Wednesday, June 30, 1999
Census: Urban decline continues
City residents move farther into suburbs
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDEPENDENCE — Jim Kudera bought a farm and moved to this small Kentucky community 12 years ago, thinking he took title to some quiet country comfort with the 47 acres of land.
But Mr. Kudera wasn't alone. More than 3,300 others with the same idea have moved into town over the past eight years.
Today, Independence is one of the fastest-growing cities in the region, according to 1998 population estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In fact, Independence's 31.6-percent growth rate since the 1990 census is surpassed by only 12 other cities in all of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. The data reflects cities with a population of 10,000 people or more.
“We moved out here thinking we'd have 20 years of peace and quiet,” Mr. Kudera said. “It lasted about 10 years.
The census estimates confirm what many people have known for some time: People are leaving cities and the nearby suburbs while small towns and villages farther away continue to grow.
Cincinnati's population, for example, has declined more than 7 percent since 1990, to 336,400, a decline of more than 27,700 residents.
And some of the Queen City's closest neighbors have seen similar declines in population: Norwood (9.4 percent), Reading (4.6 percent) and Covington (7.5 percent).
The numbers carry a great deal of significance, according to George Vredeveld, director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Cincinnati.
Shifts in population, he said, eventually hit everyone in the wallet.
Growth in an area means more tax dollars, which are then spent on schools, roads and sewers.
In the case of Independence, growth also has meant water rationing and traffic jams.
A shrinking population often goes hand-in-hand with fewer job opportunities, lower property values (yielding fewer tax dollars collected) and deterioration of some neighborhoods.
“Growth rates are an indication of how people feel about the particular area,” Dr. Vredeveld said. “They are an indication of opportunities and quality of life.
“People will normally leave an area because they don't like the quality of life or don't have good job opportunities.”
Springboro, in Warren County, is experiencing double the growth of Independence. Since 1990, the city has grown by 60 percent, to about 10,500 people.
City Manager Ed Doczy said citizens have struggled through the town's growing pains.
More traffic and construction now are a way of life. But so is a higher tax base. And the city has made sure to preserve its downtown historic district.
“Growth is change, and change is difficult on any community,” Mr. Doczy said. “We get people who have lived in a subdivision for five years complaining about a new subdivision going in.
“They say we've got to control the growth. Well, they are the growth.
“But overall we've done a good job of controlling the growth, and we're a very healthy city financially because of it.”
But Jay Buchert worries about the trend.
Mr. Buchert, a regional planning commissioner for Hamilton County, says flight from Hamilton County's core means bad news for surrounding communities.
“It's what we've been predicting,” Mr. Buchert said of the census numbers. His organization has been working on a plan to reverse the trend of city flight.
“Hamilton County is the core,” he said. “And no matter what we do, if the core deteriorates, so goes the region.”
In Independence, that theory seems a million miles away.
When City Administrator Gary Scott looks around his town, he sees the prosperity in the form of a new shopping center, gas stations and 13 subdivisions.
It would seem that Cincin nati's loss has been a gain for communities like Independence.
“Population increases mean having an opportunity for better city services,” Mr. Scott said. “We've increased our police department by four people and just created a Public Works Department.
“We have more resources and now we can do more things.”
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