AFS Cinema
Austin Is Just Dallas-Fort Worth Waiting to Happen
RECEIVED Wed., May 11, 2005
Dear Editor,
The Keep Austin Weird campaign is an effort to preserve and empower the small, individual noncorporate businesses in Austin. Having lived in California, Arizona, Nevada, and now Texas, I found the campaign to be original and refreshing. I have an aversion to uniformity and enjoyed Austin's eclectic businesses, people, and music. After watching Austin in the last five years, I have to say: Drop it. Austin is not weird, and the evidence should be making the ubiquitous bumper stickers an embarrassment. How is an 11pm noise ordinance, ignoring free markets and imposing a smoking ban on every single bar owner, current developments that pave over South Park Meadows, the surrounding area of the Backyard, and putting New York style shops in SoCo weird? The only thing weird about this town is its vanity. Austin, you are Dallas-Fort Worth waiting to happen. Get over yourself.
The Keep Austin Weird campaign is an effort to preserve and empower the small, individual noncorporate businesses in Austin. Having lived in California, Arizona, Nevada, and now Texas, I found the campaign to be original and refreshing. I have an aversion to uniformity and enjoyed Austin's eclectic businesses, people, and music. After watching Austin in the last five years, I have to say: Drop it. Austin is not weird, and the evidence should be making the ubiquitous bumper stickers an embarrassment. How is an 11pm noise ordinance, ignoring free markets and imposing a smoking ban on every single bar owner, current developments that pave over South Park Meadows, the surrounding area of the Backyard, and putting New York style shops in SoCo weird? The only thing weird about this town is its vanity. Austin, you are Dallas-Fort Worth waiting to happen. Get over yourself.
Chris Gray
[Editor's note: Letter-writer Chris Gray is not Chronicle Music writer Christopher Gray.]