When an area becomes rich it typically doesn't happen by enriching the people already there, but by pushing them out and replacing them. Of course longtime inhabitants want to "go back to its divey roots", they're directly threatened by the move away from those roots, and a return would provide relief. The gentrifiers are the only ones who would see it as a negative. Keep in mind you're still an outsider and gentrifier in the context of Austin. You're a well-educated white man originating from a rich neighborhood of Dallas. You're exactly the kind of person they're afraid of, and not without reason. Things that are good for you are not necessarily good for Austin as it was or the people who live(d) there.There's a huge backlash against basically everything that's making Austin one of the richest and most progressive cities in the US right now. I swear half the people who have been living here for 20+ years would like the city to go back to its divey roots even if we all suffer for it. Totally clueless.