Why Cant West Texas Grow? (San Antonio, Austin: best cities, unemployment rate, construction)

[The Gribbler]

Originally Posted by ncc

Because liberals don't view West Texas as "sophisticated". This is good news for good ole American folks that live there because the radical commies won't be movin in with their SOCIAL AGENDAS, so taxes will be low..

I like how in your generalization liberals apparently aren't good Americans. You are what's wrong with America. When you make statements like this you do nothing worth while to contribute to society. America (with the exception of places like West Texas) is way more purple than you'd like to believe. Sorry. Deal with it.

[doctorjef]

I know Austin has been booming again in recent years. I guess my reference point is the long term picture between 1974-76 and 1985-2004, the two periods in which I lived in Austin. I've seen Austin grow a lot in that period of time, but a lot of the business growth was rather fragile, including the dot-com bubble, Dell, and Westinghouse (Round Rock actually, but very much part of suburban Austin). Things got stalled in Austin for a long time around the turn of the present century and had also been stalled in the mid-1980s. Austin's growth has been a lot less reliable and more fitful than Dallas or Houston over the same period of time; indeed, San Antonio has probably also grown a lot more over this period. My point is: the really large cities and their suburbs grow relentlessly; the small and medium sized cities not so much.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by ncc

Because liberals don't view West Texas as "sophisticated". This is good news for good ole American folks that live there because the radical commies won't be movin in with their SOCIAL AGENDAS, so taxes will be low..

If that's the attitude people have in West Texas, I can see why the average person would not want to live there regardless of their political views.

[doctorjef]

My dad was a professor at Texas Tech. There are plenty of more sophisticated people in Lubbock. The place is very politically conservative, however.

[texdav]

I thnik tah there really isn't much in west texas to sustain growth really. Oil drilling is a boom and bust cycle type buinesss since the 60's.The type soil and the water does not really support a large growth situation really.

[Denda]

I live in West Texas and I hope it doesn't have a big boom in growth. I love it as it is.

[doctorjef]

People who live in Lubbock, for example, and wish that Lubbock had a population of 450,000 or somesuch really ought to move somewhere else. The cities and towns of West Texas are what they are. If you're very disappointed by that you can always move elsewhere.

[randian]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

If that's the attitude people have in West Texas, I can see why the average person would not want to live there regardless of their political views.

If you think liberals are open-minded, try espousing conservative views in San Francisco or New York. The looks and sudden silence you'll get are not welcoming. Austin isn't that far behind them in liberal orthodoxy.

[doctorjef]

randian, I think in a backhanded sort of way your post illustrates why most socially and politically liberal people wouldn't want to live in Lubbock. Most people don't want to live in a place where their own values and beliefs are totally swamped by a strongly opposed majority. As a left-wing Democrat and socially liberal Christian, I'd be quite unhappy with the overwhelming social and political conservatism of Lubbock, unless I were able to completely close my eyes to it. Lubbock is a perfectly good place for many people to live and I'm not dissing the community for its social-political conservatism. It is what it is. In the same way, you seem to be saying that you would find living in SF, Seattle or Austin to involve a lot of ego-alien experience and a sense of your own views being completely swamped by an ideologically different-minded majority (I'm not really sure how true this is of Austin, despite having lived there for many years). I'm personally sorry for the lack of political consensus in America and the great degree of societal division. However, under the circumstances it seems natural and perhaps right that people voluntarily segregate themselves along the lines of their strongly held political and social values. To re-emphasise, Lubbock wasn't a bad place for me to be a teenager, but I couldn't wait to leave and couldn't seriously imagine myself living there again. That doesn't mean that it is an intrinsically bad place, however. To the contrary, it's a very good place to be for many people.

[case44]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

Bigger cities just grow faster than smaller cities. Population growth compounds on itself. It seems like a city grows slowly until it reaches a certain point and then starts growing fast. There just aren't enough people yet to attract large amounts of people. (I'm not sure I'm making much sense to you guys.)

That's............about right, Westerner.


When it comes to cities, there has to be a niche to get growth going. Every city may require something different. It doesn't have to be about oil just because a city is located in Texas. In the case of West Texas, all it can take is business savvy and vision. Somebody could invent something. Another might move a company to the area. Texas cities have always had different personalities and a special uniqueness. What is it all about when it comes to keeping things going? It's about jobs, and jobs bring people. Obviously, the disadvantage is not having enough people in the area to meet certain needs. West Texas can gain a significant amount of population and still have wide-open spaces and plentiful land. It can be done. I've always said Lubbock and Fort Stockton can become larger places than they are right now, but any city or town in West Texas can overcome stagnation and, in some cases, decline. It can be done if one or two, or even ten, had vision.

My concern is for the small towns that are losing population. We must come up with ways for them to gain it back. You really would not want a whole big swath of Texas to become so unpopulated that you can't even buy gas.


Think about it, folks.