I know so many friends and colleagues that have moved to Austin from SF over the years to escape the issues they have with SF (mostly around trying to raise a family, poor schools, high coast of homes with any real space, etc) but it seems like Austin might just slingshot past SF in terms of issues.
As a former San Franciscan that has lived in Austin for 10 years what do you think are these issues?
Sure there is a lot of old school residents that don't want any change and fight every code change and infrastructure upgrade but the new residents are doing stuff like passing the new rail props. The city has built more housing in the last year than SF has in 5 years.
Another thing is the exploding homeless population, the city is so angry that we got enough signatures to put the camping ban on the ballot. A certain district actually voted for a far right wing candidate whose major platform was to get rid of the homeless. That is not something that would ever happen in SF.
The biggest as always is public transportation. SF is a "small" city geographically but it's a nightmare to get around and I see Austin going down the same route. You have busses and MetroRail but frankly both of them operate at street level and that will just not cut it. The subway plans are good and a step in the right direction but by the time they actually finish they won't be anywhere near enough which will be viewed as a failure and then the next subway expansion will be too small and so on an so forth.
I just don't see the city getting out ahead of it's growth. Too little too late kind of thing. Obviously I don't live there so my knowledge is filtered though a set of peers with there own bias but that's my current view.
The sum of its parts make it a particularly nice part of the world to live in. Housing is reasonably affordable (although this is becoming a problem), there's an interesting and competitive restaurant scene, good public schools, some of the best coffee shops in the world, great art museums and functioning greenways. Lots of good places to support local agriculture and artists.
The local parks are lovely, and the Appalachians are a day-trip away. Same with the Atlantic coast.
A few local businesses that I deeply miss: Boulted Bread (bread), Jubala (coffee), Foundation (cocktails), Garland (food), Cocoa Cinnamon (coffee, churros, hot chocolate), Guasaca (arepas), Nuvo Taco (tacos), Wine Authorities (wine), Saltbox (seafood), Locals Seafood (seafood) ...
Austin is definitely still a good deal. Sure, the weather isn't as good as California (but better than southern Nevada), and the scenery isn't as pretty or geographically interesting as the Pacific Northwest (but better than Oklahoma), but there are jobs, a good university and Texas doesn't appear to have lobotomy patients as local government.
That's a broad brush.
Currently sitting in a log cabin in an old growth forest on a stunning lake near Broken Bow, OK, with pretty hills / small mountains all around.
Interestingly, one of the few (maybe only?) place in the world that has both black bears and alligators.
Mountains, lakes, swamp, pasture... McCurtain County is a treat.
I'm buying a cabin in Broken Bow, the owner is selling and reinvesting in some land very close to where you are buying.
Which makes me think, maybe there is a business opportunity to open a private school that uses California or Massachusetts/New York text books.
.. and has a public ivy college, the Texas legislature, and decades of semiconductors in the area. There's still NIMBY & traffic in the city, but to sum Austin up as simply a cultural hub feels dishonest
Austin was plagued by decades of nimbyism and poor urban planning that prevented sufficient infrastructure development before it was a tech hotspot. ~10 years ago, things like traffic and public transport had already become borderline unbearable relative to comparable cities. It has only become much, much worse in recent years. I imagine that it might still seem livable to tech folks arriving from west/east coast megacities, but to us locals...not so much.
Nearby San Antonio has done a much, much better job in terms of infrastructure development, but of course nobody wants to set up shop there because it doesn't have the (fading, imo) cultural cachet that Austin has.