At least it isn't sprawl, better to build up than out.

The Cali VW owner bought the house behind the blue one...tore it down...and is in the process of building a nice but modest dwelling that fits in with the neighborhood character.

Yeah, that condo sure is pretty. What an innovative design. Never seen anything like that before.

I don't remember it being Californians until a few years ago. Before that it was Houstonians and Dallas(ites?).

I'm not mistaken the building photographed is apartments.

I guess it would be so much better to tear down wooded areas & build ugly houses instead of tearing down condemned lots downtown to build "skyscrapers of the apocalypse"

At least I didn't hear about the Californian hate during the tech boom because I suppose they were all living in the Silicon Valley and most of our tech start ups and .coms were local.

Yeesh. I was just joking about the "confused" thing. I think we can agree, though -- as Bill Clinton might say -- that Austinites' hatred of outsiders is able to create a great many bogeymen who have a great number of nefarious ends.

Maybe it's the outsiders' hatred of the rest of Texas that has created so many boogeymen int he first place.

Don't worry, Loudmouth. Austin will never be like LA. For one thing, the roads here aren't built parallel or on a grid. For another, there's very little signage on the freeways. Also, public transportation is weak, there are only a handful of restaurants open 24h, and no matter what you consider Barton Springs, it ain't a beach.

Also, the California boogeyman has been around for years. I was first made aware of it in 1981 as an 11 year old who just moved to Portland, OR. A judge told my mother who received an arguably bogus traffic ticket that she should change her Cali license plate ASAP. Otherwise, she was "asking for trouble".

The Cali boogeyman continued for me as I later in life moved to the glorious confines of Hoboken, NJ, and was told on a very regular basis that I should just go back to my fruit and nutty left coast state.

Having been out here for about 10 years, I'll tell you that this phenomenon has been rampant throughout my tenure. As a helpful hint to this VW driver, and any other Californians, when asked "How long have you lived here?" you should answer, "Not long enough," and try to end the discussion right there.

I'm not worried. This whole bailout mess has the market spinning. I expect to be renting one of those downtown apartments for about $250 a month in a couple of years once all these people that heard Austin was cool find out it's just hot and miserable and move to Portland.

"Who are you hearing these complaints from? People in the service industry, real estate industry or just a wide variety of people?"

Photography contributors to hipster websites, mostly. Heh. No really, young urbanites who are at the same time gleefully colonizing East Austin.

What in the hell is a "liberal proactive city"? And what does that, whatever it is, have to do with its tendency to blame its problems on outsiders? Liberalism and exclusion based on identity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in my experience, liberal havens are some of the most provincial places in the U.S.

"This sums it up" to me, the photographer, in that property prices have skyrocketed, largely due to an influx of non-Texans (and some rich Dallasites and Houstonites, yes). This has made it impossible for Texans who want to remain in Texas but do not want to live in small (-minded) towns or in Dallas or Houston to live here.

Downtown and virtually all of "centra Austin" is completely unaffordable, and first time buyers must now move near the edges of the county (unless they are from California and think our houses here are "cheap" at $250,000 for a non-gentrified, 2000sq ft, 1960s starter home or have rich parents who make their downpayment). I agree with the posters who see urban infill and skywards development as a good thing, some kind of development being inevitable. I just wish more of an effort was made to ensure the inclusion of REAL affordable units in these areas, for those of us who are NOT real estate speculators, silicon transplants, or trust funders. People like teachers, police, retail workers, UT staff and students. I worry about these luxury apartments in West Campus because they will make an already ridiculously overpriced neighborhood unlivable for students like me coming to UT from small towns in beat-up used cars, who work while being the first in their family to get a degree.

I came here from East Texas at age 17 because I wanted to live in Austin, not Los Angeles, not Dallas, not Williamson County. The "Texan-ness" of Austin has been continually eroded - this is obviously a double-edged sword. I have personally always loved Austin because it is simultaneously anti-Texas and hyper-Texas.

People should have the right to move wherever they want. And I do understand that a lot of Californians (and others) are finding themselves in the same situation we are vis a vis decreased real earnings, inflationary property prices, job scarcity, and a desire for a non-suburban lifestyle in a sunny clime. But I do share the feelings of some previous posters and commenters on my original Flickr photo who wonder why some of these folks come here if they hate Texas so much. I propose that all new residents of Travis County should have to live elsewhere in Texas for at least ten years before immigrating here.

I am sort of joking.

Remember the Alamo.

Too bad irony is dead. Otherwise, more people would see the irony of the situation: the provincial, "nobody should be allowed to move to Austin! They'll change our city!" is one of the main causes of Austin being too expensive for anyone but east or west coasters to come to central Austin.

Here's how it works:

A. Our city council and neighborhood associations strive to prevent any new construction they can in the name of protecting the Austin that they love. This should keep people away!

