Page 3 - aruba-today-20221230

A3
U.S. NEWS Friday 30 december 2022
US Census Bureau redefines meaning of ‘urban’ America

By MIKE SCHNEIDER to 10,000 people but pulled
Associated Press back amid opposition. The
More than 1,100 cities, new criteria for urban areas
towns and villages in the shift the urban-rural ratio
U.S. lost their status as ur- slightly, to 79.6% and 20.4%,
ban areas on Thursday as respectively.
the U.S. Census Bureau re- In 1910, a town with 2,500
leased a new list of places residents had a lot more
considered urban based goods and services than a
on revised criteria. town that size does today,
Around 4.2 million residents “and these new definitions
living in 1,140 small cities, acknowledge that,” said
hamlets, towns and villages Michael Cline, North Caro-
that lost their urban desig- lina’s state demographer.
nation were bumped into With the new criteria, the
the rural category. The new distinction between an ur-
criteria raised the popula- banized area and an ur-
tion threshold from 2,500 to ban cluster has been elimi-
5,000 people and housing nated since the Census Bu-
units were added to the reau determined there was
definition. little difference in econom-
The change matters be- ic activities between com-
cause rural and urban ar- munities larger and smaller
eas often qualify for differ- Tourists look out onto the city skyline from Christmas Tree Point on top of Twin Peaks in San than 50,000 residents.
ent types of federal fund- Francisco, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. For the first time, the Cen-
ing for transportation, hous- Associated Press sus Bureau is adding hous-
ing, health care, education for dollars that urban ar- eas in the mainland U.S., 50,000 residents. An urban ing units to the definition
and agriculture. The fed- eas are not.” The Census Puerto Rico and U.S. islands cluster was defined as hav- of an urban area. A place
eral government doesn’t Bureau this year made the on the new list released ing at least 2,500 people, can be considered urban
have a standard definition biggest modification in de- Thursday. a threshold that had been if it has at least 2,000 hous-
of urban or rural, but the cades to the definition of “This change in definition is around since 1910. Under ing units, based on the cal-
Census Bureau’s definition an urban area. The bureau a big deal and a substan- this definition, almost 81% culation that the average
often provides a baseline. adjusts the definition every tial change from the Cen- of the U.S. was urban and household has 2.5 people.
“The whole thing about ur- decade after a census to sus Bureau’s long-standing 19% was rural over the past Among the beneficiaries
ban and rural is all about address any changes or procedures,” said Kenneth decade. Under the new of using housing instead of
money,” said Mary Craigle, needs of policymakers and Johnson, a senior demog- definition, hammered out people are resort towns in
bureau chief for Montana’s researchers. The bureau rapher at the University of after the 2020 census, the ski or beach destinations,
Research and Informa- says it is done for statistical New Hampshire. “It has minimum population re- or other places with lots
tion Services. “Places that purposes and it has no con- significant implications quired for an area to be of vacation homes, since
qualify as urban are eligible trol over how government both for policy and for re- considered urban doubled they can qualify as urban
for transportation dollars agencies use the defini- searchers.” Under the old to 5,000 people. Originally, based on the number of
that rural areas aren’t, and tions to distribute funding. criteria, an urbanized area the Census Bureau pro- homes instead of full-time
then rural areas are eligible There were 2,646 urban ar- needed to have at least posed raising the threshold residents.q

Appeals court halts federal takeover

of Mississippi jail

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mis- suits brought by prisoners. Judge Carlton Reeves put
sissippi’s largest county won Hinds County officials ap- the jail into receivership af-
a legal victory Wednesday plauded the move to de- ter citing poor conditions
in its effort to stave off a rare lay work by the receiver, at the facility. The judge
federal takeover of its jail, who attorneys for the coun- said deficiencies in supervi-
where a judge has found ty said would be “utterly sion and staffing lead to “a
“ongoing unconstitutional unaccountable” to voters stunning array of assaults,
conditions” for prisoners. and taxpayers. as well as deaths.” Seven
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court “We are still facing the day- people died last year while
of Appeals stayed a lower to-day challenges at the detained at the jail, he said. Rolls of razor wire line the top of the security fencing at the
Raymond Detention Center in Raymond, Miss., on Aug. 1, 2022.
court’s order putting the jail, but we are thankful At that point, federal and Associated Press
Raymond Detention Cen- for the opportunity for an- state judges had ordered
ter into receivership until it other court to look at the receiverships or a similar pointed Wendell M. France assume operational control
rules on the county’s mo- situation and see that the transfer of control for pris- Sr., a public safety consul- over the jail on January 1,
tion for reconsideration. Hinds County Sheriff and ons and jails only about tant, former correctional 2023.
The court will also look at Hinds County Board of Su- eight times, according to administrator and 27-year According to the terms of
whether the lower court’s pervisors have been doing Hernandez Stroud, an at- member of the Baltimore the receivership, France
injunction complies with something right in this situ- torney at the Brennan Cen- Police Department, to im- has 120 days from his ap-
the Prison Litigation Reform ation,” Hinds County Sheriff ter for Justice at NYU School prove conditions at the jail pointment to develop a
Act, a 1996 federal law that Tyree Jones told WLBT-TV. of Law. outside Jackson. draft plan to improve con-
places restrictions on law- On July 29, U.S. District On Oct. 31, Reeves ap- France was scheduled to ditions at the jail.q