"Without Immigrants Big Cities Would Shrink"?

Just read an article on CNN.com saying big cities would lose population if immigrants stopped coming in. Why is this a bad thing? Isn't NYC totally overcrowded?

Public Comments

1. Seems like it would be a positive to me.Get back to breathing spaces within city confines.
2. I suppose from a civil point of view, no city wants their population level to shrink, as this would also mean a shrinkage in collected taxes.
3. When a city loses population, its economy stops growing. Look at Pittsburgh in the 1970s and Flint, Michigan in the 1980's.
4. LEGAL immigrants are NOT the problem. They contribute to this nation. This whole nation is over crowded but its still a great place to live in. Note, that the city's also get less federal government hand outs if their population decreases.Perhaps that's what they are really concerned about? And YES immigration needs the USA. We are a safe haven in the storm of the world.
5. NYC has been relying on immigrants for generations. We're not overcrowded, we just have a shortfall in affordable housing. There is plenty of housing, just not for middle class or lower.
6. More bull shit rhetoric to make us think that the US cannot survive without immigrants. Why in the world would we need an additional 2 million people a year to come to this country? We can fill our own jobs; we can fill build our own homes; we can mo our own yards; we can start our own new businesses. We don't need immigrants, immigrants need us!
7. Most people that moves to the Big Cities are Americans coming from smaller towns or moving from one big city to another big city for better opportunity
8. They make it look as if population growth is a good thing. Well, weeds 'grow' in my backyard too.
9. I don´t think it´s a bad thing. We do need highly-skilled legal immigrants but it would be better if the population was more evenly spread out throughout the country instead of being concentrated in the urban areas.
10. I read it and think the analysis is wrong. Immigrant groups are driving out those Born in the US. Look at the Chinese AMerican Population. THose who are born in the US moves to the suburb and the new generation moves in. WHen the CHinese AMerican visit their old community, the new community shout insults. IN LA its switching. Those who are young and socially climbing is moving back in the city and the immigrants are forced to move into the suburbs. Edit: I wouldn't say its a good thing that immigrants help a city grow. Like others born in LA, I feel that the City is way to crowded.
11. TAXES TAXES TAXES lets remember this kids big city means big taxes more people means more tax payers. Tax season comes "No social security number?" "Ok we will only return a fraction of your tax return". More immigrants less tax return The issue at the momment with alot of people being deported is only a scheme to comfort the people so we the us siticens can say hey the goverment is actually doing something but they are just tricking us lol... Ignorance Ignorance thats the U.S most common sickness close minded people make this country go in circles for years now lol..
12. no you idoit it won't were have you been the need to go back ere they they came from MEXCIO
13. The policy makers don't care about the squalor the rest of us are forced to live in as a result of the slop they call good policy. They have the money to pay for penthouses and gated communities and actually personally benefit from illegal alien slave labor to clean their homes, care for their children, mow their lawn, wash their car, prepare their food, etc....while the rest of us do all these things ourselves and suffer from overcrowded and failing schools while they send their kids to private school, overcrowded and polluted public parks while they spend time at the country club (run by illegal aliens), we get crashed into by uninsured motorists when we don't have the money to buy ourselves a new car...but they could just pay cash for a new one. They can kiss my @$$!!!! Populations could go down...but they're just concerned that they'll have less tax $$ to play with. ENFORCE THE LAWS!!! Isn't that what our government is supposed to do for us? Oh, to answer your question, NYC is totally overcrowded as is LA and other big cities! It would not be a bad thing to the average American if there were fewer immigrants and ZERO illegal aliens!
14. pink36, are you that ignorant to think that the majority of illegal aliens actually pay taxes???? Highly incorrect. Many work on a cash basis, in addition to receiving many, many, MANY state and federal funded benefits, increase crime, increase insurance rates due to the significant number of illegal uninsured drivers, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. Illegal aliens are a 100% drain on the US economy, at every single level.
15. Bigger is not always better. Also the statistics aren't telling the whole story. Illegal immigrants are moving out of the cities since they've discovered that the laws are not enforced and they don't have to work so hard to hide. Several recent articles in newspapers and on the Associated Press have given statistics about illegal immigrants moving to suburbs and big cities losing populations. This happened in the Little Village neigborhood in Chicago years ago. The town used to be mainly Polish Immigrants. Then the Mexicans moved in, the Poles moved out and it starts again. It's time to shrink our big cities. Yes, we would have less taxes to collect but we'd have less to spend the money on, too. Also we would, undoubtedly, have less gangs, less crime, less drugs, less garbage to collect, less maintenance to perform, less need for police, less need for judges and court system employees, less traffic, less students to educate and therefore fewer school referendums to raise our taxes even more. I can see far more positives to shrinking big cities than I do negatives.
16. I would gladly lose population growth for sustainability. Robotics technology will only come into its own when the need is felt. The illegal alien scourge must be stopped at all costs, if we don’t we will lose our nation and our lives. My fellow Americans, We are in the fight for the very existence of a great people, the American people. Americans are of many colors and ethnicity but we all call ourselves Americans, not Mexicans, not Koreans, not Germans, we are Americans nothing else. We have liberal Americans, Conservative Americans, libertarian Americans, Socialists Americans, many beliefs and ideologies but we are Americans all the same. We believe in Freedom, we cherish our right to bear arms, we express the right to vote if we so choose to do so, but a great people has been called to account. We have grown weak, our enemies have surrounded that city upon a hill, and have laid siege to our nations cities. One by one cities have declared their loyalty to the Nation of Mexico, one by one sanctuary cities are born from the ruins of once great cities, cities built by Americans for Americans. While our borders have been overrun, we stand now on the brink of a great revolution, we must now more then ever send a message to the Politicians of Washington, we are fed up and we are not going to take it anymore! We will not stand by as our nations infrastructure is collapsed under the weight of the illegal alien scourge, hospitals are overwhelmed, schools are bursting at the brim, the cost of living is at an all time high, crime is up, are prisons are rioting, killer gangs, drugs, aliens, and foreign diseases spread unchecked across our Nation! If you did one thing important in your life, it will be to fight this endless flood of illegal aliens, stand united with your brothers and sisters of America, The United States the People of this great experiment must become United in our resolve to end this madness, bring order to our streets and communities, we must or we will perish. We cannot fail, or we will watch as our nation burns to the ground, if we must then we will put down our very lives, and that of our children’s lives, we must risk our fortunes, and our own safety, this is a fight that must be fought, everything is now up to our generation, it is our time. I call upon all Americans take up arms if you must, but fight damn you fight, spread the word, Americans must stand united, don’t give in don’t back down, every generation has its revolution its time for another one.
17. Its overcrowded for a reason, its a financial centre and business and commerce is centred there. The well to do move off to the suburbs and commute, the shit janitorial jobs that do not pay enough to commute need to be filled. Usually by the hard up city dwellers. 'This whole nation is over crowded' - not really. The UK has one fifth the size of the population of the US, yet its area is much less than one fifth that of the US. The states has tonnes of open space.
18. I almost crapped my pants when I saw Ames IA on there. I was like, holy crap, how did that town make it on CNN? You gotta remember, ISU (in Ames) is a huge science college. Where do all the science people come from? That's right, it's not chicago. When they all go home for breaks, what happens to the population? That's right, it goes down. I would check how they measured the results. I don't see any negatives in that article though. Less populace in mega cities is a good thing.