Austin | The Republic | 710 Feet | 47 Floors | Complete

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

Many regular people who don't pay attention to population numbers already think of Dallas, Houston, and Austin as "The Big 3" in Texas. These two buildings will completely cement that notion.

What a sea change. All my life, it has been Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but you're so right. It's hard to deny that we're overtaking San Antonio. The level of major investment here compared to there is very telling. The skylines do not lie.

I'm glad I'm buying a house now as opposed to later. After these buildings are built and the McKalla stadium is built, things are going to be a little crazy here.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by Syndic

What a sea change. All my life, it has been Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but you're so right. It's hard to deny that we're overtaking San Antonio. The level of major investment here compared to there is very telling. The skylines do not lie.

I'm glad I'm buying a house now as opposed to later. After these buildings are built and the McKalla stadium is built, things are going to be a little crazy here.

I travel a lot and have friends all over the country, we are definitely overtaking (if not already overtaken) SA as one of the top three cities in TX people talk about.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by Syndic

What a sea change. All my life, it has been Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but you're so right. It's hard to deny that we're overtaking San Antonio. The level of major investment here compared to there is very telling. The skylines do not lie.

I'm glad I'm buying a house now as opposed to later. After these buildings are built and the McKalla stadium is built, things are going to be a little crazy here.

Honestly,

We've surpassed San Antonio some time ago. I wind up down in SATX a good deal, and it's a great city with a lot going on.

But when it comes to night life, restaurants, skyline, development and density it really isn't close. We also have our pedal to the metal when it comes to explosive change where San Antonio feels a lot like Austin when we were excited about things like the Austin lofts or Triangle back in the early 2000s.

South Town San Antonio is *really* nice and the area around the Pearl is getting there but San Antonio is just now really starting to show the positive signs of re-urbanization of its central core. I think the Mission reach of the riverwalk is *really* well done and will pay massive dividends in the future.

If anything Austin needs to look at San Antonio's willingness to expend money on new public park space, connective tissues between neighborhoods for not cars (the new mission reach riverwalk extension specifically).

Where we are decades behind San Antonio and will likely remain there for the foreseeable future is the arts. We just don't have the investment there that we should, but hopefully as our tech money gets a little older we'll start seriously investing in that as well.

That said, I think in most ways Austin feels bigger.

[Jdawgboy]

For the record to our SA neighbors who may be checking this thread out, we are not bashing or trying to start a city vs city argument. Simply highlighting general observations which show this type of perception.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

For the record to our SA neighbors who may be checking this thread out, we are not bashing or trying to start a city vs city argument. Simply highlighting general observations which show this type of perception.

Right,

San Antonio is a great town with a lot going on, and really I'm focusing on the Urban core only when talking about this stuff and not some greater measurement of cities. San Antonio is my second favorite city in Texas for lots of reasons, and the stuff they are doing around the newer parts of the riverwalk is something other cities wish they had.

If anything, Austin is a really weird outlier (thanks young tech money) that out-punches it's weight-class when it comes to the urban core of the city.