Question: Where are the most racially integrated communities in USA?

[smallprint]

I would like to hear from other DUers where they think the most diverse, integrated neighborhoods in America are, in terms of racial and ethnic tolerance, social mixing, communication across color lines, etc.

I'll start by saying here in Chicago, this "diverse" city is about as segregated as they come, with everyone stuck in their own little bubble neighborhood. However, Hyde Park on the south side, Wicker Park on the west side, and Uptown/Rogers Park on the north side all have some semblance of racial harmony, however superficial it may be.

Go ahead and chime in, anyone... I'm curious

[wryter2000]

1. Oooooh-oooh! Waving hand madly

Oaktown, CA. My lovely home is one of the most diverse cities in the US. Maybe the most diverse. You can hardly find a block where there isn't a mixture of ethnic groups. We're also very tolerant of different sexualities.

We also have the second greatest number of artists per capita (next to New York).

Editted to add more shameless bragging.

[rucky]

40. Albuquerque, NM

Hispanics, Anglos, Navajo. It's been that way for so long, most New Mexicans don't even notice. I was pretty ignorant about race until I went to college in Dallas (probably the most segregated city in the U.S.)

[tjdee]

2. Montclair NJ...

is in my neck of the woods, and it is very diverse.

Any time of day you can walk into a restaurant and find not only patrons of all different colors, but employees of all colors. Not to mention the schools, etc. There are also a good amount of interracial families and children, which I find awesome--I have been places and two or three different interracial families will be sitting around me...I don't think I've seen that anywhere else I've been. I think intermarriage is one of the best cures for racism, but I digress, LOL...

It's a college town too, so there are alot of youngies...there are really poor people, and really rich people, Yogi Berra lives there, Bill Bradley lived (still lives?) there...there are a lot of Manhattan couples just moved here with their kids...

Overall, very literate, very involved folks. Some of you may remember that I talked about seeing "No War" signs on houses, that's where I was.

I just love it to pieces and if I could afford to live there, I'd be there in a second. None of y'all move there either, LOL, I believe they're having a problem with parking and full schools.

Course, I don't live *in* the town, so the view from inside may be different.

[musiclawyer]

3. Oakland/Berkeley

You said communities, so I'll run with that. It has to be Oakland/Berkeley as they are kind of one seamless town--hands down. Nice places to live, even in the flatlands now. Beautiful views from the hills. Lesbian capital of the west coast too.

[Logansquare]

32. Ha, reminds me of a story

A friend of mine (from Chicago) was on the BART and overheard an African American woman complaining loudly about how she couldn't get away from white people in Oakland! It turns out this woman was from Chicago, too. Yes, sadly Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the country. Unfortunately, some people still like it that way.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Takoma Park, MD

Whenever I go there, I get this wonderful sense of community; and it's not because everybody ignores each other's sex, race, or sexual orientation...it's because everybody celebrates the diversity.

It's also an official nuke-free zone...

[MountainLaurel]

38. Love this place

I head to the street festival every year. TP appeals to my inner intellectual liberal.

[CarlBallard]

5. Tacoma

I live in the suburbs of Seattle so that's pretty white. But if I'm playing in Tacoma there's definately a great mix of people. I don't know if it's the Army or what.

[44wax]

6. Stockton of the great Central Valley in California is truly diverse.

Large ethnic communities of every kind. Hmong, Khmer, Vietnames, Lao, Pakistani, Sikh, Italian, Irish, Mexican, Pilipino, Sikh, German, Portuguese, African American, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Greek, Peruvian, Nicaraguan and any many others. Stockton, CA was the inland port and gateway to the southern Mother Lode and has been a metropolitan city ever since. Unlike huge cities across the country, Stockton is segregated based on money and not race. So if you were poor in South or East Stockton back in the day your neighbors on either side of you probably were of a different ethnic group.

[Xithras]

33. Stockton is the armpit of California

Seriously, I've lived near Stockton most of my life and have yet to find one redeeming quality to the city. 80% of it looks like a crime ridden slum, the other 20% is full of prissy rich snobs, they have a shamelessly anti-environment Republican rep in Washington, and they just opened GEORGE W BUSH JR. Elementary School in honor of our "esteemed" President (their quote, not mine). Stockton is a formerly glorious port city that never quite figured out what to do with itself after the railroads killed the need for a major inland port.

[TheBigGuy]

7. the "Old City" of Sacaramento

this is the old pre WWI gridded city where the streets have letters and numbers A, B, C, D, E, F, J, K, 21st, 22cnd, 23srd, etc.

