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Boston is very lily white. You have english-american yankees and you have irish people... not much else is welcome, but there are some others struggling to make it there.
This forum is very interesting to me. I have lived in many of these areas, but i don't see a lot of cities even mentioned. On the places i have lived:
Chicago: Diverse in population, but relatively segregated. Most interesting is the large eastern European populations. Also large Indian, Hispanic, and Asian presence both in the city and suburbs. Suburbs are much more conservative than city and less diverse in ideas and personalities., mostly people in the suburbs seem to concerned with how much money they have.
Boston: Very diverse at younger (college) ages. Becomes more white bread and conservative in older populations. maybe also a money related thing?
LA: diverse in many respects, politically, personalites, and race, but quite segregated.
Rockford, IL (pop about 250k) probably the most segregated, least interesting population i have encountered. WASPS on east, african americans on west. if it weren't for a small vietnamiese/loasian population in the southeast, i wouldn't have survived.
San Francisco: More integrated than LA in terms of race, but clearly very homogeneously leftist politically. I was ok with that, but for arguments sake, less diverse.
Salt Lake City: Very politically divided and charged. Vibrant gay community (suprisingly). University community diverse overall, outside of city center, much more homogeneously white bread religious views. City still very white overall, but politically and personalties more interesting.
Cleveland, OH: suprisiingly, the most integrated population i have seen thus far. the city itself doesn't have much to offer, but the people are great and very open. many of the suburbs are more white bread, but the city itself and the historic east side is very integrated and diverse..
I have also spent short amount of time in portland, OR and Seattle. both are similar and seem to have a type or two, progressive ideals, but i wouldn't really think diverse per se.
So what do people know about Houston, Atlanta, San Diego, Wash dc, other medium to large cities
To give Salt Lake City a run for its money is the city of Santa Ana, CA. Santa Ana has 337,977 people living in it so it is a bit larger than SLC. Santa Ana is 80.07% Hispanic or Latino and of those it is overwhelmingly Mexican. The population density is 12,451.9/mi² (about the same as Chicago) and the population per housing unit is 4.6, higher than any other US city over 50, 000 people. The city is a known for its large illegal immigrant population and is also the most crime ridden city in Orange County (although it isn't a Compton or Detroit or something).
Spanish is the real official language of the city and it is a stark contrast to other areas of Orange County. Nearby Newport Beach is 92% white and has a median income of $147,697. This is just one example but the rest of Orange County's communities are usually either majority white or Asian. Its an unknown city that is often not talked about, but it has a substantial population of over 300,000 people and is smack in the middle of a 3 million person county. Santa Ana could EASILY be the most undiverse city in this population range.
I always find it pretty funny the way cities like Denver, Seattle, Boston or Portland get such a bad rap for not being diverse enough. I guess we're so used to cities with hugely overinflated black and hispanic populations that it's become sort of out standard for diversity.
I've heard so many people ask me why I want to go to school in Seattle, "There are like, no black people there!", when in reality cities that are 8-15% black are closer to the national average than cities with hugely overrepresented black populations. Let's not even get into how, oddly, no one seems to want to count East Asians in the diversity bundle...
Not to mention, I find cities that are more representative of the national demographics(About 67% White, 15% Black and Hispanic, etc.) tend to be more progressive minded and have far fewer racial issues.
Salt Lake City itself does have about 180,000 people, but what is considered Salt Lake City (including suburbs) has about 1.1 million. Anyway...
Salt Lake City proper (which has 180,000 in population) has a 20% Hispanic population, combined with a suprisingly large (considering the circumstances) gay community. So it's not as bad as it could be. However, once you're in the suburbs it's much more homogeneous.
Boston is very lily white. You have english-american yankees and you have irish people... not much else is welcome, but there are some others struggling to make it there.
I wouldn't say lily white.....according to the 2000 census the city wasn't even 50% white...
I always find it pretty funny the way cities like Denver, Seattle, Boston or Portland get such a bad rap for not being diverse enough. I guess we're so used to cities with hugely overinflated black and hispanic populations that it's become sort of out standard for diversity.
I've heard so many people ask me why I want to go to school in Seattle, "There are like, no black people there!", when in reality cities that are 8-15% black are closer to the national average than cities with hugely overrepresented black populations. Let's not even get into how, oddly, no one seems to want to count East Asians in the diversity bundle...
Not to mention, I find cities that are more representative of the national demographics(About 67% White, 15% Black and Hispanic, etc.) tend to be more progressive minded and have far fewer racial issues.
Great post!
It's True Portland, Denver, Boston, Salt Lake City, Seattle etc. have high white populations %wise...................but in the case of Seattle in particular and most large west coast cities - races coexist in a tolerant and cohesive manner.
Minus Portland - there are very friendly people in Portland for the most part but you can run into some serious racial problems as there is no black community or presence what-so-ever and the outskirts will feel very deep south to you if you are in the wrong town. - I myself and others I know have encountered a few suspect people in Oregon......and I really hate having to slap folks up on my vacation but anyways.
Blacks in Seattle are very well educated, wealthy, and do quite well for themselves. For instance Seattle’s king county executive (Ron Sims) is black and the mayor from 1989 – 1997 (Norm rice) was also black even the Seattle Center director (Robert Nellams) is African American.
Racism and racist views are shunned in the Seattle area and you will be taken as a complete idiot with that type of backwards thinking and run out of town in a heartbeat in Seattle. Black and Whites coexist particularly well on the west coast and Seattle is one of the best examples. Also the black population % is misleading in Seattle, you can go to areas of town where you won’t see a white person in site, but the beautiful thing is there is predominantly black areas that have coffee shops and restaurants with a few white people sitting in them enjoying their day and vice versa. The other city to the south in the Seattle metro – Tacoma - has a very large presence of black people.
Could Seattle improve – yes in some aspects but so could every other city in America but in Seattle’s case IMHO the pros out way the cons by a long shot.
Minneapolis is surprising diverse and has one of the most established gay communities in the country. Most of our minorities live in the suburbs. Try looking up Brooklyn Park for example. We also have the second largest concentration of Hmong people in the country. MSP has always been known to be very liberal and democratic.
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City Diversity
but anyways.
