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.
I like Austin, it's a chill place, and folks are generally nice, my perspective isn't wholly AA, but I will say their's so few black people in Austin that I often stumble into African refugees for the black folks that do live there, a high African refugee/Foreign black presence typically means you have a low black population i.e places like Minneapolis and Portland Maine and Oregon.
One thing that will always separate Austin from other part's of Texas do to how wholly not affordable it is, not only is the only historic black community becoming gentrified but the entirety of West Austin and the core is very expensive, Blacks in Austin in the next 20 years will be relegated to Austin East of Springdale and the suburbs, and i'm not even saying black majority neighborhoods, but where Blacks are a plurality or the 2nd largest group.
Blacks in Austin, and to some extent minorities in Austin are like a 1. European city or 2. Hispanics in the South. The most prosperous parts of Austin is the core of the city, minorities can be found in the East, A bit in the South and in the far North, similar to how many European cities have their poorer minorities at the edges of the city in the cities suburbs.
Hispanics are at roughly the national average in the South, no one intrinsically knows this, and that's because both Texas and Florida are in the South albeit the edges, so throughout the South you don't fee the Hispanic presence except in a few large cities then you get to the edges of the South like Florida and Texas and like wham your hit with a massive Hispanic presence you would have never thought was there.
As a result, if Austin had the exact same demographics today but blacks had a historically black area West of 35, for example just north of Downtown it would have a better perception.
As it stands right now, Asians/Blacks/Hispanics are relatively relegated to the fringes of Austin, and Austin comes like a Neopolitan icecream.
East of I-35, is very diverse(I mean this in actually diverse way it's probably 25% White, 25% Black 45% Hispanic and 5% Other), West of I-35 is equivalent to stereotypical suburban America (60% White, 30% Hispanic, 5% Black, 5% Other), West of MoPac and even a bit East of MoPac you can start counting the Black/Asians on your hands and as long as you don't go far South or far North you can do it with Hispanic folk as well (85% White, 10% Hispanic, 5% Other).
I do think as Austin continues to grow significantly it will get more and more minorities, and it will also likely get blacker and more Asian, as a good economy is a good economy, which I think Black people could and would definitely benefit from.
The main issue killing Austin is infrastructure which leads to it being not to affordable. If their was a major East to West highway in the city or even something like 969 after 183 being converted to a 3 by 3 lane limited-access highway (would be very expensive), or maybe that could be replaced with commuter rail going East to West a lot more affordable housing could be constructed in Eastern Travis County which is physically much shorter distance Downtown than all of Williamson County.
Places like Manor, Hornsby Bend, Webberville even heading towards Lockhart it's way to empty.
Basically as long as Growth moves East and South of Austin to some extent, which both have high minority populations, especially Kyle/Buda/San Marcos heading towards San Antonio which is the are that seems to be picking up the most in recent years, you'll probably see a lot more minority growth. I don't have much hope for West of I-35 because Hill Country and already established wealthy areas, but NE, SE and East of Austin with proper infrastructure would probably be more heavily minority areas.
Everything I’ve seen and read indicates that sometimes Tejanos and Cubans serve as stand in for the white population in their respective areas.
In general I find far more white influenced enced and light skin Hispanics further southwest/west and more FOB, recently arrived Hispanics in the south/southeast.
In the northeast there are a lot of Hispanics who one might think are black or light skinned black and there historically more aligned with African Americans politically and socially, that history counts.
Wasn't Selena Quentanilla Tejana? I don't think they look whiter than newer Mexican immigrants necessarily
dont black people generally like Denver?..like when theyre there. It's just not very black and doesn't have black neighborhoods really. I went to Denver and thought it was okay-nothing special, felt predominately white but pretty diverese... Nice to visit Colorado, but thats it.
As far as black culture/presence Denver is easily above Portland....
One of my frat brothers is from the Denver area (and he's BLACK Black lol) and another (NOLA native, current DC resident) visited Denver about two years ago and said he really liked it.
One of my frat brothers is from the Denver area (and he's BLACK Black lol) and another (NOLA native, current DC resident) visited Denver about two years ago and said he really liked it.
