Borough leaders were slamming the US Census Bureau on Thursday after the agency claimed that Brooklyn grew by only 40,000 people over the past decade.
“It’s a mistake,” said Borough President Markowitz, pronouncing himself “flabbergasted” by the allegation that the borough grew by only 1.6 percent to 2,504,700.
“It is inconceivable that Brooklyn — the hottest borough in which to live, work and play — grew only a small percentage in the past decade,” said Markowitz. “If you just count the Hasidim from Williamsburg, the Satmar and the Lubavitch Hasidim in Crown Heights, you’ve got 40,000 increase right there over the last 10 years.”
Brooklyn’s population is up from 2.465 million in 2000, but well below 2.579 million that the Census Bureau projected in 2009.
And the federal bean counters claim that the entire city of New York only added about 166,000 people since 2000, for a total population of 8.175 million, although the city says it is likely 8.4 million.
If the numbers from the constitutionally mandated decennial count hold, the city will face long-term consequences.
New York State is expected to lose two congressional seats when districts are redrawn later this year — and political insiders believe that Brooklyn or Queens could lose one of them.
And federal and state funds to the city, which is tied to population, would likely diminish
As such, state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) joined his fellow politicians in calling the Census count an “abomination,” an assessment that has become an once-a-decade ritual among urban lawmakers.
“Literally billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars were expended on this failed effort,” said Golden. “All avenues, including legal action, need to be explored in order to correct this injustice.”
Then again, it could be worse — Queens apparently grew only 0.1 percent, or 1,300 people since 2000.
(Source: Brooklyn Paper)
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9 Responses
Did all Jews return the census forms? This has been a problem in the past.
‘state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) joined his fellow politicians in calling the Census count an “abomination,” an assessment that has become an once-a-decade ritual among urban lawmakers.’
We statisticians have methods to correct for undercounting, but the politicians have not permitted us to use them.
problem is that the hasidim dont send back the census papers… got the answer mr. markowitz???
The 40,000 additional Satmar Chasidim in Brooklyn simply replaced the black population that was reduced over the last 10 years.
Even Brooklynites are happy to give up a Congressional seat and have it go to a new Republican district elsewhere.
It is very likely that the population growth was higher then the number we see, but that is in new births vs. deaths. But what the politicians are not considering is how many of people are moving out. The same report states that the Staten Island grew much higher. Well it’s a bit cheaper. And how many young and old couples are moving to Lakewood. No wonder Lakewood is the fastest growing city in NJ. And how many people are moving to other states to avoid the high cost of living in NYC and the property taxes. Also, we are approaching a stage of Baby Boomers retiring in great numbers, and a lot of those people are moving to a warmer climate such as in Florida. So we may have a high birth rate, but we also have a high migration rate out of the city and state.
what about all the people that have left Brooklyn for Lakewood?
Sinaipres #5, I guarantee you, that everone posting here living in NYC (frum communities for sure), has had ten times as many births in their community as those dieing or migrating. For every 90 year old in our community dieing, there are tens of grandchildren and great granchildren born, B”H.
Charlie could be right but we would need evidence to conclude that is true.
Rockland county grew a lot mostly due to New Square, and Monsey.
#5 How much did Lakewood grow and how much from Jews live there now?
#3 do you want to provide evidence to back up your claim?
But there still are statistics on birthrates et al that indicate that Markowitz isn’t too far off, even taking into account people moving out of state, and dying.