Why has there been an exodus of black residents from West Coast liberal hubs?

[KamaAina]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0501-renn-reverse-great-migration-20160501-story.html

The Black Lives Matter movement has brought the challenges facing black America to the fore, and introduced racially conscious quality-of-life questions into the national debate. How are black residents in America's cities faring? And how are those cities doing in meeting the aspirations of their black residents, judged especially by the ultimate barometer: whether blacks choose to move to these cities, or stay in them?

Though results vary to some extent, the broad trend is clear: West Coast progressive enclaves are either seeing an exodus of blacks or are failing to attract them. Midwestern and Northeastern urban areas are attracting blacks to the extent that they are affordable or providing middle class economic opportunities. And Southern cities are now experiencing the most significant gains.

Portland is part of the fifth-whitest major metropolitan area in America. Almost 75% of the region is white, and it has the third-lowest percentage of blacks, at only 3.1%. (America as a whole is 13.2% black.) Portland proper is often portrayed as a boomtown, but the city's shrinking black population doesn't seem to think so. The city has lost more than 11.5% of its black residents in just four years. It's similar to Seattle, where the central city's black population has fallen as the overall region's has grown.

Lower down the coast, the San Francisco Bay area has lost black residents since 2000, though recent estimates suggest that it may have halted the exodus since 2010. San Francisco proper is only 5.4% black, and the rate is falling. The Los Angeles metro area, too, has fewer black residents today than in 2000.

The Bay Area figures don't even tell the whole story. Many African Americans have left Oakland for places like Fairfield, Pittsburg and Antioch, on the outskirts but still within the nine-county Bay Area.

[villager]

1. Is it even race-specific, as opposed to class-specific? Who below a certain income level...

...can even afford "average" Bay Area home prices now? (renting included...)

[HuckleB]

8. This may be the true bottom line.

Portland and Seattle have seen plenty of gentrification, too, leading to people moving out for a lack of funds.

I have no idea how people afford the prices they pay for housing. We make good money, but we could not come close to buying into the neighborhood where we now live, today. We bought our house in January '99. It's "worth" nearly four-times what we paid, at the moment. I always have to keep my chuckle to myself when I talk to "newer" neighbors who talk about how they don't have any money to go on vacation, or even have a night out. Neither would I if I had their mortgage payments.

[villager]

12. My mom still lives in the Bay Area house we were raised in in the 70's. That's what allows me

...to keep visiting my native Bay so often.

But there is no way any "middle class" families could afford to raise their kids on that same street now. The "five figure" houses are now all into the seven figures.....

[noiretextatique]

2. Money

simply put.

[kwassa]

3. Gentrification.

Housing costs rise, forcing those on more limited incomes out.

[LisaM]

4. This is happening in Seattle, too. It's becoming far whiter.

Evictions, housing costs, influx of tech workers with tech companies having a diversity problem, etc., etc. Seattle is becoming younger, whiter, and more male, pretty much mirroring tech company hiring practices. The new workforce are very liberal on things like LGBT rights and other social issues, a bit fuzzier on things like rent control and unions.

[wryter2000]

5. I live in Oakland

In a bad area, and we're becoming gentrified. Oakland somehow finished 2nd for highest rents in the country behind NY and ahead of San Francisco.

I'm sure the affordability factor has a lot to do with this. Once neighbors move off my street, more well-off people move in.

[underpants]

7. There was an article on DU just yesterday

That said that 1/4 of Bay Area residence were considering moving due to the high cost of living - especially housing.

[KamaAina]

9. Those figures are for the respective metropolitan areas.

In Oakland's case, that includes all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

[wryter2000]

20. Really?

Interesting.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to lump Walnut Creek and Concord in with Oakland. They're very different places, as are most other cities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

[KamaAina]

21. I guess because many people from Contra Costa commute to Oakland

although more do to SF.

[Prism]

28. Contra Costa is a weirdly shaped county

It includes nearish East Bay places like Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo, and Pinole. The Alameda/Contra boundary is between Albany and El Cerrito, so Berkeley practically bumps right up against it.

[Gormy Cuss]

39. It's because the data would then be at the same aggregation as standard Federal statistics.

Aggregating this way allows more comparative data analysis possibilities.

The MSA (metropolitan statistical area) for the bay area has both San Francisco and Oakland as well as surrounding counties; it's sometimes disaggregated to Metropolitan Divisions, with San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties in one and Alameda (including the city of Oakland) and Contra Costa counties in the other.

