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I calculated the census numbers for the top 10 cities between 1960-2000. The black population reached it's peak in 1970 and then declined after that year. Why is that? What is it about bigger cities that's turning Black Americans away?
Location: Metro Atlanta (Sandy Springs), by way of Macon, GA
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Originally, black people left because it was supposed to be less racist up north and had better job opportunities. Now, many of those jobs have left those northern cities, and southern cities have boomed, offering more comfortable living (nice house with a large yard) for a lower cost of living and better job growth than several northern metros that used to be doing much better. Many also feel more comfortable returning back to their "southern roots"
Increasing percentage of educated blacks preferring the quieter and less hectic lifestyle that the suburbs provide. Cities have become more hectic and inconvenient, especially for those with families.
I was going to say. I think some blacks are just doing whites did earlier, moving to suburbs. Movies, etc have kind of started promoting the suburbs as some repressed/conformist nightmare-land but in reality life-satisfaction is fairly high in the suburbs and many people still have the dream of the picket fence, etc.
My take on this is, gentrification is on thing black are being priced out of neighborhoods that were once majority black; moving to the suburbs of their cities. Also, many black people are moving to the suburbs because we are "better off" than we once were. Furthermore, black people are moving back to the south in search of better opportunities, more family oriented environments....etc. Finally, the 10 largest today weren't to same 10 they were years ago, places like Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, which have relatively small black population have replaced cities like Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit...etc, that had a larger percentage of black people.
I don't know about other cities, but in Chicago the blacks are moving to some of the inner ring suburbs, which are now more affordable due to the crap economy. Don't think that those homes/apts. they leave behind on the southside will be filling up with affluent upstanding citizens anytime soon.
I don't know about other cities, but in Chicago the blacks are moving to some of the inner ring suburbs, which are now more affordable due to the crap economy. Don't think that those homes/apts. they leave behind on the southside will be filling up with affluent upstanding citizens anytime soon.
That's mainly what's happening in Baltimore. However, Baltimore has a abundance of rowhouses that can be, and a lot that are being restored. They also have have neighborhoods that are being completely torn down and rebuilt.
All great answers and great point about the change in the top 10 cities over that period of time, as if you look the rankings during each census, there is change in which some cities with high Black percentages(I.e.-Detroit) aren't in the top 10 anymore eventhough some of those cities are the "Blackest" they have ever been at this present time.
Also, many Black folks have moved to smaller metros, cities and towns in say the Northeast, Midwest and even out West. For instance Rochester NY has the highest Black percentage of the major cities in NY and at 41% Black, has a percentage that is on par with or even passes that of many major Southern cities.
Also don't forget that many cities are seeing huge increases in Hispanic growth that isdisplacing the residents of many once black neighborhoods as we see in New York, LA, Chicago, Detroit and others I assume. So some places it's a decline in actual numbers, others just a decline in share of the overall population.
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