Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58
Crap lining the freeway between the two cities does not even remotely make it a "metroplex."
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Look, I understand and agree with what you said… however, very few people are saying that it is
already a metroplex. What they are saying is that it is an
emerging metroplex, meaning “in the process of becoming.” That’s an important distinction you are failing to see.
Let me submit to you a rival graphic (and some data) that can simultaneously tell you the story of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
First, the data (2060 TDC projections):
Capital Region
Travis: 2,252,137
Williamson: 1,682,556
Alamo Region
Bexar: 3,102,720
Wilson: 73,304
Atascosa: 64,960
Medina: 61,719
Frio: 21,623
Mid Region
Hays: 1,003,130
Comal: 584,380
Guadalupe: 387,281
Caldwell: 75,583
Gonzales: 16,865
Blanco: 11,518
Base Region
Bell: 509,836
Coryell: 86,111
Lampasas: 23,542
North Region
McLennan: 354,573
Falls: 11,633
East Region
Bastrop: 223,711
Fayette: 23,121
Milam: 21,037
Lee: 18,062
Highland Region
Burnet: 70,323
Llano: 25,729
San Saba: 4,035
Mason: 3,661
West Region
Kendall: 111,448
Kerr: 63,589
Gillespie: 33,419
Bandera: 22,586
Kimble: 3,313
Real: 1,187
That’s approximately 11 million people centered around four main cities (San Antonio, Austin, Killeen, and Waco). I personally think it’ll take decades longer to get there, but a couple of factors to note:
The region’s geography is inherently less hospitable to clean-cut development than anywhere else in Texas, being both more rugged and more environmentally sensitive simultaneously. That will result in a patchwork of development stitching the region together, with formerly secondary nodes becoming more prominent (San Marcos, New Braunfels, etc.) as they anchor services necessary to support a large exurban population. By design, this will be somewhat denser east of 35 and not dense west of it. It won’t matter, though, as literally everything in this map will likely be dense enough to count as urban by the census bureau in 2060 (even if hardly any of it is as dense as you’d expect a mega-city to be):
Note: the empty black circles are protected lands. More land is likely to end up preserved in the interim.
It may never function as a single employment area, its too large a geography for that, but what megacities do? Very few. Most are multipolar.