High Point fears census will cause identity crisis.

• Position: Brief Article

The Census Bureau is changing the way it groups and labels metro areas, which could mean some odd-looking combinations when they go into effect by 2003.

It's ditching metropolitan statistical area in favor of a new designation: core-based statistical area. High Point gets second billing in the Greensboro-High Point CBSA the Census Bureau proposes. But if that's combined with CBSAs in Alamance and Davidson counties -- likely, given commuting patterns -- only the biggest city in each gets its name on the label. Say good-bye to the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point MSA and hello to the Greensboro-Burlington-Lexington combined area.

Winston-Salem goes into a separate CBSA if the commuting rate with Greensboro hasn't increased, but local officials think bureau rules will force it to poll congressmen to determine if the two CBSAs should be joined. That would produce the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-Burlington combined area.

Proposals to exclude rural residents from the formula to rank population mean the state might have no metro areas with more than a million people. In the '98 census estimate, it had three: Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point.

High Point officials fear the city...