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I would suggest they find a booming city (Detroit need not apply) and just try to buy or rent a house in a number of randomly selected suburbs. In the D.C. area, I understand even traditionally poor Prince George's county is becoming expensive. Silicon Valley has ridiculously high real estate prices; not just San Francisco or San Jose but everywhere in between. The suburbs of New York aren't at all cheap either. Where ARE the poor people going? Well, there's second-rate unrecovered cities like Newark and Paterson, NJ and Allentown and Bethlehem, PA. There's the traditionally poorer suburbs (though like I said, many of them are getting wealthier so the poor might get pushed out). There's poorer states. Probably other places as well. One thing we aren't seeing, but these reports are implying, is an inversion where the city becomes wealthy and the suburbs become poor. In some cases, the city core is becoming wealthier while the inner suburbs remain poor, but that's slightly different.
Or are poor people leaving or more like working-class/lower middle-class? Not sure about other metros, but for the NYC metro I suspect the latter. Long Island had something like a 10% decline in the non-hispanic white population (the overall population slightly increased). On paper, that hints at possible white flight. But those who left had a quite bit lower income than those who moved in. Where'd those who left move? Haven't checked numbers, but anecdotally, the Carolinas are particularly popular. Florida still is, too.
Or are poor people leaving or more like working-class/lower middle-class? Not sure about other metros, but for the NYC metro I suspect the latter. Long Island had something like a 10% decline in the non-hispanic white population (the overall population slightly increased). On paper, that hints at possible white flight. But those who left had a quite bit lower income than those who moved in. Where'd those who left move? Haven't checked numbers, but anecdotally, the Carolinas are particularly popular. Florida still is, too.
Especially today with whites not being the affluent group, "white flight" is going to have to be relabeled what it always was which is class flight. The poor white trash got left behind in the inner cities when all the whites flighted away. Depends where you live, of course, but the Asians pretty much kicked the whites out of much of the Bay Area just because they're wealthier than whites are, and there's a huge number of them.
The race component is actually kind of interesting... Pleasanton for example diversified much later than the Peninsula did. Cupertino was 96% white in 1970. White population peaked in 1980 at 31k. Now Cupertino is 31% white with a white population of 18k. The Asians displaced nearly half the white population. White flight.
Pleasanton, meanwhile, was really white for much longer. In 1970, it was 98% white. White population peaked in 2000 at 51k. Today it's 47k and 67% white (60% non-Hispanic). Between 2000 and 2010 the population also grew by 7,000, so it's not like the white flight from Pleasanton is being caused by population decline.
There's certainly a racial component. The poor white trash city of Campbell (median income in '99 dollars $67k; two-thirds of the median income in adjacent Cupertino) is still almost 80% white. White barrio? Anyway, minority groups clustering into racial enclaves like Campbell always interests me.
Or are poor people leaving or more like working-class/lower middle-class? Not sure about other metros, but for the NYC metro I suspect the latter.
I think you're right there; the poorest stay in the projects and aren't going anywhere as long as the welfare holds out. It's the next rung up which gets pushed out.
Prince George's County is poor? I know that inside the Beltway is poorer/more working class versus areas outside of the Beltway, but I don't know if it is or was a poor county in general. It's median household income is just above the Maryland median income.
I think these articles really should say what gentrification's and present day urban renewal's impact has been on metro areas, instead of the wording given to such articles.
But it has high cost of living. I believe rents average almost $2000. Not too bad if you have a government contracting job paying 100K, but tough on average wage earner.
But it has high cost of living. I believe rents average almost $2000. Not too bad if you have a government contracting job paying 100K, but tough on average wage earner.
Prince George's County is poor? I know that inside the Beltway is poorer/more working class versus areas outside of the Beltway, but I don't know if it is or was a poor county in general. It's median household income is just above the Maryland median income.
It's not poor now, it was poor in recent history. P.G. county used to be known for several things: minorities, poverty, crime, and some of the most brutal cops around.
Especially today with whites not being the affluent group, "white flight" is going to have to be relabeled what it always was which is class flight. The poor white trash got left behind in the inner cities when all the whites flighted away. Depends where you live, of course, but the Asians pretty much kicked the whites out of much of the Bay Area just because they're wealthier than whites are, and there's a huge number of them.
I think what Nei was referring to is that modern "white flight" in the Northeast is actually mostly the elderly leaving. Lower-income, suburbanized whites in a place like Long Island, after all, are pretty likely to be retirees. The "white flight" could thus largely be a result of elderly whites dying, moving south for warmer climates, moving in with children elsewhere in the country, etc.
FWIW, it seems like lower-middle/working class whites are highly unlikely to make a long-distance move, unless it's something they do by age 30. It's only once you climb the income/educational scales a bit does the importance of family ties lessen, and mobility increase.
It's not poor now, it was poor in recent history. P.G. county used to be known for several things: minorities, poverty, crime, and some of the most brutal cops around.
It's the highest-income majority black county in the country. Like a lot of the black suburban counties around Atlanta, it's sort of a mixed bag. Some areas are poor and black (and getting worse, as people gentrified out of DC are getting pushed here). Other areas are solidly middle-class and black with huge numbers of federal workers. There's still some (declining) white populations around Bowie, and of the northern third of the county (which includes College Park) is a pretty even mix of black, white, and Latino these days.
Especially today with whites not being the affluent group, "white flight" is going to have to be relabeled what it always was which is class flight. The poor white trash got left behind in the inner cities when all the whites flighted away. Depends where you live, of course, but the Asians pretty much kicked the whites out of much of the Bay Area just because they're wealthier than whites are, and there's a huge number of them.
The race component is actually kind of interesting... Pleasanton for example diversified much later than the Peninsula did. Cupertino was 96% white in 1970. White population peaked in 1980 at 31k. Now Cupertino is 31% white with a white population of 18k. The Asians displaced nearly half the white population. White flight.
Pleasanton, meanwhile, was really white for much longer. In 1970, it was 98% white. White population peaked in 2000 at 51k. Today it's 47k and 67% white (60% non-Hispanic). Between 2000 and 2010 the population also grew by 7,000, so it's not like the white flight from Pleasanton is being caused by population decline.
There's certainly a racial component. The poor white trash city of Campbell (median income in '99 dollars $67k; two-thirds of the median income in adjacent Cupertino) is still almost 80% white. White barrio? Anyway, minority groups clustering into racial enclaves like Campbell always interests me.
LOL at $67k in 1999 dollars being "poor white trash." Even given the Bay Area's high cost of living, that's still significantly above the national average. I just looked up the numbers, and the median family income is just a touch lower than Berkeley's (comparing median household and per capita incomes isn't fair given Berkeley's high student population).
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