Austin! Continues to attract "High Tech"!!

[JoninATX]

BTW, I'm moving out to Cali in early April and on the way there, I am going to take a little detour down through Austin and then check out San Antonio. I am going to be in Austin Friday night. April 10th, and arrive there around 10-11 pm. What would you recommend for a good restaurant there around that time? I might even do some late night exploring, I'm not sure.

I would recommend The Hula Hut on W. 6th street. It's actually between downtown and the hill country, but isn't to far off your track to visit San Antonio. Since you are visiting in April before it gets really hot check out, I would recommend you to take the 360 loop through the hill country as well as checking out Mt. Bonnell.

[JoninATX]

Also good luck in California. It sure is a beautiful state to live in.

[JoninATX]

A few California pictures when I lived there back in 2013

[bchris02]

I would recommend The Hula Hut on W. 6th street. It's actually between downtown and the hill country, but isn't to far off your track to visit San Antonio. Since you are visiting in April before it gets really hot check out, I would recommend you to take the 360 loop through the hill country as well as checking out Mt. Bonnell.

I went there when I visited Austin back in 2007. It's a pretty cool restaurant.

[soondoc]

Austin at sunrise.


http://api.viglink.com/api/click?for...16169522579%2F

This picture simply amazes me. I literally can't stop looking at it without being in awe and what I wish for OKC to be. I would love to see OKC get more and more buildings built up and look something like this. It blows my mind just how much Austin has going on right now as much as it pains me to say that.

[JoninATX]

This picture simply amazes me. I literally can't stop looking at it without being in awe and what I wish for OKC to be. I would love to see OKC get more and more buildings built up and look something like this. It blows my mind just how much Austin has going on right now as much as it pains me to say that.

OKC will get there, taking it 1 step at a time.

[JoninATX]

This is an old statesman article that I retrieve back in 2012. It tells about the rapidly growing skyline.

Brace yourselfs, this was Austin back in 1997. That was the year that I moved to Austin.



Interactive: Austin's skyline, then and now | www.mystatesman.com

[soondoc]

This is an old statesman article that I retrieve back in 2012. It tells about the rapidly growing skyline.

Brace yourselfs, this was Austin back in 1997. That was the year that I moved to Austin.



Interactive: Austin's skyline, then and now | www.mystatesman.com

Wow- that is amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Would love to see the OKC like that in the near future.

[bchris02]

Austin has three things going for it that has enabled it to become what it has in my opinion. First, it has a major university right in downtown. Imagine if OU was in downtown OKC and was adding to the urban fabric and culture of the city. Second, Austin is home to a booming high-tech economy. High-tech attracts a young, diverse, and educated group of people. Oil & gas can do so as well but not on the scale that high tech does. Third, the city is one of the nation's five or six "capitals of cool." People want to live there. Austin is on the radar of people everywhere nationwide. It's viewed as a progressive bastion where everyone is welcome, even though its in one of the reddest states in the union. This is where I think OKC's hyperfundamentalist politics especially at the state level really handicaps it.

I think OKC could become an Austin but it would have to start growing a lot faster.

[soondoc]

Austin has three things going for it that has enabled it to become what it has in my opinion. First, it has a major university right in downtown. Imagine if OU was in downtown OKC and was adding to the urban fabric and culture of the city. Second, Austin is home to a booming high-tech economy. High-tech attracts a young, diverse, and educated group of people. Oil & gas can do so as well but not on the scale that high tech does. Third, the city is one of the nation's five or six "capitals of cool." People want to live there. Austin is on the radar of people everywhere nationwide. It's viewed as a progressive bastion where everyone is welcome, even though its in one of the reddest states in the union. This is where I think OKC's hyperfundamentalist politics especially at the state level really handicaps it.

I think OKC could become an Austin but it would have to start growing a lot faster.

I totally agree with what you said but I need to elaborate. It isn't as much OKC politics as it is Oklahoma politics. In fact, I would say the city of OKC is trending the other way in some regards. With more people moving here, it is changing. Austin is as you described in a huge red state. OKC can become somewhat that way (never will be to that degree) and become a cool and hip place on people's radar if things continue to grow and we make some right decisions.

[BG918]

Austin has three things going for it that has enabled it to become what it has in my opinion. First, it has a major university right in downtown. Imagine if OU was in downtown OKC and was adding to the urban fabric and culture of the city. Second, Austin is home to a booming high-tech economy. High-tech attracts a young, diverse, and educated group of people. Oil & gas can do so as well but not on the scale that high tech does. Third, the city is one of the nation's five or six "capitals of cool." People want to live there. Austin is on the radar of people everywhere nationwide. It's viewed as a progressive bastion where everyone is welcome, even though its in one of the reddest states in the union. This is where I think OKC's hyperfundamentalist politics especially at the state level really handicaps it.

