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Houston replaced New Orleans as the Gulf Coast hub because it's a better geography for modern day industry. New Orleans should have been a much bigger city if it wasn't geographically cursed, and a lot of people from that area relocated to Houston.
It’s crazy that Houston is further away from Louisiana than Dallas is from Oklahoma and Atlanta is from Alabama, but it has more connections and influences from Louisiana than the others do with their neighboring states.
It’s funny that the notion is Houston is more connected with New Orleans, but everyone tends to forget that Houston is mostly akin to and tied to SW Louisiana more than anything. New Orleans is just the icing on the cake, when it comes to Houston’s Louisiana influences.
It’s crazy that Houston is further away from Louisiana than Dallas is from Oklahoma and Atlanta is from Alabama, but it has more connections and influences from Louisiana than the others do with their neighboring states.
Probably a key reason for this is that Oklahoma and Alabama are doing much better than Louisiana at retaining most of their population. None of the states have major metro areas, but Birmingham, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, etc. are competitive economically with other places of comparable size across the country. New Orleans has some unique amenities but is much weaker on its fundamentals, and has environmental vulnerabilities that work against economic development. This is pushing more LA residents to other Southern states, and Houston is the closest major metropolis.
It’s crazy that Houston is further away from Louisiana than Dallas is from Oklahoma and Atlanta is from Alabama, but it has more connections and influences from Louisiana than the others do with their neighboring states.
I think apart of that is due to Louisiana's distinct cultures in comparison to the other regions mentioned in this thread. Oklahoma and Alabama do have their own distinct cultures as well. And I'm speaking on the regions of these states closest to these particular metro areas. But Louisiana's just stand out more therefore their cultural contributions are more visible in Houston. Like I know for certain there's a pretty big influx of Okies in DFW. Hell Denton and the far north burbs of DFW start feeling like Oklahoma-ish. But I couldn't tell you Oklahoma's cultural contribution to DFW besides the transplants. Same goes for Atlanta and that part of Alabama. I saw more NYC/NJ cultural contributions to Atlanta than I ever did Alabama. Even though I knew a ton of people from Alabama living in Atlanta.
While Alabama's metros aren't necessarily large, there's just a decently large number of areas worthwhile for a business to expand to (either historic large population centers, or up-and-comers), that it'd take a while for a more local business to really feel the need to expand into Atlanta. Tuscaloosa is less than an hour from Birmingham; Huntsville and Montgomery are about an hour and a half; and Auburn is about two. Depending on the business, you might even like to expand into infill like Decatur, Cullman, Talladega or Tuskegee. There's a crescent from Auburn to Huntsville where there's plenty of decent population centers at relatively reasonable distances for expansion (i.e. Never need to worry on the interstate about finding gas as there's always a town within 10-20 miles.). Atlanta is a bit off that crescent, and it'd be more of an organic growth to link through Auburn that to go along I-20. Nashville might actually be a better call than Atlanta as an organic business expansion area.
Oklahoma has this to a lesser degree (Tulsa and OKC concentrating population cuts down on the number of other areas). Louisiana really needs an up-and-comer city to really drive the idea of instate expansion. It has some decent historic population centers in BR, NO and Shreveport once that's started. Under these conditions, local businesses with their local branding, might see expanding into Houston as a sooner step than ones in Alabama and Oklahoma.
Now this is where I’ll give the edge to Houston/LA.
So, in other words, the Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a greater influence upon Houston every year than Dallas-Ft. Worth being closer to the one of the biggest casinos in the world in Oklahoma in addition to another huge casino in Durant, OK, which has a big arena that draws big time music stars, such as Tim McGraw?
So, in other words, the Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a greater influence upon Houston every year than Dallas-Ft. Worth being closer to the one of the biggest casinos in the world in Oklahoma in addition to another huge casino in Durant, OK, which has a big arena that draws big time music stars, such as Tim McGraw?
You do realize there's other cities in Louisiana besides New Orleans? Houston's biggest Louisiana connection is Southwest Louisiana.
In Houston you can see the Louisiana influence with the many Cajun and Creole restaurants all over the city. Houston being pretty much one of the biggest Zydeco meccas in the country also shows the Louisiana influence in the city. The influx of New Orleans transplants after Katrina just further strengthen Houston and Louisiana connection. Like I said in another post, Louisiana culture just sticks out more than Oklahoma's so the influence is more visible in Houston than OK's influence in DFW.
I don't think Alabama really exerts any influence over metro Atlanta.
I also don't know that Oklahoma exerts any influence over DFW, though it may to a small degree.
However, Houston is heavily influenced by Louisiana culture - the most obvious manifestation is in the food.
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