The choreographed performance, inspired by Chinese and African dance, was set to New York hits like Frank Sinatra, “New York, New York” and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind Part II.”  And with the census deadline less than a week away, they closed the performance shouting in unison, “Get Counted NYC, It’s Not Too Late”. 

“I view this as a way to get the word out in a new and unique way, that at the same time demonstrates that we’re still here in New York and we still count in New York,” Meeta Anand, a Census 2020 Senior Fellow at the NY Immigration Coalition, said. She wore a mask that read “Get Connected”, designed to get passers-by to fill out census forms. “We are full of people, cultures and experiences to celebrate and we’re doing that today here.”

Melva Miller, the CEO of the Association for a Better New York, said the event was part of  an ongoing effort to get New Yorkers counted during the final stretch and highlight the importance of the census in a very non-traditional way.

“There are individuals who need more encouragement to fill out the census,” Miller said. “ We know where they are, we have the data. We know how we can target them and get them to actually complete the census form.”

Dancers participate in a flash mob in Times Square to raise awareness for the Census 2020. Photo by Courtney Guarino

The group had set up tables alongside Duffy Square with local census takers ready to help people fill out their forms electronically. 

COVID-19 has made it increasingly more difficult to spread awareness and education on the 2020 Census, specifically to those in historically undercounted communities. According to Miller, social distancing halted in-person outreach, like street fairs, block parties and houses of worship, which is how reaching these vulnerable communities is most effective.

Miller said some people just don’t understand the importance of the census. Others are immigrants who fear the information will be used against them. A part of their efforts are to demystify the misinformation to ensure all voices are counted and heard.

“It’s about explaining what exactly the census means to you from the moment you walk out your door to the moment you reach your destination,” she said.”

A census response representative stands by to help people fill out their 2020 census forms. Photo by Courtney Guarino

The dancers were both professional and just ordinary New Yorkers from across all five boroughs, made up of children and adults. They twirled ribbons, stomped and shook their hips and raised their hands in the air.

City Council candidate, Marcelle Lashley-Kabori, was one of the energetic dancers. She said that by not filling out the census, you become invisible. 

“You might as well make sure you are represented the way that you want to be represented, if not, people will make a decision for you,” Lashley-Kabori said. “Being able to take the census allows you to say “no, here is how I’d like to be represented”, vs. someone just making assumptions about who you are and what you need.”

Dawn Kelly of the Nourish Spot was one of the sponsors of the event .Photo by Courtney Guarino.

Census data determines the allocation of trillions of dollars in federal funding to various programs within communities — affordable housing, Medicaid, roads, bridges, free lunches at school, even how to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, and more critical services. Not to mention the amount of congressional representation.

“There is so much at stake for New Yorkers, we could lose two congressional seats. That’s a fact.” Aarti Choly, the Deputy Director of Strategic Planning and Executive Affairs at NYC Census 2020, said. “In 2010, we lost two congressional seats. If we’re not counted, we could lose two more seats this year.”

Having less congressional seats in the house also means having less of an influence in the 2024 presidential election. Two seats lost, meaning two less votes for the New York electoral college. 

“If you care who our president is and how much we have a say in that, it’s just another indication on how important the census is,” Anand said.

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Alex Johnson, who has lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn for ten years, points out new housing near the Kosciusko train stop. Photo by Gabrielle A. Wright.

Bushwick 1 – Second Audio

Residents of Bushwick on gentrification

Looting, fires and closed down business brought Bushwick, Brooklyn to a standstill during the historic black out of 1977. But ash and vacant buildings are fertile ground for revival. Since then, Bushwick has become a magnet for struggling artists and Williamsburg overflow, and now like most gentrifying neighborhoods across the nation: a clash of cultures and agendas.

“The population changed,” said resident Alex Johnson, 36. Looking out the window and firmly planted against the sway of the J train, he pointed out new housing developments as they whizzed by. But it isn’t just new developments that have taken over, a neighborhood that was primarily black and Hispanic for decades is seeing an influx of white residents.

“This is one of the closest [neighborhoods] to Manhattan so there’s a lot of white people in the area now,” said Johnson. According to the U.S. Census, non-Hispanic white population more than tripled between 2000 and 2010.

Johnson said with his new neighbors comes more police and organic food stores.
“They got a lot of things that haven’t been here five years ago,” he said.

