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Despite Errors, U.S. Census Rejects NYC's Population Challenge
By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 2, 2012
Modified Apr 2, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 2, 2012
Modified Apr 2, 2012
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New York City is not as big as it thinks, officially. Last year, after the 2010 Census results were released, the city challenged the federal government's numbers arguing that the deccennial survey's count of 8.2 million was a good quarter-million short. Tough luck, the Census Bureau essentially said today while smacking down the challenge.
Though the city argued that the Census obviously missed at least 50,000 thousand Brooklyn and Queens residents by incorrectly assuming that homes and apartments in areas like Astoria, Jackson Heights, Bay Ridge and Besonhurst were empty the feds don't think it is a big deal. "While the Census Bureau admits there was a geographic placement error while calculating the numbers, it said the error did not affect the total population" and so won't be doing anything about it.
What this means, basically, is that for the next eight years New York City will be getting a smaller amount of federal funds than it might otherwise have gotten. It is estimated that winning back just 80,000 residents would netted the city roughly $2.4 billion in federal funds over the next 10 years (any changes would not, most likely, have affected Congressional redistricting). City officials, naturally, are taking the news with aplomb, promising that they will work with the U.S. Census Bureau much closer leading up to the 2020 Census to assure this doesn't happen again. A claim we will happily file away for when this happens again next time!
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census
census challenge
population
U.S. Census
Garth Johnston
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