I really appreciate this take on your city, it really is the common story of the path of this country. I am a small town rural Michigan kid (Sturgis) (and was largely informed by a lot of time in Chicago where my mother was born and raised. After college I inadvertently landed in Hermosa Beach, CA (next to Los Angeles) in 1990 and was still a hippy, punk rock, surfer, boho community with cheaper rent than Chicago, which I just left in the middle of winter, very comparable in its own way to how you describe Austin in the same era. It was sort of the suburban Venice Beach.
Within just a few years Hermosa became so upscale it was barely recognizable, the beach was always great, of course but the stank of privilege was upon it and I left after 20 years. I watched the whole town flip over a couple of times, kids out of high school could not afford to rent around there, kids out of college could not afford to buy there, the people that made bank and sold their beloved homes could never afford to move back.
I moved to Prescott, AZ, a strange 10-year experiment, and when I moved back to LA (LA proper this time - west side) the weekly paper I would frequently contribute to as a freelancer asked me to write as much as I could for then as covid had decimated the staff - so I spent a lot of time 'round there and covered a couple of big music festivals in Redondo Beach and realized, I only knew less than five people in a town I lived for 20 years and literally knew hundreds as I am a musician, writer, managed & played on local softball teams, drank in a lot of bars - all gone! The whole city had flipped over again, where else does something like this happen?
Turns out, everywhere. In the 10 years I spent in the mile-high city of Prescott, AZ I saw the same thing. The city has become a retirement destination with the demographics of Boca Raton, it's full of 2nd & 3rd homes, entire upscale neighborhoods are empty in the winter, they bring nothing to the community save for wealth management and healthcare. Therefore, the kids that grow up there can no longer afford to live in Prescott proper and are forced to move down the mountain to the more 'methy' Prescott Valley & Chino Valley. More severely, almost no one who works in Sedona can afford to live there, much like Santa Barbara, CA, Aspen, CO, etc.
I thought that would be about as remarkable as that would be until I spent all of last summer where I grew up in "Michiana" - Sturgis, MI - LaGrange, IN, my Dad died the previous xmas and it was on me to deal with all of his things. I went to college at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, from meeting them in the dorms, a lot of my college buddies were from the upscale 'suburb' of Kalamazoo, Portage - those guys were a lot more spoiled than any of us smaller town kids and they always considered us hillbilly-ish and we called them the Portage punks, inferring they were spoiled little sissies!
During my travels there last summer, I kept running into young folks and would ask them if they grew up around there and I lost count of how many said they grew up in Portage but could not afford to buy there so they were slummin' it down in Sturgis! With glee I contacted my old Portage Punk friends and told them the 'horrifying' news that the punks were moving to Sturgis - something unfathomable in the days of yore.
Where does it end? Something has to give, doesn't it? There is no way this can be sustained. This contributed to my return to LA, while all the gripes about this place are legit, after 10 years in rural USA I could no longer tolerate the level of willful ignorance and intolerance - it blew my mind when I moved to AZ, I had no idea it was that bad (same where I grew up) and when chump got in it gave so many the confidence to let there racist flags fly, 'white power' signs in yards and business'.
I've been back in CA for almost five years and couldn't be happier relative to where the hell else would I go? I figured this economy is bound to crash hard and while there's finally more folks leaving CA than coming in and I would thrive once again in LA like the cockroaches! I'm setting myself to go-ex pat in a few years so I am enjoying what is left of the American Ruse.
I can't believe that only now that I made the connection that you are the author of one of my favorite books "Empire of the Summer Moon" - I had my maps out following the movements of that whole story, immensely fascinating and it filled so many gaps in my historical knowledge. I had carried that book around as a 'too read' for a lot of years but I never got to it but finally got to it right before "The American Buffalo" Ken Burns documentary aired and thankfully so, the stories dovetailed nicely for me.
I always think of the story of the Buffalo, the Native Americans, the Slaves, the atomic bombs, all the wars under the lie of "for democracy" every time a politician gets pardoned like Nixon and folks still talk like that today, "oh it would be to hard for the country to weather a rich white leader being prosecuted for their murderous sins so let's let them off the hook so they can live their lives in luxury and privilege instead of rotting in prison where they deserve to be. If Johnson and Nixon were held responsible for their lies and war crimes, I doubt the Bush II cabal would've had the balls to do what they did in Iraq. If Obama would've indicted those criminals as promised in his campaign I seriously doubt chump & co. would have the balls to do what they are doing, and so it goes...
