Keep Austin Weird is a slogan to support local Austin businesses. The bars, restaurants and music venues are what makes Austin so unique and popular. They are smaller operations in the service industry and have been hit the hardest during the pandemic.

Just one example is the cancellation of South By Southwest (SXSW) in 2020. That one event infused 356 million dollars into the Austin economy in 2019 and its very difficult for those bars, restaurants and music venues to make up for that lost revenue. Many did not survive 2020 and even if SXSW is virtual in 2021, to those businesses – it’s as if it won’t happen at all.

It’s anybody’s guess when this pandemic will be over and what the Austin bar, restaurant and music scene looks like then. It will be sad day if we as a community wake up and realize we should have helped these local businesses when they needed it most.

Charles Lewis is a REALTOR® in the Austin area. He helps people all over the Austin metro area buy and sell houses. Schedule a no-obligation phone call to find out he can help you accomplish your real estate goals.