The place has whites, blacks, latinos, asians, gays, straights, yuppies, poor folk, old and young, all in the same area more or less. There are certain parts of the old city which are more "one way" ...where there are concentrations...but the place is actually fairly diverse and the boundaries between the concentrations are pretty fluid. Nothing at all like the severe racial segregation one sees in the Midwest.

[ikojo]

8. It sure isn't St Louis, Missouri that's for sure

St Louis City and County are among the most segregated (by race and class) areas in the US. I think they may rank just below Boston.

I live in one of the more "liberal" suburbs and it is segregated racially and economically. Blacks tend to live north and whites tend to live south. Around the sixth grade whites tend to stop sending their kids to the local public school and they either move or send them to private schools. FYI: Just 30 years ago this suburb was mostly Jewish until the Jewish community migrated to West County.

One of the most common questions in this area (regardless of your age) is: Where did you go to high school? You could have a PhD in physics from MIT and all they care about is where you went to freakin' high school! It's a way of pegging you economically.


:eyes:

[TheBigGuy]

9. "Where did you go to high school"...Louisville, KY, too...

"One of the most common questions in this area (regardless of your age) is: Where did you go to high school? You could have a PhD in physics from MIT and all they care about is where you went to freakin' high school! It's a way of pegging you economically."

This, verbatim, could be said of Louisville, KY, too. Another metorpolitan area that is very very segregated by social class as well as race.

[Don_G]

19. Doss HS In Louisville, KY

It's more a matter of Football and Basketball loyalty than socio-economic questions. I live here and have for some time now....

A few areas in Louisville are quite diverse; Downtown, Central Louisville (around the University of Louisville), Highlands/Cherokee Park area and a few other areas of the city.

Otherwise, you have your normal mix of Jews, Catholics, Baptists, Greek Orthodox and athiests living in fear of being visited by and/or getting stuck with a "Fundie" of any type.

I like Louisville and enjoy knowing that not every smile I see is a sham.

[carolinayellowdog]

10. California, Hampton Roads, Tampa/St. Pete

Within the last year I've seen a list of the five most and least segregated metro areas. Was not surprised that four of the five most segregated were on the Great Lakes: Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee. Nor was it surprising that three of the five least segregated were in California: Bay Area, Sacramento, and LA IIRC. But was quite surprised to see my native Norfolk area among the five least segregated, since many neighborhoods are almost all white or black. Guess it is the military influence. And was even more surprised to see Tampa/St. Pete, where it seemed like every neighborhood was monochromatic. This speaks volumes about how bad the rest of the East is, IMO.

PS-- on edit-- from personal observation the Raleigh/Durham region seems to have more social interaction between the races than Hampton Roads, and definitely more than Richmond.

[smallprint]

11. very interesting observations

i agree with the great lakes vs. california thing-- i've lived in both areas and the contrast is stunning

btw, what does IIRC mean?

also, thanks to everyone who is writing anything... keep em coming

[Bossy Monkey]

35. IIRC = if I recall correctly

which calls for me to say "if I recall correctly" again as a punchline, but it just reads back stupid

[newyawker99]

21. Congrats carolinayellowdog!! 600 posts

:toast:

[angee_is_mad]

39. black and white? or white and nonblack?

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. Hawaii, hands down.

pretty much anywhere.

NYC runs a darn good second; definitely tops just for sheer representation of nationalities and ethnicities, but NYC isn't quite as integrated as Hawaii.

But it's a close call.

[KamaAina]

31. Hawai'i is so diverse that rich haoles (whites) form tiny little enclaves

like Lanikai on the windward side of O'ahu, near Kailua. Here the debate about "assimilation" is turned on its head; we're the ones who (sometimes) "keep to ourselves" and fail to "assimilate".

Then again, it's hard to be segregated when any given individual may describe her ethnicity as "Chinese-Hawaiian-Portuguese-German-Irish".

Diversity alone, however, hasn't served as a panacea. The campaign against same-sex marriage, for instance, was led by a Hare Krishna of Samoan descent, now a city councilcritter. The head of the Christian* Coalition is a Japanese-American, the Repuke Lt. Gov. is Native Hawaiian, and so on.

[kodi]

13. trick question. US military installations

.

[Syn_Dem]

14. Hey ikojo

a wave from a fellow St. Louisan :hi:. I live in Ladue, what about you?

[billbuckhead]

15. DeKalb county in Georgia has to be a contender.

:grouphug:

[radwriter0555]

16. Los Angeles is pretty good...

can't really complain.

