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I think anything over 20% decennial growth decade after decade after decade is a little too fast. A couple decades here or there with growth that fast is probably okay, but not "hyper" growth and not for sustained periods of time. These cities need to slow down at some point so infrastructure and services can catch up, and my guess is that they ALL will, which is inevitable with large cities.
a lot of the big cities of today grew by 50% plus for quite a few decades.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HtownLove
a lot of the big cities of today grew by 50% plus for quite a few decades.
I know that, including my own. It set Minneapolis and St. Paul back at the time and they made measures to control growth, including limiting the annexation and expansion of the cities, which is why they are so small (in land area) compared to cities like Houston or Dallas.
All that does is make the city limits smaller. Doesn't really stop growth in the area. And Dallas' city limit square mileage is a little above 300, yet it only grew by 9000. San Francisco grew by 20K at just 45 square miles.
I know that, including my own. It set Minneapolis and St. Paul back at the time and they made measures to control growth, including limiting the annexation and expansion of the cities, which is why they are so small (in land area) compared to cities like Houston or Dallas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarface713
All that does is make the city limits smaller. Doesn't really stop growth in the area. And Dallas' city limit square mileage is a little above 300, yet it only grew by 9000. San Francisco grew by 20K at just 45 square miles.
who cares what the city limits are if everyone says its metro size that matters?
The main issue I see with population growth in Phoenix is easy access to water. Phoenix is in a semi-arid to arid environment, meaning it gets little rainfall or moisture. Most of the public water in Phoenix is brought by underwater aquifers or brought in by canals and dams made by rivers which receive melt water from snow high up in the mountains. With aquifers, obviously, they eventually will dry up, and with very little rainfall the aquifers will probably never be replenished. With the canals, one might say they have a less limited access to water, but with such a large and quickly sprawling population (especially in the suburbs) water use is getting worrisome.
The suburbs of Phoenix are well known for valuing pristine, bright green lawns that are frankly unnatural for the environment they are in. The normal state of this land is desert, dried out land with little moisture, due to rain clouds and storm patterns being blocked by the mountains surrounding Phoenix. As more and more people move to this area, they drain the melt water at faster and faster paces. Again, since there is little precipitation in the area, the snow will not be replenished fast enough. With the increase in global temperatures, the snow melts at an even quicker pace, which means more water temporarily, but less water saved up for the next year.
Basically, Phoenix's SUBURBS are growing too fast, and the whole metropolitan area is, in the long run, unsustainable, and is just an icon of a U.S. economy based on the frivolous and vain. It stands with cities such as San Jose and even Los Angeles that ignore the natural state of nature and what SHOULD limit human population and throws caution to the wind, setting up the cities for catastrophe farther down the road.
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!
its even more now. Unincorporated Harris County has about 1.5M people. That puts it at about 5 or 6. About the population of Philadelphia and larger than Phoenix
Yes, but if you listen to people from Houston, the entire world could blow up, and Houston would be fine.
It would. We have the dome
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We have the dome
