White Flight? Suburbs Lose Young Whites to Cities

[RamboLiberal]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle/AP

White flight? In a reversal, America's suburbs are now more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older population as many younger, educated whites move to cities for jobs and shorter commutes.

An analysis of 2000-2008 census data by the Brookings Institution highlights the demographic "tipping points" seen in the past decade and the looming problems in the 100 largest metropolitan areas, which represent two-thirds of the U.S. population.

The findings could offer an important road map as political parties, including the tea party movement, seek to win support in suburban battlegrounds in the fall elections and beyond. In 2008, Barack Obama carried a substantial share of the suburbs, partly with the help of minorities and immigrants.

The analysis being released Sunday provides the freshest detail on the nation's growing race and age divide, which is now feeding tensions in Arizona over its new immigration law.

Ten states, led by Arizona, surpass the nation in a "cultural generation gap" in which the senior populations are disproportionately white and children are mostly minority.





Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/05/08/national/w210138D16.DTL&tsp=1

[alp227]

1. I've heard that in Europe, city people=richer than suburban people. True?

And whenever I hear "white flight" I cringe because it conjures images of continued segregation even in the civil rights era. Oh, when will America ever ever ever be post-racial?

[classysassy]

2. We can dream can't we?

[KamaAina]

3. I've heard that, in Paris,

to find poor people, you have to go to the suburbs.

[reggie the dog]

8. the poor in Paris are on the east side of the city

the wealthy are on the west and in between you have middle class, I lived in the poor 19th arrondissement for a year. There are also very poor, very wealthy and middle class suburbs. It is the image of the suburbs as the shitholes and the cities as the nice place that prevails here in Europe

[pinboy3niner]

4. My first thought was income disparity

As inner cities become gentrified and more appealing, once again, those most likely to be able to afford living there are white. This phenomenon is interesting, and likely to have ramifications we haven't even begun to consider yet.

[girl gone mad]

9. As cities have become more gentrified, suburbs have grown more vibrant.

My suburb us culturally diverse and fun. There are things here you used to really only find downtown or very close to downtown - great ethnic restaurants, a hip barber shop, small artist galleries, resale shops, a rare books and records store and a couple of friendly bars. We also have roadside barbecue stands and a cupcake truck, among others. There is a sense of community and people go out of their way to support local businesses. The population here skews pretty young. I always notice that the population downtown is mostly baby-boomer age and older, which wasn't the case when I was staying in a warehouse downtown before it became gentrified.

[pinboy3niner]

12. Congratulations on having a great suburban community in which to live

I doubt you or your neighbors would be tempted to live downtown. But the OP suggests that others are.

I grew up in a suburban cummunity that was new and fresh when I lived there. The last time I drove through it, the homes were in disrepair and it looked tacky and seedy. There you might find candidates willing to populate a rehabilitated inner city (if they can afford it).

Of course, the best of both worlds would be to have both vibrant inner cities and vibrant suburbs. The findings suggest that it is not boomers (like me), but the young that are flocking back to the inner cities. Yet the suggestion in the OP of a divide that is age/class/racial is troubling.

Congratulations again on having such a vibrant suburban community, and thanks for pointing out that that is the case in some suburbs, not just in rehabilitated inner cities. Your point is a cause for optimism.

[reggie the dog]

7. the cities are generally thought of as the nice places

and the suburbs as ghettos in Europe but there are wealthy and poor neighborhoods in the cities and wealthy and poor suburbs too

[pitohui]

26. arent city people richer than suburban people HERE?

what joe lunchbox can live in san diego, san francisco, a decent part of los angeles, or manhattan? hell, i couldn't afford to live in downtown new orleans (at least not in flood zone c!) and new orleans is considered a cheap city

white flight back to the cities seems to me, to be taking place for sometime, but they don't mean "white" exactly -- they mean rich, it takes multiple generations to buy a nice loft or whatever they call it in manhattan, if your dad and/or grand-dad isn't giving you $ you're not going to be living in the cool places in the city where you're within walking distance of all the cool clubs etc.