Beneath the Flushing Avenue elevated train stop on the JMZ train lines are bars and cafes retrofitted into spaces that once belonged to family owned businesses. Street vendors sell the same goods sold in the Walgreens they’re set up in front of and an IHOP, not yet two years old, shares the block with small delis selling similar breakfast items.

Between the Flushing Avenue and Kosciusko Street stops along the J line, older residents say Bushwick is truly found on side streets like Hart or Dodworth where residents have childhood memories and have seen the streets go from drug infestation to “ghost-town”. Yet, newer, younger residents point towards a different Bushwick, found in loft spaces turned into farms and auxiliary art projects near the L’s Jefferson Street stop. The train lines stretching and screeching across Bushwick dot the gradient of gentrification throughout the neighborhood.

Each train stop spills out Bushwick newbies attracted by affordable housing and art gallery space alongside long-time residents with a hunch their rent may be going up soon. As Johnson, who has lived in Bushwick for ten years, stepped onto the J’s Kosciusko Avenue platform he grimaced at the renovated spaces on the avenue.

“Money makers are coming out here and can rent an apartment for $2500,” said Johnson.
“Affordable housing so they say. Section 8 doesn’t apply to that which is what we need. We can’t afford that,” he said.

According to PropertyShark.com’s Brooklyn home price map, homes in Williamsburg, the gentrified neighborhood next to Bushwick, are priced 174% more than they were in 2004. In Bushwick, the increase is by 14%. Condos are selling fast but Johnson said the increased rent and influx of new residents prices long-time Bushwick residents out. As rent goes up, businesses close down or move out.

“We may not be able to stay here,” said Lars Kremer, founder of Airplane, an art gallery on Jefferson Street . “There are four new buildings going up. We’re probably going to have 200 new people on the block by the end of this year. A new bar just opened up down the street,” he said.

Kremer has lived in Bushwick since 2000.
“I’ve seen it change a lot,” he said. “In many ways it will be good because of the increased exposure, but then there is also the looming threat of rent increase that might happen. I have mixed feelings about Bushwick,” he said.

The increased exposure has brought The Center for Urban Future’s 2012 State of the Chains study reports that there is a 2.6% increase in the number of chain stores across Brooklyn. Fifty-five chain stores are in Bushwick. An additional 34 chains are shared by both Williamsburg and Bushwick where the 11206 zip code is shared.

For Meagan Davis, a newcomer to Bushwick from Dallas, Texas, there are just enough familiar coffee shops and stores with newly hung drywall to not ruin the “gem” of her new home. However, if it becomes too much like Williamsburg, Bushwick’s gentrified neighbor, she would move.

“Williamsburg just doesn’t have enough grit,” said Davis, who has been in Bushwick for about six months. “Williamsburg is like Disney Land. Bushwick still has family, still has grit. Bushwick has something that to me is just real,” she said.

To Johnson, that “realness” is just a freak show for new residents. Beneath the Myrtle Avenue stop on the J line, a woman who was visibly incoherent rolled around on the ground reaching for her purse as stereotypical hipsters stepped around her.

“You’re in the hood, you see what’s going on, that’s real,” said Johnson, who believes Bushwick is becoming more racist. “They’re scared so they keep walking,” he said.

Torn between the pros and cons in his neighborhood, Johnson believes that gentrification in Bushwick can be felt more than it is seen. He said drug dealers weren’t on his corner anymore, but on the other hand, the family-owned dry cleaners that would clean clothes for free were also gone.

“They’re taking the danger out of Bushwick but taking the people out with it,” said Johnson.

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It was 10 p.m. on a recent Friday night and business was booming at The Experience Unisex Salon in Crown Heights. An interracial couple held an intimate conversation in French while they sat in the waiting area. A stylist tightly sewed wavy blonde extensions into her African-American customer’s hair. VH1 Soul played on the two large flat screen televisions filling the spacious salon with R & B.

Black-owned businesses like The Experience Unisex Salon are all over this working class neighborhood, which, according to the 2010 Census, is 72 percent black. But as gentrification seeps into the neighborhood, diversity has brought hope and new clients to this busy salon.

“We have clients of all backgrounds, Indian, White, Latinos, and Blacks,” said Khalil Wright, 37, the salon’s co-owner.

Wright and his partner Zakeyah Ryan, 32, opened the salon in 2006 and within three years noticed a change in clientele.

Blue-eyed and blond-haired, Nate Olson,29, has been a client of the Experience Unisex Salon since he moved to Crown Heights from Iowa three years ago.

