BP MARKOWITZ STATEMENT ON CITY’S FORMAL CHALLENGE TO 2010 CENSUS RESULTS
Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst among communities cited in Mayor’s letter to U.S. Census Bureau

“With the release of the 2010 Census results for New York City, it became immediately clear that Brooklyn was tremendously undercounted, particularly in areas of our borough where there are large immigrant and minority communities, including South and Central Brooklyn. As pointed out in Mayor Bloomberg’s challenge to the U.S. Census Bureau, nowhere is this more apparent than in Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, two of Brooklyn’s most vibrant neighborhoods but with large numbers of vacant housing units according to obviously flawed Census data. It is inconceivable that Brooklyn—the hottest borough in which to live, work and play—grew only a small percentage in the past decade. According to some estimates, Brooklyn has grown by more than 40,000 residents if you just count Williamsburg and DUMBO, and that doesn’t include Downtown Brooklyn and neighborhoods surrounding 4th Avenue. My office was actively involved in reaching out to all of our communities to be sure they were counted leading up to the Census, and we continue to work with the City and community leaders to do everything possible to prevent this from happening again, and to secure a more accurate count so that Brooklyn and New York City receive their fair share of federal aid.”