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Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest,[5] it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 13th most populous city in the United States.[6] It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation from 2000 to 2006.[7] Austin has a population of 790,390 (2010 U.S. Census).[2] The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcosmetropolitan area, which has a population of over 1,716,291 (2010 U.S. Census),[8] making it the 35th-largest metropolitan area in the United States.
The area was settled in the 1830s on the banks of the Colorado River by pioneers who named the village Waterloo.[9] In 1839, Waterloo was chosen to become the capital of the newly independent Republic of Texas. The city was renamed after Stephen F. Austin, known as the father of Texas.[9] The city grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas.[10] After a lull in growth from the Great depression, Austin resumed its development into a major city in the 1980s and emerged as a center for technology and business.[9] Austin is home to many companies, high-tech and otherwise: Fortune 500corporations Freescale Semiconductor, Forestar Group, and Whole foods Market, are headquartered there; AMD, Apple, Broadcom, Google, IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, ShoreTel, Synopsys and Texas Instruments have prominent regional offices there.[11] Also Dell’s Worldwide Headquarters is located in nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin.
Residents of Austin are known as “Austinites“. They include a diverse mix of government employees (e.g., university faculty & staff, law enforcement, political staffers); foreign and domestic college students; musicians; high-tech workers;blue-collar workers; businesspeople; and, a sizeable GLBT gay community.[12] The city is home to development centers for many technology corporations; it adopted the “Silicon Hills” nickname in the 1990s. However, the current official slogan promotes Austin as “The Live music Capital of the World”, a reference to the many musicians and live music venues within the area, and the long-running PBS TV concert series Austin City Limits .[1][13] In recent years, some Austinites have also adopted the unofficial slogan “Keep Austin Weird“. This interpretation of the classic, “Texas-style” sense of independence refers to: the traditional and proudly eclectic, liberal lifestyles of many Austin residents; a desire to protect small, unique, local businesses from being overrun by large corporations; and, as a reaction to the perceived rise of conservative influences within the community.[14] In the late 1800s, Austin also became known as the City of the “Violet Crown” for the wintertime violet glow of color across the hills just after sunset.[15] Even today, many Austin businesses use the term “violet crown” in their name. Lastly, Austin is known as a “clean air city” for the city’s stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, and all restaurants.