“You can come here and talk to anyone about anything,” Olson said. “It’s definitely a place where all types of people catch up to talk about things going on in the community.”

The number of white residents in Crown Heights has increased 20 percent, according to the census data. For many of the black salon customers, this was their first time sharing a salon with white neighbors.

“I grew up in Crown Heights and before this shop, I’ve never been to a barbershop and a white man was in the chair,” said Amaechi Aneke, 30, as he watched his barber cutting a white customer’s hair.

On a recent visit, every customer was greeted with a hearty welcome from the staff and then waited patiently for a free stylist in one of the red, blue or yellow chairs.

“We are a black-owned business, but we don’t focus on the color of people, we see hair,” Ryan said.

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Players assemble a pick-up game of soccer April 22 at Pier 42 of Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex in Manhattan. More soccer fields popped up in New York as more immigrants come to the city. Photo by Frank Riolo.

Big increases in the U.S. immigrant population could correlate with soccer’s growing popularity.

According to U.S. Census data, the U.S. Latino population jumped 43 percent between 2000 and 2010—85 percent of whom are from countries such as Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela where soccer is king.

Major League Soccer also saw a 5 percent increase in average attendance in 2010, with more than 16,500 fans per game according to the Soccer America.

These stats could put soccer within striking distance of becoming a major sport in America.

“I think it definitely could become a major sport in the future,” said Paul Rolston, a former Division I soccer player for Manhattan College. “With the way the sport’s been developing in this country, I think there’s a good chance it will definitely become even more popular.”

Rolston, of Riverdale in the Bronx, said he played all types of sports as a kid, often following the lead of his older brothers. But when it came time to pick a high school sport, he chose soccer – both as a player and as a fan.

“They’re building new stadiums all over the place and selling out stadiums,” he said. “I was at a Red Bull’s game last weekend and it just seems that fans are very excited about the game now.”

Listen to what New York soccer fans have to say about the game’s popularity in America
Altarv1.mp3

New York City, which is home to more than 3 million Latinos, has contributed a great deal to the national soccer fan base.

The New York Red Bulls, the metropolitan area’s MLS franchise, saw a 48 percent increase in attendance in 2010 after opening a new stadium last year in Harrison, N.J.

The addition of the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers also boosts the MLS franchise total to 18 teams, giving the league six more teams overall since 2000.

Soccer’s popularity among younger Americans has also increased. The non-profit organization U.S. Youth Soccer now has more than 3 million members between 5 and 19-years-old.

“I think it’s a number of factors,” said U.S. Youth Soccer president John Sutter, referring to the growth in participation. “You have soccer becoming more of a mainstream sport. The 1994 World Cup kicked (the increase) off and each of the World Cups since then have probably spread interest. And you have the message that schools are pushing down on kids – that we want you to become a little more physically fit.”

U.S. Youth Soccer represents the largest youth sports organization in the country, according to its website; its membership is higher than that of Little League baseball and dwarfs Pop Warner football.

Sutter said the number of Latinos and other immigrant participants have contributed to the increase in U.S. Youth Soccer’s membership. He said the organization does not keep exact figures on immigrant participation, but added that the group establishes programs where immigrants settle.

“We have special inner-city programs, like our Soccer Across America program, which specifically targets folks in those types of areas,” Sutter said. “Those will reach out to the more diverse cultures. Most of which have soccer in their background.”

Sutter also credited Title IX, the U.S. law that protects against discrimination from an activity based on sex, for growing interest in the game among U.S. female adolescents.

Despite soccer’s growing popularity, sports management expert and former sports agent Robert Boland said he’s not sold on the idea of it becoming a major sport in America.

“I think soccer is better served by being realistically aware of what its limitations are and what its economic model is,” he said.

While soccer has taken a tremendous leap as a participatory sport, Boland said spectator numbers do not indicate any notable achievement, adding that most recent immigrants also assimilate to the American sports scene.

“Pele’s first game in the U.S. in 1970 drew 10 million viewers on CBS,” Boland said, referring to the Brazilian soccer star Edson Arantes do Nascimento’s – better known as “Pele” – first visit to America. “Last year’s World Cup finals drew 17 million viewers 40 years later. The population has grown by 33 percent. So, based on those numbers alone, a throwaway event that was essentially a minor league involving Pele drew as many viewers as the World Cup finals.”

