Why Texas Wins

0:00This episode is brought to you by Pal Molliv. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Pal Molliv Ultra. Pal Molliv's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean, and the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at PalMolliv.com. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored

1:01Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen, and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at ND.com slash podcast. That's ND.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is the job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. This is a snapshot of Dutch soccer fans doing what Dutch soccer fans do best. For decades following their national team, the traveling fans have dawned their orange, assembled by the thousands, and walked city streets behind the famed orange bus to the hosting stadium, and June 20th, 20th, 20th, 26th was no different. Taking public transit and biking to meet a university campus at the edge of the host city's museum district, an estimated 25,000 fans headed south. Following a residential avenue, the massive crowd benefited from the shade of an urban canopy of old-growth oaks lining the roadway. Daylighting on to Main Street, they then crossed a waterway bordered by a pedestrian trail.

2:06Now nearing the stadium, the crowd merged alongside the path of the city's light rail. Following the red line southbound, they arrived at the city's stadium center. Across three miles or five kilometers, through wooded, fairly compact neighborhoods, crossing canals and pedestrian trails bordering along a mass transit system, the route would feel a fairly standard one for the traveling Dutch fans, aside from perhaps the heat. Because while the route doesn't seem so out of the ordinary for the walking European superfan, this is Houston, Texas, which, even within a state known for being car obsessed, is known by Americans to be unwocable, sprawling, and car obsessed. With this three mile world cup jaunt serves to show is that Houston, along with its home state, are easy to stereotype and oversimplify, but on the ground level, they're beginning to look a little different. Texas is, of course, booming. But the U-Haul growth index, which simply looks at the destination of one way trucks rented, Texas has been either the number one or number two in the city.

3:07And by the ever-so-cleashay indicator that's usually saved for California, if Texas were its own country, it'd be the world's eighth largest by GDP. And you, of course, know all this. Elon Musk talks about it, Greg Abbott brags about it, Fox News showcases it, and the state itself revels in it. But this Texas-sized population boom and corresponding economic miracle is more complicated than two sides of a highly politicized representation. While the bedrock has always been energy and gas exports, it's more than good old boys racking up absurd wealth on fossil fuels as the left would leave you thinking. And while business relocation and local investment has pushed the state economy to grow to pace faster than most others, it's more than just a lack of red tape and conservative values opening up opportunities as the boosters from the right would have you to believe. Both energy and a comparatively pro-business environment are the most important thing to do in this environment are major contributors, but Texas has been growing upward for so long because of something more basic.

4:08It's just a remarkably steady growth engine that hasn't shown any real signs of slowing, until perhaps now. Steadily growing without really slowing is a simple concept, but in a world of finite resources, it's a uniquely challenging cycle to simulate and maintain. And to understand how Texas just grows and grows, we need to consider where Texas grows. This is the Texas Triangle. It's along the three points of this triangle, the Houston area, the Dallas-Fore Worth metro area, and the Austin and San Antonio metro area, where you find the highest population densities within the state. And it's along these urban areas's outskirts where you find the fastest growing population centers within the fastest growing state. In line with population concentration, this triangle makes up for 70% of the state's total population, as relative economic might, as the triangle generates almost 80% of the state's GDP. And all of this is driven by the points on the triangle. Take Houston. In 1830's, Texas struck out as its own country.

5:09It wanted its independence from Mexico, but it wanted to be a slave holding state annexed into the US during a period where annexing a slave holding state was a tough political cell. So it set off on its own, and it put its capital right here for the first couple years in Houston, where the rice, now a residential building. This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of Greece, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at Palm Olive.com. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks.

6:11Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Are you ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen, and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching, and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Visible puts unlimited 5G data and hotspot in the palm of your hand, powered by Verizon's 5G network, with no contract holding you back. And for a limited time, you can get visible for just $19 a month for 12 months when you use promo code Save6. All the features of Big Wireless Service, for half the cost.

7:11Tap the banner to switch today. Terms apply, Standard Rate applies at month 13. See visible.com for planned features and network management details. Stands While the independence of the Republic of Texas wouldn't last long, a statewide sense of independence would. In 1948, a century after the state to join the union, Houston voters bucked the trend sweeping across most major cities in the U.S. and voted against adopting a city-wide zoning ordinance, or a municipal law that would outline what type of buildings would be built where. In the next decade, the city doubled in size and nearly reached a million inhabitants. And as it crossed the million member mark in the early 1960s, residents again voted against zoning ordinances. This legacy has led to things like this, Huckleberry Circle, where expensive single-family homes are abutted by massive apartment towers. It also made room for things like never-ending parking lots, and this picture, in particular. From the 70s, this shot has become synonymous with Houston's car obsession and lack of central vision in creating a cityscape.

