Under Georgetown's calm surface these days lies a troubling thought: the town is starting to merge with other suburbs of Austin, and its population is changing.

Retirement communities and developments aimed at commuters are beginning to outnumber families who remember Georgetown's older days. Southwestern University still graduates a few hundred students a year, but the small, conservative liberal arts college is not well known outside of the region, and its faculty and students are now a small minority in Georgetown.

The result is that few people work in Georgetown any more, and many of the commuting and retired residents are changing the character of the town. Recent ballot initiatives have universally supported commercial development of Georgetown's open spaces, and a recall election this spring ousted controversial mayor Mary Ellen Kirsch, a supporter of local business and slower, more controlled development.