Criteria to be considered "Black Mecca" (living, cost, better)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Howard Sanders had garnered the trappings of American success: a degree from Harvard Business School, a position with a high-powered Manhattan investment firm and an apartment on Central Park West.
But Mr. Sanders, who is black, felt so strongly about one day owning a home in Harlem, where he had grown up, that it became a condition of his marriage proposal. Today, he and his wife, Karen, and their daughter, Samantha, live in a five-bedroom brownstone with a Japanese garden on West 147th Street.
''I don't have to live next to a white family,'' Mr. Sanders, 32, said. ''I effectively have integrated. I've gone to predominantly white schools. I work in a white firm, and I can live anywhere I want. It really is psychologically soothing for me to be in Harlem.''
What started in the early 1990's as a trickle of young African-American lawyers, doctors, professors and bankers moving back to Harlem and other historically black neighborhoods seems now to have reached the flood stage.
Black professionals are snatching up 5,000-square-foot brownstones off avenues named for black leaders. And their financial commitments extend beyond new boilers and restoring woodwork; they are also looking to bring the amenities they had found in SoHo and the Upper West Side to neighborhoods that, while on the upswing, are still marked by abandonment and a dearth of shops and restaurants.
Detroit didn't surprise me, but Philly at second definitely did.
You can probably buy a house in parts of West and Southwest Philly for 40 or 50 Grand. And unlike a lot of denser cities, most of the housing stock in Philly is fee simple, attached.
Philly ranking higher than Atlanta doesn't surprise me because Philly isn't transient like Atlanta. Most of the Black people you meet in Philly were born in Philly. There's a decent chance their parents were too. Most aren't leaving Philly.
Last edited by BajanYankee; 09-30-2015 at 03:42 PM..
You can probably buy a house in parts of West and Southwest Philly for 40 or 50 Grand. And unlike a lot of denser cities, most of the housing stock in Philly is fee simple, attached.
Philly ranking higher than Atlanta doesn't surprise me because Philly isn't transient like Atlanta. Most of the Black people you meet in Philly were born in Philly. There's a decent chance their parents were too. Most aren't leaving Philly.
Very true; it's a city full of natives and not many transplants at all, comparatively speaking. Very different from what I'm used to.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,131 posts, read 7,581,348 times
Reputation: 5796
Quote:
Originally Posted by blkgiraffe
Beautiful, If only blacks invested more in our neighborhoods. Areas like 4th Ward in Houston or Shaw in DC would still be remaining. Sad.
I hear Anacostia is getting hit hard with gentrification aka modern day colonization lol
I was shocked when I went back and saw Barry Farms was gone. That place was ROUGH, but still. Did they ever redevelop the land?
Barry Farms is not gone yet. I ride past it every day, and yes there are redevelopment plans ready once raized but I don't have those available. Maybe MDallstar may have them tucked away somewhere.
There are about 330,000 Black people in Metro Boston. Look into Milton, Brockton, Cambridge, Malden, Lynn, Somerville, Salem, Everett, Chelsea, Randolph and Boston neighborhoods like Mattapan, Roxbury, Dorchester, Roslindale, Hyde Park and others in that SE portion of the city. I think for the CSA, it is including the other cities in MA like Lowell, Lawrence, New Bedford, Worcester and NH like Manchester and Nashua, among others nearby that have some Black folks.
given the footprint, its actually kinda' lower than i thought.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
