Fun fact; in Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin, the fastest growing state House district (on old lines) takes in the entirety of or a significant portion of the downtown/financial district of the state's "main" city. In NY, the fastest growing district is Williamsburg based AD-50 which is extremely dense with large apartment blocks and across the river from Manhattan, but would not be considered part of the downtown area itself. The third fastest growing NY district is the one that actually takes in the heart of midtown. And if it weren't for Lakewood, NJ's fastest would be the district that takes in most of the Waterfront Jersey City area which again is just across the river from Manhattan and extremely built up at this point with large 50 floor apartment buildings.
was interesting article on that and gets to the point that in the superstar cities, these are the places where new housing. In the case of NYC, the Williamsburg-Greenpoint-LIC area had major upzonings during the 2000s, which bears out in the subsequent population growth. Jersey City’s been pursuing one of the most aggressive pro-development agendas of any blue area in the country and in the style of an old-timey booster, has been explicit about wanting to be the largest city in the state. It shows in the population numbers.
