The headline on the front of the new Dallas Observer is “Finding Austin.” Upon seeing this, I immediately thought it odd that our city’s alternative weekly would devote a cover to a story saying that, compared to Dallas, Austin really isn’t as great as its reputation has it. (Does our city still suffer from that tired inferiority complex?) Â At least, that was my guess as to how the Observer might tackle the subject.
Come to find out that the Observer didn’t tackle the subject at all. It’s a story from their sister paper, Houston Press, which also has it on its cover. The take is more like: Austin isn’t as weird as you think and as it once might have been, plus it has awful traffic. And, yeah, basically the writer compares Austin to Houston and Dallas over and over and says, yeah, it ain’t so special. Except maybe in a few respects:
No, Austin is not a truly gorgeous geographical Shangri-La, like San Francisco, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Seattle or even Chattanooga, Tennessee, but it’s pretty enough and easily the beauty queen of Texas. What’s more, its violent-crime rate is a merciful fraction of those of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
Don’t worry, there’s some local flavor thrown in, near the bottom. Before jumping, take one guess at what aspect of Dallas they praise. Hint: The same aspect that got talked up in the New York Times last weekend.
Jeff Liles made the move back to his native Dallas from Austin in the early ’80s and hasn’t looked back since. A mover and shaker in the glory days of Deep Ellum, Liles has since helped establish an arts colony of sorts in a neighborhood called X-Plus, in the northern part of Oak Cliff.
Oak Cliff is different from the rest of Dallas, Liles says. …Â The epicenter of that community is the Kessler Theater, a listening room and arts space managed by Liles. While Liles is an interested party and can come across as a (very confident) booster, Joe Nick Patoski vouches for Liles’ claims. Patoski says that the Kessler is one of the best listening rooms he’s ever been in, and he was shocked by the hipness of its environs. “Oak Cliff is now hipper, edgier and more affordable than east Austin is,” he says.
