UPDATE: Click here to view the City Manager’s annexation Powerpoint presentation from last night.  Total and student populations by area are included, along with next steps including the questions…

OK, I must admit that we’re playing a bit of catch up with this chapter in the ongoing annexation story and this post will probably be updated at least once today.

Last night the Decatur City Commission held its open work session regarding the potential annexation of areas in the map above.  Patch is reporting some of the highlighted facts from the meeting including that a full-fledged annexation of all these areas would increase the residential population to 2,028, with 230 students at the start and nearly double that 8-10 years from now.

Added revenue would be $1 million to the city and $1.7 million to the school system.  However, the one “yet to be determined” piece is the cost to the city and school system.

I’m guessing most folks will need to see that last piece before they make a final determination.

The powerpoint from last night’s meeting should be posted on the city’s website some time today. More when we have it.

Over on Fresh Loaf, Thomas Wheatley rightly points out that the brand-new census maps put up on the New York Times website are a total time-suck.

Zoom into Decatur’s city limits and check out how the city’s population has changed in the past 10 years.  From a look at changes in the city’stotal population #s (map above), to racial make-up, to density, to vacant housing, the map tells a not-so-surprising story about Decatur over the past 10 years.

As you can see from all the blue in the map above, populations grew in each of Decatur’s four census tracks except for what can loosely be described as the southeast Winnona Park tract.  The largest growth (+10% to 20%) was seen up in the northeast tract.

The largest change in racial make-up, not surprisingly, was seen in the southeast Oakhurst tract, with the white population more than doubling since 2000 (+113%) and the black population dropping 47%.

And when it comes to vacant housing, only the southwest Oakhurst tract had fewer vacant properties than it did in 2000.

Anyway, enough from me!  Check it out and let us know what else you find.

A DM reader gives some great local tidbits on the 2010 Census data released yesterday…

Decatur between 2000 and 2010 grew modestly — 4.7% to 19,335. That’s slower than the 7.5% in the ’90s.

What’s worth noting is that the black population shrank by almost a third (-31 percent) — going from 5,592 to 3,858. That’s nearly double the 16.7% loss in the ’90s.

The white population grew 15.7% to 13,896 from 11,935 (it grew 33% in the ’90s). …But we gained diversity in other ways. Asian population went to 554 from 312, a 77.7% increase. And the proportion of population identifying as Hispanic — this can be any race — grew to 612 from 309, a 98% increase.

Another big growth area, and one of the most interesting: people who checked more than one race on the census form. It went to 416 from 221, an 88% increase. The rest of the racial breakdown is an infinitesimal share of Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and “other.”

As noted in this morning’s AJC, the latest and greatest “American Community Survey” has just been released by the Census bureau, and while there’s no listing for the city of Decatur, there is a breakout for the City of Decatur School District.  As the AJC notes…

For the first time, this ongoing statistical portrait of America included information from geographic areas with a population of less than 60,000. The 2010 census and the ACS will help determine the distribution of more than $400 billion in federal tax funds yearly.

So without further ado, here are some random estimates about us, in no particular order.

• 326 females had a baby in the last year (give or take 154 babies), with the 35-50 year old demographic birthing the most babies.
• There are around 1,500 veterans inside the city limits (give or take 469 veterans)
• English (18.9%) , Irish (14.8%) and German (14.6%) are the largest ancestry groups.
• 69% of us commuted to work in a car, alone.  7% took public transit, 4.5% walked and 9.6% worked at home.
• 38% of Decaturites live in households that make in excess of $100,000 a year.
• Over half the city’s housing stock was built prior to 1959.
• 42% of households have one car, while 6% have three or more.
• Decatur is 57.5% female, 73.5% white and 22.8% black.

More evidence that Decatur residents are on the right side of the population trend (writes the sweaty MARTA commuter)

The AJC reports that the city of Atlanta added 20,623 people to its census from 2006-2007; the seventh largest jump nationwide. According to the article, it’s perhaps the largest population in the city’s history.

On a related note, I noticed that the city of Decatur was quoted with now having just over 19,000 in this recent article about cops in Dunwoody (not sure of the source).

What’s all this mounting evidence show?

Like it or not, Atlanta and Decatur’s populations will continue to grow as people begin to feel the pinch from an unsustainable lifestyle in the ‘burbs. Some will inevitably miss the “small town feel” that the city once had, but in my humble opinion this nationwide transition is inevitable. City policies have done their best to make sure that Decatur handled this influx in a way that maintained a walkable, well thought-out community. But sometimes it seems like the policies that get blamed for our growing population. We can pretend like real estate values haven’t skyrocketed in the past 5 years and lament what’s been lost, blaming it all on the catch-all “city”. Or we can recognize and embrace this transition, making sure we have a say in how we handle this new popularity.

Just my two cents.