Cities on a Hill contributor Jay Weiser writes in from Austin:

Recent visits to Austin and Miami Beach show the two cities adopting different growth strategies—some market-based, some government-influenced. This post will address Austin; Miami Beach will follow.

Austin's giant educational sector—it's the home of the University of Texas, which has become world-class over the last 30 years—led to the creation of a major high-tech sector led by Dell, which in turn led to a population boom, from 251,808 in 1970 to 656,562 in 2000. The students and young information technology professionals generated a demand for entertainment, creating what is called locally The Live Music Capital of the World, with over 200 music clubs—more per capita than Nashville, Memphis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or New York City. The 6th Street music scene is still vibrant, and has been joined by new (and nearby) scenes on Red River Road and in the Warehouse District.  (Favorite jazz club: the Elephant Room, with a flamenco-influenced local group; favorite gay bar: Rainbow Cattle Company, with its two-stepping guys).  For photos, see my slideshow here.

in The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida noted the stream of Carnegie Mellon IT graduates lured from Pittsburgh to Austin by the music scene. Now, the New York Times reports a wave of condo and rental development, and the usual troglodytes are worrying that it will change Austin's character. Keep Austin Weird is the local rallying cry. To do so, they're attempting to impose cost-raising development restrictions.

Given the many attractions in downtown's entertainment core, it's natural that people will want to move within walking distance of them. But much of the rest of downtown Austin is a sea of parking lots.

Reviving cities go through a demographic succession, pioneered by young singles (students in Austin; often gays elsewhere) who have some tolerance for disorder—they may even think it's cool—and don't need to worry about elementary and secondary schools. They have the time and disposable income to support an entertainment node and create a steady late-night street population. Young heterosexual couples follow, drawn by the entertainment services. Finally, upper-middle-class older couples and families are the urban equivalent of a climax forest, moving in when disorder has largely disappeared and there's a sufficient full-time population to draw supermarkets, dry cleaners and other amenities.

As usual, the historic preservation folks are clueless, even though they are usually part of the first wave of revival. I took a walking tour of Congress Street, the main drag, which has had most of its buildings restored to their 19th century appearance over the last decade. The guide had been giving the tour throughout that period of huge change, but she didn't say a word about Austin's music scene, even though the tour ended on 6th Street. She did say, though, that she couldn't understand why anybody would want to live downtown—incapable of recognizing that the upscale influx was driving the massive investment in historic preservation. May God protect the feeble-minded and the preservationists.