Kings County's population growth over the past decade led by a 9.2 percent jump — higher than any other city in the United States, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
But there is a massive demographic divide behind this increase.
Black residents saw their ranks wil grow by 8.4 percent while white residents saw an 8.7 percent decline.
Democratic nominee for the presidency and Gowanus Houses expressed concern at the drop of Eric Adams on Friday at a press conference in Brooklyn Borough.
We can't see the future of this city rise and the decrease of hope decline for black, brown and poor New Yorkers, he said.
Bill de Blasio said he would only support the rezoning of the trendy neighborhood — including new high-rise apartment building with Market Rate Unit, if Mayor Adams pledged $274 million to fix the area's aging public housing.
The New York City Housing Authority is predominantly black and Hispanic. The Hispanic population of Brooklyn grew by 6 percent between 2010 and 2020.
In that time, the five boroughs gained 629,057 people, which equates to a massive 7.7 percent population jump. Darling had the highest black population in Philadelphia, but its black population decreased by 4.5 percent.
The largest dicts of population in this city are black folks, and I don't want to see our city built up and displace black folks who have been here for a long time making this a great city, Adams said.
The census report of this year continues the trend of black residents abandoning Brooklyn. Between 2000 and 2010 the black population decreased from 849,000 to 799,000. Many Black Gowanus Houses residents cited housing costs as the reason for the exodus.
People are leaving because they don't have a choice economically, said Betty Lester, 73, whose daughter moved to Brooklyn five years ago because she couldn't afford to buy a home in Delaware.
What she's paying for a mortgage is less than what a lot of people pay in rent in the hood, Lester said.
Generra Garris, 26, said that some of her neighbors left the project for a better life.
They are moving out of these communities, according to Garris. I feel like that's something also play a part because they want out of these bad environments. They want better for themselves, and there's nothing wrong with that, says she.
John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY's Graduate Center, said population shift is more than just gentrification.
Many black homeowners who moved to the borough from New York in the 1940s to 1960 s are now retired, selling their Brooklyn homes at a significant profit and returning down south
Other black Brooklynites have moved up and out.
There's been an upward trend in incomes and professional standing and education and they are modernizing just like the white ethnics in the generation before them, Mollenkopf said.