I have mixed thoughts on Austin. I think there's some truth to Austin being the Portland (OR) of the South but I didn't find it quite as eclectic. It is a smal

I have mixed thoughts on Austin. I think there's some truth to Austin being the Portland (OR) of the South but I didn't find it quite as eclectic. It is a small island of blue in a sea of red (which of course has been gerrymandered to hell) but a Texas blue voter isn't a Coastal Democrat. It's really a Southern Democrat. You see hints of this in the author's post with the talk about the "culture wars". When I've seen that kind of language before what it generally means is social conservatism with a thin veneer of liberal aesthetics (side note: liberalism is aesthetics so that kind of fits anyway). Think Bill Maher. Think people who actually believe there's a "far left" in America ("far left" is code for "trans rights"). When reading that I couldn't help but think of the saying "privilege is invisible to those who have it", which I agree with. A way to interpret that here is that the author is largely surrounded by people like him so that basis is normalized and I suspect it's not as diverse (and certainly not as progressive) as one might otherwise take away from reading this. Food? I mean the BBQ is excellent. Superb in fact. It's not New York however. I imagine living in Austin is pretty great if you can live on or near a lake. Around Lake Austin however that is super expensive. Other than that, there's a lot of high cost high rises downtown and a little more south of the river and a little around UT but really it's just another set of Texas suburbs of SFHs. It is incredibly car dependent. Compare this to Portland where in many places you can live without a car just fine (admittedly, my knowledge of Portland is pre-pandemic so I'm unsure how downtown and surrounds have changed; I hear a lot). Summers are brutally hot. I've been there when it's hitting 100F in late October. All in all, there were thing sI liked but it just didn't vibe with me.