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) ...
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.