Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

 

Austin
City in the United States
Location
State Texas
County Travis County
Coordinates 30°18’0″N, 97°44’0″WL
General
Surface 790.1 km²
– country 771.5 km²
– water 18.6 km²
Residents
(April 1, 2020)
961.855
(1247 inhabitant/km²)
Politics
Mayor Steve Adler (D)
Website austintexas.gov
View of Austin

According to IAMACCEPTED, Austin is the capital of the US state of Texas. In 2020, the city has an estimated 961,855 inhabitants, the agglomeration 2,283,371.

The city is located on the Colorado River, not to be confused with the much more famous Colorado of the same name in the Western United States. Important activities are metal industry, food industry and woodworking. The city has multiple universities, including the huge main campus of the University of Texas, with 50,000 students. Austin has become a major center of modern technology. Partly due to the presence of the universities, the city has many cafes and restaurants. A well-known landmark is Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a botanical garden that focuses entirely on native plants of the United States.

A lot of musicians live in Austin, the country rock capital. The major music festival South by Southwest is held every year.

The city is known as a relatively progressive city in the otherwise very conservative state.

Well-known Austin residents include cyclist Lance Armstrong, actress Sandra Bullock, actor Matthew McConaughey, and blues rock singer/guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in 1990.

Demographics

Of the population, 6.7% is older than 65 years. It consists for 32.8 % of single – person households. Unemployment is 2.2 % (census figures 2000). About 65.4% of Austin’s population is white, 30.5% is Hispanic or Latino, 10% is of African origin, and 4.7% of Asian origin. The population increased from 494,290 in 1990 to 656,562 in 2000.

History

In 1835 the town was founded under the name ‘Waterloo’. However, that name was renamed in 1838 in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the founder of the independent Republic of Texas. Austin has been the capital of Texas since 1839.

During the period 1881-1888 the Texas State Capitol was built, this was the seventh tallest building in the world at the time. It is 6m higher than the Capitol in Washington DC.

Austin has been the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese since 1947.

Economy and Infrastructure

The largest employers in the city are Dell, Facebook, Google, AMD, NXP Semiconductors (a spin-off of Philips, IBM, Wincor Nixdorf, Apple, National Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and Ebay. Because of this accumulation of companies, Austin (by analogy with Silicon Valley and also in reference to the hilly landscape) called Silicon Hills.In addition, there are several video game developers in the region, such as Electronic Arts andBlizzard Entertainment.

Since 1987, the South by Southwest media and technology festival has been held annually in March, where new developments in music, film, society and technology are presented and discussed.

Austin’s largest airport opened in 1999: the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. It is located approximately 8 km south-east of the city center. Austin is considered a very young and dynamic city with the highest annual growth rate in the US today

What is special is that in the 2010s the streets in the Mueller district were redesigned according to the Dutch example with red bicycle paths next to the main roads, intersections with traffic islands and green strips that lie between the road and the bicycle path. The city has set itself the target of having 650 kilometers of bicycle paths by 2025.

Climate

Austin has a humid subtropical climate, characterized by hot summers with humid winds from the Gulf of Mexico and mild winters. Most precipitation falls mainly in the spring. The city enjoys approximately 2,650 hours of sunshine per year. In January the average temperature is 9.3 °C, in July it is 29.2 °C. Annual average rainfall is 809.8 mm (data based on the measurement period 1961-1990).

Sports

Austin does not have a sports team in any of the top four American pro sports. Austin FC will join Major League Soccer, the highest American soccer league, in 2021.

Formula 1 returned to the US in 2012, this time in Austin.

Born in Austin

  • Teddy Wilson (1912–1986), jazz pianist
  • Elaine Anderson (1914–2003), actress
  • Zachary Scott (1914–1965), actor
  • Alan Lomax (1915–2002), folklorist and musicologist
  • Damita Jo (1930–1998), R&B singer
  • Dabney Coleman (1932), actor
  • Jay Arnette (1938), basketball player
  • Larry Laudan (1941-2022), philosopher
  • Tobe Hooper (1943–2017), film director
  • Dusty Rhodes (1945–2015), wrestler
  • John Varley (1947), science fiction writer
  • Kenneth Cockrell (1950), astronaut
  • Joe Johnston (1950), film director, film producer and art director
  • Ben Crenshaw (1952), golfer
  • Jay O. Sanders (1953), actor
  • Carly Fiorina (1954), business manager and politician
  • Eric Johnson (1954), guitarist and composer
  • Steve Kloves (1960), screenwriter
  • Tom Ford (1961), fashion designer, film director, producer and screenwriter
  • Timothy Kopra (1963), astronaut
  • Stone Cold Steve Austin (1964), wrestler
  • Michelle Forbes (1965), actress
  • Bart Bowen (1967), cyclist and cyclo-cross rider
  • Ethan Hawke (1970), film actor, director and writer
  • Ricardo Antonio Chavira (1971), actor
  • Angela Bettis (1973), actress
  • Ronna Romney McDaniel (1973), politician
  • Nelly (1974), rapper and hip-hop artist
  • Benjamin McKenzie (1978), actor
  • Bryan Clay (1980), all-around
  • Mehcad Brooks (1980), actor
  • Paul London (1980), wrestler
  • Bobby Boswell (1983), football player
  • Marshall Allman (1984), actor
  • Gary Clark Jr. (1984), guitarist and actor
  • Sarah Hagan (1984), actress
  • Ciara (1985), singer
  • Amber Heard (1986), actress
  • Austin Amelio (1988), actor
  • Glen Powell (1988), actor
  • Dakota Johnson (1989), actress and fashion model
  • Grace Phipps (1992), actress
  • Angus T. Jones (1993), actor
  • Coby Carrozza (2001), swimmer

Austin, Texas

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