Public Comment
Letter: Growing Populations
Editors, Daily Planet:
I’ve become accustomed to Gale Garcia’s increasingly strident NIMBY correspondence, and usually just let it go by with a sigh. But the complete inaccuracy of her claim that the population of Berkeley and surrounding cities has declined since the last census needs an answer. She refers to the U.S. Census Bureau, but the Bureau (unlike the California State Dept. of Finance) doesn’t make annual estimates. I hope she’s not relying on the Bureau’s Community Survey of 2005, which the Chronicle totally misinterpreted. Here are the State Finance Dept.’so latest figures (2000 and 2007 respectively) for the cities Ms. Garcia cites in her Oct. 19 letter:
Berkeley: 102,743 and 106,347.
Alameda: 72,259 and 75,254.
Albany: 16,444 and 16,764.
El Cerrito: 23,171 and 23,194.
Oakland: 399,566 and 415,492.
Piedmont: 10,952 and 11,055.
San Leandro: 79,452 and 81,466.
Every one of them has grown in size.
Revan Tranter
