Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc
sure they do, they are twin cities. or were. i spent a lot of time in both when they were much, much more alike.
yes, you could say sxsw was a better cool factor driver than the columbus short north comfest or the doo dah parade ever was. 
and there are at least a few other bigger dividing factors. the austin weather is a draw not a hinderance. and even more so the low texas taxes vs ohio's. and as for tech business comparisons, at the start of austins boom dell had already trumped the earlier columbus compuserve. |
Ironically, SXSW is no longer that cool. It's been sanitized and commercialized to where it no longer resembles its original form but the legacy remains cool and stuff like that continues to add to Austin's appeal. I really wanted to go to SXSW at least one 15-20 years ago but have no interest now. Austin is the Bitcoin of cities and people want in on the action because FOMO.
Austin has a lot of 'cool' employers either already in the area or increasing their presence. I mean who doesn't want to work for Apple, Intel or Google even if they have no chance in hell. Houston has loads of high paying jobs and opportunities but mainly on energy and healthcare which is not as exciting as tech. I can't think of anything like that in Columbus either which seemed to have a lot of health, retail, insurance companies HQ'ed there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasPlaya
In the matter of your objection, it could just be a rising tide lifts all boats. It's not that Austin is heavily influenced by Houston and DFW, just part of the equation. Those cities and Texas in general has had momentum building up for the past 3 decades.
|
The wealthier Houston and Dallas became, the more Austin benefited. It's the state capital of a state that was booming largely because of these two areas plus the flagship university that directly benefits all that oil revenue.