They like New Austin and Old Austin

Credit

Turk Pipkin with the insight. “People aren’t moving away,” the Austin performer and benefactor said recently. “They aren’t even threatening to move.”

He’s right. For three decades after the Armadillo World Headquarters closed its doors in 1980, Austinites blustered noisily about moving to Marfa, Montana or Mexico if just one more thing changed about their hallowed haven.

No more. Or so rarely that neither Pipkin nor I could remember the last time someone had made that threat. Has something altered subtly?

Maybe Austinites actually do like an active, high-density downtown AND intimate, carefully tended neighborhoods.

Perhaps our citizens love live music AND they will just as likely go out these days for fine food, club dancing, the arts and locally crafted movies, and — yes! — parties that bring folks closer together in a fastspinning world.

Maybe they cheer big-time college sports AND also minorleague pro teams.

They can treasure our funky shops, dives and food trailers AND also appreciate the sleek new ways to live, shop, work and play here.

Perhaps they like a city where people readily speak their minds AND are not required to hate the folks who disagree with them.

And given the recent cultural scare of Formula One, maybe they like welcoming people from other countries to our doorstep AND love that, in turn, our artists, athletes, thinkers and charities serve as ambassadors for Austin.

If so, let’s hope they cotton to the other fun, fit, smart, open, kind folks that live here AND they want to be remain a part of that world.