By: Sergio Chapa
Valleycentral.com
The Rio Grande Valley has a new pecking order.
Action 4 News crunched the numbers and learned the Top 10 cities for the Valley has changed.
The biggest change came from the City of Harlingen, which fell from third place to sixth place.
Although Harlingen grew 12.5 percent between 2000 and 2010, three cities in Hidalgo County each grew by more than 50 percent.
But the battle for the number three spot will continue. Only 42 people separate #3 Edinburg from #4 Mission.
Top 10 Cities in the Rio Grande Valley
| City | 2010 | 2000 | Difference | Change |
| Brownsville | 175,023 | 140,075 | 34,948 | 24.9% |
| McAllen | 129,877 | 106,211 | 23,666 | 22.3% |
| Edinburg | 77,100 | 48,863 | 28,237 | 57.8% |
| Mission | 77,058 | 45,920 | 31,138 | 67.8% |
| Pharr | 70,400 | 46,616 | 23,784 | 51.0% |
| Harlingen | 64,849 | 57,624 | 7,225 | 12.5% |
| Weslaco | 35,670 | 26,802 | 8,868 | 33.1% |
| San Juan | 33,856 | 26,107 | 7,749 | 29.7% |
| San Benito | 24,250 | 23,615 | 635 | 2.7% |
| Alamo | 18,353 | 15,078 | 3,275 | 21.7% |
Although most Valley cities grew by double-digit numbers, cities such as Donna, Port Isabel, San Benito, Elsa and Santa Rosa only had single-digit growth.
Edcouch and Roma were the among the few Valley communities that actually lost population.
Other Valley Cities
| City | 2010 | 2000 | Difference | Change |
| Donna | 15,798 | 14,577 | 1,221 | 8.4% |
| Mercedes | 15,570 | 13,870 | 1,700 | 12.3% |
| Rio Grande City | 13,834 | 12,185 | 1,649 | 13.5% |
| Raymondville | 11,284 | 9,706 | 1,578 | 16.3% |
| Hidalgo | 11,198 | 7,322 | 3,876 | 52.9% |
| Roma | 9,765 | 9,852 | -87 | -0.9% |
| Elsa | 5,660 | 5,549 | 111 | 2.0% |
| Los Fresnos | 5,542 | 4,537 | 1,005 | 22.2% |
| Port Isabel | 5,006 | 4,868 | 138 | 2.8% |
| La Joya | 3,985 | 3,277 | 708 | 21.6% |
| Edcouch | 3,161 | 3,342 | -181 | -5.4% |
| Santa Rosa | 2,873 | 2,833 | 40 | 1.4% |
| South Padre Island | 2,816 | 2,455 | 361 | 14.7% |
| Rancho Viejo | 2,437 | 1,754 | 683 | 38.9% |
The census results will be used for redistricting state and federal legislative districts.
According to the Rio Grande Guardian, both Hidalgo County and Starr County are considering suing the federal government over the census results.
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Yea, Browntown! Well, back to sleep.
Jake.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by San Juan EDC, My Harlingen News. My Harlingen News said: Census data changes Valley’s Top 10 cities http://bit.ly/fSyDCL [...]
Good post Tony.
This proves that the Old Guard, Old Clique Red Liners have really kept the city STAGNANT.
So let me get ths straight. The people who run Harlingen decided that they were opposed to growth because they had enough money and did not want to grow the local economy so they could make a lot more money.
Who does the math for you guys?
Since I have never the guy who said he had enough money, success or whatever measurement you care to use, could you introduce him to me?
Tony , If you really think about it . This town started being stagnant twenty years ago . You just want to blame the old gaurd . How many years of old gaurds are you talking about ?
The last 10-20-30 years.
I agree with Bill that it is ridiculous to suggest that the people running Harlingen are opposed to growth and prosperity. I’ve never met anyone in Harlingen that didn’t want to grow their income and be more successful. Also, 12.5% growth in 10 years is not stagnant, although I suspect the real numbers are much higher. Look around at all the things Harlingen has now that we didn’t have 10 years ago. A lot of communities across the state and country would love to have our problems.
The old guard goes back at least that long. It was Card who pushed for growth, dragging them along kicking and screaming. Boswell is the key to the old guard plans and he has been on the commission for 14+ years,
The port is dead and does not contirbute. Alan Johnson is a known avowed no – growther and is on record as such.
The lack of development and land use standards assures a shabby, unattractive town where no ones investment is safe from a lean to next door, assuring nationala and international developers and businesses are leery of making investment here.
Add to that the harrassment of locals who try to deliver quality and allowing industrial uses such as being done on 499 and Grimes in the midst of a high density residential area assures we can forget Bennigans for the TSTC campus.
First impressions are discussing at East Harrison and 499; Junk cars, poorly developed apartments.
Ed Carey is so bad, can you imagine Mcallen permitting the …………………
Bill, now they are getting ready to put more low income housing downtown assuring upscale retailers will be crowded out by more pay day loan clowns and thieves.
Did I mention we can’t get the Salvation Army, Mike Lucio or the can recycling guy moved so that a real downtown might emerge? (D/t includes Commerce and all streets up the Lee.)
They intentionally neutered the 4B rendering it ineffective and mostly broke due to plan 100 overspending.
You know what they and Bass Pro just did to the 4a.
The 42 were once only 21. They are behind the scenes at the Chamber but Valley Baptist, VMS and the insiders (Boggus, Johnson, Johnston, Buttery, and others) wanted no growth, a bedroom community and no competition.
