Austin is more liberal than the rest of Texas. Austin isn’t Communist China, but it’s nevertheless acquired the infrequent nickname of “The People’s Republic of Austin.”
 
Other Austin (or University of Texas at Austin) nicknames include “Moscow-on-the-Brazos” and “Berkeley-on-the-Brazos” and “Keep Austin Weird.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Austin, Texas
Austin is well known as a center for liberal politics in a generally conservative state, leading some Texas conservatives to deride the city as “The People’s Republic of Austin” or “the blueberry in the tomato soup.” Suburban neighborhoods in Austin, especially to the west and north, and several satellite municipalities, however, tend toward political conservatism.
     
Wikipedia: People’s Republic
People’s Republic (sometimes Popular Republic) is a title that is often used by Marxist-Leninist governments to describe their state. The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist-Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist-Leninist republic is a people’s republic. Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions. Opponents of Marxism-Leninism argue that the name “people’s republic” is merely used for propaganda purposes. In the West, countries governed by Marxist-Leninists are sometimes referred to as “Communist states,” though they never actually used this name for themselves (see the main article on communist states for more information).
(...)
Other uses of the term
Sometimes People’s Republic is used sarcastically to refer to any predominantly left-wing or liberal area, especially those cities with a large, leftist, university population. The usage probably derives from the late 1960s, when The People’s Republic of Berkeley (California) was used to describe the site of the radical Free Speech Movement. Similarly, the cities of Austin, Texas, Boulder, Colorado, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Toronto, Ontario, and Cambridge, Massachusetts are nicknamed The People’s Republic of Austin, The People’s Republic of Boulder, The People’s Republic of Ann Arbor, The People’s Republic of Toronto and The People’s Republic of Cambridge respectively, for their left-wing reputations. Attribution of the moniker is particularly prevalent in cases where a municipality represents an island of liberal politics within a more conservative, especially rural, area. Despite the derisive manner in which the term is used, some have come to adopt it, usually in an ironic manner. For example, there is a pub in Cambridge dubbed People’s Republik, complete with faux-Cyrillic type on its storefront.
 
Google Books
Ain’t It Cool?
by Harry Knowles
Warner Books
2003
Pg. 103:
No wonder every legislative session some frustrated politico takes to calling us “the People’s Republic of Austin.”
 
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Followup-To: sci.crypt
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Jon Boede)
Date: 11 Apr 90 21:36:18 GMT
Local: Wed, Apr 11 1990 4:36 pm
Subject: [sci.crypt] cryptext.c mix subroutine
 
Jon Boede   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  ...!{uunet,texbell}!cs.utexas.edu!bodedo!jon
7117 Wood Hollow #726, People’s Republic of Austin, TX 78731 +1 512 346-3142
 
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: 11 Aug 1993 18:22:12 -0500
Local: Wed, Aug 11 1993 6:22 pm
Subject: Re: Nuts (was Re: The regulars of t.a. [Siren, note])
 
Perhaps a better name would be Comintern of the Southwest. If you are not familiar with this word, Mr. Military Acronym Expert, I will help you out.  However, it is the People’s Republic of Austin which pleases the Commies more than anything.
   
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Tryxxq)
Date: 1997/11/16
Subject: Re: Paying Addicts Not to Breed
 
Don’t be too critical, living here in the “People’s Republic of Austin” (also known as “Moscow on the Brazos”) has a way of inculcating far-left fantasy thinking in its residents.