8:13This is the heart of the city, which just blocks away from where the Republic of Texas capital building once stood. But again, it's an oversimplification to call Houston an unwocable, unplanned urban disaster. For one, this same area of downtown has fundamentally transformed over the last 50 years. It now looks like this. But more importantly, and more transformatively, this unique lack of zoning on account of just not wanting ordinances, unintentionally open to lane for the city to become an unrelenting growth machine. With limited rules outside of lot minimums in mid-century Houston, the energy sector boomed and the city sprawled to a size larger than the entire London metro area. A big city built for cars and car parking with continued demand for more housing then started to change on account of opportunistic land developers and builders. Since the 1990s, Houston has been infilling housing and it has created a virtuous cycle. Take for example this lot in northwest Houston.

9:13Located in a quiet residential neighborhood called Aker Homes, this traditionally would be a lot for a single-family home set good bit off the streets, perhaps just like its neighbor across the alleyway. But instead, a local design and planning firm had a different idea for the lot. Rather than one lot, they split it into four rather than a single-family home, it's now slated to serve potentially four families. At least in theory, this creates benefits for both developers and residents. CGEA planning, rather than building and selling one larger home for, say, $400,000, can now build out and sell four homes for $150,000 each and make 50% more on sales. And while turning a profit, they can also be proud of their community impact. They're providing four homes to be sold at a comparatively low price that, through increasing the neighborhood population density, helps local business, incentivizes further business development, makes the neighborhood more dynamic and appealing to more pro-density development, which makes the area more walkable, more welcoming, more livable. And it's not just a theory, it's already happening here. Just look down the street. All these homes are on small footprints and they're all cheap.

10:19This phenomena is most acutely felt here within the I-610 motorway, which rims the core of the city. In the 90s, applications to replat big lots to smaller lots had become so common that city officials didn't want to deal with them on a case-by-case basis, so they dropped minimum lot size from 5,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet and reduced mandatory setbacks of homes from 25 feet to just 5 feet off the street. Within this loop, denser and denser housing has allowed the area to maintain about 4,500 people living within each square mile. Nothing crazy in terms of density, but on par with the likes of Sacramento, Long Beach, and Atlanta. Surprisingly, given the city's reputation, is becoming more and more bikerable while the inner loop has a fairly high walkability score. But an uptick in population density and better walkability scores don't speak to why Houston has been such a draw in the last 25 years. It's the fact that these denser housing projects are cheap, too. Of the 20 largest metro areas in the US, Houston has the second cheapest housing, backing its welcoming repli-

11:20This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

12:23It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Visible puts unlimited 5G data and hotspot in the palm of your hand, powered by Verizon's 5G network, with no contract holding you back. And for a limited time, you can get visible for just $19 a month for 12 months when you use promo code Save Six. All the features of Big Wireless Service for half the cost. Tap the banner to switch today. Terms apply. Standard rate applies at month 13. See visible.com for plan features and network management details. And it's a real economic opportunity for new arrivals. Depending on rankings, Houston is the US's most diverse or second most diverse major city.

13:24Houston is welcoming, and this is partly due to the city's heritage. This was, once, Mexico. This is also a historically black city and serves as one of the best landing spots for black professionals, with nearly a fifth of all businesses black owned, and a professional workforce, or about 20% of teachers, and 20% of doctors, or black. It's been a welcoming city to refugees, whether that's Vietnamese relocating during the 1970s, or the quarter of a million that were displaced during Hurricane Katrina, and it's also structurally welcoming. Thanks to Enfield, Houston adds housing and people without seeing a housing prices shoot skyward. Because housing and cost of living is relatively cheap, it's a place where construction jobs, food and service jobs, manufacturing jobs can more than make ends meet. Houston is by no means perfect. It's fairly segregated in places. Gentrification is pushing out families in other areas like the Third Ward, but on the whole, it's a leader in opportunities for minorities. Enfield is also being matched by overflow as the Houston suburbs continue to grow, too. And it's the same thing.

14:25Because there's so much room to grow, there's high demand, but the supply is in strain, so it stays cheap. Because the building sector keeps humming, the growth machine keeps running, no matter how hot the summers get. Or apparently, how cold the winter skits. 3.5 hours up Interstate 45 from Houston is Dallas, or really Dallas for Worth, Arlington, and a host of suburbs from Plano to Irving, they're putting Houston's growth numbers to shame. The metro area has even passed Houston in recent years as the fourth most populous in the US. And as far as places for cities to sit, this place isn't the best. The de facto capital of North Texas, the Dallas for Worth area is a southern plain city, and as such, it's prone to get hit by the occasional ice storm during the winter, and we'll see the occasional snowstormer, too. When summer hits, though, it's relentlessly hot and muggy, stacking streaks of 100 degree Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius days for weeks on end. And between those two extremes, when hot happens to run into cold, there are tornadoes with one having actually touched down in downtown for Worth in 2000.

