Web Exclusive

The 2010 census data for JP and other neighborhoods will be released in map form this week by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the Gazette has learned.

In 2000, the BRA was criticized for using an inaccurate map for JP and other neighborhoods its census data release, but, this year, they are using the right maps, BRA spokesperson Susan Elsbree told the Gazette.

And the BRA is offering a service where city residents can submit requests custom-made demographic analyses any geographic area.

“You can create your own neighborhood boundaries, if you want information for Pondside, Parkside or the Woodbourne neighborhood. People can send us the boundaries of what they are looking for” and the BRA’s global information systems (GIS) team will do the analysis, Elsbree said.

2010 census data will be available based on the city’s neighborhood zoning map and the BRA’s own map of “planning districts,” as well as on the federal Census Bureau’s block group and tract demarcations, Elsbree said.

The planning district map had been the BRA’s only guide for census data analysis since 1970, but that map shows an inaccurate picture of Boston’s neighborhood boundaries.

Mission Hill, the North End and Chinatown do not exist in that map, and it cuts Forest Hills, Woodbourne, Parkside and Brookside out of JP.

The Gazette first discovered and reported on the problems with the JP map after incorrectly reporting in 2001 that JP lost population and minorities between 1990 and 2000.

While neighborhood data is not scheduled to be available for a few days, Boston’s total population has grown 4.8 percent, mostly as a result of an increase in its minority population, according to a press release from the Mayor’s office.

The city’s population rose from 589,141 to 617,594, an increase of 28,453. The city’s minority population increased from 300,462 to 322,324, an increase of 21,862 people. Minorities now make up 53 percent of Boston’s population, up from 51 percent in 2000.

See the April 1 issue of the Gazette for more on JP in the 2010 census.