Austin360 blogs > Bottlecaps & Wingnuts > Archives > 2005 > July > 20 > Entry
Our big city begins and ends here
Driving west on Sixth Street, past the oddly named bars (why would I go anywhere named “Touche”?), you come to the intersection with Congress Avenue.
I kinda like that intersection, because it’s the only spot in Austin where our town feels like a big city.
Keep driving west on Sixth and the feeling goes away as you look at the Hills of the Wealthy. Turn south on Congress and it vanishes just as quickly. Turn north and you’re at the Capitol.
No, I’m not overly familiar with real cities. I’ve never been to Paris or New York — and I’ll probably never go. I reckon D.C. and Houston are the only real cities where I’ve spent time downtown.
For the most part, I’ve spent my adult life living in small Texas cities — or large towns, depending on how you look at it. And trust me, there’s no spot in San Angelo that feels like a city. You could be hugging the Cactus Hotel — the only sizable building in town — and you wouldn’t feel anywhere close to urban.
Having a few moments to spare today, I spent 20 minutes at the corner of Sixth & Congress just looking.
Aside from the homeless fellow next to me in the odd combination of Jagermeister T-shirt and Capitol 10,000 ball cap, it wasn’t the cavalcade of oddity I expected. Sure, I saw dozens of dubious fashion statements, a kid on a pimped-out lowrider bicycle and a shifty-looking fellow in star-eyed sunglasses who seemed to be peeking around the corner at me.
But mostly it was guys carrying Starbucks back to the office, tourists and commuters. Even the shifty-looking fellow was just waiting for the No. 6 bus.
Still, it felt big city enough. Heck, there was even a hot dog cart.
Then, after my 20 minutes, that was quite enough big city. I walked back to my truck and once again it was just good ol’ Austin.
Permalink | | Categories: By Dave Thomas
