> Texas is a gerrymandered purple state, not a red state

Man, I just don't get this at all. Sure, there may be some democratic areas in the large cities, but they pretty much have zero say in the local state governance. Look at the recent walk outs and leaving the state only to return to have the legislation they were protesting pass with nothing they could do. There is no democratic power. Even those large cities that lean left have attempted to buck the system by passing local regulations that the state then sues them to prevent those liberal policies from taking place. As an example, Dallas passed decriminalization for marijuana, but the governor said no via law suits. This idea of Texas being purple just comes across as farcical and out of touch. I say this as someone that grew up in Dallas, lived in LA, and now lives back in Dallas. You sound just like someone from Austin.

I know plenty of women that are very unhappy with the state for not dissimilar reasons as the GP with friends that have moved out of state specifically for the government's apparent disdain for women.

Just to add to your Texas comment: there are a few larger states that have distinct hubs where people think so differently, that they might as well be living in different states. People who haven't lived in these states don't really have a good feel for how different the internal cultures can be.

California: we know how SoCal is culturally worlds apart from Norcal, and both are worlds apart from inland California.

North Carolina: culturally Charlotte ≠ Research Triangle ≠ Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point. There is no single NC culture.

Florida: the stereotypes exist, but I've visited different metros in Florida and they couldn't be more different. South Florida (Miami) is very Latin while the panhandle (Tallahassee, Pensacola) couldn't be less Latin -- it's mostly southern culture. Orlando, Tampa are also way different.

Florida in fact shouldn't be governable -- every part of the state has different interests. Yet it somehow works.

> Every single urban area in Texas is now heavily aligned with the Democratic party, and the vast majority of those areas are affordable places to build a life and build wealth.

How much does that matter with the state legislature firmly in Republican control? The legislature isn't shy about making state laws to stop cities when the cities try to do Democrat things locally.

Purple, eh? Guess the blue ones weren't around when the various abortion issues were voted on. The OB/GYN population must not like the sun.

Texas policy is actively hostile to women and the poor (healthcare, labor protections, etc). You’re probably fine if of means, and not a woman of reproductive age. Everyone else is existing in Texas as an economic human factory farm.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/20...

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/13/10-states-worst-quality-of-l...

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-miscar...

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-maternal-mortality-...

https://www.propublica.org/series/life-of-the-mother

Honestly it may be 50-50 purple in population, but the policies are what affect people the most. I’m not even worried about Democrat vs Republican, as I’m not associated to either party, and both have their share of crazy.

There are a number of laws in Texas that make it a non-option for many of us.

I've lived in Texas. It is exactly as bad as people say, and I will never move back. Regardless of how nice Austin is, there is only so much I can tolerate an actively hostile state government to my existence.

I've been there, it sucks, i will never move there

I don't know why you're being junked, you said nothing that any Texas resident wouldn't agree with. Shit, we have two of the largest airlines in the world that as an industry have always been incredibly welcoming to the LGBT community.

The only thing that sucks about Texas is the property taxes, other than that it is a very welcoming state with great infra and comfortable standard of living.

Is it this state people are talking about? This isn't my center of anything.

"Racist clauses in property deeds can’t be enforced, but still exist. A Texas bill would make it easier to remove them."

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/17/texas-property-deeds...

"Racist Clauses Are Common In Local Zoning Documents. Several Texas Bills Would Make It Easier To Change That." https://www.kut.org/texas/2021-05-14/racist-clauses-are-comm...

The real reason companies are moving to Texas (the casual racism is just a bonus)? Court shopping for their arbitration clauses. If you sue/have an arbitration dispute with a Texas based company they have strategically located their headquarters in the areas with the most 'court shopped' judges that will rule for the corps.

And even worse than establishing corporate headquarters as a form of court shopping, creations of corporate courts. https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-business-courts

And the new Texas hotness? Why yes, private courts. https://www.steptoe.com/en/news-publications/private-judges-...

Refuse to do business with Texas corporations. They are un-American and take away so many of your rights when you do business with companies based there.

Some folks find Howdy Arabia to be a pleasant, rewarding place to live. To me, I think roughly half of the US working population would dispute this, as they would dispute a discussion of any other place. It's just that the disputants change based on where you're talking about.

It's warm. It's dry, and there's some evidence the power system isn't up to the task. Their call.

Fewer rights.

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The second largest state by population has the second largest population of a subset of the population? You don't say.

Y'all are welcome to Washington if you can stand the gloom.

All people who can self govern are allowed in local pools.

So that puts them in the middle? For such a massive state, regression to the median sounds likely.

I have a mirror feeling about Chicago: very good city, but I wouldn’t want to live there due to the winters.

Geographic negative polarization has become far too entrenched in online discourse.

I don't expect it to displace NYC but it's a good shift and it's good to have additional clusters arise.

For example, if you were always specialized in Energy, Houston/Dallas would have always been comparable to NYC, or if you were specialized in TMT then LA and SF were similar.

Reading between the lines, I'm assuming Austin was chosen not just for QoL but also to solidify an Energy and probably AI and Data Center thesis as well. Also, I'd assume most backoffice roles like Accounting, Compliance, IT, etc would be shifted to Austin similar to what JPMC did in Dallas.

It’s always amazing to see people who have a certain view of California or San Francisco because of what they’ve been told all their lives to finally come here and realize that it’s actually a very nice place to live. Like San Francisco is one of the best cities to live in (if you can afford to). Why would you not want a nice weather year long, great food scene, access to outdoors, good employment prospects, walkable/bikeable streets and low crime rates (yes San Francisco has very low crime rates as compared to any other major city despite what the media headlines say).

Funny, I moved to SoCal (Orange County) from the Seattle area and have also found it to be a huge improvement in everything except air and water quality. Can’t have everything I suppose. But the politics are much more sane, crime is low, and there are so many parks and playgrounds that can be used year round. The city government listens to residents (no, we don’t want dense housing, we want a big park) and although cost of living / taxes are high, we get a great quality of life in exchange.

Every forum with overly online people goes this way. I’ve stopped visiting Reddit, and let Google summarize their content for me so I don’t have to wade into the sewage. HN isn’t as bad yet but it has noticeably gotten worse since the 2024 election.

Is it intended to be a tech news aggregator though?

Highest COL in the country, a lot of it due to regulations, zoning and prop 13 which prevent density and building. Paris has the same area as SF but 3X the population.

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Democrat = Liberal = Progressive in these folks minds. I think that already starts the discussion off on a challenging foot.

And have increased their standing to the world’s fourth largest economy. Absolutely terrible.