The End of White Flight?
Since 1940, “white flight” has affected the city’s demographics, not to mention its real estate market; every year, the population of white, non-Hispanic residents in the inner city decreased. That is, until the turn of this century. The NY Times reports that since 2000, 100,000 non-Hispanic whites have returned to the city, and half of…
Since 1940, “white flight” has affected the city’s demographics, not to mention its real estate market; every year, the population of white, non-Hispanic residents in the inner city decreased. That is, until the turn of this century. The NY Times reports that since 2000, 100,000 non-Hispanic whites have returned to the city, and half of that increase occurred between 2006 and 2007. Experts call the shift a “harbinger of racial equilibrium” and a testament to “diversity and ethnic heterogeneity.” For some, of course, such shifts signal an undertone of gentrification; it’s not always good news. And some of those folks returning from the ‘burbs work in the financial industry, lured by family-friendly, high-end projects that are sometimes seen as gated communities within the city; no one’s sure if they’ll stay as the economy sours. Still, the census findings reveal a strong city — stronger, in fact than some of the suburbs. The percentage of folks paying more than 30% of income on rent/mortgage dropped in NYC; it rose in the suburbs.
White Flight Has Reversed, Census Finds [NY Times]
Photo by thunderhoof
11233: You have no concept or idea of being/living as a Minority in US do you?? That only explains your “knee-jerk” dismissal of racism today and that “poor” Whites cannot be racist bc their economic plight. Actually “poor” Whites tend to be the worst kind of racists, IMO.
Well we’ll agree to disagree i disagree haha.
This is Brownstoner, nothing we talk about is supported by numbers!
shillstoner – gotcha & i agree that brownstoner’s construction was forced. the way i look at it is: the original numbers (as cited in the article) addressed whites moving out of the city, without reference to who they were or where they were going. if immigration is decreasing across all races (the article suggested this, but i don’t know if it’s true) and the number and percentage of whites in NYC is increasing, those whites must be coming from somewhere internally. whether it is entirely people from the suburbs or an increased proportion or number of college students and people from other urban centers, the numbers still represent a reversal and that reversal is interesting and newsworthy. in my opinion, anyway.
AG, is *what* not common sense? i am not arguing, nor is this article reporting, that the same actual people who “fled” the city are now returning. the article is about a current demographic trend. and i was responding to shillstoner’s suggestion that the numbers don’t support the notion that anyone is coming from the suburbs but rather that it could be explained by college students and people from other parts of the country.
but i do agree that you just make no sense whatsoever. 😉
Well I haven’t seen any data to suggest a ‘white flight’ from the burbs, but it is totally true that the only burb data I’ve seen is westchester (where the number of whites has slightly increased). So perhaps middle aged people are fleeing the burbs of LA and moving to NYC. But I haven’t seen any data to support that idea either. In any case, there is nothing in this article to support that idea and therefore no reason for Brownstoner to construct the discussion that way (which was the point I was making).
Is it not common sense i disagree?
Do you really think that middle aged and older white people, who fled the city are really returning, selling their houses in the burbs after suffering 25% losses and gentrifying neighborhoods?
I just makes no sense whatsoever. It’s not happening.
setting aside the anecdotal, doesn’t the census data you cite support the fact that people are coming from the suburbs to NYC? does it change the analysis much if they’re from suburbs in california rather than suburbs of westchester?
Why has this become a black vs white debate? They were not mentioned once in the article.
yes, idisagree (the only name I like more than my own), my “evidence” is a combo of anecdotal and the fact that census data for the burbs shows a slighlty higher number of white folk as in 2000.