U.S. Census Rejects NYC Challenge

The U.S. Census has rejected Mayor Bloomberg's challenge of the 2010 population count.

The Bloomberg administration said that the bureau’s 2010 count overlooked people in Astoria and Jackson Heights in Queens and Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn. In 2010, the Census Bureau said the city population had increased by 166,855 to 8,175,133 over the past decade. City officials argued the real count was closer to 8.4 million. City officials blamed the rejection on technical problems with the complicated federal appeals process. “It is unfortunate no mechanism exists to rectify the errors we identified,” the city’s Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said in a statement. City demographers said overcrowded schools, busy stores and illegally converted apartments were all proof the bureau missed thousands of residents.

The lower count means the city loses millions in federal funding and two of its 29 seats in the U.S. House.