The South is still rising -- anyone paying attention?
Strangely enough, there has been almost total silence in the political blogosphere about the major new report from the Census Bureau on the explosive growth of metro areas in the South.
As Bloomberg News reports:
But anyone who cares about U.S. politics should be paying attention. These latest numbers show the South is home to growing centers of political power in the South that cannot be ignored -- especially with the upcoming 2010 Census, where Southern states stand to gain Congressional seats and Electoral College votes.
As Bloomberg News reports:
The 50 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2006 and 2007 were concentrated in the country's western and southern regions, the Census Bureau said today.This is an issue Facing South has covered a lot (here for example). But it receives scant attention in the political blog world, with its biases towards the Northeast and West Coast.
Eight of the 10 areas with the biggest population gains as measured by percentage of increase were in the South. Palm Coast, Florida, led with 7.2 percent growth, followed by St. George, Utah, 5.1 percent; Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina, 4.7 percent; and Gainesville, Georgia, 4.5 percent.
But anyone who cares about U.S. politics should be paying attention. These latest numbers show the South is home to growing centers of political power in the South that cannot be ignored -- especially with the upcoming 2010 Census, where Southern states stand to gain Congressional seats and Electoral College votes.
Labels: census bureau, growth, metro, Southern Politics
1 Comments:
The question about population growth in the South is, how will the new population behave politically? Will newcomers assimilate to existing white supremacy and right wing religiosity -- or will they change these historic realities?
A lot of the influx is Latino -- when will those newcomers develop influence?
What will population growth do to the precarious grip on limited power that African-Americans have in some areas?
I trust Facing South will help all of us become aware of the developing answers to these and other questions implied by population growth. I admit that my premise is that existing Southern political currents are a drag on the country's progressive potential. Can that change? How?
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