San Francisco, most diverse city in the USA? (Oakland, Fremont: public schools, university)

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by nature's message

I'm pretty sure Houston is the most racially diverse city in the country. The demographics are almost evenly split.

That's a good call, I agree. And ongoing, Houston will be outdistancing a number of other places diversity wise, given in migration trends of immigrants and American born younger families of color.

[rkwalton]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

On the other hand, San Francisco is:

#12 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander residents (pop 50,000+)"

#1 (94104) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of residents speaking Asian or Pacific Island language at home"
#4 (94129) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Northern European first ancestries (pop 1,000+)"
#6 (94134) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Maltese first ancestries (pop 5,000+)"
#15 (94104) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Albanian first ancestries"
#16 (94111) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of South African first ancestries (pop 1,000+)"
#19 (94130) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of European first ancestries (pop 1,000+)"
#23 (94103) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Soviet Union first ancestries (pop 5,000+)"

Still it's only #1 in one category and in the top 10 of only two of what you listed. San Francisco does have diversity. I never said otherwise. What I said was it's not the MOST diverse. However, thanks for the stats.

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by MikeNigh

Almost everyone I've met is either not originally from the USA or has lived abroad (not exactly normal for an american). Plus there are so many Asians here the whole area is nearly a china town. Lots of Mexicans who are regulars and speak spanish. Almost entirely spanish and japanese(?) radio stations.

As someone who has lived abroad I keep track of when I come across real immigrants or people who have really lived abroad (especially not just Europe). In the office I work at there is about 20 people and only 2 are american. Of those 2 they both have lived abroad. Is San Francisco the most diverse city in the USA?

First of all the percentage of the US-born population that has lived abroad is not generally considered part of the definition of "diversity" - although it is certainly an interesting metric for cities. Secondly why would you discount those who have lived in Europe? The number of Americans who have lived in Europe or even visited is still an extremely small percentage.

I heard an interesting statistic the other day - that San Francisco County (same boundaries as the City) is the only county in California where the #1 non-English language spoken at home is something other than Spanish (it's Mandarin). It came up in conversation but I'll post a cite if I find one.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by bentobox34

First of all the percentage of the US-born population that has lived abroad is not generally considered part of the definition of "diversity" - although it is certainly an interesting metric for cities. Secondly why would you discount those who have lived in Europe? The number of Americans who have lived in Europe or even visited is still an extremely small percentage.

I heard an interesting statistic the other day - that San Francisco County (same boundaries as the City) is the only county in California where the #1 non-English language spoken at home is something other than Spanish (it's Mandarin). It came up in conversation but I'll post a cite if I find one.

I'm pretty surprised that it wouldn't be Cantonese, rather than Mandarin, given the composition of SF's Chinese population, historically. Unless things have changed a lot over the last 10 years.

[Kurinji]

Originally Posted by LunaticVillage

The few middle class blacks in SF are token blacks living amongst whites in nicer city neighborhoods. Having a few token black gay guys in the Castro is an essential. A few black folks in SF with advanced levels of education who make good money who don't mind living in a sea of whiteness.

But there are a handful of middle class blacks living in single family homes in neighborhoods like the OMI a.k.a. "Lakeview" and Hunter's Point. Houses in these historically struggling crime-ridden ghetto hoods are actually quite nice and comparable to houses in quieter city neighborhoods like the Sunset. Gentrification has caused the prices of homes in Lakeview and Hunter's Point to double or even triple in the past two decades. The rest of SF's black population lives in the projects. The projects in the southern half of The City have a markedly lower quality of life than that of the projects in the heavy tourist traffic areas like the Fillmore.

But SF is so expensive that a household making 50K a year could be considered lower class which is absurd. Add to the fact that dirt poor most black SF residents are making 15K a year living off the government, working minimum wage or selling drugs.

I guess I was one of the "token blacks." Until recently, I lived in the lower Nob Hill area. During my stay, there was also a black guy in my complex (around the dot.com boom in the late 90s) and also a black woman about 2-3 years ago.

Being from L.A., one of the first things I noticed upon moving to SF was how different it was as far as there being fewer middle-class blacks here.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by MikeNigh

Is San Francisco the most diverse city in the USA?

Most diverse cities in the U.S,:

#1: Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
#2: San Francisco, CA
#3: Stockton, CA

I would have guessed San Francisco...

Spoiler

CLICK ME

[MikeNigh]

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

Most diverse cities in the U.S,:

#1: Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
#2: San Francisco, CA
#3: Stockton, CA

I would have guessed San Francisco...

Spoiler

CLICK ME

So more less the bay area has 1, 2, 3, and...

#6: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

Most diverse cities in the U.S,:

#1: Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
#2: San Francisco, CA
#3: Stockton, CA

I would have guessed San Francisco...

Spoiler

CLICK ME

What about Long Beach, CA? I've heard that city is really quite diverse.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

Most diverse cities in the U.S,:

#1: Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
#2: San Francisco, CA
#3: Stockton, CA

I would have guessed San Francisco...

Spoiler

CLICK ME

No, its not 'San Francisco' by itself, that's a ranking of Metropolitan Areas, Forbes and Huffington Post have a strange habit of just using SF by itself when making metro titles in rankings when really its San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA.

And that particular ranking was taken from a study done by Brown University using data from the 2010 Census.

Here are the Top 25 Most and Least Diverse Metro Areas:


Here are the Top 25 Most and Least Diverse Cities:


I created a thread on this study a while back:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-...erse-msas.html

Northern California is clearly the most diverse area of the country nabbing nearly half of the cities in the Top 25:

[CyanideThistles]

Originally Posted by silverkris

I'm pretty surprised that it wouldn't be Cantonese, rather than Mandarin, given the composition of SF's Chinese population, historically. Unless things have changed a lot over the last 10 years.

When I'm in SF, I barely hear any Mandarin in Chinatown or any Chinese/Asian populated part of SF. Some, but not a lot. Predominately Cantonese. When I looked at statistics of what languages do many English-as-a-second-language students in SF public schools speak, and it was mainly Cantonese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Not many Mandarin ESL students.

So I agree that it's surprising and I don't believe that Mandarin is the #2 most spoken language of SF.