Boston Area Has Big Population Drop

The Boston Globe reports:

Boston lost 30,107 residents in the first half of this decade, a precipitous drop that ranked the city among the biggest population losers of any major municipality in the country, according to US Census Bureau estimates to be released today.

The loss represented a 5.1 percent fall from the city's population of 589,141 residents in 2000, the bureau said. It was the seventh highest percentage decrease among large US cities; Cincinnati had the steepest drop from 2000 to 2005, losing 6.8 percent, followed by Detroit, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Flint, Mich.

The population figures drew a sharp reaction from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who disputed the estimates, but also alarmed some outside observers.

``If we don't grow, we're going to become increasingly small and marginal in the world economy," said Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. ``It may be that we become more of a boutique town catering to a smaller number of elites. I don't like that vision, but it's not a vision I think everyone despises."

As long as Boston follows the views of Ted Kennedy,Robert Kuttner,and other tenured types at Harvard: they will decline. What's the matter with Boston? You'll notice Phoenix doesn't have that big government mentality that Boston does.