Galveston City State of the Community Report 2012 PLAN 613 Dr. Shannon Van Zandt Team: Nair Barrios, Alex Coleman, Kevin Crosby, Boya Dai, Taoi Tang By: Vadim Troshkin 2009 1. Introduction. lastly a ferry service at the east end that connects directly to a. Objective Port Bolivar and then straight to Highway 87, but it is The objective of this report is setting a precedent on the only available during the summer months. (Galveston.com current situation of Galveston City. Taking a broad & Company Inc.) overview of its population, economy, and build As for public transit the Island originally had 7 working environment. Focusing on the challenges Galveston City trolley routes, but after Hurricane Ike, the infrastructure faces in the future and the opportunities presented by its suffer even great damage but return to operations quickly. unique nature. Right now the system faces problems with low ridership attributed mainly to reduced accessibility and unreliable b. Galveston City Profile and limited service. (Galveston Island) Galveston city sits in a barrier island facing of the Gulf of In order to support the tourist industry and provide a Mexico along the Texas Gulf coast. Fifty miles south of higher quality of life, the island transit system must Houston, Texas’ biggest city, the island measures 27 miles undergo a thorough restructuration to improve its quality. long by 3 miles wide on its widest point. Given its location and barrier island status, Galveston Island is d. Water and Waste Management critical in the protection of the estuary system behind it, Infrastructure Galveston Bay. (Islam & Merrell) Galveston Island faces a special situation when it comes to human use water. There are no sources of potable water in c.Transportation Infrastructure the island, forcing the local government to buy their They are three main access points to the island. The main supplies from the neighboring Texas City. Said water is access is the Interstate 45 causeway to the north of the brought into the island for use through two lines that are island. The second one a toll bridge on the western end, attached to the railroad bridge in the northeast end of the but it doesn’t have the capacity or traffic of the first. And island. Depending on this single source of water makes the 2 Galveston: State of the Community Report Figure 1. Percentage of Population per Ethnic Group. island particularly vulnerable in a natural disaster. contributor to the decrease in population is the island Also, monitoring the amount of water in the island is propensity to natural disasters; people will rather live in indispensable to warranting an appropriate and steady the mainland and commute into the island or they pressure on the network. This becomes a real challenge simply leave all together. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). considering that required slopes are hard to achieve in such Galveston city is larger than all of its true neighbors. La a low level above the sea. Marque, its closest geographic neighbor, has only Five wastewater treatment plants served 22,000 homes, 14,509 people. The next nearest major city to which represent 88% of the population, but they show Galveston, League City, has a population of 83,560 extreme propensity to damage due to surge water during (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). hurricanes as evidenced by Ike in 2008. All of the factors plus the natural deterioration of the According to 2010 U.S Census data, the total infrastructure make it an important consideration when percentage of White Non Hispanic is dominant with trying to achieve a better support system for the economy 45% total. Followed by Hispanic population 31% of and a higher level of resilience. total population, which is the second biggest group in Galveston city. Notably, the total population of Africa- 2. Population American, Asian, and other are only 24% of total a. Current population population in Galveston city. The city of Galveston has an overall population of 47,743. The city of Galveston’s population is more diverse than It has decreased by 16.6% since 2010. In contrast, the average Texan city. Because even when the majority Galveston county has grown by 16.5% overall. A major 3 Galveston: State of the Community Report of the population is still White Non Hispanic, followed by the occupied units White Hispanic and Black people; compared to the state (owned and rented) is the proportion of minorities is more balanced in White non Hispanic Galveston. See Figure 1. with 53.3% (10,617 units).Secondly, there is b. Income the White Hispanic The average household in the city has a median income of with 23.6% (4,703 $37,197. The White Not Hispanic Population has $46,674 as median income, that is considerably higher units) of the occupied than the average. White Hispanics are closer to the city households, followed average with $ 37,103 but still well under the White alone by the African income. Meanwhile both Asians and Other race sections of American group with the populations have the same median income with 18.1% ( 3,611units) $27,188. It is important that we pay attention to the and the Asians with African American population since they have the lowest 3.2%. The rest of the median income with $16,288. (US Census Bureau) population classified as The percentage of households living below the poverty line presents a more detailed look into low-income Other represents only Figure 3. Housing Occupancy households. According to ACS 2010 3 year estimates the a 1.7% (372 units). Hispanics have the highest percentage of households under See figure 3. (US Census Bureau) the poverty line with 14%. Six percent of White Non Hispanics are also under the When we look at the ownership of the households, we poverty line, which along with their high median income found that White Non-Hispanic usually own rather than can indicate a bigger disparity in wealth distribution. rent. Hispanics are more balanced but they still have more Other races represent a percentage so small the census rented units. In contrast for every own Africa-American doesn’t consider it relevant but both African-Americans household there are two that are rented. This rental and Asians lack information. (US Census Bureau) majority phenomenon repeats itself with other minorities. See figure 4. (US Census Bureau) c. Housing and Home Ownership The total occupied housing units in Galveston city are Across all ethnicities middle age population cohorts (35- 19,943, from a total of 32,386 existing units. Against this 59 years old) have higher ownership rates, while 61.6% occupied, there is a reported 38.4% accounted as population from 18 to 35 have the highest percentages of vacant. The race/ethnicity group with the biggest share in renters. This event is possibly due to the presence of 4 Galveston: State of the Community Report indicator of a large seasonal population and indicate idle infrastructure for prolonged periods of time. See figure 5. (US Census Bureau) d. Population Growth In order to asses Galveston’s population we conducted a shift-share projection of the city’s population for the next 20 years based on State Demographers’ data by comparing it to the total population of the Galveston Figure 4. Home Ownership per Ethnicity County. Unfortunately data available doesn’t properly important education facilities. account for recent years, which lefts out the Post- Ike population flee, rendering the results less than useful. It is important to notice the high percent of vacant Based on this we conducted a second analysis; a linear household units, considering that more than 60% of are projection built from population totals for the last fifty either for rent or seasonal housing units. This high years, broken down to single year estimates for the last incidence of vacant units and second homes are another decade. The results show the declining tendency mention before according to ten years estimate from the US Census Bureau Data and ACS. See figure 6. Population Trendline Figure 5. Vacant Units per type. Figure 6. Linear Population Projection Galveston City. Ratio/Share Projection for Galveston City While this technique is usually used for small geographies like this, making the assumption that city and county share tendencies is not valid in this case. The hazards related to Galveston City location represent an outside factor this projection Radio/Share Projection for Galveston City Total Population can’t account for. Total Population Share 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 Making a second Galveston City 0.1624 47,746 51,863 56,229 60,768 65,461 projection necessary. Galveston County 293,945 319,294 346,173 374,114 403,006 5 Galveston: State of the Community Report A declining population has strong consequences like a and health care. The City is also paving the way to diminishing tax base, underutilized infrastructure and become a premier site for eco-tourism industry. Also it idle resources. Thus it must be most a priority issue continues to see growth among home-based businesses when planning for Galveston future. and independent start-ups. 3. Land Use Policy For Galveston City we identified the five industries The Land Use Policy currently being implemented that currently contributed more jobs and employees for comes from the revision efforts made in the Land the area according to the 2010 data. The results are as Development Regulations during the previous year and follows: Office and Administrative Support to be completed in October 2012. The purpose is to Occupation, Education, Training and Library bring them up to speed with the goals of the new Occupations, Food Preparation and Serving Related Comprehensive Plan.