The Census Bureau has been releasing its updated state-by-state figures on a piecemeal basis. Today it was California’s turn to learn the good/bad news. Articles in The Bay Citizen and Contra Costa Times both present a similar picture of slower growth and significant demographic changes. The big three cities look like this:
- San Jose – pop. 945,942, up 5.7%
- San Francisco – pop. 805,235, up 3.7%
- Oakland – pop. 390,724, down 2.2%
San Jose boosters don’t get to claim the million mark for now. Maybe in 2012. It also became more Asian and less White (you’re welcome?). SF and Oakland both became more White, but the biggest surprise is Oakland’s drop in population, coupled with an exodus of part of the Black population to Contra Costa County (likely related).
What does this all mean besides the cyclical apportionment and redistricting battles? Probably not much, but I’m sure the commenters will figure out a way to make a mountain out of it.
More to come as I read further.
newballpark.org 
This obviously shows that San Jose will be a success because Asians are Japanese and Japanese like Baseball and Godzilla, and the Black People are leaving Oakland so that means no more Rickey Hendersons Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble! Harumph! Harumph! Harumph! Harumph!
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Okay, fine, so maybe there really isn’t anything there…
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On a more serious, non-sarcastic note, how many mole hills are there in the average mountain?
And according to MLB, it makes sense for City #1 to be a “territory” of City #2 and to never have a team of its own while the much, much smaller City #3 to also has its own team. OK. MLB: stuck in ancient times.
@ Zonis – I demand a rosterbation of this new demographic! :X
SJ / SF up, Oakland down…..lets hear how the pro-Oaklanders spin this one….
How in the hell does SJ “only” have 945k? Its easily north of 1 million. Just proves that a lot, and I mean a lot, of folks didn’t partake in the census (probably immigrant/minority pop.).
Let’s review: San Jose is not part of San Francisco’s territory. Both cities are in the Giants’ territory.
Hmm – state census shows SJ over 1 million: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_17566208?source=rss&nclick_check=1
“Oakland is in decline”
Can we abolish this kind of baiting? The figures say enough.
Off Thread but given the current comments…..KCBS just reported that an on-line construction bid company has a 32,000 ballpark in the city of San Jose posted—scheduled to start construction in 2013. Sam Licardo (sp?) says that they have heard nothing official yet from MLB–maybe nothing more than just another rumor….or…..
@Nam Turk – Agreed. ST’s comment has been stricken.
“The Silicon Valley industries have used the H-1B visa to create its new economy and so new bridges have been built between San Jose and Bangalore,” said Raj Jayadev … These are folks in technology jobs, they’re engineers, they’re scientists, they’re entrepreneurs” said Russell Hancock…
Great, how many season tickets can we get ’em down for?
@tps–wow–talk about inappropriate sterotyping…if the Sharks are any indication there will be a heck of alot more than in Oakland thats for sure–
Wow, ou can tell who are engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs just by seeing them at a Sharks game?
Umm, “you can tell” but we can strike my earlier comments. I’m sure I misunderstood what GoA’s was saying and I think he misunderstood me (I was going for a nerds and sports thing, not a racial commentary), and it’s all really unnecessary.
@tps–happen to be an engineer here–and I love all sports and I am a season tix holder for Sharks and A’s—it is totally inappropriate to sterotype where a season ticket holder might come from or what they do for a profession–
Seems pretty thin skinned, but okay, I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I really am, and I swear I’ll never make an attempted joke about geeks maybe not being big into sports ever again.
@tps–wow–make a ridiculous comment and than try to transfer the blame–oh well–
The percentage of nerds who read and comment on this site is high. You know who you are.
count me as a geek, and proud. 🙂
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Yup. I’m a big geek. I am also a first-time season ticket holder for the A’s (22 game pack, I figure I go to about that many games a year anyway, right?) and a season-ticket-holder-by-proxy since I go with my brother-in-law to a bunch of Sharks games each year.
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Geeks or no, I don’t think you could rule out Indians from being sports fans. They are hugely into Cricket, the grandfather of baseball. The IPL (Indian Premier League) is growing fast in India, but has no broadcast partner in the US. What do you think they’d turn to for their sports fix?
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The growth numbers by themselves don’t really tell me much. You’d have to look at individual districts within the city, and their neighbors to get a better picture of what is going on. Where are people moving from? Where are they going? Are they just moving from Oakland proper to Emeryville or Alameda or San Leandro? It is because they don’t want to live in Oakland or is it because affordable housing isn’t within the city limits?
I am not a nerd!
crap….
There was an article in the Trib about a year back, LS, about how a chunk of Oakland’s black population was moving out towards Sacramento due to housing costs. Like you though, it would be of more help to know where exactly people are heading to. My former roommate, for example, moved over to Alameda.
It doesn’t hurt that Oakland’s housing stock has seen any significant decrease in price, either. Prices appear to have remained steady, or gone up gradually.
Oakland has one very diverse population.
The latest census figures show:
African Americans–27.3%
White–25.9%
Hisapnic–25.4%
Asian–16.7%,
Wow,can’t get more even than this anywhere.
Also:an Asian woman mayor; an African American police chief; and an open lesbian city council member, add more to Oakland’s great diversity.
San Jose, San Fran, my Hayward, and the bay area in general, are very diverse, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
^^^ nice… I agree, we live in the best area in the world!!