After Joe Salvo’s talk, I had begun to really see how my neighborhood has faced such drastic demographic changes. I hadn’t realized that even when I lived in Brooklyn, the population vastly changed before my eyes. For example, in the late 90s, Bensonhurst was mostly considered an Italian and Jewish neighborhood, but by the time I moved to Staten Island, Asians, as well as Russians heavily populated it. What I found interesting from the talk was how the younger population tries to move away from racially stereotypically areas and tries to form their own niche elsewhere. For example, younger Asian Americans strive to move away from Chinatown, where there is a vast majority of older Asians.

What I also found interesting about Salvo’s talk was that the “melting pot” continues to flourish even today. It is also notable that even throughout New York City as a whole, the five boroughs each experience their own melting pot and have different nationalities moving in and out. He also makes note of the other cities that are similarly culturally diverse, yet not as diverse as NYC.

Questions that arose: Why do people move in and out of certain boroughs in NYC?

1. Joe Salvo talked about how diverse NYC is and how unique it is that we have all different kinds of people living here, and I felt like it was ironic that he was showing different neighborhoods that were essentially clusters of the same kinds of people, just like different countries in the world. I felt like it made NYC seem diverse overall, but still most people live surrounded by their own culture. The diversity is encountered throughout the city when one travels and yet some neighborhoods are dominated by a certain group. It all has a feeling of one still preferring to live with their own people since a lot of them end up going home to that.

2. I was surprised to see how many people actually leave NYC every year and go live somewhere else in the United States because I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone I know doing that. I know a lot of immigrants and they mostly either stay here or go to their own countries. NYC is unique in being used to and accepting to immigrants but I’m not sure how one would feel living in a less diverse place where almost everyone is born in the US. I’m relatively a recent immigrant too and sometimes I wonder if it would be as comfortable living in a less diverse city as it is in NY. I have a feeling there would be people that would kind of “always remember” that I’m an immigrant, if you know what I mean. I feel like there would be people that would treat me differently, which is not really something that is too prominent in NYC.

3. Just want to comment on how even Joe Salvo admitted that the Census isn’t so reliable since many people who are here illegally don’t fill them out. Knowing that made me wonder how many people actually live in NYC. I wonder how the percentages of different groups living in NYC would change if every person was counted. Also, regardless of how I thought it is ironic that some people live in neighborhoods filled with others of their culture, I still realize how NYC is incredibly diverse and I appreciate that uniqueness. I even heard somewhere that there is at least one person from every country in the world living in NYC. This diversity is quite important in making a society more accepting and understanding of others, since people realize that not everyone in the world thinks the way they do or do things the way they do.

Questions:

1.  How can you check the validity of data that is based off of a form that people fill out in a subjective state of mind, when what they may classify themselves as the government may have a different opinion?

2.  Is a person’s ethnicity based on their heritage or the color of their skin?

I would never want Joe Slavo’s job.  I like to think of myself as a scientist and as such I rely on data that has been proven through exact experimentation.  I would never be able to do a job where I don’t feel that the data I’m working with is very accurate (like the census).  I think it is amazing that Mr. Salvo is able to work with such uncertainties so effectively.

1. How do the aesthetics of different neighborhoods and their geographical positions relative to the rest of New York and the surrounding waters influence the tendency of certain communities to slowly dissolve in one area and form again somewhere else?

2. It appears that although the majority of the population in a neighborhood may belong to a specific ethnic group, the constant movement of people in and out of New York, and in and out of certain neighborhoods, seems to never fuse neighborhoods that house many people of the same ethnicity. That is, various ethnic groups remain spread out. Has this phenomenon been explained beyond saying that it’s just the natural tendency? If so, how?

Joe Salvo’s talk was certainly interesting in that it revealed certain trends of migration in the NYC population that I did not at all expect. It appears that Chinatown is becoming more ethnically diverse and Brooklyn’s Avenue U area and even some parts of Coney Island are becoming neighborhoods that house more Southeast Asians than prior. I have personally witnessed this shift as I live, and have lived for most of my life, just a few blocks from Avenue U. My neighborhood, Midwood, has become less of a white/Jewish neighborhood and has evolved into a more diverse area. Avenue U has come to be the home of many more Southeast Asian people than prior, but what I find to be very interesting is that there are several blocks between Ocean Avenue and Ocean Parkway, along Avenue U, that just refuse to change. These blocks are mainly white mini-neighborhoods that will surely contribute even more to the melting pot that defines New York City.

