Census Bureau’s definition of Dallas-Fort Worth area could mean millions in funding | Dallas-Fort Worth Transportation News - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News
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Census Bureau’s definition of Dallas-
Fort Worth area could mean millions in
funding
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
Staff Writer A Text Size
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
Published: 13 October 2011 07:46 PM
Think of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and ask yourself where McKinney fits in. Is it part of
the mix, or is it better understood as a separate city up north, outside the metro area that’s anchored by TRANSPORTATION STORIES
Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington?
Census Bureau’s definition of Dallas-Fort Worth
area could mean millions in funding
What about Denton and Lewisville? Are they part of the D-FW home region, or do they make an urban
area of their own? NTTA chief says he’s prepared to be fired next
week
Answers to those questions affect how the Census Bureau draws the maps of the area, either as one big
Taking DART to Texas-OU game at Fair Park a
urbanized area or three separate ones. And those maps mean more than local bragging rights or even
fairly smooth ride for fans
residents’ fundamental sense of place.
Gov. Rick Perry names Ted Houghton chairman of
What they mean is money, as much as several million dollars a year in federal and state funding, Texas Transportation Commission
according to Dan Kessler of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. New chairman says North Texas Tollway
Authority will study audit carefully
On Thursday, the Council of Governments’ transportation policy board — known as the Regional
Transportation Council — voted unanimously to send letters to the U.S. Census Bureau urging it to draw Deirde Delisi resigning from Texas Transportation
the maps so that the entire region is known as one single urbanized area. Commission's top seat
New NTTA chairman says county-led review
It’s not likely to do any good, as an official in Washington explained this week in an interview that the unlikely to prompt immediate changes at agency
time for consultation over the maps, which are expected to be released by March, is over.
Pilot program will allow select travelers to fly
Kessler told the RTC that when the U.S. government looks to fund highways, transit, rail and other through security at D/FW checkpoint
transportation projects, it typically does so according to a formula. The bigger the population, the bigger
a local area’s haul.
HOT TOPICS
“Many of those funds come to us based on the size of our urbanized areas,” said Kessler, a planner who
Dallas ISD Craig Watkins
has been wrestling the census mapping decisions since 1990. “We thought in 2010 that the census had
Dallas Police Tom Leppert
indicated it would combine those three areas into one.” Department Dallas County
Dallas City Council commissioners
Ted Sickley, a geographer with the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington, said too many smaller
communities complained that they’d lose money if they were merged with giant neighbors. Trinity River Corridor DART
Project Parkland Hospital
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/20111013-census-bureaus-definition-of-dallas-fort-worth-area-could-mean-millions-in-funding.ece[10/14/2011 8:19:44 AM]
Census Bureau’s definition of Dallas-Fort Worth area could mean millions in funding | Dallas-Fort Worth Transportation News - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News
McKinney City Council member Geralyn Kever, a member of the Regional Transportation Council, said North Texas Tollway
Thursday that she shared those concerns initially. Authority
But she said Thursday that she is now convinced that McKinney will benefit more if North Texas as a
whole receives more federal and state money, even if her community risks missing out on smaller grants
VIDEO
available only to smaller urbanized areas. Occupy Dallas protesters set
up camp at Pioneer Plaza
If the maps, as expected, show three distinct urban areas in North Texas, the region will show as few as
5.5 million or so urbanized residents, instead of the 6.4 million who actually live in the area local and
state planners consider part of the D-FW metropolitan area.
Classic car auction finds
Including all those people “would make us more competitive nationally,” Kessler said, and would “attract home in Dallas
the dollars that we think are owed to the region based on our population.”
On Thursday, the RTC voted unanimously to send a letter of complaint to the Census Bureau and to the
area’s congressional delegation, asking for a reconsideration.
Texas, Oklahoma fans
compete in Southwest
In Washington, Sickley said it’s too late to change the Census Bureau’s decision about the maps. “The
Airlines plane pull
comment period is closed,” he said, adding that it is the Census Bureau that gets the final say on how
the maps are drawn.
But he noted that Congress or the various funding agencies could always change the way they use the
maps to award funding.
THINGS TO DO
AT A GLANCE: What’s at stake
Upcoming Events
Local officials say having the area divided on census maps into three urbanized areas — Dallas-Fort Sponsored
Worth-Arlington, Denton-Lewisville and McKinney — hurts in a number of ways, including: 10/15 1 PM Alexander and the Terrible,…
10/14 7 PM Straight No Chaser
On grants available only to big urban areas, McKinney is often ineligible. But when area planners apply 10/14 8 PM West Side Story
for the same grant for the larger area, known as Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, they aren’t allowed to count 10/14 9 PM The Avett Brothers
much of Collin County’s population even though the transportation dollars are spent throughout North 10/14 9 PM Burlesque at the Majestic
Texas. Search Add A Listing
As many as 700,000 to 900,000 residents who live between or near the three urbanized boundaries are Events Restaurants Movies Venues
left out altogether because they lack the urban density that the census requires to be part of an What When
urbanized area. However, those same residents use and have paid for the highways, bridges and
international airport. Local officials say they should be included in the metro area population statistics.
Where Within
Dallas, TX 50 Miles
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http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/20111013-census-bureaus-definition-of-dallas-fort-worth-area-could-mean-millions-in-funding.ece[10/14/2011 8:19:44 AM]