December 28, 2007
Slow Population Growth Will Cost NY in Congress
A negative byproduct of the disparities between New York and the rest of the country is that after every Census, Congressional seats are reapportioned based on population. Each state will always have two Senators, but New York is likely to lose at least one seat in the House of Representatives.
After the 2000 Census, New York lost two seats to bring our number of Representatives to the current 29. The New York Times points to a Queens College study of population trends that predicts that New York will lose another two seats after the 2010 Census, as Texas could pick up four seats and Florida two seats. There's also a link to the House of Representative's Apportionment page, which shows that New York reached its pinnacle of seats in 1930, when it held 45 out of 435.
Any decrease may wind up costing New York important committee assignments and ultimately federal dollars. Another thing to consider is that each state's number of electoral votes, which determine presidential elections, is linked to the number of members of Congress a state has.
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I knew about this, but it's really too bad that the states who can't keep it in their pants, even in a wartime recession, are rewarded with more political power.
Is NYC still losing population? I heard these predictions for a million more people in nyc by 2020.
Not losing population, just growing more slowly than other states.
The metropolitan areas of AZ, TX, FL & GA have a much lower cost of living. It is not a suprise that they are growing.
One of the biggest population growth areas that has been more of a surprise is the population growth in California's "inland empire" - the massive agricultural san jaoquin valley which spreads basically from the sierra foothills down to bakersfield. Low cost of living, agricultural jobs for immigrants, and better quality of life are a big draw.
nonumental fear
NYC isn't losing people, we're gaining people quite quickly by large numbers. It's the hillbilly redneck Upstate NY population that is losing people. Upstate NY is very blue collar, little to no job growth, and has anti-business laws in place to discourage companies to do business. Upstate NY is very backwards; they still don't require Judges to have law degrees so you will hear about outrageous sentences for petty crimes handed down by a religious christian nut judge. Upstate NY is turning into a christian version of radical muslims having political power. Very scary, stay away.
WW II-era housing laws and insane income and property tax rates aren't doing NYC a favor.
Upstate NY is very scary, Cannedand. But so is Long Island.