Levels of diversity and integration among the towns and cities of Greater Boston (Cambridge: live, moving)

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by newmassphd

I see what you've done here.

Very nice job with all of the data and charts.

You have posted demographic data without commentary or opinion and leave it up to others
to try to interpret what that means. It is interesting to read the comments and see
various interpretations about what it means.

One might consider race as a proxy for socio-economic status.
One might also consider race as a proxy for immigration.

I will add another point. I'm curious about how economic mobility as attained
through various means (college attainment, business, inheritance, etc.) might
factor into such statistics over time for this sort of data depicted in, 5 or 10 year increments.

It is interesting that some of those same towns, some 40 years ago weren't the expensive
"high cost entry point" communities they are today. I remember back in college, my
roommate's family had a small cottage on the cape. His family had been in the US
for 3 generations from Armenia where his grandparents emigrated to the US. They
were by no means wealthy rather solidly middle class and lived in Weymouth.
My housemate's father bought the cottage in the early 80's. That was very possible back then
versus now.

Another factor concerns the inter-generational transfer of wealth. When it works, families
that have been in the US for multiple generations have an opportunity to transfer wealth
(assets, property, etc.) to the next generation. This means that the asset has opportunity
to appreciate (or compound) over multiple lifetimes. A family doesn't have to be super
wealthy, rather something such as someone inheriting a house or getting help with
downpayment on a house can give relatively young person (i.e. next generation) a great
head start.

Mind you, when I talk about intergenerational transfer of wealth, I'm not saying it is
a good thing or a bad thing, but merely a thing.

Much less capable for African Americans-especially today with black homeowner at an all time low, and especially in Massachusetts a state with one of the lowest rates of Black homeownership.

Especially considering 47% of MA's minority community has entered/been born since 2000.

In 2000, MA was about 17% minority out of a population of 6,349,00. Meaning there were approximately 1,079,000 minorities in the state in 2000.

Today, MA is about 29% minority in a population of 6,902,000. For a population of 2,001,000 minorities in the state.

Seeing as MA real estate hasn't really been 'affordable since the 1990s it is easy to say. 47% of minorities (if not more) missed out on the time cheap Massachusetts real estate.

[queerfaith]

other...First Nation and Pacific islander or multiracial?

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by queerfaith

other...First Nation and Pacific islander or multiracial?

The percent of people in any of these towns who identify as Native American or Pacific Islander is so frequently less than 1% that I didn't bother tracking it really. Do you think it's an especially important stat even at such low numbers?

I actually did track multiracial, but I didn't think the data was interesting enough to share. Here's the bar graph for all towns...



*The one exception is Chelsea, where ~31% of people self-identify as multiracial according to quickfacts.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Seems weird Chelsea would stand alone given the relatively similar demographics in Lawrence

[whippany5]

Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS

No idea, but Hollis is 3% Asian based on the census. I (personally) know nothing about the town.

Another interesting tidbit: there are almost 40 towns in the metro area that have close to zero Black people. The number of towns with zero Asian or Latino folks is much lower.

I just read this thread and first and wow, this data is very interesting.

I can tell you that in New Hampshire there is a large population of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia in the suburban areas of Southern NH (south nashua, bedford, windham)- so yes there are probably are asian people in Hollis.

NH is a rather white state outside of Manchester and Nashua, but as the data showed most of the 98%+ white towns are in the far north shore (newburyport, merrimac etc). Still, NH as a whole is nowhere near as diverse as most towns near Boston.

[ben young]

Lots of work there. Now what am I to do with all this information ?

[BostonBornMassMade]

I made a post in the N.H. forum congratulating them on becoming 10.1% minority and marginally increasing diversity. It was along the lines of “hey welcome to the rest of the country/ modern times” marginally tongue in check but wya mor just a genuine congrats on this new stage and how do y’all feel. I guess they took it the wrong way...

Boy did I get RAILED. They were livid l! called me a racist. and told to go back to Massachusetts. It was incredible. It was like I had said something bad about them. Really kind of scary and unwelcoming how much they didn’t even want to acknowledge it and how much they seemed to hate not being 90%+ white...

Compared to here it was like the twilight zone. I still ah e to look at my red flag for “racists comments” till this day. I literally was congratulating them on what I thought the state was kind of looking for and they thought I was being snark. Very neurotic...

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I made a post in the N.H. forum congratulating them on becoming 10.1% minority and marginally increasing diversity. It was along the lines of “hey welcome to the rest of the country/ modern times” marginally tongue in check but wya mor just a genuine congrats on this new stage and how do y’all feel. I guess they took it the wrong way...

Boy did I get RAILED. They were livid l! called me a racist. and told to go back to Massachusetts. It was incredible. It was like I had said something bad about them. Really kind of scary and unwelcoming how much they didn’t even want to acknowledge it and how much they seemed to hate not being 90%+ white...

Compared to here it was like the twilight zone. I still ah e to look at my red flag for “racists comments” till this day. I literally was congratulating them on what I thought the state was kind of looking for and they thought I was being snark. Very neurotic...

I feel thats me when I go on the Florida forum. My intelligence is lowered to talk to them and I find myself typing less intellectually. There is a post about how Puerto Ricans are coming to Orlando in rags from their wooden shack homes and how none of them want them in Florida. Kind of scary. I didnt expect NH to be as ignorant but it makes sense.

[massnative71]

^Folks it's the internet.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I made a post in the N.H. forum congratulating them on becoming 10.1% minority and marginally increasing diversity. It was along the lines of “hey welcome to the rest of the country/ modern times” marginally tongue in check but wya mor just a genuine congrats on this new stage and how do y’all feel. I guess they took it the wrong way...

Boy did I get RAILED. They were livid l! called me a racist. and told to go back to Massachusetts. It was incredible. It was like I had said something bad about them. Really kind of scary and unwelcoming how much they didn’t even want to acknowledge it and how much they seemed to hate not being 90%+ white...

Compared to here it was like the twilight zone. I still ah e to look at my red flag for “racists comments” till this day. I literally was congratulating them on what I thought the state was kind of looking for and they thought I was being snark. Very neurotic...

You can’t hear tone on the internet, so it’s not surprising some people (especially those with a complex) took that the wrong way. Even in this post it seems a bit snarky.

I think the difference in my mind between MA and NH is that if you said something snarky about MA you’ll probably get more people vehemently agreeing with you and maybe a few tepid defenders.