When I was leaving Denver at the airport one of the TEA guys was a black guy from Roxbury. I stopped and chatted and asked him how he liked it out here and he said it was really nice and he’d been there 25 years. My dad was also big on Denver. I’ve never heard a bad word about it from black people so I see it more as a Vegas in terms of black culture and QOL, not a Portland or even Austin really.
When I was leaving Denver at the airport one of the TEA guys was a black guy from Roxbury. I stopped and chatted and asked him how he liked it out here and he said it was really nice and he’d been there 25 years. My dad was also big on Denver. I’ve never heard a bad word about it from black people so I see it more as a Vegas in terms of black culture and QOL, not a Portland or even Austin really.
True. And the big recreational marijuana industry gives Denver additional appeal for those who partake.
Lots of black people, including myself, like Austin. Just like lots of black people like San Antonio. It’s just not in the conversation compared to DFW or Houston let alone metros of similar size throughout the southeast. Redlion said earlier than when he and his friends went to Austin, you counted the many Black people you see. Which is not surprising to me. Every time we visited Austin, most of the Black folks we saw were in and around Highland Mall. Back in the early 2000s, a running joke was the only time you saw Blacks in Austin was during the Texas Relays.
Austin doesn’t have the reputation as being a city that is attractive for Black people. Which is funny because like was said earlier, the smaller cities outside of Austin metro to the east and north of it have a nice sized black population. But to the West of it, The black population significantly drops to the point of disappearance. It really is on that South by southwest border. I don’t know if it is because it’s a tech city or what. Nothing wrong with the Austin built organization. Certainly isn’t the weather. I think Austin weather is much like DFW than Houston as a matter of fact. Maybe the lack of vibrant known black district or history that nobody can connect to. Many in Texas know just broadly say East Austin but really know nothing about it. Even the young black gi’s at Fort Hood preferred Houston or Dallas over Austin and Austin is obviously considerably closer.
I do think Austin is getting a little more popular as of late. Will never be a Dallas or Houston. But still, it’s become a city that you can’t ignore and Blacks are getting more into tech. With Austin being the number one tech city in Texas, Austin could capitalize on that. If the issues are indeed tech related on why Black people aren’t attracted to Austin like they are to the other two Texas giants.
No I mean typical in that 60% White 40% Other (Usually some combination of Hispanic/Asian then lower Black population) way, at least that seems typical for Texas/California/Florida. Somewhere like Tempe, Arizona, Plano, Texas or Naperville, Illinois (I pick this off the top of my head).
Tempe- 59% White, 22% Hispanic, 6% Black, 8% Asian
Plano- 55% White, 15% Hispanic, 8% Black, 19% Asian
Naperville- 68% White, 6% Hispanic, 5% Black, 18% Asian
As you can see of the top of my head these 3 match what i'm saying pretty well. Of course a city like Pittsburgh will have much whiter suburbs but if you pick the vast majority of the big metros and their large suburbs you can roughly follow that formula.
Also the Hispanic populations are relegated to North Lamar and South Austin non of them are actually in the core at 30%, but more like 5-20% and then 50% in South Austin, and 70% around North Lamar so probably averages around 30 maybe 25.
I'm using the map provided by Stastistics Atlas in case your wondering.
Wasn't Selena Quentanilla Tejana? I don't think they look whiter than newer Mexican immigrants necessarily
I don't think Tejanos look whiter, their just more likely to intermarry- so their children who are half-hispanic "look whiter" as well as are culturally whiter having a white parent and the Tejano culture by being tied to Texas is more "whitewashed" in general than broader Mexican-American culture, leading to more identifying as white.
Last edited by NigerianNightmare; 06-10-2020 at 08:55 PM..
I
The main issue killing Austin is infrastructure which leads to it being not to affordable. If their was a major East to West highway in the city or even something like 969 after 183 being converted to a 3 by 3 lane limited-access highway (would be very expensive), or maybe that could be replaced with commuter rail going East to West a lot more affordable housing could be constructed in Eastern Travis County which is physically much shorter distance Downtown than all of Williamson County.
Hmm, I'll pass on building giant highways and sprawling the city in all directions in the name of affordability. They've already almost completed making 183 a full freeway on the east side and that alone will lead to a ton of growth between 183 and 130 over the next decade.
There are plans for commuter rail to the east. The Green Line
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.