I think OKC could become an Austin but it would have to start growing a lot faster.

I would add the terrain/climate in there as a positive as well. The Hill Country is unique so close to and within a city in this part of the country, and the nearby lakes are nice. It would be like having Grand Lake or Tenkiller (clear rock bottom lakes) a 15 min drive out of town. Plus the climate is fairly mild during the winter though the summer is longer and more miserable than anything in Oklahoma. While it's not a particularly nice beach you can drive to one in 3 hours.

[bchris02]

I totally agree with what you said but I need to elaborate. It isn't as much OKC politics as it is Oklahoma politics. In fact, I would say the city of OKC is trending the other way in some regards. With more people moving here, it is changing. Austin is as you described in a huge red state. OKC can become somewhat that way (never will be to that degree) and become a cool and hip place on people's radar if things continue to grow and we make some right decisions.

I agree, but the city of OKC is nowhere near the contrast to the state politically as Austin is to Texas. In fact some of Oklahoma's worst legislators represent OKC. Austin is a dark blue city in a red state. OKC is a pink city in a dark red state.

[bchris02]

I would add the terrain/climate in there as a positive as well. The Hill Country is unique so close to and within a city in this part of the country, and the nearby lakes are nice. It would be like having Grand Lake or Tenkiller (clear rock bottom lakes) a 15 min drive out of town. Plus the climate is fairly mild during the winter though the summer is longer and more miserable than anything in Oklahoma. While it's not a particularly nice beach you can drive to one in 3 hours.

This is true as well. Austin has an outdoor recreation advantage OKC will never have. The beach is also a day trip away rather than a flight away like it is from OKC. This is a big deal. A lot of people underestimate the amount of outdoor recreation Oklahoma offers, but unfortunately most of it isn't near OKC.

[zookeeper]

Austin has three things going for it that has enabled it to become what it has in my opinion. First, it has a major university right in downtown. Imagine if OU was in downtown OKC and was adding to the urban fabric and culture of the city. Second, Austin is home to a booming high-tech economy. High-tech attracts a young, diverse, and educated group of people. Oil & gas can do so as well but not on the scale that high tech does. Third, the city is one of the nation's five or six "capitals of cool." People want to live there. Austin is on the radar of people everywhere nationwide. It's viewed as a progressive bastion where everyone is welcome, even though its in one of the reddest states in the union. This is where I think OKC's hyperfundamentalist politics especially at the state level really handicaps it.

I think OKC could become an Austin but it would have to start growing a lot faster.

I would add the Texas State Capital is downtown also. Austin is amazing. But, oh, the traffic.

[JoninATX]

I agree with all of what's stated. But I must admit, Austin is not the only city in the state that's blue. Dallas Houston, & San Antonio are blue as well. The only big city in Texas that's still Republican is Fort Worth, in which this isn't a bad thing either. Texas as a whole is switching from red to purple if it hasn't already now.

[bchris02]

I agree with all of what's stated. But I must admit, Austin is not the only city in the state that's blue. Dallas Houston, & San Antonio are blue as well. The only big city in Texas that's still Republican is Fort Worth, in which this isn't a bad thing either. Texas as a whole is switching from red to purple if it hasn't already now.

From my understanding, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are blue but aren't as socially liberal as Austin. What makes a place "hip" or "cool" is not how Democratic it is, but how accepting an area's culture is to individualism and different lifestyle choices. Social liberalism defines cool today. Those places almost always tend to vote Democratic in this day and age. Dallas and Houston are heavily Democratic but for different reasons than Austin is. If you are gay, vegan, or a worshipper of the pagan goddess, the perception is you will be more at home in Austin. Austin is blue in the same way San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle are while Dallas and Houston are more like Atlanta, Charlotte, and many of the other Democratic cities in the Southern United States. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[JoninATX]

From my understanding, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are blue but aren't as socially liberal as Austin. What makes a place "hip" or "cool" is not how Democratic it is, but how accepting an area's culture is to individualism and different lifestyle choices. Social liberalism defines cool today. Those places almost always tend to vote Democratic in this day and age. Dallas and Houston are heavily Democratic but for different reasons than Austin is. If you are gay, vegan, or a worshipper of the pagan goddess, the perception is you will be more at home in Austin. Austin is blue in the same way San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle are while Dallas and Houston are more like Atlanta, Charlotte, and many of the other Democratic cities in the Southern United States. Please correct me if I am wrong.