Boland also said he’s not sure whether MLS can replace one of the lesser of the four major U.S. sports, the NBA and NHL, based on total attendance. He said popularity should be measured in other ways.

“That’s an apples to oranges comparison,” Boland said, referring to MLS attendance versus that of the NHL or NBA. “An indoor arena that holds 20,000 at 17,000 attendance has sold most of its seats…Percentage of capacity is more important than pure number of fans…If MLS is playing in front of 17,000, but the average stadium capacity is 28,000 or 29,000 that’s not as good comparatively.”

In other words, if the NHL or NBA played in bigger arenas they would probably be outdrawing MLS by a more significant number.

Boland said MLS must keep ticket prices lower than other professional American sports in order to keep fans coming back. He added that puts MLS closer to the category of Minor League Baseball and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC.

But others like Rolston still believe the sport can have a foothold within the American public. He said if MLS can recruit more foreign superstars, such as David Beckham, and the U.S. National team continues to perform well at international tournaments, soccer may soon be considered another American pastime

“I think for young people growing up watching these great players will help them learn the game better,” he said. “I think (kids) will work harder to try to be better players if they are led by good examples.”

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Louis Cochi poses for a picture outside Vincent Ciccarone Park, one of his favorite neighborhood spots. Cochi has seen numerous changes in Arthur Avenue, a neighborhood in the Bronx, since coming to America in 1956. Photo by Frank Riolo

Louis Cochi sat next to his best friend, Antonio, as he enjoyed the unseasonably warm 70-degree weather on a late October afternoon.

With his thick Italian accent, the 82-year-old could go on forever about how much he loves his life and his home just off of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

His hair, white and uncombed, stuck straight up in the air, as if he had just rolled out of bed. He wore a gray, short-sleeved shirt complimented by nylon Adidas pants and worn-out New Balance sneakers — not exactly fashion conscious, but that doesn’t matter to Cochi. He is a simple man with simple desires and values.

As children ran around the playground, calling to one another as they played tag, Cochi quietly observed it all from his favorite bench in Vincent Ciccarone Park, between 187th and 188th streets.

“This neighborhood has changed 100 percent,” he said in broken English. “When I first came up here, it was beautiful. It was better. It was more people — more Italian people, more Jewish. Still you’ve got some, but before it was plenty.”

Arthur Avenue, though literally a road, more commonly refers to an area located in the Belmont section of the Bronx that has long been known for its predominantly Italian culture. But in the past few decades, the Italian population in Belmont has dwindled to a few blocks surrounding Arthur Avenue, while the Latino, black and Albanian populations have grown rapidly.

Cochi has lived in an apartment on Crotona Avenue, just a few blocks from Arthur Avenue, since 1956, when he came to New York from Italy to start a family with his wife who had left for America five years earlier.

“I worked in the same shop for 25 years,” he said, reminiscing about his life in America. “I was a tailor. I always used my hands, and I could do everything. I was the best in everything. And then everything changed. Everything became machines, and they said no more hands because we got to save money.”

Cochi said that at that time, everyone was like a family. But now, because the area is so ethnically diverse, he feels there is no longer that sense of community.

“Even at work … it was like a family. We were together. We were like 500 people — Italian, Jewish, Greek, everything. It was like minestrone,” he said as a smile crept onto his face. “We would eat together, get coffee together. … Everything was together and we’d enjoy life. It’s not that way anymore.”

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, people of Latino origin make up 48.4 percent of the population in the Bronx. Conversely, white people represent about 29.9 percent of the population.

Other residents and business owners have felt the change in the neighborhood as well. However, they view it as something to be accepted.

“For me to say whether I like the change of a neighborhood … who am I to say?” said Chris Borgatti, owner of Borgatti’s Ravioli and Egg Noodles. Borgatti, 53, was the third generation in his family to work at the shop, which was established in 1934 at the corner of 187th Street and Belmont Avenue. “I realize there’s been a lot of diversity in the New York area through the years. People have come here to find the same opportunities that my grandparents did. … I have no problem with that.”

Even Cochi, who never misses an opportunity to point out how much better Arthur Avenue used to be, made it clear he never judges others by their ethnicity.

“I like anyone of any nationality — even the Chinese,” he said, nodding towards a Chinese restaurant across the street. “I get along with everybody. … Everybody has a job. Everybody has children. … We are nice and peaceful.”

And despite the demographics shift, Cochi was certain in saying this will always be his home.

