Austin, I hear that's a nice place to live? OR, DON'T MOVE HERE!!

Not all my posts will be serious, I promise. Although a good purging political rant is every bit as satisfying as winning at poker, it's not something you want to do all of the time, you lose friends that way. I am a political animal, but a sort of detached one; I don't campaign, I don't read political fact sheets, or attend rallies, I just donate money (and that rarely). Though, all that might change this year, the closer we get to the election. I will keep you posted. I put my heart into that last post, and I am not backing away from it at all. I am moving on.

So far I haven't written much about Austin. What can I say? I guess I do have one thing to say, first and most importantly:

Whatever I say that's nice about Austin, DON'T MOVE HERE. This place is overcrowded already, and each new person counts (you will find this true in Austin traffic). There are tons of Austins out in the U.S., waiting to be found and loved. Go find your own; I will be joining you shortly. I am not saying DON'T MOVE HERE because I don't want you to mess up my perfect space. I am saying it because Austin is NOT perfect, and you will only make it less perfect by adding your car and development demands to the mess. Austin is nice, a very cool place to hang out, but not to live, not anymore. There are too many people here that want to own little bits of Paradise. Now, the view is of the people: traffic, lines, suburbs. I don't know of anyone that's seen Paradise lately, i think she's moved on. So, WHATEVER I say that's nice, just come visit, give us a little of your money. DON'T MOVE HERE.

So what can I say about Austin? I grew up here. It's wonderful, relaxed, and so rapidly changing. I am not going to stay here for more than a couple of years (don't tell my nice boss, though I think he suspects). It's too hard watching a unique place turn into a place like every other, too hard watching the beautiful countryside turn into suburbanized, upper-crust city. I played on rough-grassed hills that now lie under green manicured lawns, flat streets, and over-large show houses. I loved little restaurants that now lie perpetually besieged by tourists and hip California immigrants. Austin is still Austin--lovable, rough at the heel, with a soul of outdoorsy, relaxed playfulness--but it's big business, now. I'd like to stop mourning over the past one day; for me, that day will be the day I drive out of town for the East one last time.

That said, I am glad I came back. It has reassured me that, no matter how many more people pile into this place and how much useless crap they build on empty, lovely land, some little pieces of my Austin will always exist. Instead of thinking, "Where I am from is dead and gone. Am I from anywhere anymore?", I now think of myself as an ex-Austinite in waiting.

I know I am someone who understands Barton Springs and the train at Zilker Park, who has played mini-golf at Peter Pan's, watched the bats come out from under Congress Bridge, who loved to eat at the Salt Lick, who knows where to get good Tex Mex, who swam every other weekend in the Comal, who knows to spin under the Zilker Christmas Tree, who fell in love with a small city in the cool Texas fall. That city still exists for me somewhere, and I will never lose it. I thought, for a time, that was all that would be left of the original Austin: my memories.

I see now that East Austin is always going to be kooky neighborhoods full of big trees, hippies, and blacks and hispanic communities shoved across the tracks in the 60's. I see that Zilker Park will always live, and Barton Springs will always flow, though that might take a good legal fight in years to come. The endangered salamander at the heart of Austin, in Barton Springs, has a fighting chance to live. Austin will always be Austin, at the heart. The Hill Country at Austin's border will always have a few special places left to go re-visit. Not everything will be lost to the relentless tide of immigration and ill=planned growth. A few good things will always remain. The other Austinites, the stronger ones than me, the ones able to stay and fight--they will keep them there.

Long live Austin, last of the dreaming cities. I fear she may wake up soon, but I know now that her people will hold her in the night, dream or no dream. That's what lovers do.