I digress...
Thank you for the book, thank you for the substack - I've read 'em over the last few years but only now made the book authorship connection - I bought it a while back after loving "Once They Moved Like the Wind" by David Roberts - I was hoping your book would take me on a lovely trip like that one did, I was not disappointed - bravo!
Good timing too, I have to spend a week in San Antonio starting Thursday, was thinking about going to Austin but feared exactly what you wrote, about the state of the city, while I know I would have a blast checking it out I decided I'd rather look at the Gulf and am going to Corpus Christi the last couple days. I've done two x-country drives in the last four years and the evidence of the downfall of so many towns being reduced to a Dollar Store and/or a Walmart along with what happened to real estate in destination places like Austin and those I wrote about, I crave not witnessing any more of that if I don't have to!
It has been in my mind to make a video of a west Texas inspired song I wrote ("Lights of Marfa") while touring through there when I road managed folk singer Ramblin' Jack Elliott - the local cowboys out of Alpine - we were there for the cowboy poetry gathering at Sul Ross U. - took us out to Big Bend and Terlingua (circa late 90's) and I've been fascinated ever since. I had the Jerry Jeff Walker album but standing there in the Starlight Theater myself was a trip for this Michigan kid.
I just did a little research to see what was going on 'round there in case I had extra time to explore/scout - I had no idea what was going on there, especially during/since the pandemic - just from the current photos & videos I saw with all the campers/glampers/shabby B&B, it was a little heartbreaking! Both for the folks that made the town what it was & as well there being nothing serene to shoot there now with what surrounds it! I see Marfa has similar challenges. Progress...
Great piece of writing! I was there a while in the 1980s. Maybe I should have stayed! Though everywhere is great - in your twenties. I wonder if in thirty years people will describe how great various places were, back in 2025! And be right. Thanks - always great essays!
I really appreciate this take on your city, it really is the common story of the path of this country. I am a small town rural Michigan kid (Sturgis) (and was largely informed by a lot of time in Chicago where my mother was born and raised. After college I inadvertently landed in Hermosa Beach, CA (next to Los Angeles) in 1990 and was still a hippy, punk rock, surfer, boho community with cheaper rent than Chicago, which I just left in the middle of winter, very comparable in its own way to how you describe Austin in the same era. It was sort of the suburban Venice Beach.
Within just a few years Hermosa became so upscale it was barely recognizable, the beach was always great, of course but the stank of privilege was upon it and I left after 20 years. I watched the whole town flip over a couple of times, kids out of high school could not afford to rent around there, kids out of college could not afford to buy there, the people that made bank and sold their beloved homes could never afford to move back.
I moved to Prescott, AZ, a strange 10-year experiment, and when I moved back to LA (LA proper this time - west side) the weekly paper I would frequently contribute to as a freelancer asked me to write as much as I could for then as covid had decimated the staff - so I spent a lot of time 'round there and covered a couple of big music festivals in Redondo Beach and realized, I only knew less than five people in a town I lived for 20 years and literally knew hundreds as I am a musician, writer, managed & played on local softball teams, drank in a lot of bars - all gone! The whole city had flipped over again, where else does something like this happen?
Turns out, everywhere. In the 10 years I spent in the mile-high city of Prescott, AZ I saw the same thing. The city has become a retirement destination with the demographics of Boca Raton, it's full of 2nd & 3rd homes, entire upscale neighborhoods are empty in the winter, they bring nothing to the community save for wealth management and healthcare. Therefore, the kids that grow up there can no longer afford to live in Prescott proper and are forced to move down the mountain to the more 'methy' Prescott Valley & Chino Valley. More severely, almost no one who works in Sedona can afford to live there, much like Santa Barbara, CA, Aspen, CO, etc.
I thought that would be about as remarkable as that would be until I spent all of last summer where I grew up in "Michiana" - Sturgis, MI - LaGrange, IN, my Dad died the previous xmas and it was on me to deal with all of his things. I went to college at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, from meeting them in the dorms, a lot of my college buddies were from the upscale 'suburb' of Kalamazoo, Portage - those guys were a lot more spoiled than any of us smaller town kids and they always considered us hillbilly-ish and we called them the Portage punks, inferring they were spoiled little sissies!
