This Is Texas
Why the capital should rightfully be Houston, not Austin.
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31 comments
Friday, February 1st, 2013, 2:13 pm
Sondra Gail says:
I Love Houston. I’m From Houston. And I have NO desire to bring That level of politics to my lovely city. We’ve got enough BS, thank you.
Friday, February 1st, 2013, 10:33 am
Daniel says:
Mr. Lomax, if you were to present your case to the government of the state in the manner that you just have, or to be aired over tv and radio as you have just written, your own article would make a mockery of your efforts. The general tone of the article makes it completely distracting for people to even take your points seriously. I happen to agree with you on a few points, disagree on others; however, because of the tone that seems to be set in this article and the pathetic reach of some of your points (e.g. the Astrodome being the state capitol building... REALLY?!). Good try and I’m sure well intentioned. Stick to the facts next time and quit sounding like an angry old woman that nags about not being as beautiful as she once was.
Thursday, January 31st, 2013, 12:11 pm
juan says:
Lomax’s premise found in the first paragraph is a laughable one. In 33 of the 50 U.S. states, the state capital is not the state’s most populous city. A simple wikipedia search can tell you that. Faulty premise aside, this article is obviously written with a voice of anger and frustration that I find highly distracting from any real thought provoking observations or interesting view points (see "douchebox condos" comment.) Overall the lack of maturity and reflection displayed here is embarrassing. I would think Texas Monthly would hold their writers to higher standards.
Thursday, January 31st, 2013, 8:28 am
sean says:
According to John Lomax: Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé = great, transcendent art. This article is hilarious! John has a bright future ahead of him in the world of comedy. Side note: I went to Houston once and I got yellow fever :(
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, 7:58 pm
jahory says:
Michael-Houston’s economy is far more diversified what with the world’s largest and most advanced medical center, oil and gas, manufacturing, and the second busiest commercial port in America.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, 1:31 pm
Alan says:
Sara, You depict Austin’s snobbery perfectly when you say DO NOT COME HERE. Ah yes, I’ve seen your "Don’t Move Here" t-shirts. Houston’s atmosphere is many times more welcoming... In fact, we don’t have an "Austin-worthy" vetting process for entrance into this city. Now, it’s not a Utopian bliss like Austin is, but let’s face it... we have a much better attitude than you guys do.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, 1:16 pm
Alan says:
You know that feeling when someone’s better than you at something but you also know that they’re right and it eats you up inside? Yeh, well, I don’t really get that feeling when Austinites constantly let me know how much better Austin is than Houston. I’m really not one bit bothered by it cause I just don’t get the fuss made over Austin. There is no interest in Austin for me and I’m what most people would call a left-leaning, coffee-shop loitering, hipster-dufus.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, 11:52 am
Sara says:
Yes, please participate in the political process!!! Let’s change something so incredibly important as the state capital when our public school system continues to fail our children and society. I hope it will keep awful people out of a wonderful and appreciated town. Please take my word, if you don’t like Austin... DO NOT COME HERE. REPEAT... GO AWAY.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, 11:32 am
Michael says:
Austin does have an arts deficit, no doubt. Everything else here is pretty much regional trolling. Texas State is every bit as close to being tier one as U of H, and Texas Tech will likely beat both to the punch. Austin is also the fastest growing city in the US. It’s diversified tech industry is not as heavily reliant upon oil and gas. Anyone who has issues finding authentic ethnic dining in Austin simply hasn’t tried to find anything outside of downtown. I won’t even go into Houston’s basic ugliness as a landscape. There’s a reason that pic is so small in the article.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, 11:04 am
jahory says:
There is nothing really weird about Austin except for the fact that it is a relatively small metro yet has some of the worst traffic in the nation, and certainly much more than Houston, a city about 6x larger. Austin is not weird; Austin is full of rich white kids who come from suburbs of Dallas and Houston and have never had any real urban experience in their short lives. 6th st is so incredibly lame and stupid. Wtf is the point of jumping from one stupid bar to the next when they all have the same 20 year old douchebag dude-bros and chunky skanks with fake blonde hair? The dining scene in Austin is absolutely pathetic and if Austin were half as cool as it thinks it is, they would have a huge neighborhood like Houston’s Sharpstown or the new Chinatown on Bellaire blvd, where you can find literally hundreds of locally owned AUTHENTIC ethnic restaurants (not some whitewashed fusion concept crap you find on atx). Salvadorean, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Somalian, Nigerian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, all types of REAL Chinese (sichuan, guangdong, shandong, etc), Taiwanese, AN ACTUAL SUSHI PLACE OWNED AND OPERATED BY REAL JAPANESE PEOPLE, Singaporean, Cambodian, Indonesian, Thai...and then a hop and a skip away is the Hillcroft area with Pakistani, Persian, Lebanese, Indian, Central Asian, Jewish, African, Egyptian, Turkish, and other types of places. AUSTIN HAS NOTHING LIKE THIS. And Austin people act like UT is the best school ever, but Rice University is one of the top #15 schools in the nation and UT doesnt even make the list. The Austin music scene is sickening. You can hang around the Heights or Montrose in Htown and see plenty of douchebag singer-songwriters while drinking Lone Star on some patio...dont need to go to Atx for that. The rest of the scene is a bunch of lame-ass indie type bands. AND ANYONE WHO SAYS AUSTIN HAS BETTER WEATHER IS A COMPLETE MORON. Houston and Austin have nearly identical weather. Austin is still freakin humid and is usually a few degrees hotter than Houston in the summer. i mean, seriously, it will be 105 in Austin with %50 humidity and 98 in Houston with %60 humidity but these Austin-tards act like Houston has the bad weather because, like I said, they are sheltered rich white kids who have no real urban experience. Check the weather sometime and you will see that Austin and Houston have incredibly similar weather. Wtf do you expect, really? THEY ARE ONLY 170 MILES APART. its not like that distance means Austin is some oasis.
