Census

Drop in African American population blamed on racism

JohnAKeith — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:02:55 +0000

State Representative Byron Rushing says he believes that "lingering racism" in Boston is to blame for the loss of Black/African American residents in the city between 2000 and 2010.

Rushing, who represents the 9th Suffolk District, which includes parts of the South End, Roxbury, and Back Bay neighborhoods of Boston as well as part of the city of Cambridge, expressed his opinion in an article appearing in this week's Boston Courant (not available online).

The 2010 US Census shows a drop of 1.6% in Black/African American population in Boston (140,305 to 138,073).

However, [the] city of Boston shows a loss of white people, too, by .4%, from 291,561 to 290,312.

Meanwhile, the Asian population increased 23.86%, to almost 55,000 residents while the Hispanic population increased 26.8%, from 85,089 to 107,917.

Almost all Northern cities lost Black/African American residents during the past decade, according to the New York Times.

So, what really happened?

A census map of your very own

adamg — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:12:10 +0000

E-mail the Boston Redevelopment Authority with a list of streets bordering a particular part of Boston and they promise to write back with detailed census data for that area.

Wouldn't it be funny if everybody in Boston made a request? No? In any case, the BRA seems to have made the offer because we here at the Universal Hub mini-mapparium are not the only ones who can't agree on where neighborhood lines are and maybe, just maybe, BRA staffers are already being inundated with census-related inquiries and just want to get it over with already.

Boston's population increase masks declines in swaths of the city

adamg — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:05:25 +0000

Although the 2010 federal census shows Boston went above 600,000 residents for the first time since 1970, neighborhood-level maps show large parts of Dorchester, Mattapan and Roslindale lost population over the past 10 years. See for yourself on this interactive New York Times map.

One example: