With names such as Port St Lucie and Rancho Cucamonga, America’s ”exurbs” (extra-urban areas) are the fastest growing cities in the US, while the metropolises are experiencing stagnation in their population.
US census bureau figures released on Wednesday show that Elk Grove, an extensive area of strip malls, manicured streets and traffic jams near the Californian capital Sacramento, is the country’s fastest growing city, moving ahead of North Las Vegas to claim the title. It is one of three Californian cities in the top 10 fastest growing list. Three cities from Florida also make the top 10, as do two from Arizona.
The annual population estimates show that Phoenix had the largest influx in the country, with 44 000 new residents, while New York City remains the largest city, with 8,1-million.
Elk Grove’s growth has been startling. In 1977 it got its first traffic light. By 1991 it had a population of 50 000, most of them working in agriculture. Today, its population numbers 112 000, according to the bureau. The city has grown by 38,5% since 2000, and 12% in the year from 2004-05.
The growth has come at a price. While many are grateful for the amenities that come with city status, others resent the loss of a bucolic way of life where, according to one resident, ”everyone you saw when you walked down the street, you knew”.
Today, 80 languages are spoken in Elk Grove, which suffers from overcrowded schools and heavy traffic. Three thousand children arrived for the first day of summer camp at one local high school this week. The city builds an average of four new schools each year.
”The kids and summer months creates a whole other set of enforcement problems,” Elk Grove’s police chief, Bob Simmons, told the San Francisco Chronicle. ”There are a lot of issues with teenage drivers, accidents and kids committing different levels of crime.”
The city’s website even offers a crime tracking service, enabling troubled residents to map incidents in their area.
But the big issue on the city’s agenda is growth and how to manage it. ”There used to be a buffer,” the manager of a local DIY store told the paper. ”This used to be a rural area and there was a detachment from Sacramento. Now it’s exploded and just blends right in with south Sacramento.”
State officials dispute the federal government’s figures. They say the population is 131 000, and that the high growth rate is accounted for by the city’s 2003 annexation of neighbouring Laguna West and its 12 500 residents.
As the economies of the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley expand, so their populations move to colonise the smaller cities and towns in the surrounding countryside. Once vibrant rural towns are now sedate dormitory cities, catering to the needs of commuters who want a secure, affordable lifestyle. Elk Grove’s growth has been largely spurred by its proximity to a freeway linking it to Sacramento.
The population figures appear to confirm a trend of Americans moving away from big urban centres to communities with more space and more affordable housing. Data for large metropolises showed consistent population decline. New York lost 21 500 people in 2004-05, and other large cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia also suffered population decline.
Hans Johnson, a researcher, told the Associated Press: ”Families choose to move to areas where they can buy more housing for less money and often with better schools.”
Elk Grove takes its name from the Elk Grove Hotel and Stagestop, built in 1850. But with a notable absence of elk, the reasons for its name remain a mystery. It is variously claimed that the original owner of the hotel came from the town of Elk Grove in Montana, that he was inspired by a Swedish explorers’ map of the area describing native elk, and that he chose the name because he found some antlers near the hotel. – Guardian Unlimited Â