Buffalo is GROWING!

[micropolitan guy]

Lots of WNYers and WNY diaspora here (and nearby Ontarians) here. Latest census data shows the city of Buffalo actually increased in population from 2010 to 2020 by nearly 17,000 people, ending a 70-year decline.

Talkin' proud, baby. The Rustbelt is coming back!

Census data shows Buffalo growing for first time in 70 years

 

[dixiehack]

Adjust your Sporcle quizzes accordingly.

Huntsville rockets past Birmingham in Census, now Alabama’s largest city

 

[garrow]

Lots of WNYers and WNY diaspora here (and nearby Ontarians) here. Latest census data shows the city of Buffalo actually increased in population from 2010 to 2020 by nearly 17,000 people, ending a 70-year decline.

Talkin' proud, baby. The Rustbelt is coming back!

Census data shows Buffalo growing for first time in 70 years

Approves:

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

 

[User 149557]

 

[Neutral Corner]

Adjust your Sporcle quizzes accordingly.

Huntsville rockets past Birmingham in Census, now Alabama’s largest city

Yeah, except that Hoover, the white flight suburb five minutes over the mountain from Birmingham is now the sixth largest city in the state. Birmingham city limits is maybe 200k, Hoover 95k or so.

This also excludes the fifteen or so smaller municipalities that border and surround the city, where much of the population works in B'ham and then drives back to their bedroom community.

A significant number of white people fled Birmingham when it elected a Black mayor in 1978, taking half or better of the city's tax base with them. They moved to these smaller communities who had their own government, police force, and school districts - and far fewer Black people, then they complained that the city was going to hell.

The population of the city of Birmingham is around 200k, but Birmingham metro is 1.1 million.

Full disclosure, I live in one of these, although the B'ham city limits are five or six blocks from me.

 

[Songbird]

A significant number of white people fled Birmingham when it elected a Black mayor in 1978, taking half or better of the city's tax base with them. They moved to these smaller communities who had their own government, police force, and school districts - and far fewer Black people, then they complained that the city was going to hell.

You spelled Trenton wrong.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Almost every city and town in eastern Massachusetts grew in population with the largest increase of permanent residents being Nantucket! Even here on the Cape with all our olds, population increased in every town but one. More minorities, too, albeit from a very tiny base.

 

[Liut]

Approves:

Awesome pull, Garrow. President McKinley, on the other hand ...........

 

[Liut]

You spelled Trenton wrong.

LOL!

 

[MileHigh]

A nearly 20 percent gain here.

Denver's population grew by more than 115,000 residents in the last decade

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Detroit is at 639,111, a loss of about 75,000
When I was a kid, Detroit was the nation’s fifth largest city at 1,670,000

 

[maumann]

Detroit is at 639,111, a loss of about 75,000
When I was a kid, Detroit was the nation’s fifth largest city at 1,670,000

The incredible shrinking city.

That's only 4,849 people per square mile, according to governing.com. Or half the density of Seattle, a third that of Boston and four times less than San Francisco.

Population Density for U.S. Cities Statistics

There haven't been fewer residents of Detroit since before the 1920 census. In 1910, Detroit had 465,766 residents, 98 of which identified as white. According to the 2010 census, only 10 percent of the population identified as white -- and more Blacks left the city than any other racial group.

 

[poindexter]

Is that title a Simpsons reference? Damn, nice deep dive pull!

 

[micropolitan guy]

No, actually I was thinking more about the early '80s movie "The Incredible Shrinking Woman," which is probably where the writers for the Simpsons got the parody idea.

Maumann, you know I'm kind of a Detroit junkie, read whatever I can find about the city, etc. I get on Google Earth a lot to check out various neighborhoods, etc. ... it's amazing how some full city blocks have only 3-4 houses left on them. Three or four blocks along a very busy street on the west side of UDM, which is actually in a pretty stable neighborhood, are almost completely empty.

If one were young, ambitious and not afraid to take a chance, you could buy 3-4 housing lots, build on one and then have an estate in the middle of the city. Not sure what rules the city has about buying adjoining foreclosed or abandoned lots (some don't allow it), but you could have one heck of a yard and a 2-3 acre lot in the middle of a city.

 

[poindexter]

Maumann, you know I'm kind of a Detroit junkie, read whatever I can find about the city, etc. I get on Google Earth a lot to check out various neighborhoods, etc. ... it's amazing how some full city blocks have only 3-4 houses left on them. Three or four blocks along a very busy street on the west side of UDM, which is actually in a pretty stable neighborhood, are almost completely empty.

If one were young, ambitious and not afraid to take a chance, you could buy 3-4 housing lots, build on one and then have an estate in the middle of the city. Not sure what rules the city has about buying adjoining foreclosed or abandoned lots (some don't allow it), but you could have one heck of a yard and a 2-3 acre lot in the middle of a city.

There was a thread years/decades ago here about urban prairies, and Detroit was featured.

 

[poindexter]

The deterioration of Detroit

 

[Batman]

You spelled Trenton wrong.

Trenton is a weird place. One of its suburbs is slightly larger than Trenton proper (Hamilton Township), has its own government and police force, but basically doesn't exist. Nobody claims to be from Hamilton Township, if you send mail there it'll probably go to another Hamilton Township down near the Shore, and a fair chunk of it is essentially an extension of Trenton itself. Some of its other suburbs, Ewing and Lawrence, I think are the same way.
I guess there are other cities with a similar dynamic, but I can't think of one where the suburb has outgrown the original city like that.

 

[dixiehack]

I guess there are other cities with a similar dynamic, but I can't think of one where the suburb has outgrown the original city like that.

Virginia Beach and now Chesapeake are both larger than Norfolk.

 

[maumann]

Maumann, you know I'm kind of a Detroit junkie, read whatever I can find about the city, etc. I get on Google Earth a lot to check out various neighborhoods, etc. ... it's amazing how some full city blocks have only 3-4 houses left on them. Three or four blocks along a very busy street on the west side of UDM, which is actually in a pretty stable neighborhood, are almost completely empty.

If one were young, ambitious and not afraid to take a chance, you could buy 3-4 housing lots, build on one and then have an estate in the middle of the city. Not sure what rules the city has about buying adjoining foreclosed or abandoned lots (some don't allow it), but you could have one heck of a yard and a 2-3 acre lot in the middle of a city.

There are longtime Detroiters on here that could explain this better than me. They've probably driven some of these areas and know why nobody's willing to try to rebuild -- either because there's no profit, no interest or not safe. If you've got the choice between Bloomfield Hills or 12 blocks west of Belle Isle, I'm guessing better safe than ...

But at some point, somebody's got to figure out how to infill in a way that creates new ownership opportunities with bigger lots and contemporary homes. I understand that's probably a pipe dream, based on the city's almost complete lack of adequate infrastructure, terrible schools, lack of police and fire protection, high unemployment and low standard of living in the remaining parts of town. Plus, I have no idea whether the lots are held by slumlords, how much the back taxes might be, or what the current regulations might be.

There are entire city blocks on the east side around the old Packard plant -- abandoned since before I was born -- that have been razed and left vacant for decades now. It seems like the areas northeast of downtown and along the river towards Grosse Pointe have experienced at least somewhat of a revival. (Or at least are listed as the "better" neighborhoods in Detroit, according to the Google search I just did.) There's where I would think someone could not only build houses, but perhaps generate interest in supermarkets and local shops to support more growth.

Certainly South Detroit (OK, no such thing despite the Journey song, but Downriver) is still a pretty dangerous place. Hamtramck, too. I didn't think much of Dearborn the last time I was there, and even Redford and Westland aren't what they were.