Lot's of people live in the unincorporated part of Harris County. This raises interesting questions about the relative wisdom of the complex way that local governments are designed in the state.
Should the Houston and Harris County be consolidated?
- Click here for the article.
Should the Houston and Harris County be consolidated?
- Click here for the article.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and his colleagues frequently note that if the unincorporated parts of the county were a city, it would be the second largest in Texas and the fifth most populous in the United States. Patched together, these unincorporated areas have more residents than 12 U.S. states.
The population in unincorporated parts of the county is ballooning at record pace. Since 2000, 87 percent of the county's population growth has occurred in this unincorporated area. The unincorporated portion now accounts for 42 percent of the county's residents.
This map, based on data from the county engineer, illustrates how much of the county's growing population lives north and west of the downtown hub. If no further annexation occurs, the county budget office anticipates the population in the green area will surpass Houston's population by 2020.
Having an urban population skew this way makes governance complicated and difficult, said Stephen Klineberg, author of yearly population and attitudinal studies at Rice University's Kinder Institute.
Greater Houston has evolved into a multi-centered metropolitan region, he said, with unincorporated sections governed by municipal utility districts that provide "very uneven degrees of governance."
This reality, according to Klineberg, "puts a strain on all the things government tries to deal with -- affordable housing, traffic, park land, crime control."
"It affects the central role of government in improving quality of life and helping urban areas operate," he said.
While some municipal utility districts contract with constables, the unincorporated areas rely on the county for a variety of services including law enforcement, road maintenance, park trails and indigent medical care, said Commissioner Steve Radack.
