Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thirteen Odd or Little Known Things about Austin

1. Austin sits on a fault line knows as the Balcones Fault. We have actually had earthquakes but the most recent ones have been in the panhandle and did not seem to be related to the Balcones Fault.



2. A lot of the city sits over caves. That is right, caves. We don't think about it very much until someone gets lost in one.



3. The 3oth Parallel skirts the southern most part of town. (Some maps make it look as though it runs right through my house.) It also runs through the Great Pyramid.



4. The downtown hotel where I work is haunted.



5. Although Austin is known far and wide for its live music scene, it is also the breakfast taco capital of the world. You can get both at the same time if you know where to go.When people move away from here, breakfast tacos are usually high on the list of things they miss most. It seems that in South Austin, there is a taco trailer on every other corner. We is damn serious 'bout our breakfast tacos.



6. South Austin is hippy central. We call anything north of where Loop 1 and 183 meet "North Dallas."



7. Loop 1 is referred to by locals as 'Mopac.' This is because it runs along the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks.



8. Manchaca is pronounced "Manchack".



9. Pecos is pronounced "Paycus".



10. I can't phonetically spell the way Pedernales is pronounced.



11. Our mayor's name is Will Wynn. Can you imagine running for office against someone with that name?



12. Austin is now the 16th largest city in the nation after having at least doubled in size in the past ten years.



13. Real estate here is no longer all that much cheaper than California.

5 comments:

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I didn't know any of those things, so I am now 13 times smarter.

Thank you for making that happen.

LittlePea said...

I've always wanted to visit Austin since one of my neighbors went there for vacation and two months later moved there, they loved it that much....

Unknown said...

Heart, you are so easy to please.

LP,that happens a lot. I know a lot of people who came her for SXSW or some other event and then moved here.

FriĆ°vin said...

One of the things that stresses me out the most is the prospect of having to leave Austin if I lose my job. Hopefully it won't come to that. I love Austin! The one thing that works to my advantage is the fact that I bought my house 10 years ago and a few years back I switched to a 15 year mortgage.

And you are so right about the breakfast tacos. We have a lady who comes to the office each day with a load of them for $1.50.

On the days when I work at home I sure miss 'em!

Unknown said...

Kona,
I would not be too worried about having to leave here. It is not the same town it was 10 years ago although it does still have a little of its old charm if you mind how big it is getting. If you do .eave, you can probably sell your house for a bundle and travel the world for a while or reinvest somewhere else.
I have a feeling that your company will land on its feet and that your job will be OK if you still want it.