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I don't personally think, that during the period of gentrification, suburbs were ever undesirable, it was more like instead of 90% of growth happening in the suburbs, the city now captured 15-25% of the growth. So you can't have a return to the suburbs if in reality people never stopped moving to the suburbs. Just because city growth slowed down doesn't mean the suburbs are picking up the people who would have been city slickers, more than likely due to demographic trends and the slowdown of immigration under Trump, (I'm not saying that is a bad or good thing, just saying they have a negative impact on growth) growth everywhere declined, it's just that the cities were hit harder than the suburbs who had/have a long history of strong growth.
On Houston while the city is just about built out, I think growth will start to be patchy, and best measured over decades rather than year to year. Their are still some areas were whole new neighborhoods can be put and the city itself has a large above-replacement level fertility population compared to other cities, so unless all those folks flee to the suburbs, i'm sure that baby growth by itself will lead to growth in the city. The main thing will be if new neighborhoods get's built in former undeveloped areas in the city, or new apartment complex, we will see possible years, with growth followed by years without any, but overall a growing trend due to more and more people being born in Houston than dying.
The main thing holding Houston back is legacy infrastructure, with some neighborhoods, being hollowed out because they became undesireable due to high crime and other schools, while other neighborhoods particularly in the SW of Houston had the high crime come in after or while development was storming the area, and the crime actually came well after every inch of land was developed.
One area that's definitely going to see a population boom is the third ward due to the U of H and TSU, whoa re both trying to expand the number of students living on campus, and if Houston continues to grow both of these places could see a West Campus style boom around them. The main issues of course is crime, but bad schools largely doesn't have to be addressed since we are talking college students here.
I don't personally think, that during the period of gentrification, suburbs were ever undesirable, it was more like instead of 90% of growth happening in the suburbs, the city now captured 15-25% of the growth. So you can't have a return to the suburbs if in reality people never stopped moving to the suburbs. Just because city growth slowed down doesn't mean the suburbs are picking up the people who would have been city slickers, more than likely due to demographic trends and the slowdown of immigration under Trump, (I'm not saying that is a bad or good thing, just saying they have a negative impact on growth) growth everywhere declined, it's just that the cities were hit harder than the suburbs who had/have a long history of strong growth.
On Houston while the city is just about built out, I think growth will start to be patchy, and best measured over decades rather than year to year. Their are still some areas were whole new neighborhoods can be put and the city itself has a large above-replacement level fertility population compared to other cities, so unless all those folks flee to the suburbs, i'm sure that baby growth by itself will lead to growth in the city. The main thing will be if new neighborhoods get's built in former undeveloped areas in the city, or new apartment complex, we will see possible years, with growth followed by years without any, but overall a growing trend due to more and more people being born in Houston than dying.
The main thing holding Houston back is legacy infrastructure, with some neighborhoods, being hollowed out because they became undesireable due to high crime and other schools, while other neighborhoods particularly in the SW of Houston had the high crime come in after or while development was storming the area, and the crime actually came well after every inch of land was developed.
One area that's definitely going to see a population boom is the third ward due to the U of H and TSU, whoa re both trying to expand the number of students living on campus, and if Houston continues to grow both of these places could see a West Campus style boom around them. The main issues of course is crime, but bad schools largely doesn't have to be addressed since we are talking college students here.
One thing Houston has going for it is that it's surrounded by a fair amount of unincorporated land.
With the extremely lax annexation laws in Texas, it can easily choose to annex that land if it wants.
Interesting. This must have been a fairly recent change if that's the case.
I don't think that 20 plus years is that recent.
Houston City limits have been huge for a long time.
Houston, has been annexing non residental commercial strips, not neighborhoods.
But people keep thinking otherwise.
I think the last major annexation was Kingwood in the mid 90s.
But yeah, airports, sea ports, highway areas yes.
I wish some of these myths would be dispelled. Houston is not swallowing neighborhoods filled with people.
If it was that easy Houston would be pushing 5M people right now
I don't think that 20 plus years is that recent.
Houston City limits have been huge for a long time.
Houston, has been annexing non residental commercial strips, not neighborhoods.
But people keep thinking otherwise.
I think the last major annexation was Kingwood in the mid 90s.
But yeah, airports, sea ports, highway areas yes.
I wish some of these myths would be dispelled. Houston is not swallowing neighborhoods filled with people.
If it was that easy Houston would be pushing 5M people right now
Just because Houston chose not to pursue annexation since the 90s doesn't mean it wasn't still easy for them to do so.
I did my own research after last night's post, and apparently the annexation laws were changed in 2017 (which is relatively recent) then made even stricter in 2019.
Just because Houston chose not to pursue annexation since the 90s doesn't mean it wasn't still easy for them to do so.
I did my own research after last night's post, and apparently the annexation laws were changed in 2017 (which is relatively recent) then made even stricter in 2019.
It wasn't all that easy decades ago either.
The annexation of Kingwood was messy and the annexation laws were tightened up after that.
You found the most recent changes but the first changes started in 1999
One potential reason for the dramatic slowdown in population growth circa 2015-2016 in Houston (and to a lesser extent in Dallas) may be the oil and gas downturn. I know many people who lost their jobs around that time and moved elsewhere - because let's be honest, many of us wouldn't live in Houston if it wasn't for the fantastic, high-paying job opportunities that the city provides.
One potential reason for the dramatic slowdown in population growth circa 2015-2016 in Houston (and to a lesser extent in Dallas) may be the oil and gas downturn. I know many people who lost their jobs around that time and moved elsewhere - because let's be honest, many of us wouldn't live in Houston if it wasn't for the fantastic, high-paying job opportunities that the city provides.
The metro is still growing rapidly and the O&G jobs are all over the metro.
What you say makes sense but wouldn't it be reflected all over the metro instead of just the city?
The Energy Corridor, Woodlands, Spring and To a lesser extent Sugarland are the great beneficiaries of the energy growth.
I doubt downturns in energy account for the brakes bring put on the city's growth.
I seriously think the city is underestimated like it was in the 2000s.
I think Dallas growth has been consistent the last decade. I think it was overestimated the first few years of the the 2010s and the numbers now are just correcting the overestimate
I don't disagree about the perception of Dallas. But since there was a comment about the amenities found in different cities, I was merely pointing out how Dallas is missing two of the most distinctively upscale department stores in the country, which is surprising for the 4th largest and fastest growing metro area in the country.
However, it is true that there are 4 Neiman Marcus locations throughout the Metroplex.
As far as the Galleria, I'm not sure what you mean by "upscale feel," but it has been slowly bleeding its upscale stores in favor of NorthPark and Highland Park Village.
Some of that was happening Atlanta with stores going to the Shops at Buckhead https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8381...7i16384!8i8192 but it appears now some of the stores are moving back to Lenox Square / Phipps Plaza again.
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