Lots of people like to visit Austin during holidays and festivals. That's fine with me because I would visit here too. However, and I hope I'm wrong about this, but there seems to be a gradually developing sense of annoying entitlement among visitors here (especially during ACL) that was once limited to New Yorkers flooding New England (or so the legend goes) with their presence during the peak of fall foliage (whatever that is). It's not really hard to tell who is probably from out of town. Here are the signs:
- Taking a group picture, with the State Capitol and Congress Avenue in the background, from the middle of Congress Ave. as cars swerve around them.
- Marveling at someone playing guitar on a sidewalk, as if that's unusual.
- Waiting in the middle of an active traffic lane for a parking spot to open up directly in front of their destination (anyone that's been in the Austin area more than a year knows this is not something that should ever be expected or deserved).
- Driving under 30 miles per hour on any stretch of Lamar Blvd. (speed limit is usually 35-40, in reality it's actually 50 for most people that live here).
- Wearing what can vaguely be described as a "cowboy hat" (especially common among SXSW tourists).
- Attempting to take pictures of the Congress Ave. Bridge bat flight well after sunset. This is a futile exercise because the bats are dark, the sky is dark and the bats, while numerous, are really small. Save that room on your memory cards for the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue, pictures of you and your friends in front of Chuy's or one of those guitar sculptures on Congress.
- Expressing genuine surprise when the temperature surpasses 100F degrees between May and September and stating something like "I didn't realize it would get this hot here", apparently having never before having looked at where Austin is on a globe.
- Turning east on Sixth Street downtown*.
- Left turns from the right lane** (for some reason a lot of visitors seem to think this is legal here)
I love the fact that people want to come and hang out in my city. And a lot of people do so in a way that is beneficial to themselves as well as the people who actually live here. But please, don't be lame and we'll resent you less (if at all).
Also, while I realize that Austinites aren't the best drivers in the world, they're far from the worst. Please don't judge us by your terrifying experiences on I-35, as most drivers on there are from other regions and haven't discovered how awesome (and worth it) the SH-130 toll road bypass is yet. Most people who actually live here use I-35 as little as possible. If anything, judge our driving by what happens on MoPac***.
Have a good afternoon, enjoy your time here, help us to be able to put up with your time here and keep Austin whatever.
- Jordan
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*A few months ago I observed a car with Georgia plates blow past me on Lavaca downtown, two lanes from the right lane and then rapidly turn right from that lane (the wrong way, from the very wrong lane) onto Sixth, probably thinking about how awesome they were while me and every other car behind them blared our horns in exasperated horror. I've got to hand it to the Californians for at least being much more competent drivers (I really have nothing against people from California, love the state and its people, I just wish they'd pick some other cities besides ours to move to as well).
**As well as right turns from the left lane.
***MoPac is used almost exclusively by people who live here, does not have 100,000 semi-trucks per mile and is not being used by a sizable percentage of people from Dallas to get to San Antonio (or vice-versa).
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