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No Lifer
Welcome to Hell Texans
4-29-2014
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boom-time-in-texas--jobs--traffic--water-worries-143250407.html
Boom time in Texas: Jobs, traffic, water worries
As economy prospers, state copes with crowded highways, strained water supplies
Americans have flocked to Texas in search of a piece of the state's booming economy as much of the rest of the country struggled.
Now, the state's largest cities are seeing crowded highways, strained water supplies and other pressures that have come with the growth. And
Texas politiciansprotective of the small-government, low-tax policies many of them believe are at the root of the state's successare grappling with how to pay the price of prosperity.
Aided by the promise of plentiful employment and a low cost of living, Texas added 1.3 million people from 2010 to 2013, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Lone Star State's population has pushed past 26 million and is projected to reach 40 million by 2050.
But the size and pace of the population spurt is becoming more difficult to manage, presenting public officials with a challenge: How to beef up public infrastructure without straying from their small-government philosophy.
"We are already straining our systems for water, power, schools and roads," says Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter, appointed by Mr. Perry in 2010. "And they'll continue to be stressed unless we invest more heavily."
Michelle Dahlenburg, a 35-year-old Chicago transplant, moved to Austin in 2008 to get a graduate theater degree and stayed because of the city's vibrant arts community. But traffic and skyrocketing rents in her adopted hometown have her occasionally longing for home.
"I can't go anywhere in town without bumper-to-bumper traffic," says Ms. Dahlenburg.
"We are in an unenviable pinch point where our congestion is horrific, but it'll be 15 years, at a minimum, before we can provide high-volume alternatives," says Ryan Robinson, Austin's demographer.
4-29-2014
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boom-time-in-texas--jobs--traffic--water-worries-143250407.html
Boom time in Texas: Jobs, traffic, water worries
As economy prospers, state copes with crowded highways, strained water supplies
Americans have flocked to Texas in search of a piece of the state's booming economy as much of the rest of the country struggled.
Now, the state's largest cities are seeing crowded highways, strained water supplies and other pressures that have come with the growth. And
Texas politiciansprotective of the small-government, low-tax policies many of them believe are at the root of the state's successare grappling with how to pay the price of prosperity.
Aided by the promise of plentiful employment and a low cost of living, Texas added 1.3 million people from 2010 to 2013, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Lone Star State's population has pushed past 26 million and is projected to reach 40 million by 2050.
But the size and pace of the population spurt is becoming more difficult to manage, presenting public officials with a challenge: How to beef up public infrastructure without straying from their small-government philosophy.
"We are already straining our systems for water, power, schools and roads," says Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter, appointed by Mr. Perry in 2010. "And they'll continue to be stressed unless we invest more heavily."
Michelle Dahlenburg, a 35-year-old Chicago transplant, moved to Austin in 2008 to get a graduate theater degree and stayed because of the city's vibrant arts community. But traffic and skyrocketing rents in her adopted hometown have her occasionally longing for home.
"I can't go anywhere in town without bumper-to-bumper traffic," says Ms. Dahlenburg.
"We are in an unenviable pinch point where our congestion is horrific, but it'll be 15 years, at a minimum, before we can provide high-volume alternatives," says Ryan Robinson, Austin's demographer.
