Tracking metropolitan America into the 21st century - Population ...

most cases, the result is a longername, sometimes incorporating placesnot well-known to outsiders. The NewOrleans, LA MSA, for example, is nowthe New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LAMetropolitan Statistical Area.A city’s inclusion in its metropolitanarea’s title may promote name recognitionand enhance its status. Scottsdale,Arizona, for example, gained prominenceby entering the title of thePhoenix-Mesa metropolitan area. WhileScottsdale did not meet the old populationthreshold, its rank as the thirdlargest principal city in the Phoenixarea thrust it into the new metropolitantitle. 25 Places like Naperville and Joliet,Illinois in the Chicago metro area, andCarlsbad and San Marcos, California inthe San Diego metro area, realized similarbenefits from the change in namingconvention.The order of city names in a metropolitanarea title is also significant,since sometimes the first-named city isthe only one used to refer to a metropolitanarea. In the case of the Norfolk-VirginiaBeach-Newport News,VA-NC MSA, the city of Norfolk hasbeen eclipsed by Virginia Beach,switching the order of the two in thenew MetroSA title. Without changingits geographical components, the Ventura,CA PMSA became the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MetroSA.And in Austin, Texas, Round Rockreplaced San Marcos as the secondnamedcity in the metropolitan areatitle, thanks to the more streamlinedrules for defining principal cities (versuscentral cities). 26Figure 12. Share of Core-Based Population in Central orPrincipal Cities, 200064.5%60.2%Old Metropolitan AreasNew Metropolitan AreasNew Micropolitan Areas35.5%39.8%33.2%Central CitiesSuburbsPrincipal CitiesSuburbsE. The new definitions alter thesocial and economic attributes ofmany metropolitan areas, as well astheir national rankings on theseattributes.The new standards provide one standardchoice for analyzing or rankingmetropolitan areas across the country,but several ways for local analysts todefine their area. In this section, wefirst compare the options available for66.8%Source: OMB and Census 2000Principal CitiesOutlying Areas14November 2004 • The Brookings InstitutionThe Living Cities Census Series