The Trouble With Austin

It’s beautiful in Austin: Texas hill country, with low rolling treebanks as far as the eye can see. The Colorado River rambles through the middle of town, and scores of springs bring forth cool water even in the hottest months. You can hear great music wherever you go, and there’s art on every corner. But despite all this, Austin is TROUBLE.

This town, you see, is both too easy and too hard. Too easy, with its air conditioning and its liberal, anything-goes attitude; too hard, with the oppressive heat and the vast distances between things.

What I mean to say is that I didn’t get much done in Austin. I had the time of my life, but it was not a productive time. Whenever I stepped outdoors I started sweating; when I wanted to go someplace, I had to find a ride. Too hot to ride a bike, too far to walk. And it was so comfortable indoors, with my fascinating friends and their A/C units and big houses with extra rooms for me to stay in. So, aside from cold-chillin, not much was achieved.

You can’t get around in Texas if you don’t have a car. You can barely cross the dang street without getting run over. Either Texas drivers hate pedestrians, or they just don’t expect to encounter any; either way, they don’t slow down for crosswalks.

The bus system in Austin is great though: $1.50 for a 24-hour pass, and the buses run pretty much on time. But waiting at the bus stop means sitting in your own sweat while being conversated at by saggy-eyed street folk and groups of men sipping beer and wine. At 11am on a week day, one fellow told me I looked like a nurse and then offered to find me a job and a car; another lifted his shirt to show me the portraits of his daughters inked onto his beer gut. In context, these were valiant and well-meaning attempts at conversation! But I didn’t want to talk. Not now, not like this.

Nonetheless I rode the bus quite a few times. It worked out fine for short trips, but didn’t get me everywhere. Here are some places I didn’t get to visit in the Austin area:

1. Tiny Texas Houses – Inspired by Steph and Tammy, I’ve been trying to get a glimpse of a bona fide tiny house for some time now. But the Tiny Texas Houses HQ is in Luling, an hour’s drive from Austin with no bus route available. There’s one tiny cottage at the Park Lane Guest House, but they never returned my calls. Too bad so sad.
2. Johnson’s Backyard Garden – Inconveniently located just outside the public transportation coverage area, Johnson’s have a great thing going—organic produce in exchange for a half day’s work—for anyone who owns a car. I asked two different people to come work with me so I could see the place, but somehow nobody was interested in manual labor at 8am on a Saturday. Nobody except me, anyway.
3. UT-Austin School of Architecture – After learning about their work on PBS’ e² series, I was all fired up to talk to them about sustainable building and voluntourism. I actually did visit the Dean’s office. But after figuring out how to get there, then walking all over the massive campus looking for the building, I arrived a sweaty mess. Must have made a horrible impression as I never heard back from them.

Still, I enjoyed Austin. It softened me up. Everybody there is soft: gentle, friendly, maybe packing a couple extra pounds… It’s all the beer and barbecue and good friends with generally sedentary lifestyles. The good life á la Tejas.

And it was nice, for a while, to lose my own edges. Texans genuinely enjoy and appreciate themselves and others, and that’s a rare (and precious) attitude where I come from. So it felt good… but things weren’t getting done, and they weren’t getting done. It became time to accomplish something, or leave town.

By the time I did leave, things were starting to turn around a little. Here’s what I saw while in Austin:

1. The bats.
2. Krause Springs.
3. The Colorado River (tubing!).
4. The HI hostel.
5. Chicken Shit Bingo (okay not totally on topic).
6. The Republic Of Texas bike rally (definitely not on topic!)

I’m gonna write about all of them, except maybe the bike rally. I might write about the things I didn’t see, too, at least briefly. The point, though, is this: getting around Austin without much money is difficult, and trying to do so sustainably is almost impossible. Too bad; it’s otherwise a very cool town. You just can’t live there without air conditioning and a car. Even if you could, you probably wouldn’t want to.

And that’s the trouble with Austin.