SOME white families still have all the money, so it isn't surprising to me that they're buying up all the desirable city locations, that's what concentrating wealth means -- they get the apple, we get the peel

if "young" people are buying in expensive city locations, they didn't get it thru their own merit, they had some kind of step up, either contacts to get the ritzy six figure job young or family help to put a down payment or BOTH -- starter salaries for "young" people who just studied and worked hard and hoped to hustle are shit

[JDPriestly]

5. Our neighborhood is positively turning white in a very short time.

It's very strange.

[Carnage251]

6. Self delete

Dammit

[No Elephants]

10. Ludicrous headline.

[Demit]

11. Young couples come to the city for their "urban experience."

They stay for about 5 years. Then they have a child, or two, and when it's time for the kids to go to school they move back to the suburbs. Then they have lots of stories to tell at dinner parties or t-ball games about when they lived in the city. I've seen it happen again & again in my neighborhood. They don't stay.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. The U.S. was one of the few countries in the world

where the areas surrounding the metropolises (suburbs, rural) have been populated by anyone BUT the poor, as those areas generally lacked infrastructure and amenities (where the U.S. has had added these in those areas). And then couple this with the fact that minorities were not permitted to live in these suburban communities (prompting the Fair Housing Act of 1968) and you have this self-generated situation.

I have witnessed the reversal that the article talks about. Having grown up here in Philly (IN the city not "near by") and experiencing the White flight, where entire neighborhoods became "all Black" within a few years, I have fainted over the past few years when I have suddenly seen more and more Whites moving back into the same houses that their peers left some 35 - 40 years ago. Methinks the once "new" developments in the 'burbs (built in the '50s & '60s) are now no longer shiny and new (septic tanks are failing, wells are running dry, highways are being expanded, once abutting, and now consuming once-wooded areas, fire and police services have disappeared, etc). And with the cost of gas having skyrocketed over the past 10 years, along with a resurgence in many cities since the early '90s (when Clinton came in and established enterprise zones to raze abandoned factories and blighted areas including deadly public housing projects, and replaced them with vibrant small businesses and mixed income housing), many of the so-called "rust belt cities" have been scraped of the rust, and now boast brand new office buildings and housing. The loss of "revenue sharing" (anyone remember that? Raygun got rid of it in 1987) to the cities devastated them and when the $$ finally came back under Clinton, some progress was made to clean up many areas.

What is missing from this formula is a halt to the continued and excessive McMansion-building and an increase of the building of low & moderate income housing to replace the crumbling houses that have been cleared away.

On the distaff side, many native city dwellers can no longer afford to live in their home cities after the gentrification in older neighborhoods triggered artificially higher housing prices for existing homes (and subsequent higher taxes) with the run-up construction of luxury condos and "town homes", coupled with the fact that utilities, insurance, food, etc., are much more expensive in the city than in the 'burbs... Thus there is a swap going on.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. The suburbs were mostly BUILT to be tacky and short-lived

The idea most builders had was to throw up as many houses as quickly as possible and lace them with big box stores and strip malls.

Ugliness is inevitable after a few decades.

[tanyev]

14. The demographics of Plano, TX are definitely changing, but I'm pretty sure

the ones that are fleeing are going to even further outlying suburbs. The towns north of us are booming.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. We had folks here fleeing to what you describe

which was dubbed "exburbia" (for example here - central and western Chester Co. and even as far west as the Amish-concentrated Lancaster Co.). But then came the news stories of complaints of the constant smell of wafting manure, cows mooing, roosters crowing, and crop spraying from the surrounding farms. Add to this increasing complaints about how the few areas where farmland was bought to set up gated developments, ended up with Home owner's Associations that enforced a myriad of what were increasingly considered "draconian stipulations" for living in those communities (e.g., only specific types of front yard landscaping was permitted, no fences, flags, wind chimes, etc), and some have quietly started migrating eastward towards the more populated areas again.

