The Hispanic population is swelling in almost every community in Hudson County except Hoboken. According to the U.S. Census statistics that were released a week ago Friday, the number of Hispanics nationally has grown by 58 percent due to such factors as massive immigration and a more accurate count of Latino-Americans. But in Hoboken, the number of Latinos of any race has dropped since 1990 from 10,036 to 7,783, which is a 22 percent decrease.
Hoboken’s overall population has climbed 15 percent in 10 years. The number has gone from 33,397 in 1990 to 38,577 in 2000.
Mayor Anthony Russo and various town residents speculated on the numbers regarding Latinos last week.
Different theories
Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo said last week that he believes that there are several factors that account for the drop-off in the Hispanic population. “Hoboken is one of the most popular cities in the country right now,” said Russo Wednesday. “Because of that, it is difficult to maintain [low] rents. This is just a product of the free market. My relationship with the Latino community is excellent, and the city would never do anything to them drive out of Hoboken.”
The conventional wisdom is that the reason high rents might cause more Latinos to be driven out is that recent immigrants might have a lower income than people whose families have been here for generations.
Russo pointed to other factors for the change in the ethnic makeup of the Mile Square City. “Hoboken was providing affordable housing back in the late ’70s before it was vogue to do that,” he said. “Once an ethnic group has that opportunity to have affordable housing they become upwardly mobile and want a home of there own. So they move out to the suburbs. I think the Latino community is having less children and are moving away.”
Russo said that according to the U.S census from 1980 to 1990, there were 7,800 Hispanics who left Hoboken, and that that number was dramatically more than what it is in the ’90s. “There has been no displacement on our part,” said Russo.
Hudson County as a whole has seen a 32 percent increase in its Hispanic population. Latinos make up 39.8 percent of the county’s population, but only 20.2 percent of Hoboken’s.
In nearby Union City and West New York, two neighboring towns that are predominantly Hispanic and have been attracting immigrants, their Hispanic populations have grown by 25 percent and 28 percent respectively. But in neighboring Weehawken, they only increased 7 percent.
Russo also felt that the recent Census was important in pointing out that the population of Hoboken is not running out of control and that development projects in the 1990s were not out of hand. “The increase [in population] was only about 5,000,” said Russo. “The claim that all these new people are causing all the traffic doesn’t make sense. [The census] shows that the city’s traffic is caused by travelers going between the two tunnels and not because of the number of people moving here.”
Residents analyze
“It’s gentrification, plain and simple,” said two-year resident Bill Docket, 27, last week. “Look at the rents and the developments going up. I’m sure it’s not the same place it was 10 years ago. There are thousands of 20- and 30-something single professionals running around. That’s going to change a community dramatically.”
Even members of the Hispanic community point to rising rents and how expensive it is to raise a family in Hoboken. “It’s not crazy at all that Latinos are leaving,” said Jorge Espinoza, 31, a nine-year resident and a Latino. “It’s hard to afford to raise a family here anymore. It used to be a place where you would see families with five or six kids, but they are becoming rare. Now all the apartments are getting broken up for singles. Couples and families have to go look elsewhere. It’s just too expensive.”
Maria Gomez of North Bergen was one of the over 2,000 Latinos to move out of Hoboken in the last 10 years. She pointed to the fact that her family was growing and that they could no longer afford to live in Hoboken. “After the birth of my third child we just couldn’t do it anymore,” said Gomez, who is married with three children.
Gomez added, “Hoboken is great place to live, and that is where my family was from. But it’s so hard to afford to live there with two kids, and when the third came, our small apartment just didn’t have enough space. So we had to move.”