4 ms·
What a lot of people don't realize is Manhattan in 2018 still has less people living in it then it did in 1950. The massive immigration of young working people
by derekdahmer 8y ago
What a lot of people don't realize is Manhattan in 2018 still has less people living in it then it did in 1950. The massive immigration of young working people in the 1920s led to large scale development high density housing.
Living costs were out of control and people lived 8 to a room in extremely unsafe tenements but the upside is the city's housing and transportation infrastructure was built for a capacity it still has not yet claimed back today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_New_York_City#Manhattan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_New_Yor...
- Bartweiss 8y agoThis is a really interesting point, thank you. I hadn't realized NYC's population as a whole was only up 300,000 since 1950, either. Maybe most interesting, the 2 boroughs that gained population are larger (combined) than the 3 that lost it, and even today Queens and Staten Island have the lowest population density. The metro area has grown massively, but for the city proper it looks like not only has growth been slow, it's been steadily evening out density. I wonder how this has played out elsewhere; are there patterns of outcome (and relative unhappiness cause) for population spikes/declines and for lower, prolonged levels of excess demand?