In response to Loki A. wondering why Waite Park had such a significant population decline, my strictly unprofessional, uneducated observer's guess as a resident is that it has to do with people with children moving out of the neighborhood and people without children (or, at least, with smaller families) moving in. If my own block in Waite Park is any indication, several houses that were occupied by multi-member families when I moved in seven years ago are now occupied by single-person families or couples. Also, even if the parents remain in the house/neighborhood (which also seems typical around here -- longer-term residents, that is), the kids may have grown up and moved on to college, marriage, their own residence, etc., since the last Census. In addition, since long-term residency seems in my observation to coincide with increasing age, I would guess some of the Waite Park decrease might be due to higher than average number of deaths of residents due to old age (i.e., just because there might have been more seniors here in the first place).
I can only speculate on why people with kids are moving away, if indeed that's what Census statistics indicate. It's reportedly one of Minneapolis' safest neighborhoods, yet I've heard the familiar refrains about people seeking "better schools" by moving out of Minneapolis and "bigger houses and lots" by moving to the 'burbs. On the other hand, the people who DO move in seem to specifically say they are seeking the smaller "urban-sized" lots and older houses that go with city living. Other than that, I can't think of anything we've done in Waite Park to scare people off. We're really quite nice here most of the time. I wonder if any attempt has been made by the Census folks or the city to actually track what DID really happen to all the people who no longer live in this neighborhood. Gayle Bonneville Waite Park (of Northeast Minneapolis) Trying Not to Be Paranoid About Mass Neighborhood Exodus _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
