Demographics of New York City 9.1 million. While the city's projected 2030 population will be a new high, only two boroughs, Staten Island and Queens have reached their population peak every year for the last 5 years. The study projects that by 2030, Queens will have 2.57 million people and Staten Island 552,000. Manhattan, with 1.83 million, Bronx with 1.46 million and Brooklyn with 2.72 million, will still be below their population peaks. On March 27, 2011, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city would file a formal challenge to the Census results, as a result of alleged undercounting in the boroughs
Staten Island Tunnel funded by the city, the tunnel was expected to help expand the then-sparsely populated borough in a similar manner to the population and development explosions seen in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Under the Dual Contracts, three routes were proposed—two to Brooklyn and one to Manhattan—which would connect the Staten Island Railway's rapid transit service (SIRT) to existing subway lines. The Manhattan proposal, often called the "direct route," would have connected with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT)'s lines under Battery Park, near the current Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. "Direct Route A" would have utilized a five-section tunnel under the New York Harbor,