White Flight - Myth or Reality? (Oakland, Irvine: fit in, luxury, high school)

[AlongTheI-5]

My employer recently allowed me to transfer from Santa Ana to the Roseville (Sacramento area) office. I can actually afford a stand alone house here, just waiting to see how low prices will go. Definitely high price flight for me.

[JesusisLord]

Originally Posted by katenik

inglewood runs the gamut, from really ghetto to decent to quite nice. typically, the older the neighbors, the nicer the neighborhood. also, the worst parts of inglewood tend to be those with lots of apartment buildings, such as the one immediately to your right as you exit the 405N at la cienega, and the neighborhood surrounding inglewood high school.

Most of the tough and hard hit areas of Inglewood are on the very south end and eastside areas of the city, whether it's the Morningside High area or the bordering areas of South Los Angeles and Lennox. I do property inspections so I'm quite familiar with the huge gap between prosperity and poverty in the city.

[JesusisLord]

There's a huge influx of Latino immigrants here since the 90's, and they will live in any city they can afford to live in. They don't diminish property value themselves, except when there's cheap cars on the driveway, or an unmaintained yard. The homes begin to deteriorate and need major remodeling after being 60-100 years old, you heard me right I have seen numerous homes in the Los Angeles County area that are this old. Actually most of them. Most of the older homes are found in the city of L.A. and I can tell when I inspect the homes, the age of architecture was completely different back in the day. If the area isn't positive many times instead of people becoming homeowners they won't stay long and the home is left unattended. There will be numerous owners on the property in a five year span, with none of them giving the home any renovation. I've driven through South Gate which has very nice areas, and the lawns are kept clean and you can tell some homes have been repainted. But once you cross Alameda street and the Blue Line, Watts is a whole different ballgame, with lawns and homes needing serious touchup.

[Sassberto]

White Flight was really a sixties phenomenon. These days affluent whites are moving back to the cities. I think for the most part that term is probably due for retirement.

The people who are leaving are doing so because of housing costs, primarily. Cities are much safer than they used to be and people are less racially divided than 40 years ago. However we as a country are more and more divided by class and income. Most whites today would be thrilled with a middle-class black family on their block, but would be unhappy with low-income whites moving in, for example.

[Miami305Kid]

White flight has happened in basically every major American city. Baltimore, Atlanta, Detroit, Newark, Miami, New York, Memphis, New Orleans, etc. Black flight is also taking place in Southern California as many Mexican immigrants become the majority race in the area. If you're black in parts of LA you can get shot for walking into a Mexican neighborhood so many blacks are moving back to the south. White are also starting to move back into areas that were once considered "ghetto". Whites are now moving into parts of Oakland and Harlem when before they would be living in the hood now they can live there in luxury. Basically no one wants to be a racial minority so they move to a place where they can be surrounded by people of thier race.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

White Flight was really a sixties phenomenon. These days affluent whites are moving back to the cities. I think for the most part that term is probably due for retirement.

The people who are leaving are doing so because of housing costs, primarily. Cities are much safer than they used to be and people are less racially divided than 40 years ago. However we as a country are more and more divided by class and income. Most whites today would be thrilled with a middle-class black family on their block, but would be unhappy with low-income whites moving in, for example.

I agree up to a point: if my 'low income' neighbors were otherwise unobtrusive (quite, kept their yard clean, etc), I would have no problem with them no matter their race/ethnicity.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Miami305Kid

White flight has happened in basically every major American city. Baltimore, Atlanta, Detroit, Newark, Miami, New York, Memphis, New Orleans, etc. Black flight is also taking place in Southern California as many Mexican immigrants become the majority race in the area. If you're black in parts of LA you can get shot for walking into a Mexican neighborhood so many blacks are moving back to the south. White are also starting to move back into areas that were once considered "ghetto". Whites are now moving into parts of Oakland and Harlem when before they would be living in the hood now they can live there in luxury. Basically no one wants to be a racial minority so they move to a place where they can be surrounded by people of thier race.

You just described the Irish of 150 years ago as well: when a family from Ireland moved into certain enclaves back east------oftentimes the 'free persons of color' as well as the other Whites would leave.

[nickdahammer]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer68

People are moving around. Years ago Silverlake was mostly latinos and gays. Now it's tons of white hipsters, lots of gays and some latinos. Echo Park gets more and more white people every week. I wouldn't get out of my car there 15 years ago. Southern Los Feliz was considered the ghetto until it got it's gentrification about 10-15 years ago. Now celebs live there. There's a current gentrification wave (and it's a big one) moving across Hollywood. I remember Yucca used to be a scary crack neighborhood, now it's really nice. Yes, Downtown has seen a huge influx of those of an entirely different demographic (people like me). It will continue. It seems we all keep swapping neighborhoods. The good thing is that gentrification keeps rolling. Highland Park, Long Beach, Eagle Rock and many others, all part of the gentrification train.

Most of the areas discussed above have been nasty all my life.

I think another variation of this 'flight' is the cost of gas and the housing crisis. A story on NPR detailed how homes away from jobcenters are undesirable because it costs so much to commute. The story was about the Washington DC and the surrounding areas, but the same applies here.

Buyers are purchasing homes closer to the City with transit on their minds, not to mention the fact that central cities are much safer these days than before. Lots of suburbanites are making the move (I did about 20 years ago- best thing I ever did).

[loveCali]

Great thread this one.
Is any of the cities Inglewood, Lynwood or Compton improving at least a bit from the criminality point of view? Are the schools there as terrible as we all heard? Is safety on the streets around the schools really an issue?

[cynwldkat]

It's been a "white-flight" for years.....For various reasons!