Is Houston really red? Most of its political representation seems firmly in the urban liberal left. That the city sprawls like crazy is more of a red Texas artifact.
The population densities of Texas and California are about the same overall because they both have vast amounts of unpopulated land. If you look at the density of cities, however, California is much more dense than Texas in general.
>That the city sprawls like crazy is more of a red Texas artifact.
It's actually an artifact of Houston's original charter which allowed nearly unlimited growth via annexation and Houston's use of that annexation power to reclaim its tax and voter base each time they moved outward from the city center. Houston grew from 9 square miles in 1900 to ~600 square miles today. See http://www.chron.com/local/history/major-stories-events/arti... for more details.
Blue dots surrounded by red also happens in California (and indeed, in any state with cities). It’s just that the blue dots are much more dense in California.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a red big city.
The population densities of Texas and California are about the same overall because they both have vast amounts of unpopulated land. If you look at the density of cities, however, California is much more dense than Texas in general.