[Reuters] Houston poised to pass Chicago as third largest US city

Dirty Third & Kashmere Gardens represent.

 

Yes Chicago is in decline. We have been considering leaving the market. There is no margin for error. There is no fantastic opportunities. There are parts of the city that continue to thrive and areas like Naperville and Wheaton in the suburbs remain wealthy but there is no growth and there is a general feeling of optimism.

I split my time in Chicago and it is in general a negative experience.

 

Great times in Houston. Rockets and Astros title prospects on the rise. We are now a large market. Should build solid fanbases for decades to come.

 

Wow. I kind of figured the article would be about obesity.

 

City population doesn't really matter, it's all about the metropolitan area. Greater Houston is probably ~7 million while Chicagoland is ~10 million. I don't see 3+ million in less than 10 years. In fact the Metroplex is bigger than Greater Houston right now but just barely. Maybe 500k only.

Also in terms of media market, Houston is only 10th.

p.s., screw United, long live Continental!!!

 

This exactly.

I read somewhere that they want to make MSA the standard for the definition of determining the largest cities.

 

One day they will start calling us a big market for sports team instead of mid market

 

Official city limit populations are pretty meaningless in the grand scheme and are a pure technicality, not accurately representing a population of a region.

For urban areas:

Chicago: 9,156,000
Houston: 5,764,000

So yea, still a ways to go.

 

Still a ways to go, yes, but that number for Houston is way antiquated.

Our metro area is at 6.5 million now.

 

Do they? The Texans, Rockets and Dynamo are all among the 5 most valuable franchises in their respective leagues (the Astros could be too, I just dont know because I don't follow baseball). I don't think that would happen so consistently across the the board of they were not considered "big market teams"

I think Houston is around 6.3 now, but your concept is totally correct.

 

About Chicago, or Houston?

Have you ever been to Chicago?

 

The Texans book value is $1 billion because McNair had to pay a $700 million franchise fee, I think even right after the league vote.

 

Very true.

How is the Houston Metro area usually 'demarcated'? Does it include Woodlands/Conroe? How far down the coast? What about the Golden Triangle? Columbus/Sealy?

To me, that is all the "Houston area"

 

https://www.houston.org/pdf/research/quickview/Population_Employment_Forecast.pdf

 

There's nothing better than living in the top 3 biggest cities in America. Yeah we can b**** and complain about the transit and crime and what not but my oh my, the people is what makes life that much more fun. And you get to sleep with as many people as you want, just wear condoms, yes?

 

Good point. And furthermore, even if you are only talking city limits, Houston's square miles is over 2.5 times greater than Chicago's.

 

There's two things: an MSA which is basically all of the counties that are partially in the Houston area, and there's an "urban area" which is the population of the continuous "built up" area. I got my numbers from the urban area, but MSA is obviously acceptable too and more official.

 

Greater Houston, according to Wikipedia:

As defined by the Office of Management and Budget, the metropolitan area of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land encompasses nine counties in Texas. They are listed below with population figures as of the 2010 U.S. Census.[16][17]
Harris County – 4,092,459
Fort Bend County – 585,375
Montgomery County – 455,746
Brazoria County – 313,166
Galveston County – 291,309
Liberty County – 75,643
Waller County – 43,205
Chambers County – 35,096
Austin County – 28,417

Five Principal Cities:

Five "principal" cities are designated within Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area:
Houston – 2,242,193
The Woodlands - 107,769
Sugar Land – 80,704
Baytown – 70,330
Conroe – 55,429

 

You have this in Houston too, with The Woodlands and Sugar Land. Areas like the Energy Corridor might as well be Plano. Houston has such large city limits that some of these business hubs are in the city rather than a suburban city. I do wish the city limits of Houston were smaller though, even if that means the city limit rank would drop to around five or six. I think areas like Alief, Spring, Atascocita, Klein, and other areas outside the Beltway, would have been better off if they remained as their own city instead one large unincorporated blob.

 

Houston was fun in the 90's but I'm glad I'm out of there now. It has gotten too congested. Of course, in a perfect world, everyone wouldn't be all over the highway, but there are reasons people contribute to sprawl. A married couple might have jobs on opposite ends of town. People might want the suburban experience to provide a safer area/ more places to play/ better schools for their kids.

Many of us like our green space and some physical space around us without being crowded right next to everybody. It would be better if more people could live in smaller cities and towns. I live in a small city now (Amarillo) - sure it's a million miles from anywhere, but it takes 7 minutes to get from home to work and there is hardly any rush hour traffic.