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This is not surprising in a way since people move to big cities to find their people and to get away from those who aren't accepting of them.
Using military towns as examples seems unfair as they're basically large company towns and in every part of the country people have diverse work environments. They also have their own monoculture. The same apply for college towns, artsy towns and even blue collar manufacturing towns.
I do agree that within large cities you don't really see as much social interaction between groups outside of certain subcultures as you might expect. I'm not sure why this bothers you though unless you found yourself in the 'wrong' place like a Korean church. I personally prefer to attend an ethnic festival that is 90% of the nationality than the college town equivalent which are more diverse but feel less authentic.
This is not surprising in a way since people move to big cities to find their people and to get away from those who aren't accepting of them.
Using military towns as examples seems unfair as they're basically large company towns and in every part of the country people have diverse work environments. They also have their own monoculture. The same apply for college towns, artsy towns and even blue collar manufacturing towns.
I do agree that within large cities you don't really see as much social interaction between groups outside of certain subcultures as you might expect. I'm not sure why this bothers you though unless you found yourself in the 'wrong' place like a Korean church. I personally prefer to attend an ethnic festival that is 90% of the nationality than the college town equivalent which are more diverse but feel less authentic.
Each of the drivers you listed brings in a different set of people from various backgrounds. Instead of Colorado Springs, look at Taos for an example, lots of very different people from old school cowboys to energy healers to granola outdoor enthusiasts to off grid people. The thing that makes Taos unique is all these groups actually interact because the small scale, they don't cluster off into their own societies.
What bothers me is that "diversity" based on demographic stats is touted as some sort of inherent goodness when it really means nothing - The thing that matters in boots on the ground interaction. Without interaction, why is diversity even a highlight? The whole purpose of diversity is to foster interaction between different thought groups. Otherwise we're just talking about a commoditized restaurant menu selection and 'seeing different people'.
All small towns are not inherently better at interaction, some are good some are not, just like big metros. All I'm saying potential interactions based on sheer size do not equal actual interactions, and that sheer size may actually make interactions less frequent because it's easier to self select your interactions. It seems ironic where people want to move to a diverse place so they can be around people just like themselves.
To throw out a counterpoint, to me LA is an example of a big metro that actually has a lot of cross group interaction.
Each of the drivers you listed brings in a different set of people from various backgrounds. Instead of Colorado Springs, look at Taos for an example, lots of very different people from old school cowboys to energy healers to granola outdoor enthusiasts to off grid people. The thing that makes Taos unique is all these groups actually interact because the small scale, they don't cluster off into their own societies.
What bothers me is that "diversity" based on demographic stats is touted as some sort of inherent goodness when it really means nothing - The thing that matters in boots on the ground interaction. Without interaction, why is diversity even a highlight? The whole purpose of diversity is to foster interaction between different thought groups. Otherwise we're just talking about a commoditized restaurant menu selection and 'seeing different people'.
All small towns are not inherently better at interaction, some are good some are not, just like big metros. All I'm saying potential interactions based on sheer size do not equal actual interactions, and that sheer size may actually make interactions less frequent because it's easier to self select your interactions. It seems ironic where people want to move to a diverse place so they can be around people just like themselves.
To throw out a counterpoint, to me LA is an example of a big metro that actually has a lot of cross group interaction.
All three of those people are the same crunchy granola types you can find in any mountain town.
I dont think people base diversity on sheer size. Here we look at the demographic split, but size also plays a big role. An immigrant would probably rather a large amount of people similar to them, but also an embassy or groups to help them with their move. Sometimes it's the size of the city that allows for more infrastructure for certain groups than sheer numbers.
Each of the drivers you listed brings in a different set of people from various backgrounds. Instead of Colorado Springs, look at Taos for an example, lots of very different people from old school cowboys to energy healers to granola outdoor enthusiasts to off grid people. The thing that makes Taos unique is all these groups actually interact because the small scale, they don't cluster off into their own societies.
What bothers me is that "diversity" based on demographic stats is touted as some sort of inherent goodness when it really means nothing - The thing that matters in boots on the ground interaction. Without interaction, why is diversity even a highlight? The whole purpose of diversity is to foster interaction between different thought groups. Otherwise we're just talking about a commoditized restaurant menu selection and 'seeing different people'.
What you do get is authenticity and higher quality of certain offerings like food and temples. For the adventurous type there are opportunities for a much deeper dive into a foreign culture.
I do agree that diversity is spoken of much more than it is actually utilized.
