Is Austin the new Dallas? Vice-versa?
The Lady Bunny says today that Dallas is becoming the new Austin, with spreading amounts of laidback coolness amidst the Vast Concrete Wasteland of my youth. Conversely, she posits that the go-go-go Austin is reeling from the backlash of the tech-bubble bursting, and we're all getting stressed out and business-y and voting for Bush. Now, I do worry about creeping Dallas-ism 'round these parts, and I believe that anything north of 183 is the New Plano. But I do think South Austin still has its charm, and not all the coolth has been wrung from those of us still within spitting distance of a good Tex-Mex joint. Anyone care to weigh in on this subject?
posted by marthachick @ 4/18/2005 02:16:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Austin has been becoming less and less laid-back for as long as I can remember. I never lived there but I had friends there when I was in college and it was a frequent destination. We would go to the lake and to Armadillo WH.
As for Dallas becoming more laid-back, I am not so sure. I am probably too old to know what's cool anymore. But Dallas is too big to ever be the way Austin was.
And your commentary is so much deeper than mine. Sigh.
Well despite the post, I for one don't buy that Austin is the new Dallas. Parts is parts, to be sure, but really - you'll have a much better road trip experience through the Hill Country than you will through, uh, East TX? Sure, coolness and joy abounds in Oak Cliff, and in some other enclaves. But everyday and night when I go out in my hood, everybody is way too self-consciously hip. The tatoos! The psychobilly! The Prada knockoffs! Do people in Austin even know what Prada is? I'm thinking that even in the netherregions of Round Rock, they sadly do not. Say what you will about uppity Dallas - we dress better and don't reek as much of patchouli.
Although the other night at the Lakewood Landing...
I grew up in Dallas, but I call Austin my heart-home. It's the first city I chose for myself (college) and the first city I chose to stay post-college. I lived for Chicago for years and now reside in . . . the suburbs of Las Vegas.
The idea of Austin becoming Dallas makes me unbelievably sad. I heartily support the sentiment "Keep Austin Weird". I don't feel I'd be as welcome to live my less-than-conventional life in Dallas as I am in Austin. In fact, in Austin, as an actress, instructor and massage therapist, I'm more conventional than not. (For the record - I hate patchouli; I know what Prada is but find the cost of designer handbags silly. )
That said (written), I don't know if I can extricate my feelings for each city from my experience and my age when I lived in both. I'm certain part of my idealization of Austin is simply the joy of living in a town of my own free will and during those youthful, invincible 20's.
Anyone else the opposite? Grew up in Austin and moved to Dallas for college?
~AEM
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