In each case though, the large city tends to drive the data.

[wryter2000]

41. Thanks

Good to see you

[Armstead]

6. The cancer of gentrification is displacing many people in many places

[UMTerp01]

10. I actually have a job offer on the table in Seattle for which I need to decide

I love Seattle. It is an absolutely beautiful city. I don't like hot weather so the fact that it doesn't get really hot there for any long stretch is great. I don't mind the frequent rain or overcast weather. I love the scenery so much. However, when I visited there for the job interview I was like wow there are like 5 Black people here. I like diversity and I have been told that while Seattle is very white and liberal, its the kind of white liberalism that is tinged with racial overtones. So, we shall see.

But I think that class issues are the bigger part of this. Seattle housing is very expensive. I say that as someone who also lives in an expensive housing market in the DC/MD/VA area. If you are not making a certain income level you are going to struggle in many of the areas listed in the article. And by certain income level, I mean if you aren't making $70,000+ in SF, Seattle, LA Metro you can't save and won't have much discretionary income. Hell I recently just moved into the 6 figure salary range and I don't know how people do it on less than 50K a year but thats what most people are doing.

[whatthehey]

14. I don't even include such places in job searches

And I'm well into 6 figures. Could I "afford" to live in LA, SF, etc as a newcomer? Probably, but in a tiny place with an hour plus commute, no room for the dogs or cars and paying twice as much as I do now for a nice middle class house in a cheaper less trendy city. Even Seattle was too much for me, and I was looking at the burbs.

[UMTerp01]

33. Exactly!!!

What I paid for my house here in the DMV area I could have damn near a mansion in some place like Atlanta or elsewhere in the south where the cost of living is so much cheaper (albeit wages are cheaper too). I had considered a move to Phoenix for awhile. Their real estate REALLY took a hit and about 5 years ago when I was looking their housing was so cheap, and I mean nice houses even in the Scottsdale area. But its just too damn hot there.

Anyway, yeah when it comes to what one can "afford" its a relative term. I put a certain percentage of pay into my savings and retirement with each check. I'm single with no kids so the only good tax return I get is for being a homeowner. I do have a partner and while he does not make as much as I do, he's still above the median income for Americans. But after I'm done paying my bills each month (mortgage, car payment, student loans, utilities, gas, food, phone, cable, insurance) its not THAT MUCH. Which is again why I don't understand how in the hell people who make under $50K even live in some of those places that those of us making 6 figures won't consider, and how the income inequality issue in this country is not better dealt with.

[skypilot]

15. I was seriously considering...

...moving to Seattle in the early 90s. Just wanted to make a big change in my life at the time. I visited the city twice and after the second time I decided that there was no fucking way. I'm black and I got tired of people on the street looking at me as though I had two heads. Also got really tired of walking into a store, restaurant, etc. and having employees greet me in a very apprehensive tone, as if I'd wandered in naked or something. It was extremely off-putting. I met some nice people in Seattle but every one of them was from somewhere else. Beautiful city but it is one of the last places in this country that I'd want to live even if I could afford it.

[hollowdweller]

11. On average black people earn less

So as property values go up then they have to move out.

[northernsouthern]

13. I think there is some reading in to the data here.

We got people from Louisiana back in the flood, (one was in our caucus running to be a delegate), so some people may be returning home. The CD (Central City is what they called it in the article, but never heard it called that that I can remember) in Seattle is becoming gentrified, and thus like in Cali, prices are going up. Some people may be moving out for other options when their homes are bought up or they are forced to move. Seattle has an issue with moving the working families further out as the wealthy buy up the neighborhoods. This has happened on Capital Hill to a certain extent as well for the LGBT community. And influx of people with money moved in to those areas pushing out part of what made it a great community. But I personally know of no person that has moved out to the east, my partner came from DC, where it is a larger black community...when I visit I am the only white person at the table. But that being said everything I hear say s people are moving here or up north (Minneapolis or something like that) with in her circle of friends. I think this article is talking about income, the much wealthier are pushing many out of their towns in may states. I have read in papers that the

The city's African-American community, however, is seeing a decline in numbers, with a 5.4% decrease between 2000 and 2010, according to the Census Bureau. Now, many residents of East Austin, the city's historically black quarter, are looking for ways to reverse the tide.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/30/living/black-austin-population-feat/