A good way of putting it.

[bluedogok]

I would add the terrain/climate in there as a positive as well. The Hill Country is unique so close to and within a city in this part of the country, and the nearby lakes are nice. It would be like having Grand Lake or Tenkiller (clear rock bottom lakes) a 15 min drive out of town. Plus the climate is fairly mild during the winter though the summer is longer and more miserable than anything in Oklahoma. While it's not a particularly nice beach you can drive to one in 3 hours.

The difference is Grand or Tenkiller usually have water. The last time that I flew into Austin the Pedernales River was nothing more than a stream. We watched Travis go down most of the time that I lived there with the occasional rain that would make a difference. We looked at land off/on in Apache Shores and Lago Vista, so we saw it happening to the point that the AYC had a hard time sailing out of their harbor and that was before this recent extended drought.

I really like Port Aransas/Corpus, I would have moved down there if my wife had chosen the beach over the mountains.

I agree with all of what's stated. But I must admit, Austin is not the only city in the state that's blue. Dallas Houston, & San Antonio are blue as well. The only big city in Texas that's still Republican is Fort Worth, in which this isn't a bad thing either. Texas as a whole is switching from red to purple if it hasn't already now.

The big cities proper may be blue, the suburbs surrounding the them are a deep, dark red for the most part and in some cases are larger than the cities. That is one way the metros and cities diverge in philosophy. That is true all over, not just Texas.

Austin is still somewhat more conservative than the coastal "liberal" meccas. Many of my friends there who came from the Bay Area, LA, NYC, Chicago, Boston, DC or other places like that always made the comment that "they thought Austin was supposed to be liberal". One guy that I worked with in Sacramento was an avowed Conservative Christian family but his daughter found out that coastal conservatism is different than middle of the country conservatism. She went to a small bible college in Springfield, Missouri on a softball scholarship. She found out their brand of conservative was much different, basically the church they went to would be considered a "liberal church" in the middle of the country. She went there one year and then back to Sacramento.

[bchris02]

She found out their brand of conservative was much different, basically the church they went to would be considered a "liberal church" in the middle of the country. She went there one year and then back to Sacramento.

You make some good points. You can say the same thing about the east coast compared to the middle of the country. I went to a Baptist church for a while in Charlotte that would be considered left of center here in Oklahoma but was conservative there. Most people from the Northeast consider Charlotte to be conservative while it is liberal compared to the heartland. The biggest difference between coastal conservatism and heartland conservatism, from my experience, is religion and politics are much more intertwined in this part of the country than they are on the coast.

[JoninATX]

I 2nd that. How one views Austin determines there views on religion and or politics. A person from Kansas may call Austin a very liberal city, while someone from San Francisco will call Austin conservative.

[JoninATX]

I was thinking how many tower cranes will be rising in Austin this year, excluding the ones that are already up. I counted atleast 13.

Downtown Area
The Fairmont - 3 cranes
Homewood Suites at East Ave. - 1 crane
Hotel ZaZa - 1 crane
Google Tower - 2 cranes
UT System Headquarters - 2 cranes
Aspen Heights Tower - 1 crane
Austin Proper - 1 crane
Fifth + West - 1 crane
Shoal Creek Walk - 1 crane

Total 13

UT Campus Area
Crockett School of Engineering - 2 cranes
University House - 1 crane
McCombs School of Business - 2 cranes

Total 5 cranes.

Domain Area

Domain 1 - 1 crane
Domain 8 - 1 crane

Total 2 cranes.

In all there will be approximately 20 new tower cranes rising over Austin this year!

[JoninATX]

There are already 18 tower cranes over Austin right now. Now add 20 more.

[Plutonic Panda]

Damn. 38 cranes soon. That's awesome.

[JoninATX]

Awesome view of the Austin skyline. Thanks to LoneStarMike on SSP.

[JoninATX]

Transwestern Development Breaksground

The Arnold apartments


Office Space

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Transwestern Development Co. today announces its plans to develop a mixed-use project at 1621 and 1645 E. 6th St. in Austin, Texas. Transwestern Development Co. and its partners have broken ground on the two-building project situated on a 4.2-acre site at the intersection of E. 6th Street and Comal Avenue. The first building is a 94,500-square-foot creative office building, which is scheduled for completion in January 2016. The second building, called The Arnold, is slated for delivery in July 2016 and consists of 346 apartment units with 9,600 square feet of specialty retail at three key intersections of the property. Transwestern Development Co. Associate Vice President Josh Delk is leading the development team.

Transwestern Development Co. To Develop Mixed-Use Project In Austin, Texas, Totaling 445,952... -- AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --