Professor Prabal De, CCNY 2014
Census Data
Increasing Immigration
010 years
by Shawn Mathew
in Census Data
Unfortunately I was unable to make it to Joe Salvo’s talk about New York City’s population. Based on what I saw on the slides, his speech was very informative and comprehensive. I really like the number of visuals that he used in his presentation. I was really surprised by some of the information that he presented to us. I knew that New York City as a whole was always growing, but I never knew by how much. Salvo’s first chart, which clearly labeled the largest cities in the US, showed that New York City’s boroughs alone were bigger many of America’s biggest cities. It was also very interesting to see where all the people in New York City came from compared to the rest of the country. It seemed as though New York City was its own entity. I always knew things like this were occurring within New York City but seeing the numbers really put things into perspective for me.
NYC: The City of Immigrants
010 years
by Shariq Mohammad
in Census Data
Having lived in New York City for most of my life, I didn’t expect to learn much from Mr. Salvo; surprisingly, he presented an overwhelming number of facts and figures, a lot of which I didn’t actually know. For example, though I knew that New York and Los Angeles were the two biggest cities in the country, I hadn’t realized that NYC outnumbered LA by five million people. In fact, the city is so populous that each borough can really be considered its own city. On top of that, New York was said to be continuing to grow, with an influx of more than 300,000 people over the past decade–that’s more than any other top ten cities.
It’s also interesting to note that the number of immigrants coming from other countries has dropped over the past decade–or at least, more and more people are categorizing themselves as Americans. From 1995-2000, half of all New Yorkers were from the country and the other half from outside the country. From 2007-2011, two-thirds now identify as American. This drop in immigration rate may be due to a multitude of factors, but I think the best reason would probably be due to the recession, which really hurt the U.S.’s image as the golden land of economic prosperity. Immigration peaked in the 90s, and this was probably due to the post-Cold War situation that occurred with the collapse of the USSR, leaving the US as the sole superpower of the time. This attracted a lot of immigrants, especially Russians and the like.
Now, with the “bad economy” here, I wouldn’t be surprised that there is an influx into other lucrative countries that are coming up fast (like Brasil, Russia, India, and China). However, the names ‘United States’ and ‘New York’ will always attract immigrants. It’s kind of hard to imagine how New York will be like in 2040. The data claims that there will be around 9 million people at that point, which means that the city will be even more congested than it already is. However it may be, I don’t doubt that immigrants will still constitute an important part of the population.
Economic Disparity Stops Here
110 years
Since many of us are first generation children born in the United States from foreign born parents, we’d heard countless stories about how they initially believed that New York is the city of equal opportunities for prosperity and happiness. As much as we’d like to believe that this is the truth for many immigrant families, it isn’t. One glance at the census data and Salvo’s presentation, the economic disparity between different neighborhoods in the same city is undeniable. There’s also a massive correlation between the areas in which different ethnic immigrants congregate and the poorest neighborhoods, with minimal increase in economic prosperity within the past few decades. Many immigrants who came prefer to stay in neighborhoods with similar ethnicities and they can’t really afford housing anywhere more affordable. Thus, it feels like many of these neighborhoods are stuck in a vicious cycle in which poverty perpetuates itself.
I agree with Allen’s post below, about how that notion of New York City as a melting pot is incorrect. It’s not a nice, homogenous mixture, but clumps scattered all around. For example, check out this fascinating interactive link from the New Yorker, which shows the median household income in the city based on each subway stop. http://www.newyorker.com/sandbox/business/subway.html
It’s just baffling to see how on the 1 line, how annual median income can range from over $200,000 near Chambers Street to about $25,000 near City College. That’s almost 8 times difference between two locations in Manhattan that aren’t even THAT far apart (only roughly half an hour on train). How could a city that’s so well known for being the land of opportunities have this much economic disparity?
I agree with Alina, I’m also a bit skeptical on the census data since there are many undocumented cases. Although it is the closest we have to accurate representation, I hear many stories from my parents about immigrants who don’t really report their information or documentation, as in they might work and get paid in just a few dollars a day. The data could be affected in this way, and the situation could be better or worse than it seems.
