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
“I think DOW’s viewpoint is a common misconception amongst the potentially displaced people in gentrifying neighborhoods.”
Read carefully the question I was responding to. I never said whites can’t be displaced.
“My move from the west village to brooklyn was based on economic necessity, DOW.”
“My move from Carroll Gardens (where I lived for 15 years) to South Brooklyn was also based on economic necessity. I’m a white woman, FWIW.”
Those are NOT non-white nabes, Fast Freddy and I_haz_TWO_toilets. I was responding to the question about the “gentrification” label in non-white nabes where those indigenous residents are displaced by whites versus white nabes where the indigenous residents proactively choose to move out because they don’t want diversity. That has NOT happened in Carrol Gardens and the West Village.
As asians have the highest household income in the US do they have the mostesterest options?
in our brooklyn neighborhood, there are many “non-white” families who own not just one but several townhouses and/or apartment buildings in the immediate neighborhood. they’ve owned them for decades, and they’re free to ask for whatever price they want to rent or sell them for. what i’m getting at is that these people have the privilege, too, and exercise it however they want. is anyone surprised when they exercise it in the way that maximizes utility for themselves and their families, and don’t specifically go out of their way to preserve the economic or racial makeup of the neighborhood as it existed in 1970?
Maybe the blacks are selling to the whites and taking their profits to live somewhere else. Did that ever occur to you newbie?
The fact that more and more Whites are moving into the City when real estate prices are all time high and more more Blacks are moving out of the City for lower-cost locales means Whites have more options than Blacks. Why deny the obvious?
How does white immigration factor into this? I hear 4 of 10 new yorkers are not born here and at least 2 of 10 of the remainder are the children of immigrants. The immigration figures look quite high for poles, brits, russians.
What this article fails to touch on is the age of the white people moving into NYC – they make it sound as if it’s people involved in the original white flight returning to reclaim their neighborhoods, when infact, it is more than likely recent college graduates coming to the city because there are more jobs (well, WERE more jobs)
This may come as a shock to some of you, but not every white, recent college graduate is an investment banker making 1 million dollars a year. Many are making under 50k a year and cannot afford to live in Manhattan/gentrified brooklyn. I would venture to say that these new white people are moving to neighborhoods where their income can afford them to live comfortably.
Been out at a meeting all morning. Just glad that none of this is an issue in Bed Stuy.