Demographic change comes to Texas’ iconic suburb.
Recent controversy over whether and where to build a large homeless housing complex is the latest evidence of Plano’s two faces. The nonprofit Samaritan Inn of McKinney last week withdrew a zoning request to build the shelter because of neighbors’ complaints and undertones that the facility would hurt the city’s image.
Many of Plano’s leaders agreed the project is needed. But beneath the surface brews a feeling that Plano faces an identity crisis.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time. And now it’s here,” Plano Mayor Phil Dyer said. “Plano has changed from the perception that it is a well-to-do, all-white community. … We need to talk about Plano as it is in 2010.”
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Some 273,000 people now live in Plano, meaning that the city now rivals Buffalo, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.; and St. Paul, Minn., in its population.
A quarter of Plano’s population is nonwhite. That is up from a fifth just a decade ago, according to the most recent census statistics.
Plano’s Asian population, 14.4 percent, is three times larger than the national average (4.4 percent). Nearly a third of its residents speak a language other than English at home, according to census data from 2008. That is up from 22 percent in 2000.
Moreover, the gap has widened between rich and poor residents. Plano’s poverty rate has risen from 4.3 percent to 6 percent in the last decade even as incomes have risen.
Reading this reminded me of a Houston Press story about the homeless in Fort Bend County, and the ways that the county was in denial about it at the time. Add in to that the fact that Collin County is becoming a haven for retirees, and you’ve got a recipe for some interesting times ahead.
Looks like it’s time for the Tea Party to have a “take back OUR Plano” rally.