During my travels there last summer, I kept running into young folks and would ask them if they grew up around there and I lost count of how many said they grew up in Portage but could not afford to buy there so they were slummin' it down in Sturgis! With glee I contacted my old Portage Punk friends and told them the 'horrifying' news that the punks were moving to Sturgis - something unfathomable in the days of yore.
Where does it end? Something has to give, doesn't it? There is no way this can be sustained. This contributed to my return to LA, while all the gripes about this place are legit, after 10 years in rural USA I could no longer tolerate the level of willful ignorance and intolerance - it blew my mind when I moved to AZ, I had no idea it was that bad (same where I grew up) and when chump got in it gave so many the confidence to let there racist flags fly, 'white power' signs in yards and business'.
I've been back in CA for almost five years and couldn't be happier relative to where the hell else would I go? I figured this economy is bound to crash hard and while there's finally more folks leaving CA than coming in and I would thrive once again in LA like the cockroaches! I'm setting myself to go-ex pat in a few years so I am enjoying what is left of the American Ruse.
I can't believe that only now that I made the connection that you are the author of one of my favorite books "Empire of the Summer Moon" - I had my maps out following the movements of that whole story, immensely fascinating and it filled so many gaps in my historical knowledge. I had carried that book around as a 'too read' for a lot of years but I never got to it but finally got to it right before "The American Buffalo" Ken Burns documentary aired and thankfully so, the stories dovetailed nicely for me.
I always think of the story of the Buffalo, the Native Americans, the Slaves, the atomic bombs, all the wars under the lie of "for democracy" every time a politician gets pardoned like Nixon and folks still talk like that today, "oh it would be to hard for the country to weather a rich white leader being prosecuted for their murderous sins so let's let them off the hook so they can live their lives in luxury and privilege instead of rotting in prison where they deserve to be. If Johnson and Nixon were held responsible for their lies and war crimes, I doubt the Bush II cabal would've had the balls to do what they did in Iraq. If Obama would've indicted those criminals as promised in his campaign I seriously doubt chump & co. would have the balls to do what they are doing, and so it goes...
I digress...
Thank you for the book, thank you for the substack - I've read 'em over the last few years but only now made the book authorship connection - I bought it a while back after loving "Once They Moved Like the Wind" by David Roberts - I was hoping your book would take me on a lovely trip like that one did, I was not disappointed - bravo!
Good timing too, I have to spend a week in San Antonio starting Thursday, was thinking about going to Austin but feared exactly what you wrote, about the state of the city, while I know I would have a blast checking it out I decided I'd rather look at the Gulf and am going to Corpus Christi the last couple days. I've done two x-country drives in the last four years and the evidence of the downfall of so many towns being reduced to a Dollar Store and/or a Walmart along with what happened to real estate in destination places like Austin and those I wrote about, I crave not witnessing any more of that if I don't have to!
It has been in my mind to make a video of a west Texas inspired song I wrote ("Lights of Marfa") while touring through there when I road managed folk singer Ramblin' Jack Elliott - the local cowboys out of Alpine - we were there for the cowboy poetry gathering at Sul Ross U. - took us out to Big Bend and Terlingua (circa late 90's) and I've been fascinated ever since. I had the Jerry Jeff Walker album but standing there in the Starlight Theater myself was a trip for this Michigan kid.
I just did a little research to see what was going on 'round there in case I had extra time to explore/scout - I had no idea what was going on there, especially during/since the pandemic - just from the current photos & videos I saw with all the campers/glampers/shabby B&B, it was a little heartbreaking! Both for the folks that made the town what it was & as well there being nothing serene to shoot there now with what surrounds it! I see Marfa has similar challenges. Progress...
Garrick, I absolutely loved reading this. So wonderful to hear your take on these towns around the country.
Thank you Kira!
Great piece of writing! I was there a while in the 1980s. Maybe I should have stayed! Though everywhere is great - in your twenties. I wonder if in thirty years people will describe how great various places were, back in 2025! And be right. Thanks - always great essays!
I think about that whenever I look at my kids.