Austin Re-Due



Austin, Texas in the 80s and early 90s was a sight. A city made and thriving on college kids and politicians. The town shifted in weight from 350,000 to 500,000 depending on the time of the year. Constantly, it dieted out and bloated in University of Texas students and agriculture lobbyist from around the state. The feel of the city was young, urban and creative with undertones of deep political dealings affecting the lives of everyone in the state. By 1999 the city was on life support, and by 2004, it was dead. The young and creative had been bought. No longer did struggling musicians of every genre get a start on six street; they had been replaced by clubs blasting out the newest hit to grinding, sweating 18 year old frat boys. The Real World by MtV had overtaken the bohemians by force. No longer did Democrats and Republicans share power, but the right wing GOP had taken over driving intelligent design into schools and Bush into the White House. The city I loved as a boy disappeared as Dell moved in and made millionaires out of all the programmers and little for the Mexican food proprietors who did not need the reputation of a chain to bring in customers.

Landing in Des Moines felt oddly familiar. The airport was too small and a designer hadn’t touched the gates since the mid80s at the latest. The car rental parking lot was shared by long-term parkers and no shuttle was required to get there just a pass through a back door got me to my rental. It was eerily similar to coming home to Austin’s Robert Mueller Airport. Though snowdrifts were still visible, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was back in Austin.

In an hour and a half drive, I was on gravel roads, not driveways, actual roads. It took over ten minutes to drive from small town A to small town B with little sign of life between. It was familiar to my drives North from Austin forty minutes, until black dirt became more popular than pavement.

But there are thousands of small towns, dotting this nation. Though the majority do remind me of the one I grew up in, no city has ever reminded of Austin like Des Moines.

I stayed across the street from Drake University, near an independent video store and guitar shops. A small offering compared to the UT drag, but it wasn’t the University that brought the analogy together.

Nor was it the state capital: an impressive golden building with a nice wide downtown street leading to its steps. Springfield, IL has a state capital to, but it is nothing like Austin.

The restaurants were good. Ignoring the food poisoning I got a Mexican place and the bad oysters at another, Des Moines still served up cold beer and some wonderful pan-Asian dishes. But most of it could be found anywhere in America.

Rather, it was the people who reminded me of Austin. No one seemed to be from Des Moines. For differing reasons, they had come from Nebraska, the Dakotas and outer Iowa to make this city their home. (To be born and raised in Austin is a rarity.) Creativity, urban and idealistic were characteristics they all held, but at the same time it was not Northern intellectualism or West Coast arrogance; instead it was a homely and simple view of the world , their lives and their relationship to others. Their goal was not to be better then others, just be themselves. At the same time, this creativity and idealism were placed not only in culture, but in politics. Though Des Moines may have a growing artistic scene, it remains a place where business can be done during a two martini lunch. The citizens of the Des Moines are the rare combination of power and progressiveness that is much needed in our country.

Austin in the 80s and 90s can never be repeated. But I was happy to find a nice slice of it Des Moines.