Oklahoma City, In the Press

[BG918]

They are part of the metro.

Technically so is Rush Springs (at the southern end of Grady County) but few living there would consider themselves "part of the OKC metro".

[Pete]

There were a few errors in the story and I just traded messages with the author and then sent her some information and there will be corrections.

[Urbanized]

It's really easy to explain why they get it wrong. Go to wikipedia, look at the article on Oklahoma City, specifically the part where it shows the population, which is indeed just over half a million. The problem is they throw the word metro in there without accounting for the additional population, and the OKC metro is insanely spread out, and some people who live in it don't know where it ends. Some people consider Guthrie part of the metro area, others do not. Is El Reno part of it? Noble? If El Reno is, then Union City, Minco, Tuttle, and Newcastle must be as well. And if Norman is, then why not Noble? Granted, some of these would only increase the population count slightly, but the point is there's no reporter who is going to add up the population of Mustang, Yukon, Midwest City, Del City, Bethany, Warr Acres, The Village, Nichols Hills, Edmond, Moore, Norman and so on.

The really asinine part is THEY DO NOT HAVE TO. The wiki page lists the metro population right in the same box it lists the city proper population. They just got what they thought was the number and stopped.

MSAs are not really debateable. They are defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. There are also combined statistical areas (CSAs) which in our case would include Shawnee. And you can get loosey-goosey and talk about “region.” But our MSA is really well-defined by the federal government, and when combined with census data gives an exact number (at the time of the last census).

By the way, the U.S. Census Bureau in 2016 estimated the population in the city limits of OKC was approaching 700K.

[Pete]

The article was corrected and now reads:

"metropolitan area of more than a million people"

The CSA is now over 1.4 million.

[Urbanized]

This was added to the article:

Editor's Note: The wording in the subheading has been updated to make clear that while the MAPS program has been debt-free, Oklahoma City itself is not. In addition, while the city proper has some 600,000 residents, the larger metropolitan area has more than a million; and Dr. Ed Shadid is a surgeon not an anesthesiologist.

[Pete]

Also, the article was changed to properly show "Ron Norick" vs. "Rod Norick".

[stile99]

MSAs are not really debateable. They are defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. There are also combined statistical areas (CSAs) which in our case would include Shawnee. And you can get loosey-goosey and talk about “region.” But our MSA is really well-defined by the federal government, and when combined with census data gives an exact number (at the time of the last census).

By the way, the U.S. Census Bureau in 2016 estimated the population in the city limits of OKC was approaching 700K.

Circling back to the point, not a single word of this would be considered by the average person writing an article (I very deliberately did not say journalist), and the worst part is none of it even has to be considered. The answer to the metro population is listed right on the same page where they got the info on the city population. There's bad research, and then there's no stinking research at all. Once upon a time we had people whose job was to research this sort of thing, and more people whose job was to catch errors and edit them out of articles. The researchers were the first to go, and I've no idea what editors do now but I know what they aren't doing.

[TheTravellers]

Circling back to the point, not a single word of this would be considered by the average person writing an article (I very deliberately did not say journalist), and the worst part is none of it even has to be considered. The answer to the metro population is listed right on the same page where they got the info on the city population. There's bad research, and then there's no stinking research at all. Once upon a time we had people whose job was to research this sort of thing, and more people whose job was to catch errors and edit them out of articles. The researchers were the first to go, and I've no idea what editors do now but I know what they aren't doing.

Copy editors have been laid off at *tons* of places over the last few years, and nobody in the media's hiring new ones. Source - wife is a copy editor.

[Urbanized]

Major publications - even smaller publications - used to have entire fact-checking departments. And Christian Science Monitor is certainly a major publication, historically. Besides budget another culprit is the immediate nature of the Internet. Accuracy has gone by the wayside in favor of quick online publication.

[HOT ROD]

its just interesting that they typically don't get other cities demographic information wrong but there seems to be a consistency in under-estimating or under-valuing OKC in the media.

WARNING - -mini rant- - ---

Yes, OKC is 'ONE' of the smallest NBA markets but we're NOT -the smallest- as many would otherwise lead one to believe; New Orleans and Memphis is smaller by market and Salt Lake, New Orleans, and Memphis are smaller by metro pop.

Yes, OKC is a city of more than half a million but the city limits are approaching 700K (which should be reported as so, or better yet "more than 650K") and the metro is well beyond one million (not more than a million) to the tune of nearly 1.4 million which should be how that should be reported.

Again, if they can get other cities right (or close) then they CAN do so for OKC, I mean, it's been the largest city in the state since almost statehood, is one of the largest cities in the region (and has been for a very long time), and for the past 12-15 years at least HAS been in the national and international audience for at least 9-months of the year (OKC Thunder/Westbrook/Durant/NBA Hornets, OU Sooners, OKC Bombing, Tornados, etc).

