INTRODUCTION
I worked for the 2010 Census Local Census Office 3147 Provo last year. I have studied with interest the latest census information released on 24 February. I am writing this editorial to report some of the facts and make some recommendations based on them.
NATIONALITY
13 percent of Utah is Hispanic. KUER News reported on 25 February that when we add those Hispanics who describe themselves as white, the percentage is 20. That does not surprise me. At LCO 3147, I did a lot of double checking of documents, and the south of the border names lay pretty thick on the tables no matter what people listed as nationalistic or racial distinctions. This should give the Republicans pause in enacting any heavy handed immigration legislation. The US - Mexico boundary was drawn back in 1853 and hardly reflects current demographic reality any more. But that's another editorial.
THE CALL TO ACTION
The only difference between you and me and an “illegal alien” happens to be bureaucratic paper work. the federal government make acquiring that paperwork too complicated and too expensive. Congress should reform that particular process and quickly.
2010 POPULATION NUMBERS
Utah has 2,764,000 residents.
1,030,000 people reside in Salt Lake County.
516,564 reside in Utah County.
306,500 reside in Davis County, that narrow strip of land between the Wasatch, the Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, and Ogden.
232,000 reside in Weber County.
138,000 residents call Washington County their first home, not including the people who have second homes in the county. The Census did not count second-home owners in Washington County. Nearly 185,000 reside in Washington-Iron Counties.
Barely a 1000 people live in Daggett County. 1500 residents live in Piute County. Not quite 2800 people reside in Wayne County.
ANOTHER CALL TO ACTION
These numbers suggest to me the Utah legislature should address these items next year -- if not this year.
1) Utah now has 4 representatives to the United State House of Representatives. One district should be a completely rural district centering on Logan and Saint George. One district should center on Utah County. One district should center on an undivided Salt Lake City. The legislature should not divide West Jordan and West Valley City into multiple districts.
The legislature will have to divide Salt Lake County between 2 house districts – but it should not divide it between more than 2 districts. All of Salt Lake City should be in one house district. All of West Valley City should be in one house district. All of West Jordan should be in one house district.
Dividing Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County into three or four districts - - again - - will not do. If Republicans cannot defeat Jim Matheson on the issues, they should not try to defeat him by drawing Gerrymandering lines on the Utah map.
2) The population of Utah’s counties suggest to me that Utah’s internal boundaries have become completely outdated. Utah subdivides 2,764,000 Utahns among 29 counties. Not 25. Not 30. 29. The population is not srpread out evenly among the counties. The legislature should modernize the county structure by creating 10 to 15 counties with populations of 150,000 to 300,000. 10 - 15 counties of roughly comparable population would have larger tax bases to fund and do more services currently done federally or by Utah state.
THE PROBLEM OF OUTDATED INTERNAL BOUNDARIES IS NOT EXCLUSIVE TO UTAH
Utah is not alone in having internal boundaries that are now completely out of date with modern demographics.
Nevada
The Census website illustrates with population facts that Nevada’s counties lines hardly reflect current reality. Nevada has over 2,700,000 residents, which means Nevada and Utah now have roughly the same population. However, almost 2,000,000 of Nevada’s residents live in one county – Clark County – at the very southern tip of Nevada. Over 400,000 people live at the very western end of Nevada. And that leaves the remaining 300,000 citizens plus or minus spread out through the middle of rural Nevada. Clark County has nearly 2,000,000 residents and nearly Esmeralda County has just under 800 residents. Esmeralda County is somewhat smaller than Clark County, but it is not a small county.
Colorado
Colorado also has an internal structure that does not reflect current reality. Metropolitan Denver is divided up among 5 counties, ranging in populations from 400,000 to 600,000. Colorado also has two adjoining counties in San Juan mountain country that both have under 900 residents each.
Texas
Texas illustrates better than most states how Americans have let most of our internal boundaries become obsolete. For starters, Texas is the second largest state both in terms of population and in size. It also has the most counties of any state in the union as well – 254. 4,000,000 people live in Harris County. And no fewer than 5 counties have less than a thousand residents: A little more than 900 people live in Roberts County. 700 residents live in McMullen County, 416 people live in Kennedy County, whopping 286 people live in King County. A whopping 82 people live in Loving County, Texas – the least populated county anywhere in the USA.
Texas has 25,000,000 million residents – represented in Washington by just two senators. What we now call "Texas" would have better representation and would be more efficiently managed if it were multiple states of say 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 residents.
Houston-Harris County and a few counties around it should be a city-state.
Dallas - Fort Worth - Arlington - and some of the counties surrounding that metroplex should be another city state.
San Antonio and surrounding counties should be a state of 7,000,000 population.
El Paso-Cuidad Juarez, the biggest double city along the Mexican-Texas boundary, should be some sort of consolidated city state, affiliated either with Mexico or the USA. The boundary running through the two lobes of the city only encourages crime to festering and flourish.
As to what the 2010 Census reveals about Texas counties: 4,000,000 plus in a county on the high end. 82 on the other. If Texans are serious about “states rights,” Texas for a start should consolidate the remaining counties into roughly equal units of 200,000 to 300,000, so they all have a solid tax base to fund county services.
THE CALL TO ACTION
I discussed in this editorial the outdated boundaries of Utah because I live in Utah. I discussed the outdated boundaries of Nevada, Colorado, and Texas because the Census 2010 released demographic and population facts about those states.
These days, many politicians who resent federal “intrusion” and federal taxation tout respecting the states rights of the 50 internal divisions of the USA. However, leadership both state and federal have not updated the internal boundaries to reflect current reality, and thus many of the counties are either too big or too small to provide services efficiently. The legislatures should act to divide up their citizens into better counties of about 150,000, 200,000 or 300,000 populations.
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