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I thought this article was interesting in the Detroit news.
In the 2000's, the biggest shift in metro Detroit was blacks out of Detroit. And their preferred destination wasn't nearby Wayne county burbs, but rather Macomb and also Oakland.
That trend seems now to be accelerating in 2010 - 2011 estimates.
Quote:
In a little more than a decade, Macomb County's population has gone from 3 percent African-American to 9.9 percent, and is now home to just under 83,300 blacks, up from 21,151 in 2000. The influx has blurred the perception that Eight Mile is a black-white border and spurred efforts to raise awareness about diversity in the county.
That 8 Mile black-white border is almost nonexistent now, except for Ferndale.
I think the white population is Wayne is also declining, but the white percentage is increasing because of the huge number of blacks moving out. I think Wayne continues to have one of the highest, if not the highest, population losses of any county in the country. And its all driven by Detroit population losses (and perhaps to a lesser extent, downriver suburbs).
At first I thought that is a shame. Then I realized it is a good thing. We are mixing more.
The racial tension in Detroit is ridiculous. South Carolina has less racial tension (at least Charleston). We need to mix more.
Plus it will make the people who think that diviersity somehow magically makes schools better more happy.
I do not see a lot of population losses downriver. Despite the closing of some factories and many car dealerships, most areas seem to have grown in the 6 years since we arrived. The crossroads at woodhaven certianly has grown substantially. Southgate has grown as far as retail locations. Downtown Wyandotte hs held steady or maybe grown a bit.
Thre may be some population losses in the icky downriver cities (Ecorse, Melvindale and River Rouge), but they were already so unpopulated those losses cannot be all that significant. Lincoln Park may have dropped some too. Allen Park seems to have shifted more than shrunk.
When you get to Southgate, Riverview, Woodhaven, Trenton, Brownstown township, Taylor, Flat Rock and Grosse Ile, they are mostly the same, or have grown some.
I am going by retail locations that have opend, closed or changed hands. Like everywhere, there is almost no residential growth as far as new homes, but if the population is shrinking, the rest of us must be spending money like mad, buecause the retail locations have mostly increased or remained constant (some places close, but new places open up and make about a push, excpt that some places have grown as mentioned).
Last edited by Coldjensens; 05-18-2012 at 08:28 AM..
Are we intergrating? Or is the population of one city / county becoming more racially diverse only on paper? Are minorities moving into neighborhoods that are diverse or are they moving into neighborhoods that predominately minority?
How many are moving to places like Livonia, Farmington, Bloomfield, the Pointes, etc?
Are tehy moving across Macomb county?
At first I thought that is a shame. Then I realized it is a good thing. We are mixing more.
The racial tension in Detroit is ridiculous. South Carolina has less racial tension (at least Charleston). We need to mix more.
Plus it will make the people who think that diviersity somehow magically makes schools better more happy.
I do not see a lot of population losses downriver. Despite the closing of some factories and many car dealerships, most areas seem to have grown in the 6 years since we arrived. The crossroads at woodhaven certianly has grown substantially. Southgate has grown as far as retail locations. Downtown Wyandotte hs held steady or maybe grown a bit.
Thre may be some population losses in the icky downriver cities (Ecorse, Melvindale and River Rouge), but they were already so unpopulated those losses cannot be all that significant. Lincoln Park may have dropped some too. Allen Park seems to have shifted more than shrunk.
When you get to Southgate, Riverview, Woodhaven, Trenton, Brownstown township, Taylor, Flat Rock and Grosse Ile, they are mostly the same, or have grown some.
I am going by retail locations that have opend, closed or changed hands. Like everywhere, there is almost no residential growth as far as new homes, but if the population is shrinking, the rest of us must be spending money like mad, buecause the retail locations have mostly increased or remained constant (some places close, but new places open up and make about a push, excpt that some places have grown as mentioned).
As of 2010, the only Downriver communities with pop growth are Brownstown, Flat Rock and Woodhaven. With the exception of Southgate and Grosse Ile, most of the other communities have been losing people for decades. I think much of the retail growth over the past decade is because the area was underserved outside of Taylor. And while Woodhaven retail is booming, Taylor is showing plenty of vacancies. Its been awhile since i've been around Southland but the last time I was there, I was surprised to see so many empty stores and the empty movie theater as at one time it was full and bustling. I can only guess that the new retail is sucking life from that area.
Overall, the migration can be a very good thing. A diverse community is usually a better one at least in most parts of the nation. I've certainly noticed the changes in Macomb Co. That said I think most blacks are moving just across 8 Mile, not out to Sterling Heights, Macomb Twp., etc. Places like Eastpointe, Warren and Roseville are where you really notice the changes.
Overall, the migration can be a very good thing. A diverse community is usually a better one at least in most parts of the nation. I've certainly noticed the changes in Macomb Co. That said I think most blacks are moving just across 8 Mile, not out to Sterling Heights, Macomb Twp., etc. Places like Eastpointe, Warren and Roseville are where you really notice the changes.
