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This may be the best option in the New England states in terms of a city with at least a substantial Black population that is middle class and has good schools: https://www.townofmilton.org https://www.miltonps.org
Its northern near Boston has some predominantly Black areas that are middle class. Overall, it is about 12-14% Black and has a Black median household income of $99,333(10-14 info).
In terms of the NYC area, suburban areas like South Orange-Maplewood and Montclair in NJ; Baldwin, the Valley Streams, Elmont, Lakeview, Wheatley Heights and South Nyack in NY are some with above average to predominantly Black percentages and are in solid to very good school districts. Almost all of them have pretty high Black median household incomes or at least have areas that do as well.
True. But just like you stated for Blacks moving up North from the South if you have a plan you can make it work. There are still good opportunities in Rust Belt cities for Blacks if they go into the right way. Even in Baltimore.
Most of the people in these cities are struggling because they grew up there, had no plan, and never got out of public housing or they're working poor and can't afford to move down South. Generally, if we move anywhere we have family, friends, or some fraternal association that makes it easier for us to do so. Not too many of us just moving blind.
There are places I could move to and bide my time, and something would work out eventually, and then there are places I would definitely suffer if I were to just pick up and move flippantly. This is why a lot of Blacks that moved down to Georgia suffered initially; no education, no plan, not sure of what they're going to do and a lot of us end up on welfare or some other situation when we could have just stayed put. Or you do get a job and wages are low there and you have a large apartment or you're renting a house but you live an hour away in a poor suburb. It is better than what you had back home but your quality of living is worse because of your commute.
I found that out real quick moving here. So yes, I miss Northern infrastructure. But I don't want the low quality of life I had up there. But I could just as easily end up with a low quality of life here as well, just under a different name!
Just curious, but what about a place near your hometown like Twinsburg? It is about 17% Black and has a Black median household income of about $66,004(10-14 info) for the city. When looking at by Twinsburg City SD boundaries, the percentage is about 19% and the Black median household income is $67,925(10-14 info). This is a good school district as well, that could allow you to go to Cleveland for employment as well. Black students make up about 25% of the student enrollment in the district too. I believe that is where former NBA player James Posey went to school.
Elected Officials (just outside of the city, but in the SD, I'm assuming)
I think the issue may be its built environment, but it is an area community with good schools and a substantial Black population that is generally solidly middle class.
Just curious, but what about a place near your hometown like Twinsburg? It is about 17% Black and has a Black median household income of about $66,004(10-14 info) for the city. When looking at by Twinsburg City SD boundaries, the percentage is about 19% and the Black median household income is $67,925(10-14 info). This is a good school district as well, that could allow you to go to Cleveland for employment as well. Black students make up about 23% of the student enrollment in the district too. I believe that is where former NBA player James Posey went to school.
Elected Officials (just outside of the city, but in the SD, I'm assuming)
I think the issue may be its built environment, but it is an area community with good schools and a substantial Black population that is generally solidly middle class.
Short answer is that I'd take Twinsburg, Hudson, or any of the Cleveland exurbs over the Akron suburbs. Cleveland suburbs are just as bad as Cleveland proper. Akron suburbs are what Cleveland suburbs used to be 30 years ago. But Summit County could look like Cuyahoga County in another few decades if Akron can't turn things around. Basically Cleveland is a lot like Detroit where there's downtown, and then there's the rest of the city at your own risk. I'll explain more in detail below.
Twinsburg does not seem bad. Only thing I remember is a big VA center but I can't find any information it now. That would have been back in the eighties. Quick drive into Cleveland if you get bored.
A Black person can still live in Akron or Cleveland, affordably, but, they may have to deal with a lot of urban blight, vacant blocks, petty crime, etc particularly in Cleveland proper, where the major economic centers have moved out to exurbs like Twinsburg and Avon. So they might have to drive to get amenities.
Copley-Fairlawn they treat us okay but that is actually a higher income area that serves the upper middle class. Particularly Copley. I am very familiar with those area. I don't know the demographics of the area; typically the East side of Akron is rough but the suburbs to the East are very White. And the West side of Akron is rough as well but it does not look like the East side because, historically, the West side was an upper middle class area. The East side looks exactly like what it is the West side is deceiving. The suburbs off of the East side are rural, the suburbs off of the West side are urban. I never had any problems with any of it; granted places to the North like Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, and Tallmadge I don't care for, we're just not welcome out there, but it changes once you get up towards Twinsburg and Hudson. You need a thick skin dealing with some of the Akron suburbs to the North, IMHO.
