That is pretty curious. It seems as if 20% of the population in Austin is from out of state. In my parking lot alone there are cars from Zona, Michigan, two from Maine, two from Mass, 1 from Oregon, several from California, Wisconsin, Missouri (several), etc. Austin has a pretty diverse population; not everyone living here is from Texas.
Oh, I get out plenty. You should go to the Galleria at Christmas. It's nuts! The ordinance states that any billboard on the easement (i.e. city property) or displaying advertising for a business other than the one that owns the property where the billboard is located must come down by 2007. Yes, Mac can have a billboard advertising himself, but the statistic that I saw was that more than 90 percent of Houston billboards are owned by billboard companies, not the property owners. Of course, no one is going to take them down until they have to. Why would Clear Channel or any of the other companies tear down a revenue producer in 2004 when they can legally leave the signs up until 2007? There is some dispute as to how they will physically be taken down, but the ordinance has been validated all the way to the state supreme court and the companies fighting it have given up on blocking it, so it is a done deal. And, yes, it only applies inside the city limits. It is a city ordniance and does not apply to any area of Harris County outside of Houston or any other county that is outside the city limits.
The reason, I think, most people from out of town prefer Houston is because of the cost of living. After all, Houston is the largest city in Texas and the most livable by many accounts. It has been ranked in the top 10 in most livable cities numerous times and is often only exluded from that top 10 if weather is factored into the equation and the person doing the ranking considers heat a deterrant (who can blame them?). We are also every year ranked among the best cities for starting a business in the US and one of the better places to find a job. Plus, out of the 25 largest cities, Houston ranks 24th in cost of living (with 1 being the most expensive). Also, if you look around the country, folks don't generally move to cities predominated by colleges which is why, even with population growth, it eventually tapers out and stabalizes while big cities continue to almost always grow. The opportunity for work and the affordability of living are huge factors and Houston is head and shoulders above any city in Texas in both categories. The only reason I know all this crap is because I worked on two political campaigns, both of which spent an inordinate amount of time discussing the positive traits of our city.
As a person who absolutely loves Houston, I gotta give kudos to Jeff. You should be in charge of the tourist division of Houston...... Seriously.
i was just down in austin for SXSW and it WAS the music capital of the universe. but austin is too quaint, i guess, to be a truly great city. houston has some good things going for it, great bars and restaurants to start. i think houston has tons of potential but just hasn't arrived yet. we'll see what the future holds.
Austin really isn't that quaint. It's alot smaller than Houston, but I would guess it's a bit more densely populated. And, I don't know what the definition of "great city" is, but I think Austin is awesome, and I kind of like the fact that alor of movies are filmed here as well. I think you're definition of great city probably has to do with intl business and the arts. The only chance Austin has of growing in that respect would be in the tech sector of course. Austin has a very skilled labor force and is one of the most literate cities in the US. I also love the fact that it is probably the only major city in Texas that isn't pro-Bush. If Austin ever does reach say 2 to 3 million in population, I would think it would look more like a denser east coast city, rather than the sprawls that are common in the south (Dallas, Atl, Houston, Phoenix, etc.). I think suburban dominated cities lack character, jmo.
gr8-1, Jeff could probably tell you better, but I think Houston proper is relatively liberal. I'd have to disagree with you about Austin being a more densely populated city. I think if it gets to that point (and it can't be too far away), it's going to be sprawled out. I could see it being a big city from San Marcos to north of Georgetown.
Austin is overcrowded, you have to wait in line for everything. I hate driving around Austin suburbs when the Tour de France is going on, there are thousands of Lance wannabes riding thier bikes fully decked out Lance style. I think about 5 of these people get killed a week.
