Boom, Crash, Presto

Creative Class' Florida envisions how crash will reshape America... and Texas

Not everyone favorite's urban theorist, Richard Florida always manages to be provocative. In the coming March 2009 issue of The Atlantic, Florida's cover story discusses how the boom will reshape the urban topology of America.

He notes that in a recent survey of 381 metro areas by Moody's Investor Services, 302 were already in recession, 64 were at risk, and only 15 were continuing to expanding. Guess where?

"Notable among them were the oil- and natural-resource-rich regions of Texas and Oklahoma, buoyed by energy prices that have since fallen; and the Greater Washington, D.C., region, where government bailouts, the nationalization of financial companies, and fiscal expansion are creating work for lawyers, lobbyists, political scientists, and government contractors."

That may no longer be true, but it means Texas and our energy kith and kin to the north got some reprieve from the heartache affecting most of the country.

Also worth noting is a fantastic map detailing data for hundreds of cities including population change since 1860, patents issued since 1975, and income change since 2001. .:.