4 ms·

Tech employees are very cheap for the community. They take very little government aid, their use of roads is quite moderate (and is getting lower as "working fr

Tech employees are very cheap for the community. They take very little government aid, their use of roads is quite moderate (and is getting lower as "working from home" picks pace), and they usually pay enough property taxes to pay for local schools. On the other hand the benefits they bring to the community are enormous.

lawnchair_larry 8y ago
That isn’t my observation. They displace other communities entirely by driving up cost of living.
- karmajunkie 8y ago
  As an engineer in Austin, I mostly concur.
  - goldmouth 8y ago
    As a native austinite and engineer I completely disagree. The eastSide was a terrible place before. Going into pan am park was a no go at any time of the day. Comunities and infrastructure were dying in eat Austin. Also, It had extremely low home ownership rates so the lower class didn’t even own homes in these areas but made money for westside landlords. South congress was full of crackheads and prostitutes as early as the 90’s. We had real urban decay. Now we are growing like crazy and if you’re willing to work hard any immigrant can get a construction job and make a great living for themselves.
    - karmajunkie 8y ago
      See parent. I was here intermittently in the late 90s and have an aunt with a midcentury house off SoCo bought in the early 90s. You may not have seen those communities as having intrinsic value but the people that live there did. And now most of them can't afford to live there anymore because "the market" has decided to make room for gentrification. Those communities had economic problems, sure. But you're kidding yourself if you don't think the replacements for them have a different sort of economic problem. And just because they're whiter and richer now doesn't make them a better set of problems.
    - moorhosj 8y ago
      >Also, It had extremely low home ownership rates so the lower class didn’t even own homes in these areas but made money for westside landlords. How will increasing rents (and property values) across the city help solve this lack of ownership? Is it possible the problem gets worse by adding more "rich" workers? >South congress was full of crackheads and prostitutes as early as the 90’s. Isn't it likely that there were also working class people struggling to get by who appreciated low rents? >any immigrant can get a construction job and make a great living for themselves. And what will they do when construction slows due to recession or other factors? You might want to re-asses this comment from the perspective of the people who actually lived in these "terrible places" that were a "no go at any time of the day". They might have a different view than you.
    - kthejoker2 8y ago
      So much for Keep Austin Weird ...

lawnchair_larry 8y ago

That isn’t my observation. They displace other communities entirely by driving up cost of living.

karmajunkie 8y ago
As an engineer in Austin, I mostly concur.
- goldmouth 8y ago
  As a native austinite and engineer I completely disagree. The eastSide was a terrible place before. Going into pan am park was a no go at any time of the day. Comunities and infrastructure were dying in eat Austin. Also, It had extremely low home ownership rates so the lower class didn’t even own homes in these areas but made money for westside landlords. South congress was full of crackheads and prostitutes as early as the 90’s. We had real urban decay. Now we are growing like crazy and if you’re willing to work hard any immigrant can get a construction job and make a great living for themselves.
  - karmajunkie 8y ago
    See parent. I was here intermittently in the late 90s and have an aunt with a midcentury house off SoCo bought in the early 90s. You may not have seen those communities as having intrinsic value but the people that live there did. And now most of them can't afford to live there anymore because "the market" has decided to make room for gentrification. Those communities had economic problems, sure. But you're kidding yourself if you don't think the replacements for them have a different sort of economic problem. And just because they're whiter and richer now doesn't make them a better set of problems.
  - moorhosj 8y ago
    >Also, It had extremely low home ownership rates so the lower class didn’t even own homes in these areas but made money for westside landlords. How will increasing rents (and property values) across the city help solve this lack of ownership? Is it possible the problem gets worse by adding more "rich" workers? >South congress was full of crackheads and prostitutes as early as the 90’s. Isn't it likely that there were also working class people struggling to get by who appreciated low rents? >any immigrant can get a construction job and make a great living for themselves. And what will they do when construction slows due to recession or other factors? You might want to re-asses this comment from the perspective of the people who actually lived in these "terrible places" that were a "no go at any time of the day". They might have a different view than you.
  - kthejoker2 8y ago
    So much for Keep Austin Weird ...