Metro Detroit actually shrunk in 2010.
Migration would be fine if the population were growing, but it's not. IT's one thing if a place is becoming more diverse because different people from elsewhere are moving in. It's another if it's becoming more diverse because same "different people" who were already here are just moving to different chairs around the room.
We can't keep moving the samer number of chairs around the room and expect things to improve as a whole.
As for blacks moving to Macomb County, the reason they only moved to Eastpointe, Warren, Roseville, etc. is because that's where the glut of the available housing was in the suburbs, as those during the real estate boom who formerly lived in these communities (Eastpointe, Warren, etc.) saw the opportunity to live in bigger/better homes further north in Sterling Heights, Macomb Township, etc.
Problem is that just leaves NE Detroit worse off, because now it's in decline like much of inner city Detroit has been since there's no one to occupy the excess housing.
^ I don't disagree with that but you can become a better place to live and lose population at the same time. Pittsburgh is often touted as a comeback city but the Pittsburgh area has been losing people since the 70s. In that time, its become a better place and more diverse, branching out into new industries and becoming a more vibrant region. Royal Oak has been losing population since 1970, but I doubt most people would prefer the RO of then to the RO of today.
And let's face it, much of Southern Macomb has been losing population for decades thanks to urban sprawl. It just wasn't as noticeable before. The population shift started well before the 90s. The difference is that black families are now moving into those houses as the older population dies off or moves. Younger families have been eschewing those cities since Lakeside was developed. Certainly some of it were families moving out but in a place like St. Clair Shores, much of is that the kids moved out and the parents stayed behind. Now, the parents are old and have either died or downsized and they aren't being replaced by young white families.
Pittsburgh is an industrial city like Detroit, and is a low growth/no growth metro, but that's where the differences end. Pittsburgh metro has relatively few minorities, and even the city has far fewer minorities compared to Detroit, Cleveland, or Philadelphia or Baltimore. It doesn't have the same challenges in terms of crime and blighted areas, in fact it's not even in the same league as Detroit.
Migration would be fine if the population were growing, but it's not. IT's one thing if a place is becoming more diverse because different people from elsewhere are moving in. It's another if it's becoming more diverse because same "different people" who were already here are just moving to different chairs around the room.
We can't keep moving the samer number of chairs around the room and expect things to improve as a whole.
As for blacks moving to Macomb County, the reason they only moved to Eastpointe, Warren, Roseville, etc. is because that's where the glut of the available housing was in the suburbs, as those during the real estate boom who formerly lived in these communities (Eastpointe, Warren, etc.) saw the opportunity to live in bigger/better homes further north in Sterling Heights, Macomb Township, etc.
Problem is that just leaves NE Detroit worse off, because now it's in decline like much of inner city Detroit has been since there's no one to occupy the excess housing.
They're moving because their quality of life is poor living in Detroit, and is drastically improved just by moving a few miles away to Warren, of all places. Less crime, better public services, lower insurance costs, better schools for the kids, no city income tax, etc.
I think the quality of life in Detroit has been a major issue for many decades now. And yet I think the black population continued to grow until 1990 and was stable even in 2000, according to some numbers that I saw a while black. The black flight out of Detroit took off after 2000.
They're moving because their quality of life is poor living in Detroit, and is drastically improved just by moving a few miles away to Warren, of all places. Less crime, better public services, lower insurance costs, better schools for the kids, no city income tax, etc.
I think the quality of life in Detroit has been a major issue for many decades now. And yet I think the black population continued to grow until 1990 and was stable even in 2000, according to some numbers that I saw a while black. The black flight out of Detroit took off after 2000.
The point wasn't why blacks are leaving the city now (we know why they're moving, for micro issues).
My point was the reason why it has even reached the point where so many people are leaving the city in the first place with no one to replace them. Now the folks who left must pay for the new infrastructure and the old infrastructure they left behind in the city, which puts an unnecessary strain on all of our increasngly empty wallets when steps could have been taken to prevent any of this. The simple shuffling of the same number of chairs around the room is not a good thing for Detroit in the long term.
Pittsburgh is an industrial city like Detroit, and is a low growth/no growth metro, but that's where the differences end. Pittsburgh metro has relatively few minorities, and even the city has far fewer minorities compared to Detroit, Cleveland, or Philadelphia or Baltimore. It doesn't have the same challenges in terms of crime and blighted areas, in fact it's not even in the same league as Detroit.
I wasn't comparing Pittsburgh or Detroit to anyplace. My point was that population decline doesn't always mean the areas are declining. I think people would be surprised by how many mature Detroit burbs have been losing people since the 70s. Driving around them, you'd never know at least until the mid 2000s. Only now is it noticeable. I lived in SCS for nearly 25 years and watched it lose people year after year. The thing is the quality of life actually improved much of that time. Only the last few years, would I say it's fallen. Metro Detroit could lose people for decades but it can still become a better place to live. It's up to the people and the governments to make that happen.
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