Quote:
Originally Posted by nei
How'd Hyde Park lose over half its population? It looked like it's doing fine.
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In the case of Hyde Park, massive urban renewal in the 1950s and subsequently the expansion of the University have removed a great deal of the housing stock.
More generally, it's important to put certain population declines in perspective: no one would say West Town has been doing badly, despite it's 50% reduction since its peak population... the difference is how a gentrified neighborhood looks demographically compared to Victorian-era industrial slums.
Remember, many portions of Paris, London, and all other great European cities have seen major population declines in many neighborhoods, and in some cases, have seen comparable inner municipality population declines over the course of deindustrialization in the latter half of the 20th century.
e.g.
Inner London population in 1911: 5.0 million, 2009: 3.06 million
Paris 5th Arr (Latin Quarter) population in 1911: 121k, 2005: 60k
Point being, population decline is not always a negative indicator, particularly in the cities that were the major industrial centers circa 1900.