whether the changes are good or bad? They're going to | happen either way. We traded weird restaurants and way too much | hipster music for tech bros and planned areas like the domain. | They both have their charms and their annoyances. | | On a related note, we live in an age of mass communication. | Cities that become cool become migration magnets due to | widespread knowledge and relative ease of relocation. See: | | Boulder Portland asheville nashville bend boise missoula Austin | tacoma, others I'm sure. | | I view it as a net negative because part of the reason these | 'weird' cities came to be was the needs of the locals who already | lived there. Nowadays some liberal musician will just move to | city X instead of giving their personality to the area around | them. | rossdavidh wrote: | I mostly agree. I should point out, however, that my wife and I | both came from small towns in southern Illinois, which are the | same size (actually slightly smaller) they were decades ago. It | isn't better. | jseliger wrote: | Austin prohibits adequate housing from being built: | https://austin.curbed.com/2020/1/30/21115370/austin- | housing-..., which is likely driving up the cost of living in | the city--just like California. | | Without liberalizing zoning laws, Austin will likely continue | to see the exact same effects as California. This can be | changed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16704501 if | enough people want it to change. | rossdavidh wrote: | While Austin's zoning laws could definitely be better, there | is tons of housing being built even now. I see large numbers | being built at the edge of town. Not saying there's not | problems, especially for new construction in old | neighborhoods, but it's not like there isn't a lot of | construction happening. | rossdavidh wrote: | So, I'm an Austin resident, and programmer, who lived in the | south Bay from 1989-1992 before moving to Texas. So, I am feeling | a little ambivalent, and also hypocritical, about the recent | influx of Californians. But, I can tell you that the basics of | the Bloomberg article definitely seem to be legit. Lots of | California license plates on cars in Austin lately. | politelemon wrote: | I'm seeing a lot of "ifs" and "shoulds". As an outsider looking | in, it appears there's nothing in place to prevent the SV | problems from arising in Austin. | | Do these tech companies realise what's going to happen, or is it | going to be wrapped up as part of the cost of doing business, | before they move on to someplace else. I'm now imagining a | tornado of tech companies travelling across the country ravaging | economies in its wake, with a periodic exodus of tech folk | travelling in a procession of Teslas slowly making their way in | Boring tunnels. | | Maybe all that is just extrapolation and there are examples of | tech friendly cities which haven't been affected in the same way. | rossdavidh wrote: | Not sure if Austin will do what's needed, but one thing I can | say is it is a big topic of discussion, by old residents and | new. So, this doesn't by any means guarantee effective action, | but it's certainly on everyone's radar. | spaced-out wrote: | >I'm now imagining a tornado of tech companies travelling | across the country ravaging economies in its wake, with a | periodic exodus of tech folk travelling in a procession of | Teslas slowly making their way in Boring tunnels. | | You know, a lot of us are just people in their late 20s/early | 30s, just looking for a place to settle down and raise a | family. | DivisionSol wrote: | I am moving to Austin very shortly from the Bay Area. | | Rent is 1/2 as cheap for 2x the sq ft, and property values still | currently with in the stratosphere (unlike the Bay Area). No | income tax. | | Hopefully Austin acts quick and starts building new/upgrading | existing buildings to accommodate the growth that's happening. | rossdavidh wrote: | Well one thing that helped a bit is that the governor did not | allow the city to stop construction at any point, even when | lots of other stuff was locked down last April. But, even with | non-stop building, it's falling behind. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-04-11 23:00 UTC)