Charrette's Cliff Challenges Chatterbox's Census Comprehension

In his continuing mission to help Tony Giarratana pry a long-term neighborhood plan for Scottsboro/Bells Bend out of the neighbors' hands, Southcomm journalist Richard Lawson (now in the name of good schools) argues that Metro's population growth is "flat" rather than "clearly positive."

Downtown Cliff counters that the "flat growth" hypothesis is fabrication:

Lawson perpetuates the myth that population growth is flat in Nashville. Actually, the county grew 8% from 2000 to 2007 and Nashville (minus the non-metro cities) grew 9%. Davidson County accounted for nearly 10% of the state's total population growth for the period.

Besides questioning Lawson's loose interepretation of statistics, we are also bound to ask why he should assume that garage-studded suburbia represent "close-knit communities." In fact, a previous study I've read on motivations for moving to the suburbs indicated that communitas was not part of the common expectation. The suburb merely represents a cultureless provisional weigh station that affords educational opportunities and safer neighborhoods until the kids get grown.  I can see no real basis for what Lawson describes other than his own unquestioned premises about neighborhoods in which he may or may not live.


UPDATE:  Cliff continues to rock assumptions about growth:

Nashville-Davidson grew by 49,276 new residents from 2000 to 2007, 2nd highest in the state. That was 11,000 more than Williamson County. Only Rutherford, at 57,892, had more new residents.


Nashville-Davidson grew by 49,000 despite our failing schools. Turn the schools around and watch what happens.