Trip to Austin TX
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Municipalities Austin TX
United States
From: 01 Mar 2001 - To - 01 Mar 2001
Description: Best Practices Trip to Austin TX (March 2001)
- There’s a big mindset difference between Austin and Portland: Austin is very pro-growth, not focused enough on environment and livability issues (such as environment, transportation), other than money, and growth. The biggest part of their culture is all towards driving growth.
- Austin has an incentive-based business attraction strategy for luring new industry
- To market Austin, they offered everything they could; ignored problems; sell Austin as the most wonderful place on the planet;
- BUT it’s awful to ignore everything about it -- particularly technology –
- Austin is less focused on urban issues, urban planning, green initiatives, etc. compared to Portland.
- Austin has a terrific digital divide, and huge income gaps.
- Austin has terrible urban sprawl, and little concern for degradation of land, water, air.
- Austin has an attitude of Growth – growth, growth – like Seattle – growth, biz attraction.
- Poor relationship between the city and the state government, and also a poor relationship between Austin and the University Texas (similar to Boston)
- The University of Texas has huge resources, and is well endowed,
- Austin has many local venture capital firms and an entrepreneurship culture
- Austin investment rewards people and technology
- Austin is trying to grow younger new business leadership; has or is developing a leadership/public policy group of key tech-private sector leadership
Austin 360: news outlet for hyper local news. (Austin 360 was their Chamber/GPI equivalent for growth, attracting business.)
Note by Randy (2024): One of their mayoral candidates, Robin Rather (daughter of Dan Rather) said the environmental issues were hugely serious…no one had any concern for the ….all of it. I bet now, as the cost of living there has skyrocketed, housing is also a huge issue.