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Location: Midessa, Texas Home Yangzhou, Jiangsu temporarily
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ehenningsen
What is the definition of a boom town?
I would suggest that a fair definition of a boom town would be a metropolitan area in the top %10 of U.S. MSAs when ranked by yearly growth rate.
By this definition and using the latest census bureau population estimates, Omaha fails to achieve boom town status. Using this methodology, Omaha would rank 157 out of 363. In the top half, but barely so.
By this definition the top 36 MSAs could be considered boom towns. Those MSAs and their growth rates are:
Palm Coast, FL 7.2
St. George, UT 5.1
Raleigh-Cary, NC 4.7
Gainesville, GA 4.5
Austin-Round Rock, TX 4.3
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC 4.2
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC 4.2
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 4.0
Grand Junction, CO 3.7
Clarksville, TN-KY 3.7
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 3.6
Greeley, CO /1 3.6
Boise City-Nampa, ID 3.5
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 3.5
Idaho Falls, ID 3.4
Ocala, FL 324,857 3.4
Bend, OR 154,028 3.3
Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 3.3
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 3.3
Wilmington, NC 3.1
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 3.0
Lakeland, FL 3.0
Port St. Lucie, FL 3.0
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 2.9
Dover, DE 2.9
Ogden-Clearfield, UT 2.9
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 2.9
Prescott, AZ 2.9
Coeur d'Alene, ID 2.8
Fairbanks, AK 2.8
San Antonio, TX 2.8
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 2.7
El Centro, CA 2.6
Provo-Orem, UT 2.6
Yuma, AZ 2.5
Sioux Falls, SD 2.5
Another good definition of boom town might be any MSA with a yearly growth rate of %2.5 or greater. In that case we could add two more MSAs to our list.
Las Cruces, NM 2.5
Laredo, TX 2.5
Data source:
Estimates of Population Change for Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Rankings: July 1, 2007 to July 1, 2007 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/CBSA-est2007-pop-chg.html - broken link)
I would suggest that a fair definition of a boom town would be a metropolitan area in the top %10 of U.S. MSAs when ranked by yearly growth rate.
By this definition and using the latest census bureau population estimates, Omaha fails to achieve boom town status. Using this methodology, Omaha would rank 157 out of 363. In the top half, but barely so.
By this definition the top 36 MSAs could be considered boom towns. Those MSAs and their growth rates are:
Palm Coast, FL 7.2
St. George, UT 5.1
Raleigh-Cary, NC 4.7
Gainesville, GA 4.5
Austin-Round Rock, TX 4.3
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC 4.2
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC 4.2
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 4.0
Grand Junction, CO 3.7
Clarksville, TN-KY 3.7
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 3.6
Greeley, CO /1 3.6
Boise City-Nampa, ID 3.5
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 3.5
Idaho Falls, ID 3.4
Ocala, FL 324,857 3.4
Bend, OR 154,028 3.3
Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 3.3
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 3.3
Wilmington, NC 3.1
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 3.0
Lakeland, FL 3.0
Port St. Lucie, FL 3.0
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 2.9
Dover, DE 2.9
Ogden-Clearfield, UT 2.9
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 2.9
Prescott, AZ 2.9
Coeur d'Alene, ID 2.8
Fairbanks, AK 2.8
San Antonio, TX 2.8
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 2.7
El Centro, CA 2.6
Provo-Orem, UT 2.6
Yuma, AZ 2.5
Sioux Falls, SD 2.5
Another good definition of boom town might be any MSA with a yearly growth rate of %2.5 or greater. In that case we could add two more MSAs to our list.
Las Cruces, NM 2.5
Laredo, TX 2.5
Data source:
Estimates of Population Change for Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Rankings: July 1, 2007 to July 1, 2007 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/CBSA-est2007-pop-chg.html - broken link)
If you consider growth rate the only method of what a boom town is, then yes Omaha is above average and not in a boom..
I was considering some other major factors..
But for the sake of the argument, I won't call Omaha a boom town any longer, I will just say that this city has become a quality of life dream come true
Boom town, no, you need a population rate of 40% like a pheonix or atlant, but doesn't require the elements of a quality city.
Just about every quality of life ranking has Omaha near the top, that is what I mean by Omaha being a boom town, but I guess since it is not growing by 40% that Omaha it isn't... It's just a better quality city than many of the boom towns in america
Every time they do one of those global "quality of life" surveys it's usually won by cities that are economically healthy, safe, and really, really boring (of course, this is also subjective). Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf. Incidentally, in this survey Global/World Quality of Life City Rankings Survey 2008 : Dublin Ireland, Zurich, New York, London, Sydney, Paris etc ; Finfacts Ireland American cities ranked nowhere near the top of the list, and many people here would probably take issue with the rankings of those that did. It's just too easy to throw that term around "quality of life" when that means something different to every person.
Anyway, no matter what critieria you use, not everyone in Omaha is enjoying great quality of life.
Every time they do one of those global "quality of life" surveys it's usually won by cities that are economically healthy, safe, and really, really boring (of course, this is also subjective). Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf. Incidentally, in this survey Global/World Quality of Life City Rankings Survey 2008 : Dublin Ireland, Zurich, New York, London, Sydney, Paris etc ; Finfacts Ireland American cities ranked nowhere near the top of the list, and many people here would probably take issue with the rankings of those that did. It's just too easy to throw that term around "quality of life" when that means something different to every person.
Anyway, no matter what critieria you use, not everyone in Omaha is enjoying great quality of life.
Also, why is it that none of the Omaha boosters have yet to address the claim I made that much of your population growth that makes you a so-called "boom town" is due to annexing your suburbs into your city limits?
Well, they arent so much suburbs as they are unincorporated areas, and right now Omaha built out, thats why we annex them, because thats one of the few ways we can grow, besides urban growth. Heres a map of Douglas County, where Omaha is in red.
Well, they arent so much suburbs as they are unincorporated areas, and right now Omaha built out, thats why we annex them, because thats one of the few ways we can grow, besides urban growth. Heres a map of Douglas County, where Omaha is in red.
Plus the city limit is 430,000 (450,000 with recent annexations) and it certainly helps with the tax base! But the metro consists of much more than the city of Omaha...
Wow. According to that article Omaha grows by annexing communities that don't want to be annexed and then extorts them for tax money to spend on Omaha's downtown, AND THEN BRAGS ABOUT IT! That sounds like an excellent place to live a couple of thousand miles away from. I hope Omaha doesn't decide to just annex all of the U.S.
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