Houston vs Quebec City

Next expansion team

  • Houston

    Votes: 82 63.6%
  • Quebec City

    Votes: 47 36.4%

  • Total voters
    129

biturbo19

Registered User
Jul 13, 2010
27,233
12,382
Question: have you ever been to rural Texas to know what you’re talking about here?

No. But that's why i'm asking.

Because from the outside, it seems like that West Texas nothingness is a lot of actual "rural" but very bifurcated in economic stratas. Like...i'm struggling to envision what "rural middle class" even looks like.

Farmers just getting by kinda alright?

Real small towns where people are doing just fine? What are the core industries driving that?

Or just enclaves of exurb McMansions that pretend they're "rural"?



Like...i just don't really understand how there would be a lot of "middle class" in truly Rural places in Texas, where if you're not in a city...it seems like it's either massive wealth, huge land ownership, or poverty. Trying to wrap my head around the concept. Because no, i haven't been to Texas. So i ask a question...
 

tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
86,615
143,965
Bojangles Parking Lot
No. But that's why i'm asking.

Because from the outside, it seems like that West Texas nothingness is a lot of actual "rural" but very bifurcated in economic stratas. Like...i'm struggling to envision what "rural middle class" even looks like.

Farmers just getting by kinda alright?

Real small towns where people are doing just fine? What are the core industries driving that?

Or just enclaves of exurb McMansions that pretend they're "rural"?



Like...i just don't really understand how there would be a lot of "middle class" in truly Rural places in Texas, where if you're not in a city...it seems like it's either massive wealth, huge land ownership, or poverty. Trying to wrap my head around the concept. Because no, i haven't been to Texas. So i ask a question...

I’d venture that you’re coming from a very “eastern” perspective where wealth disparities look like this:

IMG-7903.jpg


If you see a green spot, that’s a city. If you see a red area, that’s rural. Simple as. The embodiment of the principle is the massive swath of Appalachian red which sits cheek-to-jowl with the deep green of the Boston-NYC-Philly-DC corridor.

Texas exists in a region where wealth distribution looks like this:

IMG-7905.jpg


Yes there is deep green around the cities, but the rural counties are mostly green or at least yellow. Those aren’t being driven by urban wealth, they’re largely agricultural and oil fields. There are in fact a lot of blue-collar families doing just fine in those areas, without being oil barons or cattle magnates. Lots of folks who own a small-town restaurant or a few dozen acres of ranchland, many of them from families who have been living and amassing modest middle-class assets in those areas for generations. It’s not a specifically Texas thing, as you can see the green zones in areas as remote as west Kansas, and all through the upper Midwest:

IMG-7906.jpg


There are of course wealth disparities within each of those counties, but it’s nothing like urban wealth disparity where you have Elon Musk living in the same county as tent camps. The high rollers in those counties are small fish in the scheme of things, and the worst-off are nothing like the third world poverty of Appalachia or the Delta.

This is what I meant by describing Texas as a sort of mini-America. In Houston and Dallas you can find some of the most extravagant, stereotypically American displays as wealth in the same context as deep deep urban poverty. Austin is one of the nation’s hubs for tech-bro culture. Then you’ve got the deep rural poverty of south Texas which climaxes at the border, and as you go west you’ve got the transition into a desert region which can only nominally be described as “settled”. And in between it all there’s a mini-Midwest where there’s still a predominantly middle class culture and economy.
 
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BraveCanadian

Registered User
Jun 30, 2010
15,349
4,619
Quebec has 0 chance although I am sure they would have a decent fan base.

Houston has a bigger population to draw off of, doesn't have language issues, and is in the market the NHL actually cares about. The USA.
 

Figgy44

A toast of purple gato for the memories
Dec 15, 2014
13,888
9,202
Houston on its own is probably the better business idea.

QC on its own is not a great business idea IMO, but it has significant nostalgia for sure. Maybe if it was used as an experiment and a sister city used (ie: dual home team locations), but that would be weird, chaotic and non-sensical. Halifax for instance is 3.5 hours by flight and the other closest populated cities are basically Montreal and Boston. QC will need the invention of teleporters before a twinned city idea is viable. At that point, I say twin with Kansas. Quad city and Quebec city twinsies!
 

x Tame Impala

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Aug 24, 2011
28,721
13,726
Houston.

Let’s not add another No-Trade List destination to the league where more fans can falsely whine about the unfair tax system.
 

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