Sacramento - Amsterdam of California (Redding, Rancho Cordova: home, buy, gated)

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

Sacramento is considered the most integrated city in America. That is why there are very few neighborhoods with a distinct ethnic character.

Most diverse, perhaps. Are you sure you live there? There are many pronounced neighborhoods.

[sacramento916]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Most diverse, perhaps. Are you sure you live there? There are many pronounced neighborhoods.

Yes I do. There are obviously areas with more ethnic character such as Stockton Blvd with the Vietnamese, parts of South Sac with the Mexican influence, parts of Freeport with the Chinese/Japanese influence. However, what I meant, is that the neighborhoods are not as clearly delineated as some other cities. Sacramento tends to be more integrated.

[Majin]

If you don't think Sacramento is integrated, take a trip to LA, that is one of the most racially separated cities I have ever seen. Very diverse but very racial secluded.

[Curmudgeon]

OK. Just wanted to make sure. I guess I stand corrected.

[wburg]

This set of maps on Flickr provides a graphic way of showing ethnic distribution in American cities:

Race and ethnicity (2000) - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/sets/72157624812674967/with/4981417821/ - broken link)

Each racial category is a different color. In some cities, the lines between racial neighborhoods is sharp and pronounced. In others, like Sacramento, they blend into each other so much it just looks like a smear, hard to determine which is which.

I haven't been to very many of the cities on this list, but Chicago (for example) has a very pronounced set of racial lines--you go over a highway overpass and suddenly all the business signs (even the billboards) are in a different language. In Detroit, you can tell just where 8 Mile Road (the start of the line between black and white neighborhoods--neighborhoods to the north were segregated, those south were not. There's a cluster of white population in Hamtramck, a small city completely surrounded by Detroit, which I am told is kind of a "hipster district" not unlike Midtown.

All sizes | Race and ethnicity: Sacramento | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/5010983534/sizes/o/in/set-72157624812674967/ - broken link)

In Sacramento, the "Favored Quarter" to the northeast is predominantly white, except for traditionally long-integrated neighborhoods near the old Air Force bases around North Highlands and Rancho Cordova, but through the city of Sacramento itself there is mostly a multi-cultural smear, often with a predominant color but suffused with the rest--Asian predominance in Southside Park and parts of south Sacramento, Black/Latino neighborhoods in Oak Park and North Sacramento/Del Paso heights, the dense white yuppie enclaves of Midtown. But even the most exclusive chunks of the city are far from totally exclusive--and even lily-white Roseville has a notable Latino presence over by the railroad yards.

Sacramento once had more pronounced ethnic neighborhoods--fairly distinct enclaves of Chinese, Japanese, African-American, Mexican, Italian and Portuguese neighborhoods (this was back when Italians and Portuguese weren't "white")--pretty much through the 1960s-70s when racial exclusion covenants and redlining were finally banned. Having talked to old-timers who grew up here in the 1930s-50s, even then, racial lines were a little blurry within those neighborhoods--everyone went to everyone else's celebrations, ate each other's food, went to the same schools--although things got distinctly whiter east of Alhambra Boulevard.

I have to admit I feel a strong burst of civic pride when a self-admitted advocate of racial separation gets creeped out by Sacramento's level of integration. Makes me feel like we're on the right track.

[Majin]

Originally Posted by wburg

I have to admit I feel a strong burst of civic pride when a self-admitted advocate of racial separation gets creeped out by Sacramento's level of integration. Makes me feel like we're on the right track.

Couldn't of said it better myself.

[sacramento916]

Originally Posted by Majin

Couldn't of said it better myself.

Right on. We're all on the same boat. That's definitely one thing I love about Sactown.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

Just food for thought.

I wish there was a way we can pass a citywide legalization of marijuana just for the city of Sacramento, or just for the central city of Sacramento including the neighborhoods of downtown, midtown, alkali flats, oak park, etc.

I think it would immediately bring in a lot of investment and tourism dollars to Sacramento. Put Sacramento on the map as a destination and also bring a very international crowd into town. We would become the Amsterdam of California.

What do you guys think?

I think it would just create more crime in the area. Making a drug legal doesn't change the effect it has on people, nor the types of people who just want to stay high all the time and not deal with reality. You can't assume it would draw the same types who manage to pull it off overseas.

The idea that marijuana is a benign drug is vastly overstated. It decreases cognitive ability (short term, at least) while giving the user a false perception of the opposite effect. We don't need more people running around in that state of mind, or driving cars, in addition to the alchohol problem.

Also, with the recent increase in hair-sample drug testing (which can trace several months of use), it would create more even people incapable of getting hired.

Sacramento is already too full of thugs & drugs, and this would just invite more chaos. Ask anyone who's lived next to chronic smokers if it's a pleasant experience. They tend to be criminals in other regards, and legalizing one substance wouldn't change that.

[KC6ZLV]

Originally Posted by wburg

In Sacramento, the "Favored Quarter" to the northeast is predominantly white

That is outside the city. The article in Time was referring specifically to the City of Sacramento. When you get out into the suburbs beyond the city limits there are many areas that are very racially segregated. The Census block in which the house I've been trying to buy is 92% white, 1.72% hispanic. .07% black, and the rest are Asian, probably of Japanese ancestry.

[wburg]

KC6ZLV: The map shows metro areas--it's really difficult to get an accurate picture of an American city without considering its halo of suburbs. So I'm referring to the Sacramento metro area, not Sacramento in particular. Many actually were racially segregated up until shortly before our lifetimes and still bear that legacy.