15:30The weather just isn't great, and as for navigable waterways around here, practically a necessity for any major American city, well, there aren't any of those either. Not that they didn't try. While Houston benefits from the navigable Buffalo Bayou, Port Houston, and buoyancy to help float its economy, Dallas has no such advantage. They just have the Trinity River. Early city boosters believe that with a little engineering, the Trinity could connect North Texas to the Gulf, and for a few decades, the Army Corps of Engineers tried, but to no avail. But Dallas, as it is now, was nothing if not determined. It became a rail hub, it became a cattle hub, and the area is now a natural gas hub. Sheerwill and Boosterism from city founders put Dallas on the map. With a little in the way of physical advantages, the city has brought in big business by building a big airport, keeping operational costs low, and maintaining a large, skilled, comparatively cheap workforce through Breakeneck home building. And now the area has over 20 Fortune 500 companies to show for it, only trailing New York City and Chicago.

16:33With Texas Instruments, Toyota North America, Charles Schwab, Comarica, AT&T, and Caterpillar, the area has become a hub for everything from tech and finance to heavy machinery. More companies are coming, and more people are too. Now that it's on the map, the city, as much as anywhere in the state, has leaned into its natural geographic advantage. There's just a lot of flat land around here. Let's glitzy, less nationally prominent, less populist and sizable than Dallas is for worth. While downtown Dallas is corporate, for worth has the stockyards. While Dallas feels metropolitan with a Texas flare, for worth just feels like Texas. For long in Dallas's shadow, for worth is now ceiling headlines. This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments, it's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean.

17:36And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at Palm Olive.com. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this shelf will get a $75 sponsor job credit at andd.com slash podcast. That's indeed.com slash podcast.

18:36Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. I get so many headaches every month. It could be chronic migraine. 15 or more headache days a month. Each lasting four hours or more. Botox on a botchaline mtoxin A prevents headaches and adults with chronic migraine. It's not for those who have 14 or fewer headache days a month. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alerture doctor right away is difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection or at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Alerture reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myosthenia, gravis, or Lambert Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botchaline mtoxins. As these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Why wait, ask your doctor, visit BotoxCronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44 Botox to learn more.

19:42Recently passed Austin in population, it ranks high among the nation's fastest growing cities, and it's on Dallas's heels. The city is growing fast and really not showing signs of slowing because of how it's growing. Conceiving the mid-century, then built out in the 80s, the I-820 loop was meant to be a beltway that surrounded Fort Worth and connected the city's suburbs. But now the city limits look like this. Fort Worth spills out in just about every direction beyond the confines of the beltway. Fort Worth is able to add population as fast as anywhere in the states because it's adding land just about as fast as anywhere in the state. Fort Worth is annexing its suburbs and adding single-family developments to keep up with demands for more housing in the region. The tariff element is under construction right now, but you can buy a five bedroom house for under $400,000. Just about anywhere else, that's a steal, and this one comes with a Fort Worth address, meaning you'd be living large in one of America's biggest and fastest growing cities. But this development happens to be here, 20 miles out from downtown, and while it's just a construction site now, it's planned to be the most generic of single-family suburban developments.

20:48And yet, somehow, it's now Fort Worth. While providing utilities, municipal services like police and fire will fall on the city. It's a worthwhile trade-off because it adds to the tax base in an important way, through property tax, while also adding to city housing stock to at least help keep up with demand. Because Fort Worth has been an especially popular destination since COVID, rents and housing prices have gone upward, but by national averages, they're still low, and they're still lower than Dallas's. Which speaks to another facet as to why Fort Worth is reaching farther north. They're following the firms, companies, and major employers that are moving out of Dallas and up into the northern suburbs. AT&T, fifth third bank, Neiman Marcus, even the professional sports franchises, the Dallas stars and Dallas Mavericks, have left or are planning to leave downtown Dallas for perhaps not greener, but cheaper pastures, north. Dallas is cheap by national standards, Fort Worth is cheap by Dallas standards, but these counties in the suburbs are cheap by North Texas standards, and it's proving a major draw.