2010 Census data released so far this year show that 20 of the 25 cities that have at least 250,000 people and a 20% black population either lost more blacks or gained fewer in the past decade than during the 1990s. The declines happened in some traditional black strongholds: Chicago, Oakland, Atlanta, Cleveland and St. Louis.
The loss is fueled by three distinct trends:
• Blacks — many in the middle or upper-middle class — leaving cities for the suburbs.
• Blacks leaving Northern cities for thriving centers in the South.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-22-1Ablacks22_ST_N.htm

This chart shows that there is a decline over all...
?w=800&q=65&dpi=1&fm=pjpg&h=566
https://newrepublic.com/article/120370/five-graphics-show-why-post-white-america-already-here

Over the full century, among the 27 states with the largest total Black population, the highest rates of change were for Wisconsin, California, Michigan, Connecticut and New York, and the highest absolute growth were in New York, Florida, Texas and California. The lowest rate was for Arkansas, barely above the 1910 level, followed by Kentucky and Mississippi.

...

The overall story of the American Black population is one of great change and of continuity—a dramatic spread from the rural South to the large metropolitan North, followed more recently by a partial return to the South’s expanding metropolitan areas. It also reflects growing suburbanization in both the North and the South, and a moderate spread to metropolitan areas in less traditionally Black parts of the country.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/002490-a-century-change-us-black-population-1910-2010


I think this article is too focused on locations and not larger areas. I read recently that in the south the black population is actually declining over all (Mississippi and Arkansas were mentioned).

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. I suspect the people leaving are a pretty diverse bunch

whereas the people replacing the displaced residents are not.

Every single person I know who still lives in San Francisco proper is living in a house they inherited and Prop. 13 allows them to keep.

[hunter]

17. No offence to all the affluent white liberals here...

... but some of you are racists.

Black people make you uncomfortable.

Worse, many of the people with the big money, those directly responsible for gentrification, are overtly racist. They're pretty certain black people decrease the value of their property.

[Throd]

19. Certain Bay Aryans like the concept of minorities in the community...

...as long as they don't have much actual contact with them.

[KamaAina]

22. Bay Aryans?!

[Retrograde]

24. It's been used since I move here mid-70s

Often spelled Bay Areans, and mainly used in speaking.

[KamaAina]

25. But in this context, the "Aryans" means something.

[Throd]

27. It does.

Rich white liberals who pat each other on the back about how enlightened they are but only will come in contact with brown people if they are serving some exotic food they just read about.

They don't hold the working class (of any race) in very high esteem.

[LiberalArkie]

35. Bottom sentence says it all.

[thebeautifulstruggle]

32. racism is when one race thinks they are superior to another group because of race

blacks make some whites feel uncomfortable

whites makes some blacks feel uncomfortable

doesn't make either actual racists, there are other factors at play that cause people to be uncomfortable other than just racism


the article is much to do about income class levels

i am white, live in NYC, am middle class, and have to live with roommates because I can't afford to live on my own

[hunter]

34. Why do you consider yourself "middle class" when you have to live with roommates?

That doesn't sound "middle class" to me.

[ieoeja]

37. 1970s called. They would like their memes back.

Okay, your point was not slightly accurate from the '50s into the '80s. But it doesn't fit a bumper sticker subject line as well!

Republicans have, of course, never stopped making your claim. So perhaps I should have gone with, "Republicans called..." But it would not be true that they want the meme back. They've been pouring that propaganda into African-American communities for decades. They must be howling in laughter to see how strongly all their "liberals hate the blacks" arguments have taken hold at DU this election.

[hunter]

38. What are you talking about???

The "Malia Obama going to Harvard" crap is hanging out there for all to see.

And what do you know about me?

As a white guy, isn't it my privilige to trash talk other white guys whenever I damn well please?

Okay, I'll confess. I fled white guy world more than thirty years ago. I've been a minority white guy in the places I've lived for a long long time but my white privileges are still so fucking obvious it stings sometimes.

I grew up in white guy world. They used to call me "queerbait" and beat me bloody. I quit high school. Gatherings of white male teenagers still make me nervous. PTSD kind of nervous.

My own grandpa, a wonderful man in most every way, and very progressive in his time because he really did have homosexual and Jewish and black friends, he didn't attend my wedding because I was marrying, in his words, "a Mexican girl." Authentic U.S. Wild West White Guys just didn't do that. To his credit and probable salvation he got over that.

