Population boom

Allentown Morning Call ^ | 4/5/07 | Gregory Karp

[randita]

April 5, 2007

Population boom

Just three Northeast metropolitan regions added more people this decade than the Lehigh Valley

By Gregory Karp

The Lehigh Valley smashed through the 800,000 population mark during 2006 and ranks among the very fastest growing regions in the Northeast, according to Census data to be released today.

Population growth has caused a before-your-eyes metamorphosis of the region in a few years.

Since the last full Census in 2000, the Lehigh Valley added 59,942 people, nearly the same as the Boston metropolitan area. The nearly 60,000 people are more than twice the population of Easton, and growth is on pace to add a record-breaking 100,000 people this decade.

Officially, the Valley's estimated population in mid-2006 was 800,336. The Census Bureau defines the Lehigh Valley metro area as the counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon and Warren, N.J.

Across the Northeast, only the major metropolitan regions of New York, Philadelphia and Boston added more people than the Lehigh Valley this decade. And the so-called Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro region ranked No. 1 among Northeast regions of fewer than 1 million people.

''The magnitude of the growth appears larger than I expected,'' said Kamran Afshar, an economist who studies the Lehigh Valley economy. ''A 60,000 change is huge.''

The historic increase amounts to 8.1 percent population growth in just six years. By percentage, the Lehigh Valley ranks No. 2 among metro regions in the nine-state Northeast. It was second only to York, a region half as big as the Lehigh Valley that grew 9.1 percent.

Population growth this decade has been fueled almost exclusively by the migration of people fleeing high-cost areas of New York, New Jersey and, to a lesser extent, Philadelphia. The new residents came in search of a lower cost of living, especially less expensive homes.

[randita]

Traffic's getting horrendous in the Lenigh Valley. No surprise here.

[mewzilla]

How much of this increase is due to illegal immigration, any idea?

[2banana]

Population growth this decade has been fueled almost exclusively by the migration of people fleeing high-cost areas of New York, New Jersey and, to a lesser extent, Philadelphia

And they slowly turn these beautiful and conservative places into the socialist hell holes they left...

[randita]

And they slowly turn these beautiful and conservative places into the socialist hell holes they left...

You got that right. The NJ/NY crowd has inundated the Poconos and taken over the township councils up there. All they want is more and more development, so the area up there is unbearable from May through September - just like the Jersey shore.

[stevio]

It’s mostly liberal POSes from NY and NJ. Creating a “blueing” to the area.

[major_gaff]

And the Jersey-ites sell their two bedroom shacks for half a mill, move to the LV, buy a 4K sqft Troll Bros McMansion in Northampton county and start showing up at the Township meetings demanding that taxes be raised to bring services and standards up to ‘New Jersey’ level....gotta luv it.

[randita]

How much of this increase is due to illegal immigration, any idea?

The Lehigh Valley has been flooded with Puerto Ricans in the past couple of decades. They are legal and they legally partake of any and all government services that are available to mainland citizens.