Adding to this, its an ugly mix. The state tax system heavily penalizes anyone who can't pretend to be a farmer, so you will have people with 'hobby' farms tha

Adding to this, its an ugly mix. The state tax system heavily penalizes anyone who can't pretend to be a farmer, so you will have people with 'hobby' farms that are valued 3x+ outside of the urban areas who are playing 1/2 or less in taxes than someone with a modest home in the suburbs. Then these areas are then heavily subsidized with schooling, roads, electric and internet services. Which is a feedback loop where those counties won't raise taxes because then they get less funding transfers. Until the recent reset of the tax exemptions its was quite likely most people in the state would have been paying the same or less taxes in California. The state hates public parks, so the per capita acreage is such that the parks are both way over utilized and nearly impossible to use due to the overwhelming demand for camping/etc on the weekends. Then one combines the many state inflicted problems with Austin's issues. Like the fact that there is a very strong anti growth lobby the ties everything up in courts. For example that the main interstate highway going through town has been functionality obsolete for 30+ years and any attempts to fix it are stymied at every turn. Then Austin will convert decades old overcapacity four lane roads into two lanes with a rarely utilized bike lane. Or while Austin is unusual that it actually has a lot of in town public land (BCP/etc) the vast majority is closed to the public and any appropriated money is used to fence it off and post no trespassing signs, rather than providing recreational or nature oriented opportunities. And again the anti growth people formed a coalition with the green heads to slice the western part of the city up into sections requiring people who live in those areas to drive miles and miles out of their way to get around the preserves which combine with the lake to form long barriers to direct traffic flow. Which goes to the general incompetence/fear the city has about road construction, light timing, light rail construction, etc. Leaving bonded projects never being started because they either spend all the money on smaller included projects and never getting to the main one, or waiting a decade+ to break ground and discovering that the project is now 2x-8x the original estimates. The air quality is some of the worst in the country for $REASONS. I could go on, but its a _long_ list of issues.