BUREAU PASSES OVER CITY; CAPE NOT ON LIST OF URBAN DESIGNATIONS

The U.S. Census Bureau announced Thursday the designation of 33 new "urbanized areas," a list that doesn't include the greater Cape Girardeau area.

City economic development officials had hoped the greater Cape Girardeau area, which includes the cities of Scott City and Jackson, would be officially named an urbanized area (UA) by the Census Bureau.

Judy Moss, director of economic development for the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday she was "disgusted" that the area failed to make the UA designation when it came so close to meeting the necessary criteria.

"I would just like to know how close we came, then go back to the cities' census figures compared to the census bureau's, and I'd bet anything the difference would be enough to put us over," Moss said.

According to census officials, when an area receives a UA designation, it generally is recognized as having sufficient population concentration to warrant special attention by government planners and business marketers.

Also, a number of federal government programs, such as urban transportation planning and mass transit, provide funds primarily to urbanized areas. The government also earmarks funds for specialized hospitals in UAs.

"Our hospitals could use that additional funding. They've got quite an investment here," said Moss.

Business marketers target their sales campaigns where potential customers live, and UAs indicate the largest concentrations of people.

Moss said that unless the city appeals the Census Bureau's decision, it will have to wait until 2000 to try for the UA title.

Failing to get the designation won't change economic development plans for the area, Moss said, but it will make the work more difficult.

"We are geared toward an Urbanized Area whether we're designated one by the census or not," she said. "It just makes my job a little more difficult."

Moss said that if the public would have known the benefits of the UA designation, there might have been better cooperation from citizens who ignored the 1990 census effort.

"I don't think the general public understands how important it is to us," she said. "If they did understand, they would be more conscientious about answering census data completely and accurately."

Moss said she was particularly disappointed with the census decision because the Cape Girardeau area apparently came so close to meeting the criteria.

The bureau first began to classify UAs for the 1950 census to better separate urban and rural territory, population and housing near large cities. A UA is comprised of one or more cities and the adjacent surrounding territory, which together have at least 50,000 people.

The outlying, "urban fringe" area generally consists of contiguous territory with a population density of at least 1,000 persons per square mile.

Moss said the population density likely was the only criterion the Cape Girardeau region didn't meet.

She said there are 101,009 people in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties, according to census figures. Within the city limits of Cape Girardeau, Scott City and Jackson, there are 47,986 people.

"But when you take the trailer courts, Twin Lakes, and all the other subdivisions out there between Cape and Jackson, you know that would put us over the 50,000 mark," she said.

Moss said her calculations put Scott City's population density at 1,321 people per square mile, Cape Girardeau's at 1,565, and Jackson's at 1,022.

"But that's not taking into consideration the population in between, which we need in order to meet the total population figure (50,000)," she added.

Moss said any appeal of the census decision would have to be a combined effort between elected and economic development officials in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City.

"The next step would be to prove we have the population they say we don't have," she said. "Then the next step would be to document the density.

"I hope there will be an effort to find these 2,014 people that we need. I do think there's a possibility that if we can prove that there are these people here, we can make a case for the urban area designation."

Becoming an urbanized area often is the first step toward recognition as a Metropolitan Area (MA) by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Such a designation often results in eligibility for a variety of federal program funds.

Cape Girardeau is developing plans to draft a comprehensive plan for the greater Cape Girardeau urban area. City officials said the plan could affect whether the Census Bureau recognizes the city as a UA.

All but five of the 33 new UAs are in the South and West. The 396 UAs classified for the 1990 census contain 158.3 million people or 63.6 percent of the nation's total compared with 139.2 million or 61.4 percent in 1980.

Two areas that qualified as UAs in 1980, Danville, Ill., and Enid, Okla., have been dropped because their populations in 1990 fell below 50,000.

Also, two UAs, Merced and Davis, Calif., were added between 1980 and 1990 on the basis of special counts taken by the Census Bureau.

There are six UAs in Missouri: Columbia, Joplin, Kansas City, St. Joseph, St. Louis, and Springfield.