21:48Access to the city at suburb prices has counties surrounding the Dallas Fort Worth metro area growing by more than 30% in a decade. It's cheap square footage, new houses that go up fast, quaint smaller suburban downtowns with fairly accessible big cities nearby that have places like Frisco, Plano, and Irving booming. Former Californians tickled by the price tags and lack of taxes and former Midwesterns working remote and searching for a change are now chasing the Texas dream while North Texas is doing everything it can to keep up and maintain the validity of such a dream. Where Houston has in fill, North Texas has fully embraced the sprawl, and with planes and planes to spread across, it too seems like an engine for stubbornly steady growth. Eventually, at some point, inevitably unavoidably, there reaches a limit to the Texas dream, and Austin, Texas may be ground zero. This was the original growth machine, Tesla, Oracle, Apple all set up here, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and basically anyone that was fed up with COVID policies, coastal red tape or stricken business, or just the plain sky high cost of living in Chicago, LA, the Bay area or New York seem to be taking their money and their business to Austin.

23:00In migration had the city growing at a 4% clip from 2010 to 2020. Since then, it slowed to about a single percent a year. Middle-income earners have stagnated, low-income earners are leaving as the city has gone from a weird sleepy university town to an increasingly hip tech hub. Picking up the slack, perhaps creating the slack too, are dripping springs, round rock, and Liberty Hill. The suburbs were, again, the city isn't too far, the job is nearby or within a short commute, and the dollar goes a little bit farther than it would in Austin. What Austin has learned and what Dallas is quickly learning is that the Texas dream is a mobile one. The Texas triangle, the growth machine that fuels and is fueled by the dream of an easy commute, This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

24:08This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean, and the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at Palm Olive.com. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen, and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

25:08Chronic Migraine is 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more. Botox, on a botulinum toxin A, prevents headaches and adults with chronic migraine before they start. It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It prevents on average 8 to 9 headache days a month, versus 6 to 7 for placebo. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Alertive reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including ALS Lugeric's disease, Myasthenia Gravis, or Lambert Eaton Syndrome, and medications, including Botulinum toxins. As these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Why wait? Ask your doctor, visit BotoxCronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44 Botox to learn more.

26:08It's a cheap house, a friendly business environment, and a hopping economy is changing in shape. It's pushing north out of Dallas, it's pushing into the suburbs of Houston and Austin, it's filling in between the cities. For the state, this broadly works. For the new arrival, this broadly works. But it's putting cities in a bit of a bind. Any longtime Austinite will tell you that Austin has changed. A city that loved the keep Austin Weir stickers is just no longer that weird. It's less team punk and more Silicon Valley than ever. They may seem a privileged problem or one of taste rather than substance, but there are real ramifications. In a state that taxes pretty lightly, these cities really count on property taxes, and with things cooling, Austin is now facing back-to-back years of a shrinking tax return. Recently, on account of low sales tax revenue, Dallas announced it would be furlowing some city employees as its sales tax growth is lagging behind those in Plano, Frisco, and Irving. If the Texas Dream is a mobile one, it may prove to be a brush fire, burning fast across the plains, following easy fuel, and leaving burn scars behind.

27:15But, as it seems every Texas booster would want you to believe, that all may be a problem for tomorrow. When I started researching Texas for this video, I was reminded how difficult it is to understand a place this large and influential. It's not just that Texas is complicated, it's that almost every discussion about it comes with a different interpretation of what's actually happening. That's one of the challenges of making videos like this. The research is expansive, but the final explanation has to be concise, which means constantly deciding which details are essential, and which are simply interesting. That's one of the reasons I've kept using Ground News while researching videos like this since I first partnered with them in 2023. Their app and website helps me compare coverage across hundreds of outlets, see where the reporting converges or differs, and build a more complete picture before drawing my own conclusions. Just take, for example, the coverage of a fatal shooting in Houston by an ICE agent. Ground News shows me that over 400 outlets covered this story, scrolling through I can quickly see the political distribution of coverage, how factual the reporting has historically been,

28:17who owns the outlets, and even filter by location to compare local coverage to international reporting. The left focuses on the use of deadly force, while the right focuses on who the victim was, and the alleged circumstances that preceded it. Both headlines describe the same event, but they lead readers towards very different interpretations. That's why I don't rely on a single outlet, or an algorithm that keeps serving me more of the same. Comparing coverage helps separate the underlying facts from the framing. But that's only part of the picture. Just as important are the stories that never reach your radar in the first place. Ground News's blind spot feeds surfaces stories receiving significant attention from one side of the political spectrum, but comparatively little from the other. The goal isn't to consume more news, it's to understand it better. That's why I've kept using ground news for years. It doesn't tell me what to think, it gives me the context to reach my own conclusions. It's also independently run and subscriber-funded. To help you get the most of it, I've partnered with Ground News to offer you guys 40% off the same unlimited access advantage plan I use at ground.newslashwindover or by scanning the QR code on screening.