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Star runs odd and inaccurate story about the population of KC and Omaha

July 1, 2009 | 8 Comments

Today the KC Star’s Matt Campbell has an odd story that tries to whip up panic about how the population of Omaha is set to surpass that of Kansas City.  He cites 2008 Census data that lists KC with 452,000 and Omaha with 439,000. But his numbers are wrong. This past February the Census Bureau acknowledged that they had significantly under-counted KC and  revised our population up to 475,000.  And there is evidence that our population might actually be over half a million. The Star reported this in June 2008 and February 2009, but apparently Mr. Campbell forgot to read his own newspaper.

Another omission is the fact that Omaha has few suburbs.  Most of the suburban-style areas are in the city limits.  It would be as if Overland Park, Leawood, Lee’s Summit, and Independence weren’t independent cities but part of KCMO, easily pushing our population up towards one million. Regardless of central city size, the KC metro area is still twice the size of the Omaha metro area.  And our economy is more than twice the size.

It’s unfortunate that such a prominently placed story has such glaring omissions.

Categories: Media


Comments

8 Comments so far

  1. Sarah on July 1, 2009 8:54 am

    I read that and was wondering the same things. It seemed like he posed the city officials of Kansas City as being very defensive and the officials of Omaha and being welcoming and open-armed about the findings, too, which I found odd. As someone from Omaha, Kansas City is WAY better and bigger!

  2. aj on July 1, 2009 9:45 am

    “It would be as if Overland Park, Leawood, Lee’s Summit, and Independence weren’t independent cities but part of KCMO, easily pushing our population up towards one million.” We wish.

    Also, I was born and raised in KC, but do a lot of business in Omaha. They have far better, and more invloved, business leadership than in Kansas City.

  3. Patrick L. on July 1, 2009 11:15 am

    This article was also very troubling to me for many reasons. First it seems to be attempting to create a regional conflict between two cities that I have always felt complimented one another. Both are great and very liveable cities. I have enjoyed my time in both. Second, though the article mentions it, it does not go nearly enough in depth about the economic and cultural power of the size of a metropolitan area versus the size of the central city. Overall this is a rather poor piece of journalism that maybe would have been better suited up the back page not the front.

  4. Nate on July 1, 2009 12:09 pm

    Even if it is accurate it is horribly misleading as you mentioned the population center size isn’t even comparable.

    This was obviously written and placed on the front page to draw fear and attention. Shameful that this is what newspapers have to do to sell papers.

    I agree with Patrick, these cities should and are compliments of each other.

  5. Brent on July 1, 2009 12:53 pm

    I’ve always thought the same thing applies (in reverse) when people mention that Kansas City is the largest city in the State. Sure, technically it is, but St. Louis is a far bigger metropolitan area.

    The larger metro is both a strength and a weakness. There is strength in numbers — jobs, people, economy, etc. However, as AJ points out, our business community is not as focused on “Kansas City” because there are so many independent cities that fragment the focus and instead of working together for the betterment of the entire metro, they compete against each other, which hurts everyone.

  6. DKC on July 1, 2009 8:19 pm

    I’m trying. I’m trying really, really hard.. to figure out why this matters at all. Not the bad numbers but the whole story.

  7. Dan on July 2, 2009 5:50 pm

    Hey, at least you got a nice plug on Bottom Line. Well done.

  8. Bullwinkle on July 3, 2009 10:54 am

    I went to college in NW MO and we used to drive up to Omaha for a weekend and the people from Kansas City used to actually make fun of it. That was about 20 years ago. Now, having been to Omaha in the last few years I can honestly say Omaha is a lot more progressive and has developed faster than KC. Take their zoo for instance. Ours just doesn’t compare. Our P&L District got approved in 1993. It took 15 years to get it developed.

    As to the error, it is something seasoned and veteran copy editors would have caught. I think it’s only relevant because it is one in a long line of goofy errors getting published since the Star has gutted its editorial staff making choices based on pay and not journalistic experience and skill.

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