I often tell people I'm from Austin. I'm not. I'm from San Antonio. While Austin has been in-and-out of my life since 1979, it wasn't until the mid 90s when I became one of those dreaded transplants the moved there, and again in the 2000s, and finally in the 2010s.

Austin fit me better than San Antonio ever did. But each time I moved back it became less and less of the Austin I remembered. When I moved there in the 2000s, I lived in Hyde Park, specifically 37th Street which had a really cool artsy funky vibe in a very artsy area of Austin. It was also insanely affordable.

I'd drive around Hyde Park, and I'd see hippies playing frisbee in tye dye shirts. Not something dont to play up to an image. Just hippies having fun in their front yard. There were squatters in an abandoned house nearby...but they never caused trouble. And were actually kinda nice. You'd come to a stop light, and if you're window was open, the guy in the lane next to you would often talk with you while you waited for the green.

Austin was cool. Austin IS cool. But it has certainly changed. Hyde Park is now insanely unaffordable. The hippies all moved to Wimberely. The old house was demolished and an office put up. The Triangle is no longer a park, but a block of condos. Everyone who moved to Austin for its culture has helped kill that culture.

Even me. I moved to Austin in 2000 because of the Tech Boom. The same Tech Boom that accelerated the loss of Austin's culture. There's still some culture there, if you know where to look. But each time I go back, it's fewer and farther between.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-astonishing-transformation-of-austin