Visting Chicago after 23 years

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Looking at the latest ACS numbers, Hispanics, Asians and whites are all growing since 2010. It looks like the City is still losing African Americans though.

Looking at it by income groups reveals a bit more about who exactly is leaving. Families (not just all households), the big differences between the 2013 3 yr ACS and the 2010 3 yr ACS:

Lower, Middle Upper Income groups by race/ethnicity

Black: -6300, -6100, -2100
White: -1300, -8400, +5400
Hispanic: +3200, -800, +1500
Asian: +500, -500, +800

Those are family units (not all households), so multiply by three for pop counts. Middle income families, across the board, represent the single biggest pop loss in the city. Single professionals make up for a lot of the family pop losses, particularly among whites.

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I just read an article that about 40% of the former CHA residents that had to move out due to the Plan for Transformation are unaccounted for. CHA has no idea where they are. They didn't take vouchers and don't live in the replacement housing.

This isn't too surprising. The poorest of the poor tend to move a lot, get booted from units for reasons outside of their control (like Sec 8 inspectors removing vouchers for sanitary issues), etc. If they aren't taking Section 8 (otherwise the could be tracked) and they aren't in other CHA housing (ditto), then they're probably in the city living among relatives/acquaintances moving pretty frequently. The poorest of the poor lack job mobility and resources to go too far.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I can with absolute iron clad certainty that there is NO WAY that there are any residents that simply have not filled forms that can account for the massive depopulation of Chicago's less desirable areas. Quite the opposite, there are HUGE political dynasties the heavily demand on the inflation of population numbers to support their ability to hold onto office. It has been poorly reported in Chicago that there are enormous irregularities in who the Census Bureau as accounted for residents in many parts of the the city -- Chicago Census Bureau shrouded by mystery | New York Post

There were countless examples of entire sections of neighborhoods where it was determined the census workers just ignored and didn't go. Many west and south side neighborhoods had some of the very lowest mail-in return rates for the census of any tracts in the entire country. Large undercounts.

I think it is interesting though that 115,000 of the 200,000 decline came specifically from African Americans ages 19 and below, but the adult population of black people generally stayed the same or increased. I would think if it was families moving away than the 30-50 year old population would drop as well.

A count on occupied housing units found a 1% drop between 2000 to 2010 while the population dropped 7%. That would point to a fairly large decline in household size, which I guess would tell you where the 115,000 black kids went.

Anyway.....either way you dice it the city had a much larger undercount than any sort of overcount. Primarily due to the fact the mail in return rate for the city was one of the worst in the country. I am always big on returning the census, and was very annoyed back in 2010 when I was talking to my friends and over half of them didn't return the census and either did not answer the door for a census worker or more often just never had one knock when they were home.

Stupid excuses "my car is registered at my parents in the suburbs and I don't want to get a ticket" or "if they know you're there they'll just start sending you stuff in the mail because you're registered". Ugh.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I can with absolute iron clad certainty that there is NO WAY that there are any residents that simply have not filled forms that can account for the massive depopulation of Chicago's less desirable areas. Quite the opposite, there are HUGE political dynasties the heavily demand on the inflation of population numbers to support their ability to hold onto office. It has been poorly reported in Chicago that there are enormous irregularities in who the Census Bureau as accounted for residents in many parts of the the city -- Chicago Census Bureau shrouded by mystery | New York Post

I don't really consider the New York Post to be authoritative on anything.

[UC18]

Originally Posted by emathias

I don't really consider the New York Post to be authoritative on anything.

Nor should you. They're like the National Enquirer meets Fox News.