[Retrograde]

18. Dilution?

If you're just looking at percentages, remember that the West Coast has had a huge population increase in the last generation, and most of the influx come from East Asia, India, and Central America/Mexico. So if an area with a population of 100,000 (arbitary number to make the math easier) had a population that was 8% black in 1990, and that population did not decrease while the overall population went to 200,000, it would only have a black population of 4% today.

And then some African-Americans may just decide that they want to live in a more suburban area for whatever reason. This often frustrates people who think that everyone in a give class should want and do the same things, but what I like about California is that it largely doesn't have the old East Coast pattern of different ethnic groups clustered in different sections.

[MADem]

23. Oregon has a history of institutionalized (and Constitutionalized) racism. No wonder they can't

attract black people--they've never been friendly in that way.

http://gizmodo.com/oregon-was-founded-as-a-racist-utopia-1539567040

[Proud Public Servant]

26. I'd guess housing prices

Even DC - Chocolate City, ferchissakes- isn't majority-black anymore, and sky-high housing costs are to blame.

[SDJay]

29. My Wife and I Each Earn Six Figures

and we live in North County San Diego. Still, if it wasn't for the fact that we happened to have saved our money and happened to be looking for a house when the market imploded in 2008, we couldn't afford to live here comfortably. We've thought about selling our house, but then we realized we'd have to buy something at current prices which would be all but untenable unless we wanted to start giving things up, such as space and the like.

The house we live in now would be less than $100,000 in a lot of smaller cities in the middle of the country, so it's not as if we're in some mansion. It's a basic, three-bedroom/two-bath, 1,500 sq. ft. house. Nothing even close to fancy or big.

Big cities are all seemingly headed this way. If we were 5 years younger we would probably be living somewhere else even if we were generating the same incomes.

It's too bad.

[Prism]

30. Gentrifiers are starting to get their mitts on West Oakland and areas like north of Fruitvale

The next few years will not be pretty, I fear. West Berkeley is undergoing major transformation, and South Berkeley already has techies scrounging up the houses (they're still "relatively" cheap there).

I'm in El Cerrito/Albany and was glancing at houses. The closest I could manage is probably El Sobrante if I don't want to own a one bedroom closet. Which is a nice area and still oddly affordable, while not being crazy far from the city.

I feel like a lot of the dislocated poor and working class are moving north towards places like Vallejo and Santa Rosa.

Even the Richmond enclaves of upper middle class (Marina, San Pablo Dam corridor) are starting to spread inward towards the central area that have been traditionally black and Latino.

No one cares. Developers gotta develop, and the politicians are firmly in their pocket. Berkeley is losing its liberal flavor in favor of the monied classes.

I'm really pissed about West Berkeley at the moment. They took down some of my favorite local shops and restaurants in favor of luxury condos and high end boutiques. It's only a matter of time before all of West Berkeley looks like Fourth Street. A natural consequence of lesser known but still well-funded tech companies taking up residence in the industrial park.

[Throd]

31. Start buying properties in Richmond if you can.

[KamaAina]

36. Transit access in El Sobrante is tepid at best.

This may not be as big a deal for you as it is for me, though.

[FrodosPet]

40. Gentrification transforming face of Oakland

Gentrification is a complex issue, with both human costs and benefits. People should be able to live someplace clean and maintained, with access to jobs and local businesses. But how many people are forced out in the process?

[hr]

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Gentrification-transforming-face-of-Oakland-5387273.php

By Carolyn Jones Updated 8:10 am, Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The movement of middle-class people into low-income neighborhoods is profoundly and rapidly reshaping the urban core of the Bay Area, from San Francisco's Mission District to the farthest reaches of East Oakland, according to a sweeping report released Tuesday.

It's called gentrification, and those most adversely affected - the poor and working class, African Americans and Latinos - are suffering financially as well as physically, according to the report, "Development Without Displacement: Resisting Gentrification in the Bay Area."

~ snip ~

But for some, gentrification has been a blessing. Rising home prices and community investment have played a role in lowering crime, improving schools and bringing more amenities like grocery stores and banks, said Councilman Larry Reid, who represents East Oakland.

"Change is always good," he said. While gentrification once meant only more white people moving in, today many Latinos are part of the incoming middle class. Reid noted that his district is increasingly Latino as African Americans continue to move away. "Where we once had vacant storefronts, we now have Latino businesses. And in the hills we're seeing young families from San Francisco. It's definitely shifting."

~ snip ~