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Black New Yorkers have been moving out of New York City over the past 10-15 years due to New York's high cost of living, unaffordability, racism, and other factors to the South, where they fled the South for the industrial North from the 1930s to the 1970s for better opportunities.
This exodus of black New Yorkers have hurt middle class black enclaves like St. Albans, Cambria Heights, and Rosedale.
Three generations of her family — 10 people in all — are moving to Atlanta from New York, seeking to start fresh economically and, in some sense, to reconnect with a bittersweet past. They include Ms. Brown, her 82-year-old mother and her 26-year-old son, who has already landed a job and settled there.
"Middle-class enclaves, like Jamaica and St. Albans in Queens, are feeding this exodus. Black luminaries — like James Brown, W. E. B. Du Bois and Ella Fitzgerald — once lived in St. Albans, a neighborhood that is now being hit by high unemployment and foreclosures.
The Rev. Floyd H. Flake, pastor of the 23,000-member Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens, said he was losing hundreds of congregants yearly to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
“For decades, Queens has been the place where the African-American middle class went to buy their first home and raise a family,” Mr. Flake said. “But now, we are seeing a reversal of this as African-Americans feel this is no longer as easy to achieve and that the South is more benevolent than New York.”
"In Queens, the median income among black households, nearing $52,000 a year, has surpassed that of whites in 2005, an analysis of new census data shows. No other county in the country with a population over 65,000 can make that claim. The gains among blacks in Queens, the city’s quintessential middle-class borough, were driven largely by the growth of two-parent families and the successes of immigrants from the West Indies. Many live in tidy homes in verdant enclaves like Cambria Heights, Rosedale and Laurelton, just west of the Cross Island Parkway and the border with Nassau County."
Black New Yorkers have been moving out of New York City over the past 10-15 years due to New York's high cost of living, unaffordability, racism, and other factors to the South, where they fled the South for the industrial North from the 1930s to the 1970s for better opportunities.
This exodus of black New Yorkers have hurt middle class black enclaves like St. Albans, Cambria Heights, and Rosedale.
Three generations of her family — 10 people in all — are moving to Atlanta from New York, seeking to start fresh economically and, in some sense, to reconnect with a bittersweet past. They include Ms. Brown, her 82-year-old mother and her 26-year-old son, who has already landed a job and settled there.
"Middle-class enclaves, like Jamaica and St. Albans in Queens, are feeding this exodus. Black luminaries — like James Brown, W. E. B. Du Bois and Ella Fitzgerald — once lived in St. Albans, a neighborhood that is now being hit by high unemployment and foreclosures.
The Rev. Floyd H. Flake, pastor of the 23,000-member Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens, said he was losing hundreds of congregants yearly to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
“For decades, Queens has been the place where the African-American middle class went to buy their first home and raise a family,” Mr. Flake said. “But now, we are seeing a reversal of this as African-Americans feel this is no longer as easy to achieve and that the South is more benevolent than New York.”
"In Queens, the median income among black households, nearing $52,000 a year, has surpassed that of whites in 2005, an analysis of new census data shows. No other county in the country with a population over 65,000 can make that claim. The gains among blacks in Queens, the city’s quintessential middle-class borough, were driven largely by the growth of two-parent families and the successes of immigrants from the West Indies. Many live in tidy homes in verdant enclaves like Cambria Heights, Rosedale and Laurelton, just west of the Cross Island Parkway and the border with Nassau County."
What is the future of these black middle class neighborhoods in NYC? What will St. Albans look like in 10-20-30 years?
While I believe this to be true, since much of what's left of white Queens is younger, recent college grads living in places like Astoria, LIC and Forest Hills, most Queens natives still living here will tell you that these neighborhoods aren't places you really want to live. Even Compton, CA has nice houses and palm trees.
The Rev. Floyd H. Flake needs to loose congregants for being a crook. That is a story for another day. I only know of 3 people who migrated south. One returned.
Most who own a house with a household income of over $100k aren't going anywhere. Plus isn't that an old article?
I am having a wonderful time living in New York! I don't foresee leaving anytime soon, if ever!
Honestly, I think Middle class Black NYers should do what's right for them. If it means staying, then stay. If it means heading South/West/To NJ or PA then so be it. Why should Black NYers be expected to sacrifice their QOL so white liberals can get their diversity fix? SE Queens isn't "gentirifying" so it's not that.
Interesting Documentary : Bill Moyers 1976 The Way it is .
What was once an Irish,Italian and Jewish neighborhood is now mostly African and Caribbean.
I truly believe what was once white will become black and then white again.
I truly believe what was once black will become white and then black again.
The Byrds: Turn ,turn,turn
Lyrics:
To everything turn ,turn ,turn,
There is a season turn ,turn,turn,
And a time to every purpose, under heaven.
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