Collecting and analyzing demographic data from a city of 9 million residents is a formidable task.  But, as Joe Salvo has shown,  it also offers valuable insight into the people that make up America’s largest sprawling metropolis.

Brooklyn alone,  as Salvo pointed out, would have the third highest population of any city in the country.  Sections of Queens are considered to be some of the most ethnically diverse areas in the world. Manhattan’s population is believed to as much as double during the daytime, when workers from the surrounding boroughs and states commute in by car, bus, and train. In the Bronx, Spanish may not be the official language, but its use rivals or supersedes that of English in many neighborhoods.  The city as a whole is experiencing a rapid influx of Asians, yet Staten Island is growing increasingly hispanic, black, and Eastern European.

All of these insights have become available thanks to censuses that though not perfect, do a remarkable job in forming a clear picture of the people who inhabit our five boroughs.  Of course, this system of obtaining demographic information has  intrinsic flaws;  neighborhoods are divided along non-traditional boundaries, participants struggle to identify with generic race categories, and those who choose not to participate often go undocumented.  But with the knowledge of the information we do have, we can more adequately serve the political, economic, and cultural needs of our city’s residence.

-Victor Rerick

Joe Salvo’s talk was very interesting and enlightening. I had never really thought much about the changing demographics, because after all, what did it have to do with me? But then I realized that it was happening right in my neighborhood. It used to be heavily dominated by Caucasians, but now I see more and more Asians. There is also a ‘chinatown’ where I live, in Brooklyn. It’s a couple of avenues away from where I live, but nevertheless I slowly see more Asian residents around the area out of Brooklyn’s own chinatown. I thought it was also interesting that Salvo kept saying that the ‘younger’ generation was moving out of places like Chinatown in Manhattan. It makes sense, since after all, they might have the means and ability to and aren’t confined to one area like the older generation who might not be able to speak English as well as the younger generation.

Joe Salvo’s talk was interesting in that it highlighted how dynamic the demographics are in New York City. I did not expect such dramatic changes regarding where certain people live. One aspect of his talk that I found surprising at first was the outward migration of Asians from Chinatown. This was shocking initially, but when I reconsidered the idea; it made sense. The general sentiment of the younger Asian generation born in New York, I believe, is that Chinatown is for the older generation. Therefore they resist staying there when they have the ability to move away.

Another point that I found interesting was how the increase of Asians in certain neighborhoods corresponded to an increase in Hispanics and Latinos in the same neighborhood as well. In the maps of Staten Island and Brooklyn, the two groups show a migration into nearly the same shaded area. This was interesting because Asians generally do not associate themselves with Hispanics and Latinos. However their movement shows a similarity between them and offers an insight as to how they are positioned in a predominantly white city. Are Asians and Hispanics still stigmatized as inferior groups based on their migration patterns?

-Wendy Li

1. I found it very interesting when Mr. Salvo was talking about immigration to the Bronx. I wet to high school in the Bronx and the immigration population is clearly heavily latino and african american, however there are areas such as Riverdale that are mainly populated by white, Jewish people. These neighborhoods such as Riverdale, however, are very much isolated from the rest of the Bronx. I am very curious to see how the population in the Bronx will grow in the next 10 ten years and if it will become more assimilated.

2. One problem, or rather question, that I had with Mr. Joe Salvo’s talk was that although he explained the patterns  of migration in New York, he really didn’t give a good explanation of why certain groups migrated to the areas when they did.

Emma Park-Hazel

1. I found it interesting that people are constantly immigrating to the city as well as leaving the city, therefore changing the demographics of New York City. However, does the changing demographics result simply from this, or are issues such as the gentrification of the Upper East Side included? Wouldn’t this mean that as non-hispanics move in, hispanics must move out? Where are they going if they aren’t necessarily leaving the city?

2. The idea that there is no average New Yorker. New York is diverse enough that it is difficult to pin point who makes up the majority. The contrast between NYC and my suburban home town only 30 minutes north of Manhattan is incredibly drastic, where in my home town I’d calculate that a solid 80% of my school was Italian or Irish.

Questions:

– Why might people want to move out of New York City?

– If New York City is so diverse but accepting, why are there segregated neighborhoods? (Isn’t that negative?)

– What are white people? Just Europeans or non-hispanics? Is it better to further diversify or to unify?

– And how about black people? Are black people just African-Americans or also West Indians?

– Is the growing population of New York city causing it to expand horizontally or vertically?

Interesting points:

– New York City ethnic groups are very balanced, there isn’t a dominant group, which I believe it is truly amazing.

Sara Camnasio