Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties

[they don't love you like i love you]

Too see why I hate suburbs so much, all one needs to do is take the drive on US-169 which connects my city to Minneapolis. One of the cities you go through is Belle Plaine. It's still a small town of only about 3000, and is fairly close to the rural farm my mom grew up on. Driving through it on the road, it looks like your typical Minnesota rural town, a farming equipment store, a small cafe, and typical housing types. This is basically what the city was 30 years ago when my mom visited it and had friends there. Unfortunatley, if you look to each side, you can see some awful subdivisions far off on each side. Full of the boring white houses that all look the same. It's like someone took two completely different towns and rammed them together. Unfortunately the subdivisions keep getting bigger each time I drive through. You almost always see a house being built. Same with Shakopee which is further north. You see what was once a normal town at one point, and loads and loads of identical white houses for the rest of it. This is basically what EVERY suburb in the Twin Cities area about 20 miles from the city proper is like. And they keep expanding like a cancer.

Unfortunately my city has started a little bit of the same. We have some awful subdivisions sprouting up too.

[MODU]

Blame the farmers for selling their land, not those who chose to live in the 'burbs.  Besides, like I said earlier. . . it's more healthy for you to live outside the city than it is inside.

[danwxman]

Blame the farmers for selling their land, not those who chose to live in the 'burbs.  Besides, like I said earlier. . . it's more healthy for you to live outside the city than it is inside.

Not at all. In the city you have to walk to get around...In the suburbs you just hop in your SUV and go to McDonalds. I saw a study that people in the suburbs are less healthy then city dwellers.

[bushforever]

Suburbia is only bad during the formitave stages when a rural area is being transformed into suburbia.  Once it is full-fledged suburbia, it matures and becomes more urban, downtowns are revamped, and people finally consider transit-oriented developments.  I agree, I don't like Wal-Mart or Target much as they seem to have nothing, rather than a little bit of everything.  Although, I don't know where I would be without Best Buy, Borders, or fast food restaurants.  I agree in denser developments and transit-oriented developments which don't make people have to drive everywhere, and really help small business and downtown areas thrive.  This suburban downtown revival is currently occurring in many suburbs outside Chicago, and I am sure it will reach my collar county when the suburban areas mature.  Take for example, Arlington Heights, IL.  Its downtown has undergone major changes.  A grocery store in a smaller building.  Large high rises with California Pizza Kitchen, Ann Taylor Loft, Panda Express, and Starbucks down below, rather than in strip malls.  A brand new theatre.  And a McDonalds inside a state of the art train station.  All within walking distance.  All within the convenience of being in downtown Chicago in 45 minutes.  See, we just need to fine tune suburbia, not completely do away with it.  Transit oriented mix-use development is the way to go. 

[MODU]

Blame the farmers for selling their land, not those who chose to live in the 'burbs.  Besides, like I said earlier. . . it's more healthy for you to live outside the city than it is inside.

Not at all. In the city you have to walk to get around...In the suburbs you just hop in your SUV and go to McDonalds. I saw a study that people in the suburbs are less healthy then city dwellers.

Not really.  In the cities, public transportation is much cheaper and reliable than it is in Suburbia (hence the reason why people tend to drive out here).  However, people walk, job, bike around town in Suburbia just as much as they do in the cities.  It all boils down to personal habbits.  However, I will make the argument that Suburbians are probably in better mental health than those from the cities (minus the stress caused by commuting . . . depending on how far they live from work).

[bushforever]

Blame the farmers for selling their land, not those who chose to live in the 'burbs.  Besides, like I said earlier. . . it's more healthy for you to live outside the city than it is inside.

Not at all. In the city you have to walk to get around...In the suburbs you just hop in your SUV and go to McDonalds. I saw a study that people in the suburbs are less healthy then city dwellers.

Not really.  In the cities, public transportation is much cheaper and reliable than it is in Suburbia (hence the reason why people tend to drive out here).  However, people walk, job, bike around town in Suburbia just as much as they do in the cities.  It all boils down to personal habbits.  However, I will make the argument that Suburbians are probably in better mental health than those from the cities (minus the stress caused by commuting . . . depending on how far they live from work).

