[sweendog024]

I currently go to school at Trinity College and live in a neighborhood where its essentially all Hispanic and Black. Out of curiosity I would like to know where most of the White people who still live in the city now live? and if anyone has any information about how Hartford became the city it is today demographically (that is to say how did it become the city with the 2nd highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans in the country) I would be extremely appreciative. I have pondered this question several times over my years at Trinity so I would be grateful for any responses.

[willow wind]

If you study immigration patterns, you will find that Puerto Rican immigration originally followed two threads. One was strong trade unionization. That means immigration went into those areas where there were strong labor unions, which Puerto Ricans saw as essential to protect their wages and working conditions. In the Hartford area that meant munitions/ armament factories and to a lesser extent garment workers.

The second was agricultural work. Puerto Rican law required that workers who came here on a seasonal basis ( and later stayed), came only on contracts which stipulated wages and living conditions. Those were provided by the owners of the tobacco fields to the north of Hartford.

Keep in mind also that Puerto Rico is a US territory, and its people are US citizens. That means no immigration restrictions. Like all immigrant populations, immigrants tend to cluster in the same area with people like themselves. Since rental housing and inexpensive rental housing is found primarily in cities , urban areas are where immigrants tend to go.

That's why that particular group settled in the Hartford area originally. What keeps them there as those industries and farming have collapsed and disappeared is another thread.

[JViello]

Huh...and all a long I thought it had something to do with NYC tightening their welfare laws before we did and causing a mass move. Well that's New Britiain, Waterbury and Meriden anyway.

[AnonChick]

I assumed it was because they got better salsa clubs. As for the OP:

"Where all the white wimmin at!"

They're at Quinnipiac. Every single one of them.

[nep321]

Hartford's white population is down to only about 14% of the city's total population, and shrinking. By 2020, it will probably be 100% blacks and puerto ricans. Anyway, most of the whites either live in the tiny downtown area (where the high rises are) or in the west end, between Asylum Ave and West Blvd.

[Leilani Vasquez]

Before I was divorced, we lived on a quiet street off Fairfield Avenue. That neighborhood, which is in the Trinity College vicinity is still pretty mixed.

Willow Wind is mostly correct.

[skel1977]

All the white people are in west hartford, newington, farmington, or surround towns to Hartford. Most haved moved. Im still here though

[sweendog024]

Does anyone have any information on what the city's demographics looked like here before the demographic shift took place? and by this I mean ethnic neighborhoods etc. I ask this because in driving around Hartford during the past couple of years I have seen a Celtic Cross numerous times in the neighborhood off of Maple Av where Sidewalk Cafe is; not to mention the names of the churches off of New Britain are St. Lawrence O'Toole, and St. Brigid (both very Irish names clearly) as well as the "Little Italy in the South End and an Orthodox Church in the area around Sidewalk Cafe as well makes me curious as to what the city was like prior to "White Flight" (for lack of a better word) and the increase of the Latin American population in Hartford.

[nep321]

Originally Posted by sweendog024

Does anyone have any information on what the city's demographics looked like here before the demographic shift took place? and by this I mean ethnic neighborhoods etc. I ask this because in driving around Hartford during the past couple of years I have seen a Celtic Cross numerous times in the neighborhood off of Maple Av where Sidewalk Cafe is; not to mention the names of the churches off of New Britain are St. Lawrence O'Toole, and St. Brigid (both very Irish names clearly) as well as the "Little Italy in the South End and an Orthodox Church in the area around Sidewalk Cafe as well makes me curious as to what the city was like prior to "White Flight" (for lack of a better word) and the increase of the Latin American population in Hartford.

Back in the 1980's, Hartford looked quite different than it does today in 2010. The entire South End was extremely italian, but now it's mostly Puerto Rican. Later on, the italians fled to places like Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Newington and Berlin, which contain some of the highest concentrations of italians in CT, if not the highest.

[JayCT]

This thread has gone way off topic. I am shutting it down. I am also going to review it for infractions. Thank you to those who have responded to the orignal post. JayCT, Moderator