Tech workers flocked to Austin. Now they're desperate to get out

I'm talking about the fast food workers, retail shop assistants, cleaners in the Google offices, etc. How are these people able to afford the average monthly SF rent on their hourly wages?

All of the complaints listed here (hot weather, shit-tier public transit, etc) were true of Austin prior to the Great Migration.

Everyone wanted in though because Austin is the first place people think of when they think of Texas, it's the only major city in Texas with rolling hills, it's perceived as the only non-conservative city in Texas (it is not), 6th St and Barton Springs are fun, and Texas has no income tax and cheap real estate.

Now that real estate prices in Austin are significantly higher than they were in the past, a self-induced problem BTW!, and the Real Texas Heat™ has finally come, folks want to move back. (Property tax rates in Texas have always been high, and they only go up every year.)

Austin was always a small town with Texas government and a huge school with a huge American football team (UT Austin). I don't think it was designed with the explosive growth that it has seen in the last 15 years.

Its road design is proof of this. US Interstate 35 cuts right through town and it only has one partial ring road (TX-130). It also has the MoPAC (TX-1), though that expanded and, consequently, became a partial toll road.

Compare this with Houston, where I live. It has three huge interstates going through it (US I-10 east-west; US-45 north-south; Texas I-69/US Hwy 59 SW-NE), one huge and constantly problematic interstate beltway (US I-610) and two state ring roads (TX-8; TX-99). It is designed to accommodate and move a significant population (or significant freight, which it does also).

Austin has always been overrated IMO.

Houston is way bigger, more liberal and diverse (in every dimension, not just race, but it is extremely racially-integrated) than Austin has ever been and has a world-class food scene but gets 1/10th of the hype because...actually, I have no idea why?

Dallas is also way bigger than Austin and actually has a tech scene of sorts (though it is old and enterprise-y) along with more moderate (but still hot) weather but didn't boom like Austin did. Why?

https://youtu.be/ui-gY9zthgI?si=vRf2g_Y0PLYZCqhk&t=552

Surprise, more traffic.

It is a trade off when you can choose either side.

Other than grad school (and a few years as a toddler), I’m a life-long Texan and a former resident of Austin many, many, (urp) many years ago. Even then, Austin was becoming increasingly lame over time. It’s still a fun place to visit occasionally - better scenery than Houston! - but the fun, chill, outdoorsy, live music scene has been twisted into some sort of bizarre playground for sheikh failsons, libertarians who couldn’t hack it in California and the low-tax pilgrims who stepped on the rake of our very high property taxes (and suspiciously low services, but that’s neither here nor there). And the whole vibe of the city is strange - it’s generation after generation of adults who live like they’re still in their 20s, forever and ever - and not in the good, young-at-heart way. More like the “trivia night, then ultimate, then pub crawl” circuit every week well into their 50s. Maybe later!

The way I feel about Austin is if the smartest, most interesting girl in your high school class turned into a trophy wife soccer mom who … lives in the hills outside of Austin. It’s an appealing life in some - many - ways, but so, so vacuous and, in my mind, just not that interesting at all.

It's 50% genuine complaints + 50% really bengin stuff. It is almost as 50% of tech workers think like small children or have OCD and hate changes.