Palm Trees in the Neighborhood

This house must have looked a lot different decades ago. Who spends the money to put two palm trees in their front yard like pillars to the entrance of a opulent city from Egypt or Mesopotamia. Is this the liberal Austin version of putting up Greco-Roman columns in the front of your house like Southern plantation owners and my cousins in Wisconsin. No kidding. They would answer the phone with "White House".  My cousins were not rich by the way. It doesnt cost a lot to pay for those columns and it costs nothing to imitate racists. Ill post pics of them later. There's a palm tree next to UT in Austin and it always bugged me because it doesnt belong in this geography. So what, lots of stuff doesnt belong here right? Palm trees must have some resilience to survive because it actually looks better than the rest of the property which has gone to shreds.