But all reveal that at the heart of Cincinnati's precipitous loss of population is a simple statistical reality: the boundaries of the City of Cincinnati constitute a much smaller percentage of its entire metro area than do the boundaries of these cities.
We note the following, some of which we noted more briefly before:
- Indianapolis operates as a single city/county unit.
- Lexington is actually counted as "Lexington-Fayette," another single city/county unit.
- Since 2000 Columbus has annexed land equal to 10% of its current boundaries.
In other words, those cities aren't losing population largely because their political boundaries include more of their suburbs than do Cincinnati's. A little math will demonstrate:
- Per the Enquirer, Indianapolis's population in 2006 is 784,118. Per the Nielson Company, Indy's media market is 1,053,750. The city's percentage of its media market is 74%.
- For Columbus, the city has 730,657 and the media market 890,770. The city's percentage is 82%.
- For Lexington, the city has 268,080 and the media market 478,560. The city's percentage is 56%.
- For Cincinnati, the city has 308,728 and the media market 880,190. The city's percentage is 35%.
We'd guess that circle representing 35% of metro area population drawn around the oldest part of any of these cities would show a similar decline in population within the circle. Lexington, never having been a destination for the migration of the Appalachian and southern poor looking for manufacturing jobs as were the midwestern cities, may be the exception.
So again, what Cincinnati should do is (a) don't panic; but (b) fix what's obviously wrong. Last night we had another spate of shootings in the city plus a stabbing in the 'burbs. Today the County Commissioners voted 2-1 to have yet another consultant look at plans for a jail, essentially scuttling any possibility of getting the measure on the ballot for November. We don't think that after so many years of needing it the jail is a panic measure, so let's fix what becomes more obviously wrong with every passing day.
1 comment:
Thanks for that overlooked point. Geographical size is the main point I reference to people who pull out the Columbus/Indianapolis card.
As for Lexington, hometown of my wife/in-laws, it shouldn't be considered in the same discussion. True, it's an incredibly fine place to live, but it's nowhere near being a major metropolitan area.
Case in point: the Roger Clemens rehab start at the minor league Lexington Legends recently. My father-in-law said it was the biggest event in the city since the last UK national basketball championship. Pretty sad.
It's really irresponsible of the Enquirer to waste space on apples to oranges comparisons like this.
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