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Surveying Census Stats on 2 Brooklyn Blocks
The Times has a story in which it conducts informal surveys of three square blocks in the city where the Census Bureau said population had decreased and building vacancies had increased. The article looks into whether officials are justified in claiming that the Census undercounted New York City’s population, and a couple of the blocks spotlighted are here in Brooklyn. One is home to the Venetian, the opulent Avenue P condo. According to the story, the block “recorded an increase of 65 vacancies, to 70 from 5, and a decline in population of 57, to 283 from 340. One reason for the increase in vacancies was the construction of the Venetian, a 33-apartment building on Avenue P that replaced a row of one- and two-family homes. Occupancy started early last year, and the ornate building is still about one-third vacant. But that would account for fewer than half of the vacancies recorded by the Census Bureau on the block, which is home mostly to immigrants from Russia and Syria.” (There’s a neat map of the block accompanying the article.) Meanwhile, on a Sheepshead Bay block that the Census reckons lost 153 residents, there’s also a 43-unit new condo that’s not completely occupied. However, Theresa Scavo, the chairwoman of Community Board 15, says it’s likely the case that many of the neighborhood’s Russian immigrants did not respond to the Census: “How do you get a decrease in population when 10 years ago the buildings were not as crowded?”
Survey Hints at a Census Undercount in New York City [NY Times]
05/25/2011 10:00 AM
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Brooklyn’s 2010 Census Count
The city is calling into question the 2010 Census numbers released yesterday, saying the population count, at a record high of 8,175,133, falls short of its projections. (The Observer reports the Census Bureau is standing behind its data). Meanwhile, here are some of the stats released about Brooklyn:
-The Local’s chart on Brooklyn’s stats show an increase of 39,374 people in Brooklyn between the 2000 and 2010 tallies, for a total of 2,504,700.
-According to The Times, “Manhattan and Brooklyn accounted for the only counties in the country with a million or more people where the white share of the population rose.”
-Also from The Times: “According to the census, Queens registered a net loss in occupied housing since 2000 and a 59 percent increase in vacancies. Brooklyn recorded a 66 percent rise in vacancies. In the eyes of the census, [Joseph J. Salvo, the director of the population division at the city's Planning Department] said, ‘huge swaths of housing have essentially been depopulated.’ He added that in many cases, the neighborhoods where the census found high vacancy rates were not necessarily where new housing had been built, or where foreclosures had been rampant.”
-The screengrab above is from WNYC’s interactive map, which lets you zoom in on tracts to see the population increases and decreases that were reported.
Census: New York City’s Population Barely Rose in the Last Decade [NY Times]
Mapping Changes in the Five Boroughs [WNYC]
A Population Grows in Brooklyn [The Local]
Census Bureau Stands By Numbers [NY Observer]
03/25/2011 9:00 AM
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Census: Brownstone Belt Gets Richer
The Eagle takes a look at 2010 Census data for Community Districts 2 and 6, “representing most of Brownstone Brooklyn,” and finds the areas have added more residents and gotten more well-to-do since 2000. The two districts added 11,000 people during that period; although more than two-thirds of households rent their homes, that’s a decline of 4 percent; and the “number of households in those areas that have a yearly income of less than $35,000 has gone down 11 percent. At 27 percent, this is much less than in Brooklyn as a whole and in the city.” Meanwhile, as the article notes, the wealth of the two districts “may actually be understated, due to the presence of large low-income housing projects in Red Hook, Gowanus and Fort Greene.”
Brownstone Districts Show Growth in Population, Wealth [Eagle]
03/02/2011 9:00 AM
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Census Reveals A Changing Brooklyn
Both the New York Times and New York Magazine take a look at the latest census figures, which were released Tuesday, and note the dramatic population shift in many Brooklyn neighborhoods since 2000. “Some of the largest population gains since 2000 were recorded in places that not long ago might have been considered marginal, including Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg in Brooklyn,” the NY Times article says. Despite population gains, the Hispanic population has decreased in Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Greenpoint with the black population fell by double-digits in Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. Despite these decreasing figures, New York Magazine still finds that that “Kings is gaining on Queens for the title of most diverse county in the nation, and possibly the world.” Brooklyn’s cultural map is dictated heavily by the constant inflow of immigrants, making it hard to keep track of neighborhood dynamics. As the article states, “Sunset Park is becoming less Chinese and more Mexican, Bensonhurst less Italian and more Chinese, Flatbush more Jewish and more Muslim at the same time.” The map, via NY Magazine, shows the densest population of certain immigrant groups in the borrough.
Region is Reshaped as Minorities Go to Suburbs [NY Times]
…Brooklyn and Queens Competing to be Most Diverse City in the World
Map via NY Magazine
12/15/2010 11:10 AM
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Advocacy Org Finds Ubiquitous Housing Discrimination
The Federal Fair Housing Act was passed 40 years ago, points out the Gotham Gazette, which allows the Department of Justice to prosecute “patterns or practices” of “housing discrimination”, and yet housing discrimination persists, according to the Fair Housing Justice Center, a non-profit advocacy organization. There is a significant dearth of affordable housing, for example, and the sales and rental markets are operated by brokers, some of whom use illegal practices and propagate discriminatory concepts such as the idea that it is okay to set a limit on the number of children. The FHJC gave the Gazette several examples of discrimination based on race (NYC is the fourth most segregated metropolitan area in the U.S. for African Americans, and the fifth most for Latinos), disabilities (such as new buildings that flaunt flout design requirements for access to disabled people), or income source. In July 2008, for example, the FHJC found that close to 400 posts from 161 different real estate companies on Craigslist discriminated on income source alone, using phrases like “no government programs.” As a solution to these violations of rights, the Center is pushing for better training of realtors and brokers, consistent and flexible enforcement of existing laws, and improved regulations towards marketing practices that will make all available units visible to all demographics.
Housing Bias Persists [Gotham Gazette]
09/01/2009 9:30 AM
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Williamsburg Hipsters Aren’t All Rich Kids After All
New York Magazine pops The Times’ bubble about the real demographic reality of Williamsburg. Despite the fact that its most visible residents make easy targets with their skinny jeans and facial hair, Williamsburg is in fact no hotbed of trustfunddom. In fact, Williamsburg’s residents are by and large in worse financial shape than most New Yorkers. In 2005, for example, almost half of those living within the bounds of Community Board 1 were getting some kind of social assistance and the area’s median income is almost 20 less than the city as a whole; less than 3 percent of households were bringing in over $200,000 a year. Concludes the New York article, “The reality of Williamsburg, beyond the mythical trust-funders, is that it is a community of people mostly struggling to get by, with a few wealthy residents grabbing headlines — the way New York has always been.”
Beyond Hipsters: Williamsburg’s Tough Economic Realities [New York]
Parental Lifelines, Frayed to Breaking [NY Times]
Dose of Reality for Trust Fund Kids [Brownstoner]
Photo by Eric Graham
06/23/2009 11:14 AM
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adam_dahill
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM