Austin Economy/Culture/Growth/Photos/Whatever

[The ATX]

The Business Journal has an interesting article - unless you're from California.  A seven year study found that 9,000 California companies either moved their HQ or expanded their operations outside of California to more business friendly states.  In order, these are the top 5 states for California based company relocations/expansions:  

^{1.  Texas}

^{2. Nevada}

^{3. Arizona}

^{4. Colorado}

^{5. Washington}

 

These are the top 5 metro destinations for California companies to relocate/expand:    

1. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos

2. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington

3. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale

4. Reno-Sparks

5. Las Vegas-Paradise

 

These are the top municipality destinations for California companies to relocate/expand:    

1. Austin

2. Reno

3. Las Vegas

4. Seattle

^{5. Phoenix}

 

^{Obviously I posted this because Austin is the big winner.  I would surmise the reason for this is that Austin is a lot like California in politics, geography and climate but with the very pro-business climate at the state level.}

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/morning_call/2015/11/california-lost-9-000-business-hqs-and-expansions.html

Edited November 13, 2015 by The ATX

[The ATX]

The City of Austin has updated the area's population numbers as of October 1st.  The city's population is nearly 911,000, and the MSA is about 2,020,000. These numbers are usually not too far off from the Census Bureau's estimates.  Although the City's estimates for the population of Austin proper are usually less than the Census Bureau's numbers while the City's Metro estimates are usually somewhat higher than the Census Bureau's.

I wish Austin would start using its annexation powers to take in the 240,000 people living in the unincorporated areas of its ETJ before they end up on some suburban city's tax rolls.  A subdivision with a population of about 5,000 is being annexed in a few weeks, but I think that will be the largest annexation since the 1990s.  

City of Austin Website

[The ATX]

The Westin Hotel that opened this past summer near 6th St. has a music theme and has been marketing itself as being near the heart of 6th St.  But it wasn't built with soundproofing, and all that live music is apparently disturbing some of their guests.  The management has been calling the Austin Police Department to complain about the noise.  The irony.  This hotel is two-faced in more than one way.  It's god awful ugly on the side facing 6th St. as seen in the photo below, but really nice looking IMO on the opposite side.  All of the other photos and renderings I've posted about this project have been of the nice side.  The link under the photo has an article about the "noise", i.e. loud music problem.

Austin Chronicle Article

[The ATX]

Here's a link to a short video describing Austin's latest hipsterhood:  ATX Uncensored(ish)

 

[The ATX]

Just announced...

Oracle is building a huge 27 acre campus along the river near Downtown.  They are even buying an apartment complex next door for employees.

Austin Business Journal 

Austin American Station

Edited December 22, 2015 by The ATX

[The ATX]

The Austin suburb of Hutto was apparently runnerup to Reno in snagging the Tesla Ggigafactory.  But the Austin Business Journal is reporting that Tesla may be secretly building a customer service center in northwest Austin.  Unlike the Gigafactory this is not a major project.  It appears this may be Tesla's version of an auto dealership.  Texas is one of a few states that require automakers to sell vehicles through Texas based dealerships as opposed to online sales.

Austin Business Journal Article

 

Edited January 7, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

The best thing about Google Fiber coming here may be the competition it has created.  AT&T is will be using Austin as a test market for it's 5 Gig internet.  Take that Google!

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/business/att-to-test-5g-wireless-service-in-austin-area/nqPX5/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

 

[The ATX]

Everyone please, please stay away from Austin this March 11.  It is the first day of SXSW and Obama and his motorcade will be visiting.  Do not be here.  Traffic will really, really make you want to kill yourself.

[The ATX]

Online job website Indeed (who just passed Monster Jobs in online traffic) is planning on hiring 1,000 people.  Their HQ is currently Downtown, and they just opened a new facility on the north side of Austin.

KVUE Story

 

This San Antonio Express article says Google and Facebook have around 750 openings in Austin.  Those companies along with Apple are very secretive about their expansions, but all three of them have been doing a lot of hiring.  This is from the article:  

"Google, which employs hundreds of workers in the live music capital of the world, leased 200,000 square feet of office space last year. The company won’t say how many employees it has in its Austin offices, but it posted 281 new jobs there on LinkedIn over the past month. Facebook, which opened a 200-person office in Austin in 2010, currently has 473 openings in Austin on LinkedIn."

