Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Kudos to the Enquirer
The thanks goes out in two areas. First, for running a follow up story on the population change reported yesterday.
Secondly for accurately reporting on what the change means. The first instance is recognizing the report on the 'most dangerous' cities, also released yesterday is now meaningless.
That is an important distinction that Fox 19 and Local 12 missed last night. BOth did a short story on the updated census and BOTH followed that with a 'But' story about the crime report listing Cincinnati as 18th (up from 20th the year before). COMPLETELY ignoring, most likely out of incomplete reporting or general ignorance that fact that the calculations in that report are based on the old census numbers, which undercounted Cincinnati by an amazing 8%. Typical Cincinnati news report ignoring facts and searching for a way to spin negative... congrats!
Second, and again I am sure this is going to get lost in the Cincinnati Enquirer article. Remember last month, when Streicher indicated Cincinniati was one of hte safest cities in America, and the Enquirer and local news stripped out that 2 second soundbite to stir the ire of Cincinnatians concerned about crime. What they failed to do at the time was report on what the hell Streicher was actually talking about. FINALLY, Greg Korte actually reported what Streicher was saying:
This is VERY important to look at. Many large cities have combined with suburbs to great a giant 'urban' area. This affects many things, but one of the most important from a perception perspective, is it drops them off the top of the list of cities with crime issues. When you 'spread' the crime rate out across all citizens, all of a sudden your crime rate drops. THat is the point that Streicher made in his original comments, if anyone took the time to actually care to understand what he was actually saying. Taken into context Cincinnati is a much more safe city than lead to believe.
Secondly for accurately reporting on what the change means. The first instance is recognizing the report on the 'most dangerous' cities, also released yesterday is now meaningless.
"Cincinnati's new population number came the same day as the
much-publicized "most dangerous cities" rankings - issued by Kansas publisher
Morgan Quitno Press - ranked Cincinnati 18th
Because that analysis also relies on city population figures, Cincinnati's
ranking was obsolete the moment it was released."
That is an important distinction that Fox 19 and Local 12 missed last night. BOth did a short story on the updated census and BOTH followed that with a 'But' story about the crime report listing Cincinnati as 18th (up from 20th the year before). COMPLETELY ignoring, most likely out of incomplete reporting or general ignorance that fact that the calculations in that report are based on the old census numbers, which undercounted Cincinnati by an amazing 8%. Typical Cincinnati news report ignoring facts and searching for a way to spin negative... congrats!
Second, and again I am sure this is going to get lost in the Cincinnati Enquirer article. Remember last month, when Streicher indicated Cincinniati was one of hte safest cities in America, and the Enquirer and local news stripped out that 2 second soundbite to stir the ire of Cincinnatians concerned about crime. What they failed to do at the time was report on what the hell Streicher was actually talking about. FINALLY, Greg Korte actually reported what Streicher was saying:
Many big cities, such as Indianapolis, Louisville and Charlotte, have
merged with their counties to form one metropolitan government. Because their
populations now include both the old center city and the suburbs, those cities
appear safer in the rankings - even though the region is no safer.
Taking into account the entire metropolitan area, Greater Cincinnati
and Northern Kentucky has the 121st highest homicide rate of 358 metropolitan
statistical areas, according to FBI statistics.
This is VERY important to look at. Many large cities have combined with suburbs to great a giant 'urban' area. This affects many things, but one of the most important from a perception perspective, is it drops them off the top of the list of cities with crime issues. When you 'spread' the crime rate out across all citizens, all of a sudden your crime rate drops. THat is the point that Streicher made in his original comments, if anyone took the time to actually care to understand what he was actually saying. Taken into context Cincinnati is a much more safe city than lead to believe.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Something To Smile About
It's not all doom and gloom. The homes you see being renovated in your neighborhoods, the new condos you see popping up in the urban core, where old abanonded warehouses or department stores used to stand... well, those count too.
You see the original numbers provided by the census that estimated that Cincinnati lost 30,000 people from 2000-2005 were not accurate. A flaw in the way they create those estimates almost always leave our spaces that were previously unoccupied, and especially those that were previously not residential.
Well, through the process available by the census, you can challenge those numbers and show proof of uncounted residents. Cincinnati did just that, and has now gone from the 2nd fastest shrinking city (behind only Detroit) to one of the very few cities to have picked up population between 2000-2005. And pretty much the ONLY midwestern city to do so. The is very important, and what's more important, is these numbers STILL don't count the huge number of projects/condos/apartments that have come online in the last year, and are under construction for the next few years.
Cincinnati is growing (while only picking up a small number of residents), this is in the face of the constant new stories about the city failing, crumbling and being crime ridden. Now the REAL question. The Enquirer ran about a dozen stories over a one week span when the original numbers came out... jumping on the doom and gloom story. WIll they put forth a similar 'news' push to highlight the inaccuracy? Will the scream the praise or a city that is accomplishing what most other midwestern cities aren't? Adding new residents!
I guess time will tell... also of note, is today the story about the crime stats lists Cincinnati 18th in crime (behind other midwestern cities like St. Louis and Cleveland). While 18th isn't the best ranking, you'd think we were number 1 if you watched the news nightly and read the Enquirer. I'll be interested in watching the news coverage over the next week to see how much coverage these stories get!
You see the original numbers provided by the census that estimated that Cincinnati lost 30,000 people from 2000-2005 were not accurate. A flaw in the way they create those estimates almost always leave our spaces that were previously unoccupied, and especially those that were previously not residential.
Well, through the process available by the census, you can challenge those numbers and show proof of uncounted residents. Cincinnati did just that, and has now gone from the 2nd fastest shrinking city (behind only Detroit) to one of the very few cities to have picked up population between 2000-2005. And pretty much the ONLY midwestern city to do so. The is very important, and what's more important, is these numbers STILL don't count the huge number of projects/condos/apartments that have come online in the last year, and are under construction for the next few years.
Cincinnati is growing (while only picking up a small number of residents), this is in the face of the constant new stories about the city failing, crumbling and being crime ridden. Now the REAL question. The Enquirer ran about a dozen stories over a one week span when the original numbers came out... jumping on the doom and gloom story. WIll they put forth a similar 'news' push to highlight the inaccuracy? Will the scream the praise or a city that is accomplishing what most other midwestern cities aren't? Adding new residents!
I guess time will tell... also of note, is today the story about the crime stats lists Cincinnati 18th in crime (behind other midwestern cities like St. Louis and Cleveland). While 18th isn't the best ranking, you'd think we were number 1 if you watched the news nightly and read the Enquirer. I'll be interested in watching the news coverage over the next week to see how much coverage these stories get!