B. But oh no! We live in a desirable city with good job growth, nice amenities, and a good climate, so people are moving here anyway! Evidently, somehow, we live in a free country, where people can move from one place to another! Without even getting that new city's permission first!

C. Having prevented the construction of new housing in the most desirable parts of our city for years and years, there's now really high demand for the little that exists. Sellers find that they can name their price and get it, because what they got is in short supply.

D. Now it's $250k for a 1000 square foot house in north hyde park. Who can afford that? In large part, the very people the "keep out the californians" crowd so very much fears.

E. Fly the Mission Accomplished banner.

"I worry about these luxury apartments in West Campus because they will make an already ridiculously overpriced neighborhood unlivable for students like me coming to UT from small towns in beat-up used cars, who work while being the first in their family to get a degree."

Huh. Notify the Nobel committee. Possible prize winner in economics forthcoming; insists has disproven theory of supply and demand. Stay tuned.

A. For years and years, absolutely. It was only 2004 when denser zoning was allowed for West Campus, which is after all the subject of this post, and even more recently that VMU was put on the table. Perhaps instead of "anti construction" the term should be "anti density."

B. If you think Austin is a city without good amenities, or climate, you should consider moving somewhere that does. As for jobs, well, the economy is going down, but Austin was still second in US markets in job growth through this year. Look it up.

C. Forbes this year found that Austin's the fastest growing metro area in the country. Real estate prices are still increasing here year over year, albeit at lower rates, while they are dropping in the rest of the country. Fact and information may not mean much to you, but there it is: reality.

D. Speaking of reality: Hold your breath and wait for that house to be 125k again, like in the good ol' days.

E. Don't forget the patriotic photo op on the deck of a carrier.

D.

I love the Austin climate, but it isn't many people's ideal climate. There's no fall or spring, little rain, and hot as fuck day and night in summer.

I know some real estate people. They walk into the bar, you say, "How's it goin'?" and everything is golden. 5 drinks later and the sky is falling. I have great hope even in precious Austin, real estate still has a long way to fall because that's the way the dominoes have been set up.

Stella, that's all they can do when they know you're right. They call you names. It's pretty fun to call them names too.

Not selling, approving loans for such risky endevors.

"I've lived here for almost 25 years, and every five years a new generation discovers that Austin is being overtaken by evil Californians and tall buildings that are destroying Austin's natural greatness. It's the liberal urbanite version of right-wing anti-immigration hysteria: they're taking our lifestyle away!"

Well said. How long have you folks lived here anyway? What the fuck is "liberal", "proactive", or progressive about being provincially isolationist?

Hilarious.

I grew up in Austin, and consider the Bay Area my 2nd home after living there many years as well. Both are incredibly cool places with their own unique flavors, people, etc, etc.

What exactly are these evil Californians doing to "your" precious town?

And what the hell are you doing to make it so "cool"?

Ugh...

:D

"Density = good.
Construction = good.

Overpriced, oversaturated development with little to no attempt by the city to create - and residents to demand - real affordable units = bad."

If there's not 'demand' for that 'supply', then prices will go 'down', and you'll be proven 'wrong'. Unless you really HAVE disproven economics 101. Then you really do deserve that Nobel Prize.

Here's the kicker: New construction will almost always be more expensive than it was ten years ago or ten years before that. Without this new construction, the ten year old stuff won't get as cheap as it otherwise would (in real terms). Do you expect somebody to pay top dollar for land and then put up really cheap stuff on it? That's not called 'development'; it's called 'stupidity'. But so is not expecting a ton of new units, whatever their price, to have an effect in lowering price pressure on existing housing units.

Please feel free to interpret all those single quotes as sarcastic.

The trees comment was about Texana and nostalgia, not a comment about sustainable building.

I think a lot of Texans and Austinites are a little tetchy about Californians moving into Texas because it's so "cheap" to buy $250,000 houses (or 500 sq ft condos) here and the resultant cultural shift. "The Californians" are a scapegoat and a stereotype, sure, but there seems to be an underlying nugget of truth in there, too.

I also agree with Ersatzeric that there's plenty of blame to go around among "the Texans that sit on in the state legislature and the city council" - the latter of whom I specifically mentioned.

I love Austin. I don't think it should never change. I don't think it was "better" in 1972. But I don't want to be priced out of the best city in my own state. I think there is a lot of heartache being felt by other people like me, and that's why the juxtaposition of timely metaphors in this picture seemed interesting to me.

Speaking of self-fulfilling stereotypes, Stella, one can consider your argument as "proof" that Texans are a bit insular and somewhat naive.

That is, if one is willing to jump to conclusions based on circumstance and "nuggets of truth".

I've had enough of this. Let's move to LA and turn it into Austin.