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013, 11:07 pm
Boodro says:
Nope. Not a long as Rick Perry is in office. Keep the garbage in Austin.
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013, 9:56 pm
JP says:
I think the author is mostly joking about actually moving the capital. But he does make some great points about Austin compared to Houston. Austin is extremely overrated and overhyped, while Houston is underrated, under-recognized, and generally bashed for no legit reasons. Austin has all of the heat, traffic, most of the sprawl and stripmalls Houston does, yet pretends like it does not. I also agree Houston is now much weirder. And certainly blows away Austin on culture/arts, outside of live music. But the worst thing of all is the Austin snobbery! So incredibly insular about anything in Texas outside of Austin. Look up "Austintude" in urban dictionary to see what I mean.
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013, 1:38 pm
Mosquito Magnet says:
I could not agree more with this article. It is spot on with every point made! Austin is now a lost city.
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013, 11:50 am
Brian says:
Houston also has IAH Airport with better direct connections to everywhere.
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 4:34 pm
EzOnTheEyez says:
Houstonians are fine playing NYC to Austin’s Albany; Los Angeles to Austin’s Sacramento; Chicago to Austin’s Springfield; and Miami to Austin’s Tallahassee. We are in a long tradition of great world-class cities that thrive either in spite of or because they lack the seat of state government which is instead sluffed off onto peculiar lesser cities as a consolation prize. The state government would just take up valuable real estate presently being employed to do much more productive things - like making the global economy go ’round.
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 3:35 pm
MoJo says:
lol...austin is cool but i enjoyed it a looot more in the 90’s...it’s definitely gotten too big for it’s britches as far as traffic and overall identity...anyways every major event that i attend in austin i meet more houstonians than any other TX natives...but as a native houstonian i wouldn’t want those embarrassing TX politicians in my town anyway...keep’em in austin so i wouldn’t be tempted to slab one of’em in a supermarket or something
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 1:39 pm
John says:
Austin is a nice little town. Unfortunately after you’ve been there a few days the endless drone of the natives telling you how hip and cool it is becomes downright painful. As for live music capital of the world, I’m from Boston, so give me a freakin’ break.
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 12:49 pm
someone else says:
As for Austin not being a city worthy of the title "Live Music Capital of the World" - I think ACL and SXSW would beg to differ (OK, so maybe the "of the World" part is a bit of a hyperbole). urban sprawl that is Houston. I love Houston’s world-class museums, but I choose Austin’s scenic landscape and walkable/bikeable, small city vibe over the urban sprawl and humid flatlands of Houston. That being said, what does any of it have to do with determining which city is more fit to be the seat of government? By your logic, there should be state capitals in NYC, Detroit, LA, Chicago, Miami, Seattle, Portland, etc. But alas, they are in Albany, Lansing, Sacramento, Springfield, Tallahassee, Olympia, Salem, etc. I do realize this article is equal parts humor piece and "I heart Houston" piece and not much else, but you have to see the logic in not always having the capital of a state located in the most populated city. Austin is more centrally located(yes I know Houston is a port city and Austin isn’t, but capitals don’t need ports to function -- this isn’t the 19th century).
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 12:06 pm
Tommmmm says:
The Capitol obviously ought to be Gonzales, because of its great historical significance.
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 11:53 am
Tiffany says:
I wonder if this is how Solange feels of Beyonce. The less popular, and jealous sibling that wishes she was the popular one.
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 11:42 am
Nrojb says:
TROLLOLOLOLOL
Monday, January 28th, 2013, 10:18 am
MrPickins says:
I assume the author also thinks NYC should be the nation’s capital as well...
Sunday, January 27th, 2013, 8:11 am
HoustonHippies says:
Man, look at these comments... any actual rebuttals to this article, or are you Austinites just mad because Houston is, in fact, weirder?
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 10:54 pm
TXHistory says:
You sure can try to move the capital to Houston. It was tried once before. Hence Austin’s statue of Angelina Eberly. It was as epic a failure as this article’s preposterous argument.
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 4:52 pm
Kay says:
...ridiculous. I’m laughing. Oh, and Paula--your comment is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, outside of this article. Wow TM, really? This is how far downhill your publication has gone?
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 4:07 pm
Derp Derp says:
I’ve heard just as many comparisons about why Dallas should be the capitol as well. But I can understand just how credible this article is by the way the writer just screams "I <3 Houston" sentence after sentence. Let me show you all the fucks I give about your opinion of Austin...
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 3:52 pm
dkbmon says:
Hell I’m an Austinite and I’m all for this. Get rid of Ricky, Yee Haw
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 2:00 pm
Stu says:
Well done, Mr. Lomax. Fun, erudite article.
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 1:09 pm
pingpaul says:
To the Lege and Gov. Rick, our coyote-shootin’, high-hog livin’ govenor: "Here’s your hat. Don’t miss the bus!"
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 10:50 am
Omar says:
This article was a waste of my time. Really? Moving the Capital? Dumbest idea ever.
Saturday, January 26th, 2013, 8:33 am
paula diana scheiner says:
"Nobody" thinks of Austin when discussing the cities in TX. All we ever hear of is Houston! Paula Diana Scheiner (a transplanted Yankee in FL)
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