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Is the hippest city in Texas selling out its oddball charm?

One chorizo-and-egg breakfast taco: $2.25. An entrance ticket to Barton Springs Pool: $3. Keeping Austin Weird: priceless. The notion that weirdness is the essential spark to life in Austin is at the heart of the “Keep Austin weird” mantra that has been emblazoned on tie-dyed T-shirts and bumper stickers, adopted by eccentric and creative Austinites, and co-opted by local businesses small and large. It has become shorthand for all that is hip in the city. But as Austin booms, there’s a growing debate over whether its weirdness is being institutionalized and subverted in the process.

In 1967, state government and the University of Texas were the city’s major employers, but when IBM opened a facility that year, it set in motion a high-tech boom that has seen Austin’s population grow eightfold to nearly 2 million today. Motorola and Texas Instruments followed IBM. Then came public-private research consortiums MCC and Sematech, which were soon joined by Dell, Apple, Samsung and many more. By 2000, the population stood at 650,000. That was the year Austin Community College librarian Red Wassenich coined the phrase “Keep Austin weird.” He declined to copyright his catchy mantra, but others did. And while they sell T-shirts and coffee mugs, his website features odd city sights and bemoans “Austin’s descent into rampant commercialism and overdevelopment.”

Is Austin becoming a kind of a theme park of weirdness? Standing in a crowd in front of Guero’s Taco Bar on South Congress Avenue, the center of the once faded, now hip “SoCo” neighborhood just south of downtown, a visitor to Austin was recently overheard talking excitedly on her cell phone — “I just can’t believe I am really in Austin!” — like she had just arrived at Disney World, not an industrious American city.

Some 19.7 million visitors go to Austin annually, according to the city’s convention and visitors bureau, drawn by the city’s music and foodie scenes, plus a packed calendar of events that celebrate the Austin spirit; the Keep Austin Weird Festival and 5K run, now in its 10th year, is a highlight of the late-June calendar. For naysayers, some of the more recent additions to the calendar, like the Weird festival, are parvenus, hitching a ride on a popular image of Austin and supported by corporate sponsors, a contrast to the days when Austin celebrations were free and funky. Much more at http://nation.time.com/2013/07/05/the-fight-over-keeping-austin-weird/
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But as Austin booms, there’s a growing debate over whether its weirdness is being institutionalized and subverted in the process.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:

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But as Austin booms, there’s a growing debate over whether its weirdness is being institutionalized and subverted in the process.

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Austin weirdness became popular, so now it's not cool anymore. They sold out.

I know a bunch of weird cities in the US. You probably haven't heard of them. That's how you know they're genuine and authentic.

/hipsterrrrrrrs

(Hasn't really ever lived outside of vanilla as hell Mormon country)

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