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I don't think Buffalo will make it back to its 1950 population anytime in the next 50 years. I'm interested to see what this century brings, in terms of lifestyle trends. I've read a number of articles that says that more and more people are moving into cities. So, I'm not going to say it will never get back to that population, I just don't see it ANYTIME soon...given that it's still bleeding population within the city limits.
Milwaukee has been slowly adding to its population over the last decade, but I don't think we'll ever get back to our 1960's peak population. In the coming years, we'll be implementing high speed rail to Madison and Chicago, commuter rail to Racine and Kenosha, and a downtown streetcar loop. 2 Spanish companies have moved to the Menominee River Valley in the last year and will provide a few thousand new "green collar" manufacturing jobs. We'll be making high speed trains for Talgo and wind turbines for Ingeteam. These are all things that I believe will help make the Milwaukee area more attractive to more people. Oh, and we're gonna be featured in Transformers 3 next summer too!
In terms of number of households, Chicago is at an all-time high. It's just that many more of them are single person households than in the past.
This is something that I have wondered, if you go by number of households the dropoff isn't as severe. To get to previous highs in cities you might need nearly double the number of households that existed at its peak population. A better indicator is when the number of households in a city equal what it was during the peak, in many places it might not be far off even if there was significant population loss in the past.
Aside from NYC (and maybe Indianapolis and Columbus) has any major city in the Northeast or Midwest gained population since 1950?
Basically when you consider the fact that many cities in those regions didn't or can't annex adjacent communities like cities in the South and West have, with some exceptions, of course.
Aside from NYC (and maybe Indianapolis and Columbus) has any major city in the Northeast or Midwest gained population since 1950?
The major cities of the plains states have mostly gained population, but they're quite a bit smaller than the major cities of the northeast and the rest of the midwest.
Cleveland: 1950 - 915,000 in 55 sq miles
2010 - 434,000 in 78 sq miles
I've heard that in the current city limits, in 1950 Cleveland would have had 1.2 million people, so that's nearly 2/3 of the population gone, even more than Detroit and St. Louis.
Another is Youngstown, OH (I don't know how much the land area has changed since then)
1950 - 168,000
2010 - 73,000
About 16,000 people per square mile.. I wonder why no one believes me when I say density wise (structural) Cleveland feels far more urban than most US cities.
I don't think Buffalo will make it back to its 1950 population anytime in the next 50 years. I'm interested to see what this century brings, in terms of lifestyle trends. I've read a number of articles that says that more and more people are moving into cities. So, I'm not going to say it will never get back to that population, I just don't see it ANYTIME soon...given that it's still bleeding population within the city limits.
None of these cities are likely to get back to the peak populations. As others have pointed out, family sizes are much smaller. Boston was 850,000 in 1950, today it is 645,000, but with more households. For Boston to return to 1950 levels will require a significant increase in high rise housing construction, something that is generally fought by Nimby's. But the thing is, there is no land left to build additional medium density residences. I'm curious to know the changes in MSA or CSA. Can't speak for Buffalo, but the Boston metro population is at an all time high, there is just a larger percentage in the suburbs.
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