Via erstwhile gadfly David Brauer, here’s an interesting chart. The 2016 census population estimates came out last week and sparked an interesting conversation on Twitter this week. Here’s the original population chart, via former streets.mn board member / forum founder Nick Magrino:
(He got the chart from a recently released Met Council report…)
Following the chart tweeting, Brauer took some the new data and created another chart, showing both Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s populations as a percentage of their all-time peaks. It’s interesting for sure!
The key question quickly arose: Why did Saint Paul not shrink as much (by percentage) as Minneapolis following the end of World War II and the growth of the suburbs?
Check out the Twitter conversation for some theories about that.
Current Saint Paul population is 2% below previous peak, and Minneapolis is 19% below its previous peak, for context. https://t.co/H0Ibj8BsMj
— Jon Commers (@commers) May 16, 2017
(Note: my point about race/class violence was based on Mary Lethert Wingerd’s thesis in her book Claiming the City…)
Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.