Short answer is that I'd take Twinsburg, Hudson, or any of the Cleveland exurbs over the Akron suburbs. Cleveland suburbs are just as bad as Cleveland proper. Akron suburbs are what Cleveland suburbs used to be 30 years ago. But Summit County could look like Cuyahoga County in another few decades if Akron can't turn things around. Basically Cleveland is a lot like Detroit where there's downtown, and then there's the rest of the city at your own risk. I'll explain more in detail below.
Twinsburg does not seem bad. Only thing I remember is a big VA center but I can't find any information it now. That would have been back in the eighties. Quick drive into Cleveland if you get bored.
A Black person can still live in Akron or Cleveland, affordably, but, they may have to deal with a lot of urban blight, vacant blocks, petty crime, etc particularly in Cleveland proper, where the major economic centers have moved out to exurbs like Twinsburg and Avon. So they might have to drive to get amenities.
Copley-Fairlawn they treat us okay but that is actually a higher income area that serves the upper middle class. Particularly Copley. I am very familiar with those area. I don't know the demographics of the area; typically the East side of Akron is rough but the suburbs to the East are very White. And the West side of Akron is rough as well but it does not look like the East side because, historically, the West side was an upper middle class area. The East side looks exactly like what it is the West side is deceiving. The suburbs off of the East side are rural, the suburbs off of the West side are urban. I never had any problems with any of it; granted places to the North like Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, and Tallmadge I don't care for, we're just not welcome out there, but it changes once you get up towards Twinsburg and Hudson. You need a thick skin dealing with some of the Akron suburbs to the North, IMHO.
Just curious, but what about a place like Kent? I ask because it is a college town.
Just curious, but what about a place like Kent? I ask because it is a college town.
We're 9% in Kent. Seems like a nice place I was there once I vaguely remember it. Beautiful landscape, nice campus.
The thing about Ohio, is that it is overwhelmingly the way that it is and this is despite a lot of Blacks having moved up there for labor during the Great Migration that also included a lot of other people moving up there from places like West Virginia, as was the case in Akron. You have Black neighborhoods but it is not Black in the traditional sense in any city as of late. May have been that way in the seventies but things have changed a lot since then. So it sort of a microcosm of the issues you have in areas like Michigan and Illinois.
Knowing what I know about the Midwest, having grown up there and then continuing to stay there after my college years what I've experienced over the years I doubt I'll ever move back there. If it were progressive on things I'd put up with it and deal with it but it being as backwards as it is on things I see no reason to put myself in that position again, after having experienced what things are like in other places. But that's me. I will eventually have to come to terms with it because I still have a lot of family up there and it is an issue of forgetting what you've come from I'm just not sure how to reconcile it. Much rather just pay the extra money and deal with things somewhere else with more opportunity than to go back to that.
what neighborhood? Most of the Caribbean neighborhoods in Brooklyn used to be Jewish/Italian neighborhoods.
I live in Midwood. Midwood is also next door to Borough Park. Good luck buying a house in East/West Midwood and Borough Park. The Jewish there normally sell and buy homes among eachother in these communities.
The Jewish communities in NYC now aren’t the same as the Jewish communities in the early 1900s.
We've done New York City vs Chicago threads before. Given the idea that both cities are pricing out Blacks, and everyone is moving back South doing a reverse migration what cities are the best for a Black person right now. Should a Black person consider moving to either city right now? If not, and they still want to move up North which city should they consider?
And are these cities as bad for Blacks as the media continues to insist that they are or is the media perpetrating this idea because someone does not want Black people up North anymore? For years we heard New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, DC, now all we hear is Atlanta, Charlotte.
Just to answer the first question, since it wasn’t directly answered, I’d say yes. Some still are. It may just come down to what a person is looking for.
In Chicago, Kenwood or outer SW neighborhoods like Beverly and Morgan Park may work. For suburbs, perhaps parts of Evanston, Oak Park, the Homewood-Flossmoor area and Evergreen Park, among maybe some others, may work in that regard.
Even in an area like Detroit, the Farmington/Farmington Hills area, West Bloomfield, parts of the Plymouth-Canton SD and few other suburban areas would/could work. Farmington is the only one out of these mention that offers walkability though.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 02-08-2018 at 09:17 AM..
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