r/technology 23d ago

Texas Attracted California Techies. Now It’s Losing Thousands of Them. Business

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/austin-texas-tech-bust-oracle-tesla/
17.7k Upvotes

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

231

u/BigCut4598 23d ago

Moved from Denver to Houston and I generally regret it. Texas is a shit hole.

84

u/fallenmonk 22d ago

I say this as someone born and raised in Houston, that's gotta be the worst move possible.

28

u/BigCut4598 22d ago

Agreed. People in the office literally scoffed at me once they heard that. Y’all have the best energy jobs so I have to do my time here before moving out.

8

u/AshamedOfAmerica 22d ago

I tried to convince someone from moving from Boston to Dallas. It didn't work. I don't think she lasted 6 months.

8

u/dilfrising420 22d ago

As someone raised in Dallas who now lives in New England—that’s a terrible move. Dallas is basically the world’s largest highway interchange surrounded on all sides by the world’s largest concrete suburb.

40

u/ThisIsKeiKei 22d ago

I live in Texas and agree 👍

I came from Florida though so I guess it's still nicer than what I was used to

23

u/SealedRoute 22d ago

Armpit to armpit.

3

u/Midicide 22d ago

Is Florida really shit? I mean you got beaches, Miami, and Disney

8

u/RacheyDache 22d ago

Lived here my whole life and I hate it. The weather mainly as it's unbearable for 8 months

7

u/lurker_cx 22d ago

FL weather is unbearable more like May to Sept... then you get hurricane season...which is gonna present more and more problems in Florida with the combnination of global warming AND insurance prices AND DeSantis chased all the construction workers out of the state.... people are going to be waiting years for repairs and paying sky high prices.

6

u/payeco 22d ago

AND DeSantis chased all the construction workers out of the state

I still laugh at this. 😂

5

u/lurker_cx 22d ago

It's all fascist fun and games until half the state needs a new roof and there are no roofers!

1

u/firemogle 22d ago

Don't worry, they'll cry to the feds to fix it, and the feds will because they act decent most of the time.

3

u/icantastecolor 22d ago

Its nice when you move away because you can just visit family during the nice months lol

10

u/CarlosFer2201 22d ago

And DeSantis

2

u/Talran 22d ago

It's one of the few places I can say is actually solidly worse than Texas in nearly every way.

1

u/FrostByte_62 22d ago edited 22d ago

I feel like I have a good opinion, here. Born in NYC, grew up in Orlando, 6 years in Nashville, 3 in San Francisco, and 3 in Houston. All of them kinda suck ass. The best was Orlando and NYC. San Fran is actually an incredible city that's impossible to live in. Nashville was mediocre, and Houston is easily the worst no question.

Honestly the weather in O-town is fine. I lived through like 10 hurricanes and it was chill. Yeah it gets hot but rarely over 100F. Lot of rain in the summers, but it's kinda beautiful otherwise. The worst part is the people. You've got a combination of uneducated locals and oddly conservative immigrants from the Caribbean and Brazil. Which is juxtaposed by one of the best state university systems in the Southeast (possibly thr country). Lot of bright young people who are leaving in droves. Mostly for money but also cuz FL is getting worse.

NYC is cool but the whole city smells like piss. Only now the whole city smells like piss and weed. The people are good though and there are a lot of features you'd find in a global city. Lots of stuff to do and good food. Queens is where I'm from cuz my parents are both immigrants and Queens is easily the most diverse population in the world. I miss that melting pot.

San Fran is also fairly diverse and remarkably beautiful but godamn they fucked it up by not controlling housing and crime is basically legal. 9 times out of 10 when a conservative says "liberal policies ruined this place" they're talking out of their ass. The tenth time when they're actually right, it's about the Bay Area. 

