[fintechjock]

I live in Austin and know the author to boot. I haven't had the time to sit down and read this one yet, but knowing him I can pretty well guess his take. He is my pick for the best writer in the state.

My read of Austin:

- I was born here in 1995. Except for a few years, I've seen double-digit growth in most measurables every year of my life. Growth is the only thing I have ever known so I am comfortable with it, and I can also see why previous generations (I.e. my parents) are not.

- Change is painful. Especially at this clip and for this long. But man, it is beautiful.

- The City Council here is undoubtedly the worst part of the problem. They consistently buckle to NIMBYs, and allocate money in just unreasonably idiotic ways. ("No one riding the train that cost $1.1 billion? Easy fix! Spend $7 billion more!") They are making the change much more painful.

- Natives were largely fine with the first wave of California refugees in 2008. This COVID wave is different though. The new movers kept their jobs and are working remote from Austin – meaning that they still have their Cali / NY inflated paychecks. It feels like a money fight, and we keep losing.

[bleeding]

> - The City Council here is undoubtedly the worst part of the problem. They consistently buckle to NIMBYs, and allocate money in just unreasonably idiotic ways. ("No one riding the train that cost $1.1 billion? Easy fix! Spend $7 billion more!") They are making the change much more painful.

Are you referring to Project Connect here? Right now nobody rides the train, but the answer to that problem _is_ to spend more money. Currently the train stops basically nowhere useful unless you are commuting from Leander to downtown, or going to the soccer stadium. The answer to that is to put _more_ stops in, in more useful places. The Domain stop is a ~30 minute walk from all the large businesses in the Domain. The train stops running into town at 6pm, meaning if you stay a little late you miss the train at your Domain office, and its not useful at all if you're trying to go out drinking or something in the city.

Additionally, there are network effects associated with public transit usage, the same as road or bike lane usage. The more places you can get to by public transit, the more likely you are to take public transit to get there. The new rail corridors will make the city far more connected by transit, and thus potentially increase usage of transit.

[fintechjock]

They spent $1.1 billion on the first round of the train, and in FY2021 it brought in $55,000 in gross fares.

We won’t be able to spend our way to adoption at that rate. And people aren’t going to adopt public transit in a city built around cars (93.4% of Austin families own a vehicle).

Sounds like we both wish mass public transit was the reality, but sadly it’s just not realistic.

[71a54xd]

This is basically my exact position as a native austinite - personally the transformation was complete for me when Magnolia's on Lake Austin blvd closed.

Now it's all just Tesla's with CA plates

[fintechjock]

Nothing like Magnolia’s after midnight when you’re a high schooler and have nowhere else to go

And they shut down the wrong Magnolia’s!