[rainbow4321]

19. Allen is the new Plano

My daughter told me that she's heard of several restaurants and stores moving out of Plano and into Allen.
I recently sold my Plano cul de sac home and moved into a downtown Plano apartment..loving it. By the train I use everyday, restaurants/bakeries/stores within walking distance. I don't even use my car except on the weekends.. Whole differant type of lifestyle than the cookie cutter neighborhoods in Plano.
The furniture store I went to this weekend is moving to another strip mall in. Plano cuz the one they are in is a ghost town. I don't know that it will do them any good but at least they are staying in. Plano for now.

[snooper2]

20. So you got one of those new apartments on 14th street?

I heard they were way overpriced...

Regardless, if you haven't been to Jorg's Cafe Vienna you should check it out...good food and the best sauerkraut I've had since my mom used to make it. (She was from Austria as well :) )

[rainbow4321]

23. First phase that is on 16th and J place

Is my complex.

They have a phase 2 that is on 14th street. From the apt research I did for 2 bedrooms in Plano a month ago they are about average costwise for Plano..least they are for the amenities I was looking for. 1200 square feet, 1,000/month.
It was more than the apt that drew me here, it was the DART station being at my doorstep and that we can walk to places. Multi level parking garage and other stuff.
Its really quieter than I thought it would be, I can't hear the train or any downtown traffic or sirens from the police or fire stations.
The maintenance staff rocks...it is soooo nice to put in a request and come home the next day from work and any problem is fixed. Don't have to take time off work or pay a repairman anymore. It was just little stuff that needed to be done but it would have cost me an arm and a leg to have a repairman come out and do the little job had I still been in the house.
I am working my way thru the food places downtown...and your suggestion is defintely on my list. I'm vegetarian but there has to be stuff there to try! Filmore Pub is pretty neat and they have vegetarian dishes. Been to Eastside Kelly's which was good, and Bakery Rejoice.
I wish that I had made the move here long ago. So much better than the cookie cutter Plano-drive-where ever-you-need-to-go.

[snooper2]

24. I think you'll like it...

They have some great imported beer as well...

I'm right down the street from you so hi neighbor :)

Work down off Summit Avenue, house in Park/Jupiter area. We used to go to the Filmore Pub every other Friday for happy hour but I can't do that anymore with a new baby or the wife would be gone :P

[tanyev]

25. Oh, I love all those apartments around the train station.

We thought about doing that, but we've got two cats and although the lawn is small, I do have room for a tiny little garden. Choices, choices.

[msongs]

16. when the "minority" becomes the majority will they still be called the "minority" ? hmm nt

[Dappleganger]

17. If your city doesn't have jobs in the inner core, it doesn't seem to work this way.

Jacksonville has very few jobs downtown, most of them are in outlaying suburbs and small 'cores' of living have built up around them. It makes for more time spent in traffic, current and future challenges for public transportation and even more disconnection.

I truly wish that a strong leadership and visionary group would fix this. :(

[Odin2005]

18. This is what happens when dumb Suburbanites vote for Pukes.

The smart people that can leave do so.

[depakid]

21. In the post peak oil world, suburbs will be the new ghettos

[pampango]

22. "for the first time, a majority of all racial and ethnic groups in large metro areas live outside

the city. Suburban Asians and Hispanics already had topped 50 percent in 2000, and blacks joined them by 2008, rising from 43 percent in those eight years. The suburbs now have the largest poor population in the country."

"Among its recommendations: affordable housing and social services for older people in the suburbs; better transit systems to link cities and suburbs; and a new federal Office of New Americans to serve the education and citizenship needs of the rapidly growing immigrant community."

"About 83 percent of the U.S. population growth since 2000 was minority, part of a trend that will see minorities become the majority by midcentury. Across all large metro areas, the majority of the child population is now nonwhite.

The suburban poor grew by 25 percent between 1999 and 2008 — five times the growth rate of the poor in cities. City residents are more likely to live in "deep" poverty, while a higher share of suburban residents have incomes just below the poverty line."

[boppers]

27. Less racism = More mixed communities.

The "white flight" of prior generations is less and less frequent, leading to a mix of people everywhere.

[Yeahyeah]

28. They're going to miss that suburban culture.