However, I’m curious to see how the census can change in 10-20 years, when the children of many foreign born New Yorkers are grown and get their college degrees, as we are right now. Possibly we’d be able to bring the prosperity to our ethnic neighborhoods and realize the vision we had about New York, that even though it might not seem like the land of opportunities at first, eventually all the hard work and dedication the foreign born New Yorkers will pay off.
Diversity is impressive
010 years
by Linette Prasad
in Census Data
What strikes me the most about Joe Salvo’s presentation is the fact that the foreign-born are a significant portion of the population. I always knew that many immigrants came to New York in search of a better life than in their previous countries. But I never realized that many of the immigrants actually stayed in New York City. My parents came to New York in the 80’s. However, they moved to Westchester since their family lived there. That’s the story of all my aunts and uncles as well. I never really spent time in the city until I came here for college, so I was pretty oblivious to the fact that many foreigners reside in New York City.
New York City is considered to be the “melting pot” of New York and the country for that matter. Salvo’s presentation shows that the percentage of foreign born in the five boroughs range from 20 to nearly 50 percent of the total population in each borough. Many of you might think it’s not a big deal, but for someone who grew up out of the city in a town where the foreign- born is a miniscule portion of the population, it’s pretty impressive.
A great defining characteristic of New York City is the diversity of the population. Well, everyone knows that. Maybe that’s why many people immigrate here versus other potential cities. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of the greatest city in the world?
Size Matters
110 years
What I found most interesting about Mr. Salvo’s presentation was the sheer number of people that reside in New York City. Although I was aware that New York City is the most populous city in the US, seeing its population relative to other large cities was quite striking. New York City is more than double the size of Los Angeles, and four of the five boroughs would have ranked in the list of most populous cities in the US, had they been considered cities.
This data helps explain some governance issues that arise in this giant city. The population here is so large and so diverse that making citywide decisions on government spending and services is very difficult. Thus the borough presidents and the city councilmembers must be very much aware of how their constituents’ needs play into the agenda of the entire city.
As a fun aside, the population size also explains “borough loyalty.” New Yorkers tend to identify by their borough, not their city (As in, “I’m from Brooklyn,” rather than “I’m from NYC.”). Considering the boroughs size and diversity, such identification makes perfect sense.
New York, Happiness and A Better Life
010 years
The pursuit of opportunities (you thought I was about to say happiness ha), a better style and higher standard of living and yes, the pursuit of a happiness (Yes, I said it) has been the driving force of migration of people throughout the world for a long time. I would draw it back to previous millennia; however, that would most assuredly be extremely boring and frankly irrelevant. Why look at stuff that happened centuries before when Dr. Salvo has spent most of his life studying population trends and has kindly shared with us specific data on such migration events going on in our own back-yard? Whew, that was a run-on.
While I won’t draw a line back to the history of this phenomenon, I will draw a line directly to a major source of this phenomenon – please do note that this is not the only major source, it is simply one among others. It’s called capitalism and it’s what creates this high concentration of jobs, resources and other various opportunities in New York City. It’s this really awesome/ not-so-awesome system where a lot of people can be sufficiently satisfied with minimum dissatisfaction and up till now, it’s definitely working. At least compared to other systems of fascism, communism and other economic/ governing systems, it’s doing awesome. New York is a prime example of a geographical region that showcases exactly how people can thrive under this system and therefore it has become a satellite of the system drawing more and more opportunities (jobs) and resources towards it. And in hot pursuit comes everyone else. Whether from Alabama or Australia, as stated prior, people just want a better life and therefore it is no surprise that Dr. Salvo has predicted a change of 9.5% added to the current existing and growing population by 2040. It is no surprise that most people not proficient in English are in economically deprived areas of the boroughs while 60% or higher people with a bachelor’s degree to their name can be found in highly gentrified and thriving areas of the boroughs (Slide 28, 29 and 31 respectively).
Also New York is kinda awesome compared to other places in the world. Take it from an immigrant.
Can You See it Coming?
