Shrinking City

The Census Bureau just released a study that shows over 200,000 residents left the NYC area between 2000 and 2004. [You can read the PDF here.] The NYC metro area is represented by NYC, Northern NJ and Long Island; Los Angeles lost about 110,000 people and Chicago had a drop of over 60,000. People are heading south (Florida) and west (Nevada, Arizona...Idaho?), though there are increases in Maine and NH as well. Hmm, will this lead to more US Census versus the city's City Planning office fights over the numbers, as big numbers for NYC may mean more federal dollars (not that our mayor wants all the federal money...). So, as we think about a smaller Big Apple, Gothamist likes to think about Legoland's Miniland NYC. waltermonkey on Flickr has an amazing set of Legoland photographs, with a focus on the MiniNYC, where there is a Freedom Tower, Bronx block party, and Bethesda Fountain recreated in teeny tiny blocks.

Random factoids: Kings and Queens Counties were the second and third highest counties for outmigration (Los Angeles county was number one).

Photograph of Times Square in Legoland's Miniland USA from waltermonkey on Flickr

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By Jen Chung in News on April 20, 2006 4:46 PM

Comments [rss]

jack oneil

"True, but the quality of life is still terrible compared to other areas. My friends and relatives who live in other parts of the country, in major metropolitan areas, pay half the rent I do and have amenities that I don't have - like dishwashers, washers and dryers on the premises, on-site parking, and landlords who actually fix things."

Bet those are in Red States and not in super-liberal areas like NYC. Rent control, NYC and NYS taxes keep a lot of people out of the area or force them to move (just to keep their sanity).

westchesterist

The NY/Northern NJ/Long Island MSA includes: NYC, Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island; Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland north of the city; 12 counties in Northern NJ, and Pike County, PA. It's not just NYC, LI, and a couple of the Northern NJ counties that people usually think about (Bergen, Hudson, Essex).

http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro_general/List1.txt has all the gory details for MSAs nationwide.

nyer

"You can find reasonable places outside of Manhattan. People aren't very resourceful these days."

True, but the quality of life is still terrible compared to other areas. My friends and relatives who live in other parts of the country, in major metropolitan areas, pay half the rent I do and have amenities that I don't have - like dishwashers, washers and dryers on the premises, on-site parking, and landlords who actually fix things.

liz

well, as long as the number of millionaires grows, who cares, right? pretty soon they'll be the only ones who can afford to live here.

john

People with degrees are leaving in droves but many are replaced by illegal aliens. This must be good for the economy.

kenneth

given births and people coming from other countries, new york has grown. Also, I suspect the fact that new york get's a lot of college students goes unnoticed by the census. this is just a slight uptick, and not a terrible impressive one, given 9/11, people made out with housing market, the internet, and baby boomers starting to retire.

Anycase this is old news, if you've noticed this:

http://www.fec.gov/pages/elecvote.htm

Angry Asian

You can find reasonable places outside of Manhattan. People aren't very resourceful these days.

Teddy

True Frank, but the end of the article says:

"Among the 25 largest metropolitan areas, 18 had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago lost the most residents to domestic moves."

so the city is shrinking. I know a couple of people who wanted to move here, but when they discovered how much it would cost them to rent here, they changed their minds. BTW, they both have great jobs and could get transferred here.

Jennifer

Numerically, Kings and Queens counties ranked second and third for outmigration but in terms of percentage of population, they just barely made it onto the top 25 list.