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

This Texas Monthly article is the best article I've ever read about the eternal boom and changes in Austin.  It's written by a member of the Wild Seeds band which was/is a local band I listened to back in the day.  It's very even handed concerning the New Austin vs. the Old Austin that so many people are nostalgic for.  The author seems to have accepted and evolved with the changes.  

I can really relate to this article because I now work in the office building that was built on top of what was one of the coolest (and most rundown) live music clubs in the '80s and '90s that the author talks about.  I used to hang out at that club, and I now park my car at work in a parking garage right on top of its ghost.

Edit:  One cool thing I learned from the article was that one of Austin's biggest local developers Perry Lorenz  (Who is one of the developers behind the new tallest Independent tower) was in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie.  He was the guy at the end of the movie that drove off with the lone survivor in a pickup truck after Leatherface got run over. 

Edited March 6, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

The Austin MSA population passed the two million mark last summer according to the latest census numbers.  The Austin Metro moved ahead of Indy and San Jose in 2015 and should pass Columbus, Cleveland and KC in either late 2016 or early 2017. 

2015 MSA Rankings

 

Edited March 24, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

Austin is still the fastest growing large city (1,000,000 or more population) according to the census.  The big Florida cities are booming once again as well.

 

American Statesman Article

 

As a bonus, the article I linked to has a nice shot of the Google tower rising.  In about 2007 the only high-rise in this photo was the brown one on the extreme right.

Edited March 27, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

We're half way through the decade in terms of the census.  So here's a list of the fastest growing large metros so far this decade:  

Edited March 26, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

I hate these f'ing click bait lists and don't post them even though Austin is at top of so many of the stupid things.  But I find this one amusing.  Austin is the worst city in the U.S. for Chinese food!  So don't come visiting for the Chinese food, ya'll. 

American Statesman Article 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2016 by The ATX

[The ATX]

Austin's unemployment rate has dropped to 2.9%.  The last time it was this low was during the peak of the Dot Com boom in 2000.

Austin Business Journal

[The ATX]

Jesus Christ, it's so damned hot here.  No wonder nobody lived in the SW U.S. until AC was invented.  No wonder Mexico lost Texas to the U.S. because they couldn't get anyone to live here.

[The ATX]

A very young Austin...

Link

[The ATX]

Austin snags an international Art Prize:  

Statesman Article

[The ATX]

The Austin area's unemployment rate ticked up in June (as it usually does each summer when school is out) to 3.3% from 2.9% in May.  But a net increase of 7,800 jobs were added in June.  

Statesman Article

[The ATX]

Nat Geo recently did a small photo thread on Austin.  Here's one of them.  The link under the photo has more.

Nat Geo

[The ATX]

Inspired by SXSW, the White House announces SXSL (South by South Lawn).

Article 

[The ATX]

Andrew Takano makes a lot of high quality videos of Austin.  His latest one is called Odyssey, and was filmed over the past year:  

Vimeo:  Odyssey

[The ATX]

This is breaking local news as well as a very bad parking maneuver at a garage on 6th St & Congress...

Link

[The ATX]

Epic parking fail update.  The driver apparently stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake when backing into a parking spot on the 9th floor of the parking garage.  Luckily for him the steel cable wrapped around the axle and prevented the car from falling nine stories.  Also luckily for him, his SUV had a sun roof that ended up facing the parking garage where a good Samaritan pulled him out of his vehicle to safety.

Austin Chronicle

 

[The ATX]

The IRS announced a phased out closing of processing centers across the country due to the rapid increase in electronic filing.  Up to 2,400 jobs in Austin will be lost in 2024.  The Austin IRS Center is located on some prime real estate on I-35 near downtown.  So something good might come from this.  2024 is also the same year that the construction of additional lanes on I-35 is scheduled to be completed.  That seems just so damn far away... 

Statesman