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U.S. NEWS Friday 25 March 2022
In 1st full year of pandemic, biggest metros lost residents

By MIKE SCHNEIDER increase in deaths outpac-
Associated Press ing births across the coun-
After returning to metro try. Almost three-quarters of
San Francisco following a U.S. counties experienced
college football career, a natural decrease from
Anthony Giusti felt like his deaths exceeding births,
hometown was passing up from 55.5% in 2020 and
him by. The high cost of liv- 45.5% in 2019. The trend
ing, driven by a constantly was fueled by the COV-
transforming tech industry, ID-19 pandemic, as well as
ensured that even with two fewer births and an aging
jobs he would never save population.
enough money to buy a “You have more older
house. Americans, and birth rates
So he started looking else- are low so you don’t have
where, settling on Houston many children being born,
just last year. and then along comes CO-
“In Houston, I can be a VID, and it hits older adults
blue-collar entrepreneur. the most, often in rural ar-
With the Houston housing eas without access to good
market, it made sense to health care,” said Kenneth
come here,” said Giusti, Johnson, a senior demog-
who started a house-paint- rapher at the University of
ing business. New Hampshire. “It’s like
Giusti was one of tens of a perfect storm, if you will,
thousands of residents who People ride a new indoor tourist attraction called RiseNY just off Times Square in Manhattan’s that produced this natural
vacated some of the na- Theater District in New York City on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Associated Press decrease.”
tion’s biggest, most dense- Pittsburgh and Tampa had
ly-populated and costly dents, the San Francisco “Texas has a thing about growth of micro areas and the largest natural de-
metropolitan areas in favor area saw a loss of more it, a romantic thing, with decreases in the biggest creases of U.S. metropoli-
of Sunbelt destinations dur- than 116,000 residents and cowboys, and there’s the metros will be temporary, tan areas, in the range of
ing the first full year of the greater Chicago lost more idea here of the Lone Star taking place at the height 10,000 residents each. Pitts-
pandemic, from mid-2020 than 91,000 people from State,” said Giusti in de- of people moving during burgh’s overall population
to mid-2021, according to 2020 to 2021. The San Jose, scribing the lure of Texas. the pandemic when work- declined by almost 14,000
new data released Thurs- Boston, Miami and Wash- The U.S. Census Bureau’s from-home arrangements residents because people
day by the U.S. Census Bu- ington areas also lost tens Vintage 2021 estimates also freed up workers from hav- left. But the Tampa area
reau. The pandemic inten- of thousands of residents showed micro areas — de- ing to go to their offices. grew bigger because of an
sified population trends of primarily from people mov- fined as having a core city “There is clearly a disper- influx of more than 45,000
migration to the South and ing away. of less than 50,000 residents sion, but I think it’s a blip,” new residents, such as Jen-
West, as well as a slowdown On the flip side, the Dallas — gaining population from said Frey, senior fellow at nifer Waldholtz who moved
in growth in the biggest cit- area grew by more than mid-2020 to mid-2021, af- the Brookings Institution’s from Atlanta with her hus-
ies in the U.S. 97,000 residents, Phoenix ter years of slow growth or metropolitan policy pro- band in 2020. They had
The exodus from the big- jumped by more 78,000 declining population. The gram, Brookings Metro. previously lived in Orlando
gest U.S. metropolitan ar- people and greater Hous- small population gains were “We’re at one of the low- and missed Florida’s palm
eas was led by New York, ton added 69,000 resi- driven by people moving est levels of immigration trees and blue skies.
which lost almost 328,000 dents, including Giusti. In there, as deaths continued in a long, long time, and “We wanted to come back
residents. It was driven by the Phoenix metropolitan to outpace births in many that affects big metros like to Florida. It was state-spe-
people leaving for else- area, growth was driven of these communities. New York, Los Angeles and cific,” said Waldholtz, who
where, even though the by moves from elsewhere Growth in micro areas was Chicago. That is going to works in nonprofit develop-
metro area gained new in the U.S., while it was led by Kalispell, Montana; come back. With the nat- ment. “We loved the way
residents from abroad and propelled by a combina- Jefferson, Georgia; and ural decrease, we will go of life in Florida. It’s a vibe,
births outpaced deaths. tion of migration and births Bozeman, Montana. back to normal.” the way of living, sunshine,
Metropolitan Los Angeles outpacing deaths in Dallas Demographer William Between mid-2020 and palm trees, but definitely
lost almost 176,000 resi- and Houston. Frey said he believes the mid-2021, there was a stark not politically.”q

Feds: Forced-reset triggers are machine guns under U.S. law

By MICHAEL BALSAMO be “conversion devices,” making the weap- pel more than one shot with a single, continu-
Associated Press ons machine guns. ous pull of the trigger.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials are The Biden administration has been working The ATF says using the triggers, some of which
notifying gun dealers that some forced-reset to strengthen gun regulation, step up its fight sell online for around $400, mean that the
triggers, which allow guns to fire rapidly with a against gun violence and tackle rising violent weapons are being turned into machine guns
single continuous pull of the trigger, are con- crime rates in the country. The Justice Depart- under federal law, and as a result would be
sidered machine guns under federal law and ment has already announced it is taking a subject to strict regulation for possession, trans-
subject to strict regulation. hardline approach to gun dealers who break portation or transferring the devices.
The notification was being made Thursday in federal law and has established several strike The determination applies only to forced-reset
an open letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, forces in cities to help stop firearms trafficking. triggers that allow guns to fire more than one
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to feder- In the new letter, the agency said its exami- shot with a single trigger-pull and not others
ally licensed firearms dealers. It spells out how nation of the devices in question determined on the market that require the trigger to be
investigators have determined the triggers to that they “allow a firearm to automatically ex- released before another shot can be fired.q