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I feel you. I drove my old pickup truck to the Domain last year to pick up some Christmas gifts, wearing jeans and a button-down flannel shirt, and I felt comp

I feel you. I drove my old pickup truck to the Domain last year to pick up some Christmas gifts, wearing jeans and a button-down flannel shirt, and I felt completely out of place. So much ostentatious wealth here now.

pm90 4y ago
With all due respect: you drove up to the an area that was mostly built up from nothing in the past 2 decades, is being developed as a “second downtown” and you feel sad to be out of place? Have you been downtown of any major american city?
- biggieshellz 4y ago
  I play jazz, and I go to downtown Austin fairly frequently, and never felt that way there. The Domain is just... weird, and not in an Austin way.
  - qorrect 4y ago
    Did you ever get to play The Elephant Room ? One of my favorite Austin spots.
    - biggieshellz 4y ago
      Only at the Monday night jam sessions. But I have played at Parker, which is also a wonderful spot.
  - dvtrn 4y ago
    It made me feel like I was walking around on the set of The Truman Show every time I went up there.
  - dkarl 4y ago
    The way the Domain was explained to me is that there's a mobile cosmopolitan upper class that likes to float around the planet without ever feeling a sense of uncomfortable unfamiliarity. Austin attracted their attention partly by being "cool" and more importantly by having a Formula 1 track. The Domain was created to make money by helping those people feel at home. The one person I've met who lived in the Domain was a rich tech guy from another continent who "moved" to Austin but never actually spent much time here. He rented an apartment in the Domain that was mostly vacant because he was always in other countries, acquired a girlfriend in Austin, was rarely here, and eventually stopped coming to Austin altogether. He treated Austin basically the same way I treat a restaurant. He came once, got really excited about his experience, came a few times more and then felt less excited, and then never came back because there was always another city somewhere else that he was a little bit more jazzed about. He was so wealthy that this level of interest in a city involved him renting an apartment for a couple of years and considering purchasing a condo. I wouldn't be surprised if he did purchase a condo, and it's been sitting empty for years because he likes having it and the cost of maintaining it pales next to the effort of finding somebody to manage it as a rental property for him. That's what the Domain is, a world built for those people.
mrits 4y ago
Driving an old pickup truck is an ostentatious display of wealth at current petro prices.
- vehemenz 4y ago
  Starting price for EVs is around $50k. Driving one of those seems more ostentatious to me.
  - multiplegeorges 4y ago
    Anyone buying a car should look at TCO. The average new car price of any type is ~$40,000 in the US, so you're better off long-term with an EV based on fuel costs alone. Add in the really low maintenance needed for an EV and you're even further ahead.
    - vehemenz 4y ago
      A good petrol car can be bought used for $15-20k. Comparing the price of a new one to an EV is a false equivalency because you can't buy used EVs for anywhere near that. TCO only favors EVs if you drive enough to offset fuel, oil changes, and maintenance. All bets are off if you replace the battery.
      - vageli 4y ago
        > A good petrol car can be bought used for $15-20k. Comparing the price of a new one to an EV is a false equivalency because you can't buy used EVs for anywhere near that. You can definitely find a used EV for under 20k. https://www.carvana.com/cars/nissan-leaf-under-15k https://www.carvana.com/cars/nissan-leaf-under-15k
        vehemenz 4y ago
        The presence of low-range EVs—many of which need battery or tire replacements—doesn't really change the point. A similarly priced Honda Fit from the same model year is a better value due to its low maintenance costs, fuel economy, and infinite range.

pm90 4y ago

With all due respect: you drove up to the an area that was mostly built up from nothing in the past 2 decades, is being developed as a “second downtown” and you feel sad to be out of place? Have you been downtown of any major american city?

biggieshellz 4y ago
I play jazz, and I go to downtown Austin fairly frequently, and never felt that way there. The Domain is just... weird, and not in an Austin way.
- qorrect 4y ago
  Did you ever get to play The Elephant Room ? One of my favorite Austin spots.
  - biggieshellz 4y ago
    Only at the Monday night jam sessions. But I have played at Parker, which is also a wonderful spot.
- dvtrn 4y ago
  It made me feel like I was walking around on the set of The Truman Show every time I went up there.
- dkarl 4y ago
  The way the Domain was explained to me is that there's a mobile cosmopolitan upper class that likes to float around the planet without ever feeling a sense of uncomfortable unfamiliarity. Austin attracted their attention partly by being "cool" and more importantly by having a Formula 1 track. The Domain was created to make money by helping those people feel at home. The one person I've met who lived in the Domain was a rich tech guy from another continent who "moved" to Austin but never actually spent much time here. He rented an apartment in the Domain that was mostly vacant because he was always in other countries, acquired a girlfriend in Austin, was rarely here, and eventually stopped coming to Austin altogether. He treated Austin basically the same way I treat a restaurant. He came once, got really excited about his experience, came a few times more and then felt less excited, and then never came back because there was always another city somewhere else that he was a little bit more jazzed about. He was so wealthy that this level of interest in a city involved him renting an apartment for a couple of years and considering purchasing a condo. I wouldn't be surprised if he did purchase a condo, and it's been sitting empty for years because he likes having it and the cost of maintaining it pales next to the effort of finding somebody to manage it as a rental property for him. That's what the Domain is, a world built for those people.

mrits 4y ago

Driving an old pickup truck is an ostentatious display of wealth at current petro prices.

vehemenz 4y ago
Starting price for EVs is around $50k. Driving one of those seems more ostentatious to me.
- multiplegeorges 4y ago
  Anyone buying a car should look at TCO. The average new car price of any type is ~$40,000 in the US, so you're better off long-term with an EV based on fuel costs alone. Add in the really low maintenance needed for an EV and you're even further ahead.
  - vehemenz 4y ago
    A good petrol car can be bought used for $15-20k. Comparing the price of a new one to an EV is a false equivalency because you can't buy used EVs for anywhere near that. TCO only favors EVs if you drive enough to offset fuel, oil changes, and maintenance. All bets are off if you replace the battery.
    - vageli 4y ago
      > A good petrol car can be bought used for $15-20k. Comparing the price of a new one to an EV is a false equivalency because you can't buy used EVs for anywhere near that. You can definitely find a used EV for under 20k. https://www.carvana.com/cars/nissan-leaf-under-15k https://www.carvana.com/cars/nissan-leaf-under-15k
      - vehemenz 4y ago
        The presence of low-range EVs—many of which need battery or tire replacements—doesn't really change the point. A similarly priced Honda Fit from the same model year is a better value due to its low maintenance costs, fuel economy, and infinite range.