If New York City has a falling population, why doesn’t it have room for migrants?

by philg

“NYC lost 5.3% of its population — nearly a half-million people — since COVID, with most heading South” (New York Post, May 18):

The US Census Bureau revealed Thursday that the Big Apple’s population is 5.3% lower than it was when the novel coronavirus first hit the country. Over 468,200 people fled the city between April 2020 and July 2022.

“As Crisis Grows, All of New York’s Migrant Plans Are Met With Outrage” (New York Times, May 18):

First the city tried hotels, then tents, then a cruise ship terminal, then school gyms. As migrants have continued to cross the border, the mayor pleaded on Wednesday for understanding — and ideas.

Now, the daily stream of migrants feeding the crisis has doubled in size in recent weeks, city officials say. As many as 700 migrants are arriving each day in the city — up from less than half that number since the expiration last Thursday of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed immigration officials to expel some border crossers back to Mexico.

With no clear solutions at hand, the city turned to shelter some migrants in public school gyms starting last week. That plan, like many others before it, was almost immediately met with outrage — not only from activists and human rights groups, but also from public school parents and the ranks of everyday New Yorkers.

More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the crisis began. Of those, 41,500 people are currently being cared for by the city, Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said at a news conference on Wednesday. She said 4,300 people had arrived in just the past week.

Migrants are people as far as the U.S. Census Bureau is concerned. Therefore, New York City’s population is dropping dramatically despite the steady arrival of migrants. Why is it a challenge to find housing in a place with a constant number of buildings and a falling number of people?

Times Square was a little crowded on a Friday night earlier this month:

But courtyard near the Whitney was pretty empty considering the fine weather (mid-day Saturday):

10 thoughts on “If New York City has a falling population, why doesn’t it have room for migrants?”

  1. The nearly half million New York city dwellers who managed to escaped the madness were hard working taxpayers who were luck enough to unload their overpriced, highly secured condos or simply abandoned them as sublets; and their neighbors are not willing to “let the common rift raft” into their well guarded hallways — liberalism has it limits, don’t cha know.

  3. The population of the US&A is not growing, mostly declining. And, so is the base of people who pay SS for my pension. Mexico doesn’t need poor migrants with no skills or education, or money. The US&A does, to do the work that most Americans won’t do. NYC has money to care for immigrants. Mexico is overwhelmed with people begging on the streets or committing crimes. According to the news from CDMX (Mexico City), the most foreigners arrested for crimes are Colombians then Venezuelans and others. The Mexican president committed an error welcoming with open arms our brothers and sisters with visas, free food and jobs or asylum. The US&A needs a lot of labor for low paying jobs. Mexico needs programmers (especially JavaScript) for Web sites that work in this culture and environment (L10N). Also, medical specialists, not beggars.

    • The Mexican president said he told Biden not to welcome immigrants. Why?, because he did and flooded Mexico. However, he brought Cuban medical specialists that Mexico really need. Medicine is the best paid profession in Mexico, however, according to the news, an MD makes less than 900 Dls on average a month. They can study medicine for free without a previous bachelor’s degree but their salary is so low that they cannot rent a house where I live (a condo) where the average rent is 700 Dls.

  4. It it’s sad that most immigrants were good to the US&A. Capisce ,guacamole? Did you know that this was unknown 30 years ago? Do you hate it, gringos?

  6. I would just open the border. Let them all come in. I want to see what the Democrats would do then. Really, just let them all in. Enough of this making them jump through hoops and uncertainty. Let them come in safely and without risking their lives to get here. I want to hear what Democrats propose to do when that happens.

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