Why do DFW suburbs have such higher populations than Houston suburbs

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by crewship

I'm not sure the line of reasoning holds up entirely though. Is a place like "Greater Katy" or "Cypress", which constitute huge swaths of hundreds of thousands of people from the perspective of school districts, an actual community? As someone who lives in an incorporated place (Pearland) and never ventures to that side of town, unincorporated North and West Houston just feel like a giant blob without real sense of place. What actually ties these people together other than a broad geographic moniker and a school district (which is only true some of the time)?

It's more like a blob honestly. One reason I'm not really fond of unincorporated communities. It's not as uniformed as an actual suburb. Granted the area considered Greater Katy is just as organized as some official suburbs but imo that's an exception in Houston's MSA. Try areas like Spring/Klein/Tomball/Aldine Westfield. When I first moved to Houston it took me a while to figure out where the hell I was at in this stretch of communities.

[LocalPlanner]

It's always seemed to me that DFW just had more actual towns in the area that would become its suburbs than Houston did. I mean, think of the entire stretch from SW to NE between Richmond and Humble. How many true towns, with identifiable main streets and downtowns, existed there historically? You had Katy, Tomball, and Spring (the last of which wasn't even incorporated), and that was it. Places like Alief, Jeannetta, Clodine, Satsuma, Pinehurst, Cypress, Fairbanks, Kohrville, Klein, etc., could have been best described as "settlements" not towns, just a cluster of homes and a few businesses. This landscape set the stage for the unincorporated suburban area growth you see in Houston. (Note the contrast with the SE side of the Houston metro where there were some pre-existing actual towns.)

I can't think of such a substantial swath of the DFW suburban area that lacked true pre-existing towns.

EDIT: I do believe Cypress was incorporated at one time, but later de-incorporated because (paraphrasing) they just weren't enough of a town to justify it.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by crewship

I'm not sure the line of reasoning holds up entirely though. Is a place like "Greater Katy" or "Cypress", which constitute huge swaths of hundreds of thousands of people from the perspective of school districts, an actual community? As someone who lives in an incorporated place (Pearland) and never ventures to that side of town, unincorporated North and West Houston just feel like a giant blob without real sense of place. What actually ties these people together other than a broad geographic moniker and a school district (which is only true some of the time)?

Greater Cypress is actually Cy-Fair. Fairbanks is a railroad town near Jersey Village that has been annexed by Houston (similar to Alief).

Westsiders identify as Houstonians. We're as Houstonian as Inner Loopers! Greater Katy and Cy-Fair are basically neighborhoods in Houston, just waiting to be officially annexed into the city limits.

I try to stay in Katy as much as possible these days, being retired. But I know the Westside like the back of my hand. The closest Macy's is in Memorial City and it's not very alien shopping there or in The Galleria location. (Though I wish the mall would finally be built in Katy so I don't have to drive 20 miles to MCM. Katy Mills dilutes the normal retail market and attracts people from opposite sides of Houston, such as Baytown for some reason.)

[NigerianNightmare]

Most people already covered this discussion but I do want to add to it because I love this topic. The main reason why Dallas has a bunch of suburbs and Houston doesn't is the Texas law that allowed Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso to basically become synonymous with their counties was first really tested in Dallas. As other's said, they allowed themselves to be boxed in. I also think their is truth to the statement that the DFW area has more small towns around it. Maybe because of Fort Worth being so close by, more towns developed in between them similar to Galveston and Houston which has the highest old-town density by far in the Houston area. Outside of the Galveston County region of Houston, the rest of it is devoid of towns. Their could also be the fact that the economies of the two areas likely selected for different town densities. The Gulf Coast could very well select for far fewer towns and greater distances between them than North Texas because of the agricultural/ranching practices in each region.

One thing that goes unmentioned that I think plays a major factor is counties. The majority of Dallasites live outside of Dallas County, while the majority of Houstonians, Austinites and San Antonians live within Harris, Travis and Bexar counties. While cities can expand outside of counties, they actually mean something in Texas unlike other states. Because Dallas has such a small central county, combined with a large metro population, it was limited a bit to Dallas county, it couldn't annex the county seat of another county even if it was built more like Houston. In much the same way Williamson County has taken of with large suburbs and is going to have three to four cities over 100,000 by 2030 (Georgetown/Round Rock/Leander and possibly Cedar Park or Hutto).
Harris- 1,777
Bexar- 1,256
Travis- 1,023
Dallas- 909

Within the last decade Houston went from 2 cities over 100,000 to 5 cities.
Conroe, Missouri City and Woodlands (if it incorporates), could easily push that list to 8.

On top of that their has been a strong legislative push to end laws that are currently stifling the growth of suburban towns. This will effect San Antonio and Houston the most. But as Houston continues to grow into the surrounding counties we will definitely see this trend of large suburbs continue.

Katy itself could possibly annex itself to 100,000 people. Fulshear which is mostly shielded from Houston could hit 100,000 people in the next two decades just by continuing to have nearly every person using a Fulshear address live in the actual city of Fulshear. Both Alvin and Manvel are future Pearland's, they have more than enough space to grow to 100,000 as well. Baytown might even eventually hit 100,000 with less strict annexation laws for suburbs. If Brookshire started acting more like Fulshear and annexing things within it's district this will be true for them as well. Tomball is also likely to reach it since Houston's tip is miles away.

On whether unincorporated Houston is a blob. No and yes. Katy is less of a blob because it's decently defined on 3 sides, the parks meant that Katy has a well defined eastern border, and the lack of development west of it means it has a relatively well defined Western border, due to the ISD not being rated as highly, development simply didn't run into Brookshire, choosing to go to Northern Katy instead, although theirs's some stuff there now, like Jordan Ranch. Westpark Tollway is also a hard Southern border. 77084 is also in debate as while that's a Houston address, it's South of I-10 and East of George Bush and feeds into Katy Schools. Bear Creek also because West of Barker Cypress is a bit iffy.

The north then joins the great Northwest blob from North Katy all the way to 69 north is an amorphous region where towns like Klein never see the light of day. As in you could ask most Houstonians if you've heard of Klein and they would tell you no. This region probably has the most hidden gems because outside of Bridgeland, a large region of Cypress bordering Bridgeland is really nice but you actually never hear about it. Mostly 77095,77433 and 77429. Is a massive area, with well over 200,000 people and is really nice, and as Bridgeland and the rest of 77433 and 77429 get's built out will only elevate the entire area. Same with most of the area NW of Cypresswood between 249 and 45.

Also very few incorporated cities have actually planned out their suburban communities in the Houston area it's more like managing the hodge-podge and limiting it before it runs away rather than creating a super-organized city. The exceptions have been Sugar Land and The Woodlands but one of those isn't even incorporated and the other is still faltering at some level when compared to some DFW suburbs.

[Clever nickname here]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Many reasons

First, Houston has about twice the population of Dallas and it absorbs a much higher percentage of its respective metro as compared to Dallas. This automatically gives it less opportunities to make suburbs since it takes so much more of the overall population.

Second, and partly tied to the first, It helps that Dallas and Fort Worth are about 30 miles apart which spells a great recipe for in between towns to be high in population.

And third, the cities and counties of DFW have a bigger history of incorporation territory.

Also, including Houston, it would be 7. Houston, Pasadena, Woodslands, Sugar Land, Pearland, Cypress, and League City. I guess Cypress is the one you missed since its actually the biggest, not Pasadena.

And Conroe will likely be there eight very soon. Maybe even in this census.

Left off eastward expansion is limited by the Gulf of Mexico.