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Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there’s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture, and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as “cool” urban places.
But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the “progressive” cities aren’t red or blue, but another color entirely: white.
In fact, not one of these “progressive” cities even reaches the national average for African American percentage population in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group.
Well it's a difference between Austin and the others. Austin is located near areas with large black populations and is home to an HBCU. In other words; I don't think Austin is.
One of my favorite rappers (black) lives in Austin, and two other rappers I really like (both black) live in Minneapolis, so I dont imagine they're all that bad.
Well it's a difference between Austin and the others. Austin is located near areas with large black populations and is home to an HBCU. In other words; I don't think Austin is.
I'm agree, and black populations grow quickly in Austin.But it's low in Portland and Seattle.
I think people in Portland and Seattle are just speaking blindly without having any idea or experience on how it is to live with African Americans when they make remarks about being open-minded and colorblind. If the Pacific Northwest started attracts lots of blacks and the black population in the area began to increase tremendously; it would be a completely different story.
They didn't talk about Denver too much in the actual writing, but they did have it grouped in with those other cities. Denver has alot of areas that have a high black population(Five Points,Montbello,Park Hill, Green Valley Ranch I can think of right off the top of my head), than you have Aurora which itself has a population of over 300,000 and is more than 13% black. Also if you go to any of those websites that have school demographics, these cities have alot of schools that have large black populations and they even have some schools that are majority black. Oh and the areas in Denver, Portland, Seattle, and Austin that have large black populations also have a mix of hispanic, white, and asian people living in the neighborhood too. You can go to New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Memphis, Dallas, Houston, LA, even San Francsico and find areas that are nearly all black. Diversity to me means that there is a mix of people living in the area, not all of one race.
"Anti-Black" is the wrong word. Most of the cities mentioned in the article don't really have the history of racial strife and tension common in many other big cities, or at least it wasn't quite as prevalent.
They didn't talk about Denver too much in the actual writing, but they did have it grouped in with those other cities. Denver has alot of areas that have a high black population(Five Points,Montbello,Park Hill, Green Valley Ranch I can think of right off the top of my head), than you have Aurora which itself has a population of over 300,000 and is more than 13% black. Also if you go to any of those websites that have school demographics, these cities have alot of schools that have large black populations and they even have some schools that are majority black. Oh and the areas in Denver, Portland, Seattle, and Austin that have large black populations also have a mix of hispanic, white, and asian people living in the neighborhood too. You can go to New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Memphis, Dallas, Houston, LA, even San Francsico and find areas that are nearly all black. Diversity to me means that there is a mix of people living in the area, not all of one race.
And you have areas in Portland ,Seattle, Denver, and Austin that are nearly all white.
"Anti-Black" is the wrong word. Most of the cities mentioned in the article don't really have the history of racial strife and tension common in many other big cities, or at least it wasn't quite as prevalent.
Except for Austin.
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