Despite anxiety over Texas’ growth and billboards in California trying to persuade residents to stay put, many still chose to switch states, often picking Austin and the larger Central Texas region as their next home.
People selecting Texas over the Golden State cited affordability as a key factor. But for some, it’s come with different costs: dense traffic, a lack of dependable public transportation and scorching heat that transplants say is lowering their quality of life. An August report from Insider found that tech workers in particular are getting fed up with Texas, frustrated that career opportunities just aren’t as plentiful as they are in Silicon Valley.
As a result, people are moving out of the Lone Star State, or at the very least are considering it. Using U.S. Postal Service data, Insider found that from January to May this year, Austin saw the fifth-largest net outward migration among major U.S. cities, trailing New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, which actually ranked No. 1 among cities that saw the most people leave during that stretch.
Thinking of possible scenarios: If you have school age children and want them educated in a public school; f you were LQBTQ+; if you were POC; and/or if you wanted politicians who shared your values and policy priorities, you would be directly affected. ETA: Thought of one more. If you can possibly get pregnant, intentionally or not, you could also possibly have a miscarriage or stillbirth and be charged with an abortion. So abortion laws will affect you even if you aren’t actively seeking an abortion.
Also, tangentially related to politics, infrastructure in Texas seems precarious. There are no politicians holding the private companies that run the power grid responsible. People have died because of the cold and the heat in Texas due to infrastructure issues and no politicians and pushing for a solution. It looks like things will simple become worse. This affects everyone in Texas.