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This nodal growth occurs in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Phoenix. The downtown areas are the central business districts, but each one of these cities have several other business districts spread throughout the city area.
True... So very ture... We have Atlanta... Marietta... Sandy Springs... Decatur... etc...
Houston is more like the same size as LA and I doubt they all could fit in Houston; unless they want to be floating under water.
Yeah the point was that somebody was bloviating that Houston had a much more developed city center compared to the other cities that are being compared... So the point was made that the city limits of Houston were huge compared to the other cities.
Basically if you spead Dallas or Atlanta out in a favorable direction to match Houstons city area then they are once again in the same boat and comparable and are pretty much just as or more devolped than the city of Houston.
According to population estimates released today for all metro areas by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Atlanta metro area gained 890,000 residents from April 1, 2000, to July 1, 2006, the largest numerical gain of the nation’s 361 metro areas. This Georgia metro area (Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta) was the nation’s ninth largest as of July 1, 2006 with a population of 5.1 million. Overall, six metro areas each gained at least 500,000 people between 2000 and 2006.
US Census Press Releases (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/009865.html - broken link)
I am curious about Atlanta's growth. What portion of the growth is actual population growth within a static boundary (comparing apples to apples)and what portion is from adding to the MSA/CSA? It just seems to me that Atlanta's MSA physical size is gigantic and all those added counties must have accumulated over time. Has any of it been added since 2000?
I just looked up the others on wikipedia and the Atlanta MSA is the smallest of the group at 8376 square miles. On the opposite end is Phoenix at over 16,000 square miles. Sheesh!
The problem with the way American cities typically grow, and all those cities fit that mold, is that they grow business in the downtown area and grow residences further and further out. Their growth comes in a way that forces the next 1 million people to travel the same traffic paths at the same time of day as the people currently do. In other words, there is no nodal growth, there is predominantly sprawl. And cities end up doing that because they are so excited about the money that growth brings that they toss planning to the wind and revel in the financial winfall. Then the traffic headaches come and quality of life decreases. People spend more hours in traffic and fewer hours with their family. Stress increases.
Some cities have embraced nodal growth. Denver has built town centers all around its metro area and focused density around those centers. It has the downtown area as well as the Denver Tech Center, as well as Boulder, major sites of employment in different parts of the metro area. The Research Triangle Area in North Carolina is another example. Rather than have one city which continuosly spirals outward, the area has 3 main cities which each have their own character.
Cities with the smartest growth distribute traffic over various routes and in various directions at the same time. Cities with the most reckless growth are always the ones trying to stuff as many businesses as they can downtown and keeping the ever expanding suburbs for residential neighborhoods. That way everybody can drive on the same expressways in the same direction at the same time during rush hour.
But I see most of the time people in this forum keep pointing out that cities with dense downtown areas are nice (like Chicago, etc.). So those cities don't have nodal growth but manage well, right?
Adrian Garcia was on KPFT today and mentioned that his Sheriff's department covered the equivalent of the population of the 8th largest city. Unincorporated Harris County is huge--sometimes you can't tell if you're in Houston or in the County!
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