Natives--do you think our state is getting too crowded? (Houston: live, stores)

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by TexasNick

I flew a little Piper Cub across many parts of Texas last year and I was amazed at how much empty land there was. Once you get away from the cities it is very desolate. Even flying between Fredericksburg to Waco, over pristine rivers and lush trees, there was not much out there in terms of houses.

It is good that it feels crowded to some. That means the cities are doing their job--keeping people and resources in centralized locations. Can you imagine if there were no cities and people were instead spread all over the state? That would feel very crowded.

I agree with everything you said here except for the last sentence. With a population density of about 100 people per square mile, if the residents of Texas were spread all over the state it would not feel crowded at all.

The most dense state is New Jersey with about 1200 people per square mile. Texas could increase its population by an order of magnitude to 250 million and still be less dense than New Jersey!

[doss1]

Crowded to me is when I can see my neighbor's house. Even if there's a house on top of a mountain and I can see it from my window, it's too crowded.

But, that's just me.

[TXTwizter]

Originally Posted by texan55

you mean when the united states invaded a sovereign nation and took half their nation... all because they felt it was their god given duty to spread the american government from atlantic to pacific... at any cost?

Well if you don't like or agree with the methods the US has used in the past, present and future, your free to leave!

[catman]

Oh, no. Not the "love it or leave it" argument again!

[cBach]

About the "feel" of Texas being crowded. I was in Louisiana for a bit and even though Louisiana has a higher population density than Texas, I noticed that there was plenty of empty land "along the highway". When I got back to Texas I noticed there wasn't. Then I realized that the reason why was because of our silly access roads. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the service roads in cities and they are great when you need to U-turn, but they cause sprawl directly along the freeways. In Louisiana, many times there is a forest that goes directly up against the freeway. In some cases the trees from the side shade the interstate! It results in it seeming to be less dense than it is. You can't do that in Texas because of the access roads.

Another thing I realized is that in forested areas, it seems less dense. So the piney woods area of Texas seems less densely populated than the plains directly south and northwest of it, but both areas are about the same population density.

For instance, in West Texas, you can see miles away, so if they are building a structure 5 miles away you can sense that things are getting more dense. However, in East Texas, if they build a structure 5 miles away, there's no way you can see it. As alluded to earlier, the only way to really see the density is to fly over the area, and everytime I did, I realized how little Texas is developed...


I hope that makes sense...

[jeffari-al-texani]

Originally Posted by TXTwizter

As I recall didnt we WIN that war?? Therefore we didnt have to learn their language.

So what part of "while Texas was a part of Mexico" did you not understand?

[texan55]

Originally Posted by TXTwizter

Well if you don't like or agree with the methods the US has used in the past, present and future, your free to leave!

no because this is my home. and my family's home. and theirs before that. and so on and so forth. didn't cross the border. the border crossed us.... and all that jazz.

[Willsson]

Originally Posted by jeffari-al-texani

you mean just like when all those Americans moved to Texas when it was part of Mexico and didn't bother learning the language?

Or is it okay when we do it?

So... you know the Texians didn't learn spanish? Did they force the Spanish and later the Mexicans (in a short 15 years the area was Mexican) to
speak english?

And if they didn't speak Spanish or Mex-Tex, how did they negotiate the surrender and survival of Santa Anna? How did they arrange for women and children to leave the Alamo? Was Juan Seguin an internationally recognized interpreter?

Did either the Spanish or the Mexicans bother to learn Indian dialects before being invaded by the Texians? Did someone just make up the name Texas, or San Antonio? Or El Paso?

[Willsson]

Seems the real problem with population growth is that it will occupy the more fertile grounds of east Texas and the gulf coast as it spreads slowly westward.

[AlGreen]

Too crowded with a certain group of people? Yes. Not really, but yes.