New York Only Non-Sun Belt City Amid Nation's Fastest-Growing
New York was the only city outside of the southern United States to make the Census Bureau's annual estimate of the nation's top 10 fastest-growing cities. New York ranked sixth amid a top 10 speckled with familiar Sun Belt names like Phoenix, Atlanta and (somewhat surprisingly) New Orleans.
New York also continued to be the nation's most populous city, gaining an estimated 23,960 people between July 1, 2006 and July 1, 2007, bringing the city's population to 8,274,527 million--more than twice the population of the next biggest city, Los Angeles, and roughly three times the population of Chicago, the nation's third-largest. From 2000 to 2007, New York added about 265,000 residents, more than any other U.S. city.
A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with demographer Andrew Beveridge of Queens College, an expert on New York population trends. We talked about what population growth means for the city and its government.
More on the census estimates, out Wednesday, here.
35 West 23rd Street
FLATIRON/CHELSEA CONDO LOFT. Live/Work Condo. No detail has been spared. ... More details |
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This is probably why I still can't find an apartment to buy that I can afford - and so I'll just stay in my rent-stabilized walkup that's too cramped, and buy my first home outside of New York as a weekend escape.
We make a solid middle class income - north of 75K and south of 100K - and live in Hell's Kitchen. We'd like to buy something, but don't want to commute for more than 30 minutes to the Worldwide Plaza area where we work. And following the traditional multiply-your-income-by-2.5-or-3 - we can't find a decent 1 BR apartment that we can afford.
And despite all the complaining about new ugly condo buildings, there really hasn't been enough construction to keep pace with the population growth. New York has gained nearly one million people since 1990. That's the population of Denver and Boston combined. And we certainly haven't built enough new housing units to house this population. Gentrification has helped fill this housing void, as has development, densifying formerly deserted corners of the city. (Thinking of Harlem in particular, there's still a lot of abandoned housing stock up there and vacant lots, but nowhere near to what used to be). Still, this city is busting at the seams, and the only way to build is up.