[Breezy du Nord]

17. At the library, I see many black/white couples

nt

[mitchtv]

18. Elmhurst and Jackson Heights ,Queens.NYC

zip code 11373 made it in N. Geographic mag as the most languages spoken in said areaa . On the number 7 line IRT national immigrant trail

[mix68]

20. Hyde Park in Chicago

it's a middle class neighbor, well-integrated, locals, students, professionals

great mix of people !

[Chilly_Willy]

22. Near the DC area in the suburbs

It's awesome so many different opinions and best of all restaurants with really great food from different countries all over the world.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

23. Cambridge, MA

Though gentrification has increasingly changed the landscape here. I went to school with kids from 40 countries. I currently live down the street from a Mosque, shop at a local bodega, pick up produce at a Korean market, and eat at a wonderful Portuguese restaurant right around the corner. Somerville, a neighboring city, is also a wonderful mosaic of cultures.

Boston itself used to be segregated, but if you go to Dorchester (the city's largest neighborhood), and Allston/Brighton (the student ghetto), you'd see that it absolutely isn't. Almost half of the people in Boston were born outside the US. Like most big cities, segregation is more class-based.

[arwalden]

24. Columbia, MD --- A "Planned" Community

[StaggerLee]

25. Lansing MI

Yeah I have heard that about Chicago- Makes me not want to visit.
:(

[XNASA]

26. My town, Homewood IL, is extremely diverse.

It's like the UN out my front door.

We're all lower to upper middle class. We closely mirror the overall percentages of the ethnic make-up of the country.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more diverse place than Homewood.

With one exception. About 80% of us are Democrats.

[ZenLefty]

27. Aurora, Colorado

It's a suburb of Denver. I've read in a magazine somewhere it's one of the most racially diverse cities in the US. Visiting it and you won't be left with much doubt. From young to old, all shapes sizes and colors. Caucasians are somewhat of a minority there.

[FlaGranny]

28. I just moved from an area that

was totally diversified. It had a mixture of many nationalities and all races. It was a lower middle class neighborhood, and I moved because of "downsizing" our expenses. Vietnamese people bought my house. My neighbor across the street was Chinese. I had Hugarians behind me. My next door neighbors were Haitian. Cubans on the corner. Etc., etc. I would say 50% of my old neighborhood was immigrants and about 30-40% nonwhite. A nice, safe, attractive neighborhood, with no racial problems as far as I could tell. This was a small unincorporated region of Palm Beach County. The kids are not bussed for integration as the neighborhoods in the area are already integrated so the schools are too. I do not include the entire county. I know there is still KKK around here, although I haven't heard too much about them recently. There are also gaited enclaves where well-to-do mostly white only people live. There are other neighborhoods which are mostly minority and poor.

[smallprint]

29. i found this interesting little web page

it's a list of "liberal-friendly" and "unfriendly" communities in the usa, with commentary. pretty informative, especially since there are a lot of different opinions. many of the comments mention the degree of racial segregation or integration of the areas, but not all.

http://www.turnleft.com/geo.html


on edit: here's another little article about the 2000 census
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:sOINCQ57RSwJ:mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/newspdf/guardian1.pdf+racially+integrated+census&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

" The results show that the five most segregated
cities are, in order: Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Newark and\
Chicago.

The most rapid increase in segregation since 1990 has been in
Milwaukee, followed by Chicago, Detroit and Birmingham."

snip

"In cities such as Seattle and Portland, Oregon, in the northwest,
the trend is towards more integrated neighbourhoods.

Several cities in the South - such as Norfolk, Charleston,
Augusta, Greenville and Jacksonville - have relatively low levels
of segregation, partly because they all have large, integrated
military populations."

end

[trof]

30. Rat cheer

The 3 subdivisions, maybe 300 homes, that occupy our little peninsula in coastal Alabama are 100% lily white.

[Maine Mary]

34. We're probably the LEAST diverse State

Or pretty darn close to it. Mostly just Canadian French, some Irish and lots of WASPs. Why? :shrug: I'd like to see more diversity though.

[shanti]

36. sacramento has a good racial mix

it wasn't always like this, but has changed over the years. i believe there was a story in the bee a couple years ago, that said that sactown had a large amount of interracial children being born here. that about says it, doesn't it? my child is one of them;-)

[noonwitch]

37. Southfield, Michigan

If you can afford to live there and pay the very high property taxes. The rest of the Detroit area is about as segregated as Pretoria during apartheid. My little block in Warren is fairly diverse, but most of Warren is white and known for it's idiot racist mayor, Mark Steenburgh (R-of course). I'm really annoyed at my union (UAW) for endorsing the bastard, who is mostly known for punching one of his teenaged son's black friends and calling him the n word.