010 years
by Saif Choudhury
in Census Data
What strikes me the most about Mr. Salvo’s presentation was the fact that so many variables are predictable, and unpredictable, at the same time. Starting off with predictability, it’s obvious that certain areas would accumulate a certain group of people over time. For example, Bensonhurst in Brooklyn has a high density of Asian immigrants. It’s an obvious factor that new Asian immigrants that arrive will want to be closer with their friends and family in Bensonhurst instead of strangers in East Elmhurst, and thus they would live in Brooklyn.
At the same time, something that people couldn’t see coming was the drastic population shifts within the last four years. According to Mr. Salvo, New York City was able to intake as many, if not more, people in this decade (which hasn’t even reached it’s half mark of 2015 yet) as the previous few decades. Although many people could have predicted that the population would grow in the future, they probably did not expect such a drastic change, as it poses new problems and new opportunities for the city.
Finally, the most interesting part about de Salvo’s presentation was the impact of NYC Subway lines on the population. Who knew that the route of the 7 line would be so pivotal in the population densities of the area. Even though it is common sense that people would want to live close to the train, it is quite unpredictable that transit would have such an influence on how many people live in a certain area.
I census losing culture in NYC
010 years
by Allen Kim
in Census Data
One of the most striking facts from Mr. Salvo’s talk is the high rate of migration to New York City, not from other countries, but from within the nation. As a resident of the Bronx my whole life, it never occurred to me what kind of appeal the city might have for people from other states. I realize now that the abundance of creative, technological, and financial industries present in NYC must attract all sorts of educated college graduates from across the country and even abroad. The main problem I see with this is the resulting economic imbalance in certain communities. As more and more people congregate in poorer neighborhoods, the value of property there will most likely rise, forcefully displacing the existing community as they are unable to keep up with the rising costs.
My biggest concern about this is due to the “melting pot” nature of NYC. Personally, I never liked the melting pot metaphor too much as a melting pot implies a cohesive, homogenous mixture of many ingredients when in reality, it was closer to a chopped salad. The city, as a whole, was a varied community, but the ethnic groups weren’t spread around evenly throughout; rather, it was more in chunks like neighborhoods and communities. Due to this nature, I believe that there is a much larger potential for loss in culture and heritage if any of one of these communities were to be lost.
Richer yet Poorer
110 years
by yejoonseo
in Census Data
There is a recent problem that has been bothering me for a while. I continue to hear about the gentrification of New York City, but I never understood how it began. However, Joe Salvo’s data has brought some light into the sudden changes to the cultural melting pot of New York City. NYC has always been known as a city where immigrants thrived. With the Statue of Liberty as our symbol, the continual richness of culture has remained. Yet, in the past few years, Harlem, Bed-Stuy, and Chinatown have all suffered from cultural gentrification. Looking at Salvo’s data, over the past few years, more people from within, instead of outside of America have immigrated to New York City. This struck me as an important point that could be the reason for the cultural deconstruction. With the recent decline in support for foreign immigration less immigrants reside in NYC. The economic issues also pushes for a nation to support its own people, particularly wealthy ones. This explains the increased amount of inner immigration to NYC. But, by choosing to maintain the economic stature of NYC, the cultural ideas of the slums have disappeared. The cultural identities of those foreign immigrants have now been eradicated, erasing a part of NYC’s diversity and uniqueness.
Census-ible Inquiry
110 years
by alinashen
in Census Data
The Census always makes makes me think of all the undocumented responses that may affect the study. I have heard of workshops in which community organizations arrange for citizens to fill a census form, but in isolated areas, there surely are not enough of these organizers. A statistic that reflects the undocumented demographic is in the bar graph, dating from 1970-2011. The majority of the foreign-born population in 1970 are European while in 2011, the Latin America and Asian American foreign-born population has significantly increased in New York. After the mid 1960s, an act actually opened up immigration from the Asian continent, bringing in an influx of Asian migrants. However, Asian immigrants around this time did not believe in the efficiency or utility of state or federal government and would possibly not want to volunteer personal information. This discrepancy may point to the activity of community organizations and their objectives over time. Community organizations would remind citizens that the greater representation of a demographic, the more likely politicians and policies will try to benefit them.
Other statistics made me think of geographic stratification. Although foreign-born Mexican Americans were 28.2 percent of the population, where would they be geographically? And what would this say about their general visibility?
