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Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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The notion that no Blacks are present in ANY major commercial or mixed use district for that matter, within the city proper of DC, is absolutely false.
Now I don't know if you all are referring to just the residents of the neighborhood or the entirety of people walking around Friendship Heights/Tenleytown, but either way both instances you will see Black people somewhere. Is it the majority, heck no, but we out there. Whether it's the employees of the stores, the movie theater, and restaurants there or people just passing through on their morning jog you will never ride past there and see "NO" Black people.
My ex is Eritrean and her extended family lives right off Wisconsin Ave in the townhouses on that off street behind Cheesecake Factory. They are Black and they are wealthy. Either way yes Blacks are present.
I live right by Tenleytown and yes, you will see us.
There are very few places in DC where you won't see black people. IDK why people who don't live in DC are trying to argue with people who live in DC on this point.
This has been the most confusing part of this. All the people who live in DC are saying one thing and the people who don’t live in DC are saying we’re wrong. It’s crazy and I’ve never experienced it before. I can understand people talking about their experience, but to say they know more than us is crazy.
I’ve argued that I don’t think what currently exists or what is coming to a city isn’t urban or not vibrant compared to another place, but I’ve never claimed the changes that may have happened to a place since I’ve visited were lies. That’s just crazy and disrespectful.
That looks nice, before I went to Atlanta and learned about the sunbelt generally... I assumed that’s what all of it looked like
Atlanta was built like every other city up the east coast in the early to mid 1800, It had grown as a decently sized city by 1950 when cars and even air conditioning came more frequent.Its urban fabric of which Sweet Auburn is apart in the core is still evident.
Those street grid portions MD showed were empty lots like in many cities(even DC)had disinvestment due largely to issues of white flight and the end of segregation as blacks had more options to live further away from city issues.
So at least in Atlanta's case,a lot of it is infill. Thats why I informed you when you said you think it will be harder for Atlanta to have cohesive and organic growth,that hasnt been the case any different than DC.
If anything it adds new construction designed to fit in with the surrounding existing areas, Especially when its large scale infill projects that takes up several blocks.
Much of Atlanta's growth is in Midtown and Buckhead. Those areas(especially Buckhead)had their biggest growth after 1950 through today. Downtown has largely been ignored.If it wasnt for Georgia State UInivesity increasing its footprint since the the mid 1990s, downtown's current small boom,would likely been longer coming than it was Downtown Atlanta is already the nost urban but lacks quality of living standards that most people want. As that continues to get better I see Downtown being able to rival Miami,Boston,Philly etc.
Its in the works now so unless the economy get worse ,I think that will happen within 5-10 years easily.
It does.But its on the border of some of those areas you posted.Not all of Edgewood is considwered Sweet Auburn even .
That area I posted is all Sweet Auburn where it meets South of Peachtree. The Atlanta Life Insurance building is one of the oldest Black owner insurance companies in America.The building was purchased by GSU.The original building still standing next to it was built by Alonzo Herndon who was born a slave and became the first black Millionaire in Georgia in 1910.
I've lived in both D.C. and Atlanta. D.C. wins out on cultural attractions but Atlanta is MUCH more affordable, has better weather and more centrally located. Traffic for both is bad but D.C.s public transit is much better. The job market for D.C. is always going to be more stable.
I do think its interesting that DC is one of the few (if only) major American city with no white culture, even though white people have lived in DC and have been the majority group since its inception. I guess you could point to the DC harDCore scene (long gone) and the federal government/the Hill subculture (includes blacks and other races/ethnicities so I would call this white culture).
Meanwhile you can drive an hour up to Baltimore or an hour into Virginia and find plenty of European-American culture/local white cultures.
I'm assuming you mean no native White culture and yeah it seems like they all decamped to the suburbs a long time ago. Same thing happened in Atlanta; Cabbagetown used to be a mill village where the mill workers and their families lived back in the day. It got gentrified a long time ago.
When you look at the educational attainment rates in the cities (not metros) of Atlanta and DC, they are so high because of the large populations of educated White transplants living within the city.
To me to be awhite city or a black city a majority of people have to be of that race. Otherwise you’re kind of going out of your way to ignore most of the city and those cultures which can also be large and influential. Honestly if you’re not 55% white or black it’s hard for me to really see you as a “____ city” You’re ignoring all the parties, events, kickbacks, nodes, customs of just too many people -I understand why people disagree - just my two cents. At the absolute bare minimum I think you should At least be twice as big as the next biggest group.
I wonder if white people still see DC as a black city?
For what it's worth, this post is from a former Charlottean (Hispanic guy) who moved from Charlotte to DC about two years ago or so.
Your question made me think of that exchange I had with him about two years ago.
I'm assuming you mean no native White culture and yeah it seems like they all decamped to the suburbs a long time ago. Same thing happened in Atlanta; Cabbagetown used to be a mill village where the mill workers and their families lived back in the day. It got gentrified a long time ago.
When you look at the educational attainment rates in the cities (not metros) of Atlanta and DC, they are so high because of the large populations of educated White transplants living within the city.
Yep. I remember seeing some of the original residents up until the very early 90's. I had never seen a majority poor white neighborhood in a majority black city.It was really odd but a cool unknown bit of culture about Atlanta few know about
To me to be awhite city or a black city a majority of people have to be of that race. Otherwise you’re kind of going out of your way to ignore most of the city and those cultures which can also be large and influential. Honestly if you’re not 55% white or black it’s hard for me to really see you as a “____ city” You’re ignoring all the parties, events, kickbacks, nodes, customs of just too many people -I understand why people disagree - just my two cents. At the absolute bare minimum I think you should At least be twice as big as the next biggest group.
I wonder if white people still see DC as a black city?
I dont think they do.Its just not what it used to be and its seemed to have happen so fast. I dont see it happening as fast but I see the same thing in Atlanta's future.
I see Atlanta with 40% black , 40% white ,and I can see the Asian population being at least 10% and Hispanic 10% within 10 years.
Yep. I remember seeing some of the original residents up until the very early 90's. I had never seen a majority poor white neighborhood in a majority black city.It was really odd but a cool unknown bit of culture about Atlanta few know about
There was a decent amount of the original, poorer whites even through the late 90s/early 2000s.
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