Horns Up: Austin named fastest-growing city in U.S.

On Monday, Forbes named Austin the fastest-growing city in the nation for the fourth year in a row, citing both the city’s 2.5 percent population growth rate and a 5.88 percent economic expansion rate as the highest in the U.S. But, while this is ultimately good news — growth, after all, means more jobs and more opportunities for UT students — we recognize that Austin’s rise to the top has several potential downsides: more traffic congestion and higher rents being two of them, not to mention the dreaded “Dallas-ification” of Austin that the anti-growth crowd has bemoaned for many years now. Still, a cautious horns up to the city’s continued growth and rising popularity, because a pissy attitude about Austin’s bright future will only create unnecessary tension between longtime Austinites and their new neighbors. Remember, past attempts to keep out outsiders, such as deliberately limiting the development of infrastructure, have only hindered progress in the long run.