If you wanted to be in a region that is growing both in population and business opportunities, where would you go? The evidence over and over is that you're already there. Texas stands to gain four additional seats in the US House of Representatives after the census, double any other state. The Metroplex is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country and we're growing faster than the first three. All that should translate to this area being a wonderful place to live, work, and invest.
 
As the region grows, where will Garland fall? We have to take advantage of the growth that is going to be here in this area to reinvigorate many areas of the city. Plans are in the works and the Council should start seeing them soon (real soon measured in government time). We have started to do more to promote the city. A whole development code and comprehensive plan are soon to be revealed. I'm optimistic.
 
If you want to see Garland grow and rebuild—not haphazardly but in a planned and friendly way—let your Council representatives know. If you want to keep doing it the way we always have and to preserve the city as it is now, you can tell them that, too.
 

From Forbes.com/Opinions:

Don't Mess With Texas

Joel Kotkin, 03.30.10, 12:00 PM EDT
 
Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin are shaping the 21st-century American city.
 

Joel Kotkin Photo source: Forbes.com

One of the most ironic aspects of our putative "Age of Obama" is how little impact it has had on the nation's urban geography. Although the administration remains dominated by boosters from traditional blue state cities—particularly the president's political base of Chicago--the nation's metropolitan growth continues to shift mostly toward a handful of Sunbelt red state metropolitan areas.
 
Our Urbanist in Chief may sit in the Oval Office, but Americans continue to vote with their feet for the adopted hometown of widely disdained former President George W. Bush. According to the most recent Census estimates, the Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas, region added 146,000 people between 2008 and 2009—the most of any region in the country—a healthy 2.3% increase.
 
Other Texas cities also did well. Longtime rival Houston sat in second, with an additional 140,000 residents. Smaller Austin added 50,000—representing a remarkable 3% growth—while San Antonio grew by some 41,000 people.
 
In contrast, most blue state mega cities—with the exception of Washington, D.C.—grew much more slowly. The New York City region's rate of growth was just one-fifth that of Dallas or Houston, while Los Angeles barely reached one-third the level of the Texas cities.
 
These trends should continue: According to Moody's Economy.com, Texas' big cities are entering economic recovery mode well ahead of almost all the major centers along the East or West Coasts. This represents a continuation of longer-term trends, both before and after the economic crisis. Between 2000 and 2009 New York gained 95,000 jobs while Chicago lost 257,000, Los Angeles over 167,000 and San Francisco some 216,000. Meanwhile, Dallas added nearly 150,000 positions and Houston a hefty 250,000.
 
This leads me to believe that the most dynamic future for America urbanism—and I believe there is one—lies in Texas' growing urban centers. To reshape a city in a sustainable way, you need to have a growing population, a solid and expanding job base and a relatively efficient city administration.
 
None of these characteristics apply to places like President Obama's hometown of Chicago, which continues to suffer from the downturn—but you would never know it based on media coverage of the Windy City.
 
The New Yorker, for example, recently published a lavish tribute to the city and its mayor, Richard Daley. But as long-time Chicago observer Steve Bartin points out, the story missed—or simply ignored—many critical facts. Mistaking Daley's multi-term tenure as proof of effectiveness, it failed to recognize the region's continued loss of jobs, decaying infrastructure, rampant corruption and continued out-migration of the area's beleaguered middle class.
 
Read the whole article here.
 
Joel Kotkin is a distinguished presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and serves as executive editor of newgeography.com. He writes the weekly New Geographer column for Forbes. His latest book, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, is out now from Penguin Press.
 

 
Mr Kotkin can be an interesting writer. I don't agree with him on several of his opinions (not specifically to this article) and I don't support such a gross generalization of W. but is does serve to illustrate the contrast and irony between declining areas of the country and growing areas.
 
I post this to emphasize the expected growth in our area and wonder how our city will embrace—or avoid—participating. Mr Kotkin's latest book, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, chronologically aligns to the recently completed Vision North Texas/North Texas 2050 plan mentioned here.