(we dont’ want all of that traffic like Brownsville and McAllen) Did you ever consider all of that traffic is all of the locals shopping in Brownsville and McAllen?
and not annonymous.
Bill and math 101, the cake is on the pudding, the old guard didn’t care whether the city grew or not, they were milking the cow, in fact, they oppossed the banking industry when more banks started moving into Harlingen.
I am sure Ken Benton will remember, at one time there were only two banks and one savings and loan in Harlingen.
Bill you are not even from here, and by the looks, neither is math 101.
The old guard was dirty, they decided who would make it, and who wouldn’t, and that is the bottom line.
I truly believe, that some of you people are trying to be like the old guard. Take, take, and take some more. As long as it is me and I am full, the rest can starve.
I do not believe that a few people no matter how influential, can control the destiny of this or any other community where the population cares about their town and remains actively involved.
Ken, the work being done at 6th. and Van Buren appears to be by the church. I do not believe it is HCDC adding additional low income housing to an already overburdened area.
The fact that I am not from here allows me to see past the boogy man that Ken talks about. Johnston does’nt want to sell more houses, Boggus does not want to sell more cars…how do you make this stuff up.
When I came to the valley in ’81 there were only two TV stations. You took your life in your hands driving down HWY 77, an undivided highway.
At issue here is not people blocking development, but a younger generation not stepping up to the plate and keeping the ball rolling. Where have you guys been in the last twenty years? What businesses have you started? How have you grown your base so that future development can take root?
The primary development I see in Harlingen and the rest of the valley is from the outside which is near totally independent of the local boogymen. If you try and block their development, they take you to court and make you obey the law. This is much more about people making excuses for their lack of risktaking than outside influences.
Any of us that have gone to commission meetings understand how a crowd influences that body. If there is something you as a group want to accomplish, get together form a PAC, a Girl Scout Group or a Church Social and bring the issue to the Commission. Those people represent the community and they respond to pressure. It does no good at all to sit on this or other sites and complain about how mistreated you are.
I will concede that Harlingen is not growing as fast as Hidalgo County Cities. Does that mean that those of us in business have to work harder? Yep…
My wife’s company does most of her business outside of Harlingen. Would I want to move to one of those faster growing cities to be closer to her customers? Hope…
If there is good news here it is that we have a little more time to deal with growth issues that are already snowballing in Hidaldo County. Are we likely to actually come up with better solutions to deal with traffic, infrastructure, sprawl, water, drainage and the many other things staring at us? Based on past knowledge, not looking all that positive.
We can cry and bitch all we want about the past but the future ain’t waiting for us to grow up and face it.
Bill – well said, all the way around.
Valley Baptist is out sorcing some the clerical work, and some of the employees believe it will be just matter of time, before they outsource all the work and they are terminated.
Why am I not surprise, this things are happening.
I wish I could write some of the stuff that was done, during the old reign. It was terror, like a Monarchy, not to mention a lot of insurance fraud and cover ups. I don’t know Ken Benton, I know he is local, but much of what he says is true. Some might not like it, but is the truth.
I will concede, that we must move forward, but how do you fix a car, that is an antique, and has been broken for over 30 or 40 years. I would assume with a lot of hard work and city commissioners that share your own ideals.
City Commissioners will share our ideals if we as a community select them from a field of well qualified candidates. They will share our ideals if we only vote for people who have convinced us that they will represent us as a community.
Valley Baptist has had a great many problems in the past several years. Big deal. They have to make decisions today that will keep quality care in this community.
Buying fake insurance, making questionable expansions or hiring people who probably cared little for the organization or the community were a few of their problems. That was the past.
From last week forward they are no longer the hospital most people in this community grew up with but as you look across the community a great deal of local ownership is disappearing.
We are not long from the time when the community will wish for a few of those mean old guys that could be counted on to pony up the money to do whatever project was needed. I promise you a national or multinational corporations could give a crap less about anything but how much money gets shipped out.
This pueblito is going to grow but it needs an old fashioned enema for alot of so called leaders or city workers . The list is full of blowhards who don’t do anything for the community and collect a paycheck or profit from the insider trading. The Hispanic Chamber will be gone by the end of this year and the Harlingen Chamber will lose alot of funding making it diffucult to maintain employees.
Who is next on the hit list? Mezies, Hall, Nydia, Dan, Tammy, Olvera, and others who still suck the government tit. All these people hinder the city of Harlingen in one way or another, Yerena is here to clean house and his pushbroom is not big enough for one just sweep. Ellie & Mike will also be looked at plus twin brothers Ramon and Gabriel.
Se cabo la leche!
The port is dead and does not contirbute. Alan Johnson is a known avowed no – growther and is on record as such.
Is he a known “no-growther” because he saw you as a high credit risk and refused you a loan?
“The lack of development and land use standards assures a shabby, unattractive town where no ones investment is safe from a lean to next door, assuring nationala and international developers and businesses are leery of making investment here. ”
If you have the city enforce the ordinances you have people crying discrimination and calling city leaders “no growthers” and difficult to work with.
If you don’t you get people like you whining about the appearance of the city.
You cannot have it both ways.
I agree with B DeBrooke; you all were here 10-20-30 years ago; you should have been involved then to ensure Harlingen would continue being a leader in the Valley. Get over what happened to you in the past … move forward …. get a job …. and do something on your own without waiting for a handout from the entity you are always criticizing