FYI: Staten Island Has a Larger Population than Atlanta, Georgia

[alcibiades_mystery]

I posted this on another thread, but since the Right Wingers and trolls seem to want to make an issue of SI, I thought everybody deserved some context.

I think people who don't know NYC, or have only been as a tourist (i.e., Mostly in Midtown, as we say) don't grasp the scale of these areas - and the scale of this disaster. Saying that Staten Island is like the Lower Ninth Ward is an instance of such silliness. Staten Island is much larger in population than the entire city of New Orleans.

And it is the SMALLEST borough in population. Queens has 2.25 million people in it. That's more people than each of the thirteen smallest states. In Queen alone. As I said, Staten Island, which is the SMALLEST borough in New York City by population, has a larger population than Atlanta, Georgia.

Just as a measure, consider this. I grew up in Queens. I went to elementary ("Public School&quot in Queens. I went to Junior High School in Queens. I went to High School in Queens. My mother and our family have lived in Queens since the 1950's, and in Brooklyn before that, back to the 19th century. Before three days ago, I never in my life heard of Breezy Point, Queens, and I consider myself a bit of a NYC connoisseur.

NYC is massive, being the point. Many people making arguments about this "Staten Island" place can't seem to conceptualize the scale of even Staten Island, much less the expansive disaster that local, state, and federal authorities are dealing with just inside the five boroughs, much less Jersey, Nassau and Suffolk, Connecticut, Rhode island, and points west.

This thing is orders of magnitude worse than Katrina, and is being handled orders of magnitude better.

Because we have somebody competent in charge.

So, for the number hungry, more people live in Staten Island (468,000) than live in the following cities:

Atlanta, Georgia (432,000)
St. Louis, Missouri (320,000)
Minneapolis, Minnesota (390,000)
Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia COMBINED (450,000)
New Orleans, Louisiana (360,000)

[Spazito]

1. Important facts to know...

Thanks for posting this, it is very helpful.

[Indpndnt]

2. Well done.

Staten Island is massive (larger than Manhattan) and heavily populated. It will take time to get to everyone.

[Tree-Hugger]

3. Thank you for posting this!

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

4. Thank you.

[freshwest]

5. Thanks for the education on that.

[eqfan592]

6. Wish I could rec this a dozen times. Thanks for the context. (nt)

[Indpndnt]

7. This image might help. Look at the size differences.

Lower Manhattan is much, much smaller than Staten Island. It's underwater, too, in places, but is much harder to reach all of Staten Island quickly.

[SamKnause]

11. Map

Thanks

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Yup

Some people seem to think Staten Island is the size of City Island.

[Cha]

8. Thanks for making it a thread.. a_m!

We need to throw FACTS at these corpmedia/troll points comparing Staten Island to the 9th Ward because We Do Have Someone Competent IN CHARGE.

[Quixote1818]

9. Your point is well taken no doubt about it

The greater Atlanta area is 5.3 million which is what I think most people invision when they think of Atlanta. I think the New Orleans comparison is more poignant because of Katrina.

[SheilaT]

10. In the summer of 2000 we (husband, me and 2 sons) went on

vacation to NYC. My husband found a B&B on Staten Island for us to stay in. At first I wasn't crazy about the idea, I mean, who wants to take the ferry every day to the place we were really going to.

I was wrong. It was a WONDERFUL place to stay. First off, I always enjoy B&Bs. Second, after a full day of being a tourist in Manhattan it was very nice to take the ferry back to the relative quiet of Staten Island. Plus, every morning on the way into the city, my husband and I would each have a second breakfast at the ferry terminal. I always got a slice of pizza. The boys didn't get it, of course, but they're excused as this was there first time to New York and husband and I had been there several times before.

For those of you who don't know, there's no cost to riding the Staten Island Ferry. At least I hope it's still free. On the Manhattan end there are busses right there, and you only have to walk a couple of blocks if you want to catch the subway. On the Staten Island side, there are a lot of busses that meet each ferry and their departures are timed to the arrival of the ferry.

Alas, we did not do any touring of Staten Island while we were there. Maybe someday.

[SamKnause]

12. Info

Thanks for that important information.

I love facts.

[jumptheshadow]

13. Good information

A lot of people don't realize that New York City is like a small country.

[fugop]

16. Popular vote!

This is part of why GOP is dumb if they start arguing for a popular vote. NY may look like just another state on a map, but the GOP knows the amount of people there blow away their bigger landmass red states. If people count more than land mass, Dems would win (assuming a popular vote would be incentive for more safe state voters to vote).

[dawg]

15. It depends on what you mean when you say "Atlanta".

Because of restrictive state laws making it hard to extend the city limits of a Georgia city, and the unwillingness of white voters outside the city limits of Atlanta to join what they perceive as a black city, the percentage of the urban area that is actually within the Atlanta city limits is ridiculously low.

While Atlanta proper has a population of only 432,000, the entire metropolitan area includes 5,268,860 people.