Asian Population Soars In Brooklyn
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New census data shows Brooklyn remains the city's most populous borough. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report on one group in particular that has made it big. The number of Asians living in Brooklyn is up. Way up. Forty-one percent more Asians were counted in the 2010 Census, than a decade ago.
The population boom is not a surprise for Paul Mak, the founder and director of the Brooklyn Chinese American Association, based in Sunset Park.
"Basically we're seeing Asians everywhere,” said Mak.
Mak started the association 23 years ago when he saw the need for services in a neighborhood that was starting to draw many Chinese. Sunset Park was a quick subway ride to Manhattan's Chinatown.
But, after September 11th, 2001, jobs in Manhattan were scarce and many Chinese started to work and do their day-to-day activities in Brooklyn. While that helped the surge in Sunset Park, many now call other neighborhoods home.
"There's no more room for the expansion in the immediate neighborhood,” said Mak. “Once they want to purchase their first home, a lot of times they look for more residential neighborhoods."
To provide services to the Chinese community outside of Sunset Park, the Brooklyn Chinese American Association set up centers in Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay.
In 10 years, the Asian population count went from about 186,000 to 262,000. But Mak says the community is still undercounted. Borough President Marty Markowitz says there's been an undercount in Brooklyn across the board.
"If you just count the Hasidim from Williamsburg and the Satmar and the Lubavitch Hasidim in Crown Heights, you got 40,000 increase right there in the last 10 years, without touching the other neighborhoods that somehow I think the census overlooked,” said the borough president. “I’m flabbergasted by these numbers. I know they made a big mistake."
Still Mak says he hopes the government pays attention to the increasing Asian presence because the community needs many services.
"They are so packed into single occupancy,” said Mak. “They overload the social services, as well as the public school system in the neighborhood."
Mak says a priority is more schools for a group with one of the highest birth rates in the city