Austin, Texas: Best City

Austin, Texas has become a bit of a media sensation as the newest “cool” city. It was always what we “Austinites” considered to be the world’s best kept secret. The heart of Austin was its artistic community, and residential support for the “mom and pop” businesses. A place where artists and college kids were able to have a safe and comfortable life due to low crime rate and reasonable cost of living. Austin was a city that had a small town feel. We were all able to encounter Leslie Cochran on any corner, sunning in his favorite cross-dressing skimpies. However, after the first decade of the new millennium everything changed. The media became the enemy and our secret was out. Apple, Google, Samsung and Intel opened big corporate offices
But now days that is not the Austin most people think of. You may think of Matthew Mcconaughey being arrested for playing his bongos, very nakedly and publicly. Jesse James stalks of his ex wife in a city he has no connections to half way across the country from his home. And more than a few ladies will think of Brad Womack and his beautiful features. In 2005 Austin was voted as the “Best City” for singles and the media has not stopped declaring it one of the best cities of any pole ever since. Some changes have been excellent for many businesses in the Austin area. It has destroyed any chance for young artists to be able to have access for discovery. Musical, and performance artists were able to work part time to support themselves and still have time to work on their craft in hopes of getting exposure that would give them the notoriety to pursue their dreams. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson, Mike Judge, Matthew McConaughey were small town Texas kids who had traveled to Austin from their small Texas hometowns in hopes of finding a way to be discovered and make the big time. Austin was known to be the live music capital of Texas and the home of the University of Texas performing arts school. But during the latter part of the early
Austin was the one place that has always been a place where any person could live by their own standards and likings and be loved and accepted. It now has become part of the mainstream locust plague that seems to travel from town to town. Made up of real estate developers, corporate marketing execs and mainstream media companies. These entities in society appear to destroy any location that they think may become the new “it” spot, promote their brand, or give them free advertisement. The search for commerce and status in the world of media exposure has become the biggest priority in certain factions of society. These social scenes have taken the one place that I was totally free and accepted for who I really was by my own standards, not what society expected of me. The “Keep Austin Weird” and “Don’t Dallas my Austin” movements have failed. In American society the side with the money usually seems to win. But in the end, being angry and sharing the little guys opinion will not do anything. Austin for what it was, for what people fell in love with and eventually ruined, can never be brought back. After the phase is over and there is nothing else that the masses can get from the small city that was ruined by the Outlanders, it will become a ghost town that still has too high of cost of living for the artists to return. Like so many other places that have been