Very true.  I live in a very spread out area, yet I love biking around all the bike trails, riding near lakes, beautiful fields, forest, and through residential areas.  I can even ride to one of the most sought-after, growing retail corridors in suburban Chicago, if I'm up to it.  Some people are just too lazy though.  My suburban area is really beautiful and I feel generally safe.  The only reason for suburban people being stressed out and not in the best mental state from time to time is because they actually have lives and hard work to do.  Not to say that all city people aren't hardworking or anything.  But again it all comes down to education and activities.  Kids wouldn't get involved in the gangs and violence in cities like Chicago (which has 500-600 murders yearly), if kids were involved in after school activities and their parents were responsible.  These people need help and the education system needs a makeover.  Improve education, rather than build the billion dollar Millenium Park, Mayor Daley. 

[danwxman]

Not all suburbs are walking-friendly. Mine certainly isn't. A lot aren't.

Most cities are have plenty of parks and recreation areas...there is a park within walking distance here but it's the only one around and most people just drive to it. What's the point?

[OSR stands with Israel]

Man only if this trend continued

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Man only if this trend continued

In 2004, Karl Rove said the Bush campaign could pretty much ignore suburbia and focus on the rural areas, because suburbia was safe R.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Man only if this trend continued

In 2004, Karl Rove said the Bush campaign could pretty much ignore suburbia and focus on the rural areas, because suburbia was safe R.

That is really dumb cause suburbs outside the sunbelt were already mostly battlegrounds  by 2004 and many were dem by then too .

Suburbia was only Safe R in the Sunbelt really and upper south

[Sumner 1868]

America would be a much better place if the Kerry coalition had remained the Democratic baseline.

[RINO Tom]

And what was Clinton's miraculous improvement on these numbers??

Trump won 85 of the 100 fastest growing counties.

https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-counties-total.html

Lol

[Samof94]

Man only if this trend continued

In 2004, Karl Rove said the Bush campaign could pretty much ignore suburbia and focus on the rural areas, because suburbia was safe R.

That is really dumb cause suburbs outside the sunbelt were already mostly battlegrounds  by 2004 and many were dem by then too .

Suburbia was only Safe R in the Sunbelt really and upper south

Back then Harris County was red.

[It’s so Joever]

And what was Clinton's miraculous improvement on these numbers??

Trump won 85 of the 100 fastest growing counties.

https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-counties-total.html

Lol

True, but many of the fastest growing counties are also the ones rapidly trending D.

[It’s so Joever]

Bush's edge in these 100 counties was almost four times greater than the advantage they provided Bob Dole, the Republican presidential nominee eight years ago.

That's not really a sign they're becoming more liberal. Unless you're Shira, in which case VA is trending Democrat because we've increased our percentage of the vote in three straight elections.

Congrats to Shira then.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

New update:

It seems that in 2020 Trump carried 81* of the 100 fastest growing counties and Biden the other 19 (using the Census data for the period 2010-2019).
Indeed, as Forumlurker says, most of them trended Democratic this year, sometimes significantly so. The biggest exception is Osceola County, Florida, the eighth-fastest growing county in that period, which swung massively Republican. Ayy portoricanos de Kissimmee I guess
The four Trump-Biden counties were Teton, ID; Deschutes, OR; Hays, TX; and Williamson, TX.


*asterisk because 1 of them is Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, for which I can't find actual data, although it's completely unfathomable that Trump lost it given results in previous years and that Trump seems to have carried all the state Legislature districts covering the borough

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Just a reminder: fastest growing counties are a poor approximation of counties seeing the most growth because tons of them are small, formerly-rural counties that start to get some exurbs creeping in so they grow 30 or 40 percent in 10 years--from 20,000 to 28,000. Consider Maricopa and Pinal Counties. Which is growing faster? Which is actually seeing more growth?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Just a reminder: fastest growing counties are a poor approximation of counties seeing the most growth because tons of them are small, formerly-rural counties that start to get some exurbs creeping in so they grow 30 or 40 percent in 10 years--from 20,000 to 28,000. Consider Maricopa and Pinal Counties. Which is growing faster? Which is actually seeing more growth?

That's certainly true.
Two of the 100 for example are Gaines and Andrews in the Texas Panhandle, both of which may be described as Odessa exurbs (?) and have fewer than 25,000 inhabitants. Similarly, Williams and Stark in western North Dakota, which are slightly larger but not by much. Coincidentally they are all counties propelled by the oil boom.

[Samof94]

Just a reminder: fastest growing counties are a poor approximation of counties seeing the most growth because tons of them are small, formerly-rural counties that start to get some exurbs creeping in so they grow 30 or 40 percent in 10 years--from 20,000 to 28,000. Consider Maricopa and Pinal Counties. Which is growing faster? Which is actually seeing more growth?

Also, rural counties that had resource extraction.