I wish they'd stop acting like OKC didn't exist until just this past month and give it the credit that other cities get with no problem. ...

[fromdust]

how slowly is okc growing right now? Anybody think it may be losing population?

http://www.crainscleveland.com/artic...ades-akron-and

"The slowest-growing metro areas include several older industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest like Cleveland and those with specializations in government or defense spending (Hartford, Jackson, and Virginia Beach) or energy (Bakersfield, McAllen, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa)," Brookings says.

[jonny d]

how slowly is okc growing right now? Anybody think it may be losing population?

http://www.crainscleveland.com/artic...ades-akron-and

"The slowest-growing metro areas include several older industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest like Cleveland and those with specializations in government or defense spending (Hartford, Jackson, and Virginia Beach) or energy (Bakersfield, McAllen, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa)," Brookings says.

No. OKC is not losing population.

[Jake]

Houston is growing slowly?

[gopokes88]

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/27/...mpression=true

[Plutonic Panda]

Oklahoma ranked 7th worst state to live in.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings

[jerrywall]

It looks like healthcare is the one that drops the state down the most. Quality of life it lists us as #17. Of course I always take these ranking with a grain of salt, but on the healthcare, with so much of the state being rural, I can buy it. We have some amazing healthcare professionals in Oklahoma and some are ranked among the best in the world in thier specialties. But they're concentrated in the major metros and the wait time to see them can be rediculous sometimes.

[Plutonic Panda]

I agree with you with taking these lists with a grain of salt. I thought this was interesting however.

[stile99]

Hey, at least the 'data' wasn't collected from the Facebook of HR reps this time.

[dcsooner]

In all of these reports the common thread is OKC remains a relatively slow growth City in a Slow to no growth State. Economic improvement is largely non existent due to reliance on O & G. This has been the story of Oklahoma for 40 years and will remain so with the status quo entrenched in the Statehouse and the state of mind of its residents. These statistics are not a surprise to me.

[dcsooner]

43. Oklahoma
> Pct. of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 24.6%
> Pct. of adults with at least a high school diploma: 87.3%
> 2015 median household income: $48,568 (12th lowest)
> Median earnings for bachelor degree holders: $42,195 (7th lowest)

[gopokes88]

43. Oklahoma
> Pct. of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 24.6%
> Pct. of adults with at least a high school diploma: 87.3%
> 2015 median household income: $48,568 (12th lowest)
> Median earnings for bachelor degree holders: $42,195 (7th lowest)

Pipe down Eeyore, we get it.

It’s a thing on this board long discussions about negative topics, completely ignore anything positive. You’re one of the worst offenders.

[Plutonic Panda]

Pipe down Eeyore, we get it.

It’s a thing on this board long discussions about negative topics, completely ignore anything positive. You’re one of the worst offenders.

Or maybe it's to provide contrast to the ones who seemingly ignore the negatives like they don't exist. You're one of the worst offenders on this and reasons why you take the prize of being the only poster on here in my ignore list.

[ChrisHayes]

The state being rural undoubtedly has an effect on income as well as education. You won't find many people in a rural town in southeast Oklahoma with a masters degree earning 6 figures. On the flip side, you can find farmers making that much and they might only have an associates degree. I don't worry about it too much. States that are highly urbanized with high costs of living such as New York, Illinois, and California are of course going to have higher median salaries. I wish they would form a metric that measures income and cost of living and use that in analysis rather than just median salary.

[dcsooner]

Pipe down Eeyore, we get it.

It’s a thing on this board long discussions about negative topics, completely ignore anything positive. You’re one of the worst offenders.

IMO apathy is one of the reasons Oklahoma remains educationally, economically, and culturally deficient. Citizens accept poor Government even when outcomes cry for change, below average is acceptable to citizens across multiple measures of growth and prosperity. Point out the metrics and one is vilified. In my case give me something to celebrate and I will be the first to do so, but, when the State is fiscally unsound and the largest cities public school system is in shambles, politicians are criminal, and educational achievement is at the bottom, I will remain hopeful for transformational change in Oklahoma but not confident

[jonny d]

IMO apathy is one of the reasons Oklahoma remains educationally, economically, and culturally deficient. Citizens accept poor Government even when outcomes cry for change, below average is acceptable to citizens across multiple measures of growth and prosperity. Point out the metrics and one is vilified. In my case give me something to celebrate and I will be the first to do so, but, when the State is fiscally unsound and the largest cities public school system is in shambles, politicians are criminal, and educational achievement is at the bottom, I will remain hopeful for transformational change in Oklahoma but not confident

Well, pissing and moaning on a board that largely agrees with you does no good.