What was the catalyst that made Austin grow to be the city it is today? (Houston: university, living in)

[JBAinTexas]

All those businesses moving in, new businesses opening up, jobs increase...

I remember Austin in the 1980s. Now you see Austin today. It's not just Austin, but also the surrounding cities such as Pflugerville, Round Rock, Buda, Georgetown...

What sparked it? Was it Dell? Was it SXSW? What happened that made Austin so packed?

[CarnivalGal]

Large employers like Dell, UT, the state, etc. certainly helped, but I think the low cost of living (at the time) was probably the biggest factor.

In actuality, the cost of living in the metro area is still pretty low, relatively speaking. Areas close to downtown have become really expensive, but that explains why areas such as Round Rock and Cedar Park are growing so much. Williamson County is growing faster than Travis now. I actually read recently that the population of Williamson County will surpass that of Travis pretty soon, with Round Rock leading the way.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by JBAinTexas

All those businesses moving in, new businesses opening up, jobs increase...

I remember Austin in the 1980s. Now you see Austin today. It's not just Austin, but also the surrounding cities such as Pflugerville, Round Rock, Buda, Georgetown...

What sparked it? Was it Dell? Was it SXSW? What happened that made Austin so packed?

I think it was MCC. It pretty much kicked off the tech boom in austin.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/s...01/story3.html

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Austin has been booming pretty much its entire existence, except for a few years here and there where the city might not have registered any growth, but overall, Austin has always been and is in a constant state of boom. They cant build the roads fast enough.

But, only in recent years has Austin come to seem like a big town. I noticed it the most when the skyline changed so dramatically and what seemed like virtually over night. But the people are still friendly here. That hasn't changed. Even the newcomers to the area are friendly. There's still good vibes in the air all over Austin.

[R1070]

I wish Austin would work on a streetcar system for it's downtown area. That would make such a big difference.

[Hopeful for Life]

Originally Posted by JBAinTexas

All those businesses moving in, new businesses opening up, jobs increase...

I remember Austin in the 1980s. Now you see Austin today. It's not just Austin, but also the surrounding cities such as Pflugerville, Round Rock, Buda, Georgetown...

What sparked it? Was it Dell? Was it SXSW? What happened that made Austin so packed?

Dell was the beginning of it. Once it attracted the rich Silicon Valley people to move over here, Austin changed forever.

[centralaustinite]

It didn't start with Dell, it started with IBM picking Austin as a manufacturing site for their typewriters! Then MCC and Sematech. Took hard work by JJ "Jake" Pickle our Congressman (district went from Austin to the Gulf back then) and Pike Powers to leverage the assets of the University to attract tech companies. This brought semiconductor fabs and equipment manufacturers, at around the same time, Dell took off.

High quality workers, low cost of land and electricity, tons of networking and effort by many players.

[cBach]

The start was IBM. The story that I was always told was that the Chamber of Commerce brought an IBM executive out on Lake Travis and he wasn't expecting something so nice. It happened to be during a high water time and everything was full and green. That convinced the IBM executive to locate IBM in Austin.

MCC was a big catalyst but being chosen by IBM set the "gold standard". At that time, Big Blue could do no wrong so high tech companies followed wherever Big Blue setup. Dell was an aberration of sorts but helped us at least during the PC era.

The natural topography has also helped. Lakeway was a retirement destination since its founding, as was Sun City. We have been attracting retirees from Houston and Dallas ever since. These are big dollar retirees that otherwise would have gone to Colorado or the coast.

SxSW put us on the map as far as a entertainment destination, and F1 has put us on the global map.

All of these specific conditions conspired to cause Austin to boom as it is today. However, IBM set us on the map.

[Hopeful for Life]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

It didn't start with Dell, it started with IBM picking Austin as a manufacturing site for their typewriters! Then MCC and Sematech. Took hard work by JJ "Jake" Pickle our Congressman (district went from Austin to the Gulf back then) and Pike Powers to leverage the assets of the University to attract tech companies. This brought semiconductor fabs and equipment manufacturers, at around the same time, Dell took off.

High quality workers, low cost of land and electricity, tons of networking and effort by many players.

They might have started the ball rolling, but don't feel that Dell is what brought all of the calif geeks and "cool masses" of people from other parts that have flooded the area ever since? I lived in Austin in the 80s and visited often in the early-mid 90s. I didn't feel the changes in Austin until the early 00s, when things started to get expensive and old landmarks started to disappear.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Austin97

I think it was MCC. It pretty much kicked off the tech boom in austin.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/s...01/story3.html

That was gong to be my answer as well. It came down to Austin and Madison WI as finalist cities, Austin got it, and now Austin is Austin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microe...gy_Corporation

Edit: To be fair, there was some tech already in Austin, which may have helped Austin land MCC, but MSS created a gravitational pull that would not have existed without it.