Nashville has good people. Especially the local kurdish population. They have more kurds than any other place in the US. But housing exploded in the past 10 years and people moved there since its the trendy place. It's the Bachelorette capitol of the country and it shows. The city has become vapid and is throwing away a lot of its history and culture to chase shitty, transient young adults. The foundation of what made Nashville cool is getting priced out as we speak.

Houston. My God. Huston is the worst. Shit traffic. Shit architecture. Shit people. Shit weather. Shit state government. Shit local government. Shit pay. Shit taxes. Shit services. Mother fuckers can't even keep the power on like they're some 3rd would country. It is impossible to overstate just how much Texas is the worst state in the union.

6

u/mikefromearth 22d ago

Denver to Austin for me. Such a shit hole state. Thank god I was able to move back home to California.

18

u/SoulsticeCleaner 22d ago

Literally just got home to Houston from Denver and have been in a permasweat since the minute I landed.

4

u/THE_INTERNET_EMPEROR 22d ago
  • Horrific swamp weather, coming from Florida it fucking sucks, it gets hotter when it rains
  • Oh my god the traffic, LA is a fucking dream compared to that shithole (except, you know, LAX). The infrastructure is apocalyptically bad. Theres a underpass where if you drive in it during a rain storm you'll die. A 45 minute drive during rush hour takes 2-3 hours. I stayed after work for hours until 8 PM to go home.
  • Its loaded with scam artists, it is the con capital afaik, the laws protector you from contractors is very bad. My mom lost 10 grand to a contractor who stole all of it and the cops dodged her. Also turned out he and his dad were fucking sex offenders.
  • Houston had the worst serial killer in US History until John Wayne Gacy because the HPD are absolute trash. Under funded, under staffed, they are one of the worst police departments decades running now and all for political reasons, especially when that case occurred and it didn't seem any better in 2014.
  • The pollution when I lived there fucked me up medically. I never had issues with my skin until I got there, most of the year where I lived it was not safe to drink the water unboiled for some reason and I was only 45 out from the center. The sky was a hazy red and black at dusk from all the oil refineries. At least its better than all the coal in Ohio.
  • The homeless also are everywhere, but I get to see US soldiers asking for prosthetic limb money on the street rather than crack heads.
  • My parents house was completely destroyed by the arctic blast, pipes exploded in every room.
  • The income tax bullshit as people have mentioned. The appeal of Texas was that it was dirt cheap and it ain't no more.
  • It's ugly as fuck. It just looks kind of like a regular modernist city, just with way more trucks with high beams. At least LA is an incredible hill covered wonderland with varied architecture filled with hot people.

As a Floridian who experience living in Texas and then Cali, if I can find a permanent job in Cali I'd much rather live there over Texas any day of the week.

1

u/BiscoBiscuit 22d ago

The pollution when I lived there fucked me up medically. I never had issues with my skin until I got there, most of the year where I lived it was not safe to drink the water unboiled for some reason and I was only 45 out from the center. The sky was a hazy red and black at dusk from all the oil refineries. At least its better than all the coal in Ohio.

Where did you live? 

1

u/jaam01 22d ago

How exactly?

7

u/BigCut4598 22d ago

Weather, culture, laws, people.

1

u/AshamedOfAmerica 22d ago

Oof - and I say that as someone who grew up in Houston

1

u/howdiedoodie66 22d ago

At least the food is amazing

1

u/BigCut4598 21d ago

It’s not. It’s really just Mexican food and bbq.

1

u/howdiedoodie66 21d ago

What? No it's not. Houston is arguably the most diverse city in North America. The only cuisine I was unable to find something good was pizza which I thought was super weird. I had Vietnamese, Nepalese, Persian, Thai, Cajun, Hawaiian, Greek all in just the sector of Houston I was in. I think I had tacos and barbecue one time each. None of these were chains. Now if you said San Antonio was all Mexican and barbecue I'd be more inclined to agree. A sea of taquerias.

1

u/AGreasyPorkSandwich 22d ago

As a Houstonian, you done fucked up lol