“Where else am I going to go?” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve got my apartment. I’ve got my wife. I shop; she cooks. I come over here with my friends. We play cards. … Better than this, it can’t come.”

As he leaned back on his bench, another man walked along the perimeter of the park and whistled to Cochi. After getting his attention, the man gestured toward Cochi to come with him.

“He wants to go to the library,” Cochi said. Grunting as he stood up, he gathered his belongings and promised to return the next day, as long as the weather remained bearable. And as he and his friend Antonio disappeared through the park gate to meet the other man, the children of a new generation continued to play tag on the playground.

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Alexandra Sauceo, 12, from the group Youth Action Changes Things, listens intently to a Census outreach seminar for Mexican-American students. Photo by Darren Tobia

To his peers, Oscar Zempoaltecatl, 15, is considered a pretty normal kid — perhaps a bit of a jokester. But to his community leaders in the year of the census, he could be a linchpin of future political and economic empowerment.

Census outreach efforts to the city’s Mexican-American community — one of the most elusive and undercounted communities — are targeting students more than ever. Young people are expected to play a pivotal role in convincing parents and elders to complete and return the once-a-decade survey, which determines things such as allocation of federal funds and redrawing of political districts.

The census recently arrived in Oscar’s mailbox in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home to one of the city’s largest Mexican-American populations. The last time the census came to town, research estimates only half of the city’s Mexican-American residents — the third largest Latino group — were counted. Overall, New York City’s 55-percent return rate in the 2000 census was well below the national rate of 75 percent.

His mother has already expressed some concern to him about completing the form.

“She thinks it could have a negative effect on us,” Oscar said.

But Oscar, along with four friends from his Brooklyn-based after-school group, Youth Action Changes Things, attended a census seminar at Baruch College in Manhattan on a recent Friday. He emerged ready to have a difficult but important discussion with his mother, he said.

“This is not just a bunch of papers you have to fill out every 10 years,” Oscar said.

Angelo Cabrera said he wanted to train the students to be ambassadors to their community and to reassure others that there is little to fear.

“There is a trust among parents to their son or daughter,” said Angelo Cabrera, president of the Mexican-American Student’s Alliance, which sponsored the event. “We are not going to tell them something that will hurt them in the future.”

Cabrera is trying to spread the message through young people that the census can actually reap benefits to the 10.3 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. — 57 percent of whom are Mexican-American, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center study.

On one hand, records are now more confidential than ever before. The Justice Department announced last month that not even the Patriot Act could grant access to a person’s census data.

But that information can be accessed at a later date at the participant’s request, and used to gain amnesty after working 10 years in the country, Cabrera said.

Still, undocumented immigrants are not the only group contributing to the undercount in the Mexican-American community, advocates point out. The recession has forced many families to share housing, often exceeding the limit of occupants allowed by law. Doubled-up tenants fear that participation in the census could make them vulnerable to eviction, according to Jackson Chin, a counseling attorney at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a Latino advocacy organization.

These fears, however varied, have severely cost the city and residents relying on some form of government service or program. Last census, an estimated $847 million in federal funds were lost from the undercount, according to a final report to Congress by the U.S. Census Monitoring Board.

“That’s money that went to other states, other counties,” Chin said. “That could have brought a lot of new schools, teachers, jobs and services.”

Other types of government funding directly related to census participation include unemployment insurance, Medicaid, school lunches, Head Start, road construction and Pell grants, a higher-education subsidy for students of low-income families.

Chin said there has never been a case known to the public of a census worker violating confidentiality, adding it was “theoretically possible, but highly unlikely.” Any report of a breach would be “scandalous,” rendering the nearly billion-dollar census promotional efforts useless, he said.

Nevertheless, census return rates in New York City — Brooklyn has the fewest returns at 38 percent — have so far disappointed many advocates. Despite an unprecedented investment in outreach, far more is needed, Chin said. On a recent Sunday, Chin joined a team of volunteers, which included college students and kids from Oscar’s after-school group, to hand out flyers in Sunset Park. He was amazed out how little promotional signage he found in the neighborhood, given the significance of the message.

Still, he said joining the group of “idealistic” young ambassadors was an excellent strategy.

“Youth are very important to getting the message out when the adults are failing,” Chin said.

And there was a palpable sense of urgency among the young volunteers.

“We have to inform our community,” Monica Vega, 18, the group leader of Oscar’s group.

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