Outer suburbs are a giant portion of the American big metro experience though - the urban core is pretty small in comparison.
No, most of the population lives BETWEEN the urban core and these outer suburban areas I'm referring to. It seems that your experience was based on living in said outer suburban area. That appears to have skewed your views on this topic.
What the OP is describing really struck me when I visited Toronto. People who live there tend to bleat on and on about how wonderfully diverse their city is, but what I saw what that each group tended to live within its own very monochromatic neighborhoods. My wife and I visited a Korean friend in North York during our visit, and it felt like we were the only non-Asians there.
I remember a sociology class in college where the professor asserted that while the US is a melting pot, Canada is a 'salad bowl', with less assimilation among immigrant groups and more 'retention of preexisting culture'. Wish I could get back to relatively nearby Toronto to gather some firsthand impressions, but alas, the Canadians don't take too kindly to Americans with DWAIs....
Each of the drivers you listed brings in a different set of people from various backgrounds. Instead of Colorado Springs, look at Taos for an example, lots of very different people from old school cowboys to energy healers to granola outdoor enthusiasts to off grid people. The thing that makes Taos unique is all these groups actually interact because the small scale, they don't cluster off into their own societies.
What bothers me is that "diversity" based on demographic stats is touted as some sort of inherent goodness when it really means nothing - The thing that matters in boots on the ground interaction. Without interaction, why is diversity even a highlight? The whole purpose of diversity is to foster interaction between different thought groups. Otherwise we're just talking about a commoditized restaurant menu selection and 'seeing different people'.
All small towns are not inherently better at interaction, some are good some are not, just like big metros. All I'm saying potential interactions based on sheer size do not equal actual interactions, and that sheer size may actually make interactions less frequent because it's easier to self select your interactions. It seems ironic where people want to move to a diverse place so they can be around people just like themselves.
To throw out a counterpoint, to me LA is an example of a big metro that actually has a lot of cross group interaction.
At least for Koreans in LA, I know it's also similar to Gwinnett County. Koreans going to Korean churches, restaurants, etc. At Diamond Bar High School a lot of the Korean kids hung out together.
I remember a sociology class in college where the professor asserted that while the US is a melting pot, Canada is a 'salad bowl', with less assimilation among immigrant groups and more 'retention of preexisting culture'. Wish I could get back to relatively nearby Toronto to gather some firsthand impressions, but alas, the Canadians don't take too kindly to Americans with DWAIs....
The term we use here is " Mosaic " .
In reality though, it's usually first generation immigrants that tend to do this.
As for retention of preexisting culture, that is encouraged. Encouraged to keep their culture alive, but again with the caveat to participate in the Canadian experience at the same time. Remember, except for refugees and perhaps the odd family reunification, a person must speak English or French, before they are allowed to immigrate.
Then there's Denver - on paper a very diverse place but in function it's a bit of a hivemind in culture - sports, beer, dogs, skiing, crossfit, Salt & Table type of restaurants. Colorado Springs, quite a bit smaller, feels more diverse. And Taos feels the most diverse of all, where you have all these different groups around that actually interact. People actually have in depth conversations routinely with people from different generations - that's something you just don't see in many big cities.
A brief note about New Mexico (as Taos was cited as an example). It is an anomaly in the US. The state is nearly majority Hispanic and is probably majority Hispanic outside of five or six major cities. Even Albuquerque is 49.8% Hispanic. The Spanish arrived from Mexico in about 1595 and before that there were several large Indian nations occupying various parts of the state going back thousands of years. The Pueblo towns of Acoma and Taos are 1,000 years old. The Anglo/Americans arrived in the mid 1800s. New Mexico was (is) quite isolated for much of its history. The three cultures learned to work together in many ways but there are still rough patches. It has not been a simple cultural blending as it might seem now but actual hard work. I've heard outsiders tout New Mexico as a model for diverse cultures to reach a common relationship. It took 200+ years to get to where we are today. New Mexico belonged to Mexico for about 25 years before becoming a US territory. It belonged to Spain prior to that but largely grew up in isolation. I live in the Albuquerque metro, and I personally don't know anyone that has been here for a period of years that does not have friends, coworkers, or maybe neighbors from the three main cultures. Having Black friends is not as common due to the small number. The state has only 2.07% black population with Albuquerque having 3.9%.
There is not much generational separation. This is the most family oriented place I have lived, and many families are "extended" in ways that are less common in other parts of the country. Three or four generations in the family are not uncommon.
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