Comment by schneems | Hacker News Reader

Comment by schneems | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> is just not as affordable as before. Add in quality of life things like longer commute times,

Home prices are dropping like a rock. And commute times were hell a decade ago.

I think the bigger issue is that these firms bet big on real estate and then the pandemic suddenly clued people in that remote work was possible and now instead of admitting they made a mistake are blaming the issue “on Austin.”

Also: to speak to the diversity part. Read up on Austin’s 1928 plan to intentionally segregate the city. Austin is still one of the most racially segregated. In an interesting turn of events Houston (due to its lack of zoning laws making redlining hard to impossible) is the most racially diverse city in the nation. Amazing what impact a bunch of people a hundred years ago can have on a place even after they are dead and their laws changed.

> In an interesting turn of events Houston (due to its lack of zoning laws making redlining hard to impossible) is the most racially diverse city in the nation.

In a nation that includes, amongst other cities, New York City, this is extremely unlikely.

https://abc13.com/houston-diversity-wallethub-most-diverse-c...

New York was famously segregated by Robert Moses. It’s up there on the list due to being a welcoming and diverse destination today, but those policies of the past can be felt today, long after they are gone.

You can click through to the actual list here: https://wallethub.com/edu/most-diverse-cities/12690

It's worth taking a look at their methodology and how they're measuring diversity. Notably, NYC ranks much higher than Houston for cultural diversity (#5 vs #28 for Houston).

If you slice the numbers differently you get a different result.

But the fact that Houston is even in the list in the first place is the interesting part. Whether it beats NYC or not is sorta not the most important part of my comment.

It seems the Forrest might have been missed for the trees. (I don’t feel like you understood or validated what I said, whether you disagree with the precise methodology or not)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com