New York City Vs. the Census Bureau

The 120-year howl of frantic disappointment

Today in 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau delivered “New York’s 2010 Census population totals, including first look at race and hispanic origin data for legislative redistricting.”

In response to the census data showing that New York has about 200,000 less people than originally thought, Senator Chuck Schumer said, “The Census Bureau has never known how to count urban populations and needs to go back to the drawing board. It strains credulity to believe that New York City has grown by only 167,000 people over the last decade.” Mayor Bloomberg called the numbers “totally incongruous,” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said “I know they made a big big mistake.”

In 1891, the Electrical Engineer reported:

The statement by Mr. Porter [the head of the Census Bureau, announcing the initial count of the 1890 census] that the population of this great republic was only 62,622,250 sent into spasms of indignation a great many people who had made up their minds that the dignity of the republic could only be supported on a total of 75,000,000. Hence there was a howl, not of “deep-mouthed welcome,” but of frantic disappointment. 

And then the publication of the figures for New York! Rachel weeping for her lost children and refusing to be comforted was a mere puppet-show compared with some of our New York politicians over the strayed and stolen Manhattan Island citizens.