Quote:
Originally Posted by Chef
This is further evidence of flawed modeling. Sibley County is not even remotely suburban or exurban. It is a county of small towns beyond Minneapolis' exurbs. It's inclusion is likely due to commuter connection to exurban fringe towns that are already mistakenly counted as "core" counties. It is mostly farm land. If an MSA includes an area like that then what exactly is it supposed to be a measure of? Certainly not a metro area. Owatanna's inclusion into the Twin Cities CSA is ridiculous. It is a small town an hour and a half away that is in no way part of metro Minneapolis/St Paul, it is more influenced by Austin and Albert Lea.
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chicago's MSA has newton county, IN that sounds a lot like sibley county.
for various reasons i'm somewhat familiar with newton county.
newton county is >95% corn and pig farms. no exaggeration. it's 400 sq. miles with 14,000 people (35 ppsm density), which is straight-up rural by any measure.
there's a smattering of 5 small rural towns, the largest of which, kentland, is home to only 1,700 people. kentland is
80 miles as the crow flies from downtown chicago (a 2-hour drive according to google maps right now).
newton county, IN has no business being included in anything remotely related to the word "metropolitan", but for some asinine reason it's included in chicago's MSA.
it's another good example of how the census bureau's great county mash-up MSA/CSA game is fraught with all kinds of silliness.
i have always preferred the census bureau's urban area designation because it works at the
MUCH finer-grained tract level.
it's not perfect either, but it's much better at reflecting the true size and extent of individual human settlements.