[MineralMan]

Hmm, that population and that many churches comes to about 385 people per church. I'm not sure what significance that has, but it's an interesting number.

I remember that the church I attended while in high school had about 350 members (there was a board on the wall which listed the number of members, along with the hymns for that service).

I suspect that the number of churches will be self-limiting, based on the population of the town.

But...Stafford, Texas. For some reason, that sounds familiar to me. I just can't put my finger on it.

[Hydroshock]

Stafford is real close to Houston, the population density is a bit on the high side out there.

[mugs99]

I suspect that the number of churches will be self-limiting, based on the population of the town.

The churches don't depend on the population of the town. The worshipers are from out of town. Those churches are bleeding the taxpayers of the town to fatten their own pockets.
.

[Sans-Culotte]

I live right next to Stafford, in an even smaller city called Meadows Place. In fact, I still use Stafford as my mailing address. The local post office is in Stafford, and for years we could not get mail in our city unless we used Stafford in our address (our city used to be called Meadows. There was another town in texas called Meadow, and apparently our mail would offten go there, in spite of a wildy different zip code. We changed our town's name to Meadows Place to avoid that, but I never bothered to reprint my checks, drivers license, etc, so I still use Stafford).

However, unlike Stafford, we definitely have a property tax.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I'm 99% certain that Stafford is part of Tom DeLay's district. It certainly isn't poor, with a mix of some older middle class neighborhoods, some new middle class subdivisions, and a majority of its land is industrial, retail, or office. So a much lower number of tax users vs. potential tax generators as compared to most Texas towns. Most cities and towns would kill to have their ratio of commercial development.

The old town center (though not historic) is strung out between 2 parallel roads that were converted to one-way operations and operate as Hwy 90. It is a major route connecting DeLay's suburbs to the booming medical center, so TXDOT wanted to upgrade the highway to remove all traffic lights and replace them with grade-separations. The intersections at the center of Stafford is a huge bottleneck at rush hour and weekends, with a very busy railroad track next to the highway that cloggs things up further. The mayor (Scarcella) held up agreements to upgrade this stretch for awhile with all kinds of grandstanding and hyperbole. The offer to grade-separate both the intersection and the railroad all the way through town wasn't enough, he was insisting that the railroad also be rerouted many miles outside the town (at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.) Of course that wasn't going to happen but he succeeded in delaying a much needed project, and in the end got nothing out of it but ink.

[Xenalyte]

If it sounds familiar to you, you must have been there.

There is absolutely nothing of note in Stafford, Texas.

Except Jesus House Texas, perhaps.

[Redbob]

"I suspect that the number of churches will be self-limiting, based on the population of the town."

I suspect that some folks may even be willing to cross city limits to attend a church...