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  #1  
Old Posted Jan 22, 2015, 10:51 PM
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Atlanta: the unofficial capital of black America

The cities where African-Americans are doing the best economically


Atlanta ranks number 1 in 2014 as best city for African-Americans

The U.S. may have its first black president, but these have not been the best
of times for African-Americans. Recent shootings of unarmed black teenagers
and the murder of two New York City police officers have inflamed racial
tensions. A Bloomberg poll in December found that 53% of respondents
believed that race relations have declined since Obama was elected in 2008.

Even if the results were not skewed by the immediate, impassioned
responses to the recent tragedies, the persistent economic gap between
whites and blacks is a more serious and deep-rooted problem. The
unemployment rate for African-Americans stood at 10.4% in December, more
than twice that of whites, as it has been formost of the past 40 years.

Blacks’ real median household income ticked up to $34,598 in 2013, roughly
59% that of whites’, a ratio that has also not varied much since the Census
Bureau began tracking this data in 1967.

Where African-Americans took a significant step back in recent years was in
household wealth, which plunged 31% during the recession, including a steep
35% decline in their retirement assets, which the Urban Institute suggests
was partially due to the unemployed drawing down savings to cover living
expenses. The wealth of white families fell a comparatively mild 11% from
2007-10.

Yet economic conditions for African-Americans vary widely throughout the
country. We decided to look into which of America’s 52 largest metropolitan
areas present African-Americans with the best opportunities.

We weighed these metropolitan statistical areas by three critical factors —
homeownership, entrepreneurship, as measured by the self-employment
rate, and median household income — that we believe are indicators of
middle-class success. Data for those is from 2013. In addition, we added a
fourth category, demographic trends, measuring the change in the African-
American population from 2000 to 2013 in these metro areas, to judge how
the community is “voting with its feet.” Each factor was given equal weight.

Read more….

Source: www.newgeography.com
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  #2  
Old Posted Jan 22, 2015, 11:46 PM
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Wow, the rust belt is terrible for American blacks. I have guessed as much.
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  #3  
Old Posted Jan 22, 2015, 11:54 PM
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If there’s a challenger to Atlanta and the renewed Southern ascendency for African-Americans, it’s the greater Washington, D.C., area which ranks third. The median black household income in the metro area is $64,896, more than $20,000 above that of Atlanta and other top-ranked southern cities. Home ownership rates, at 49.2%, are also the highest in the nation.

As in Atlanta, Washington’s black community has strong institutions of culture and higher education. The District is home to Howard University, the nation’s second-ranked historically black university. Washington’s urban core may be becoming less black — down from 60% in 2000 to under 50% in 2013– but this has been more than made up for by the burgeoning population of surrounding suburban areas such as Prince George’s County, which is majority black and relatively prosperous, with poverty rates well below those of the city. The key plus here appears to be the the federal government, which employs many people at high wages in the area.

Incomes also have been boosted by the government in No. 4 Baltimore,
which enjoys the third highest black median income and the third highest self-employment rate after Atlanta and New Orleans. As in Washington, much of this prosperity is not in the hardscrabble city core, but in surrounding suburban areas such as Baltimore County, where the black population grew from 20% of the total in 2000 to over 26% in 2010...
Funny reading the bolded in a Joel Kotkin article.
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Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 12:16 AM
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home ownership seems like a very subjective metric. colloquially, it seems like the majority of the black middle class in atlanta owns in the suburbs. seems like renters in major city centers would be exposed equally life enriching experiences. "capital" to me signifies the epicenter of power and influence within a culture or nation. is that atlanta? seems like NYC or Washington DC would be equally in line for such a title. when you factor other quality of life metrics like crime rate something id consider much more relevant to quality of life (compared to entrepreneur rates), then atlanta seems like a bad choice with a crime rate much higher then DC and twice as high as NYC. and if we are talking about the true center of political influence, you could argue most of power players are in chicago....shrug....
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Last edited by pdxtex; Jan 23, 2015 at 12:26 AM.
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Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 12:34 AM
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It's Joel Kotkin's website again!

You'll never guess which cities he decided he wanted to be at the bottom of his latest list!
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  #6  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 12:43 AM
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Originally Posted by fflint View Post
It's Joel Kotkin's website again!

You'll never guess which cities he decided he wanted to be at the bottom of his latest list!
Umm, care to explain? I hear people making fun of him but what exactly is the narrative that he is pushing?
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Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 1:25 AM
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^^^^i dont really follow his work too much either, but he's kind of like the alter ego james kunstler. he's a sensationalist who loves the suburbs whereas kunstler is extremely pro-urban. they both sound like dicks though.
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  #8  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 1:43 AM
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Gee, Kotkin did it again. What a shocker. With an assist from Wendell Cox.

Why would homeownership be a proxy for "best place to live"? Homeownership in the U.S. is heavily correlated with sprawl and cheap land, which, amazingly just happens to be Kotkin's "thing". And why would % growth be a proxy for "best place to live"? These are two of his four variables.

The list should be renamed "places where African Americans are most likely to be living in sprawl". That's really a fair summary of the variables used.
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  #9  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 2:08 AM
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God not these hacks again...
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  #10  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 4:02 AM
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Okay, someone give me a very brief rundown and comparison of the agendas of:

Joel Kotkin
James Kunstler
Wendell Cox
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  #11  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 4:12 AM
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Well it's true that incomes are higher for blacks in the South than most other places, and low in the Great Lakes. Both in net terms and relative to whites.
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  #12  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 4:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinlee View Post
Okay, someone give me a very brief rundown and comparison of the agendas of:

Joel Kotkin
James Kunstler
Wendell Cox
James Kunstler: expects population collapse, collapse of financial system and collapse of suburbs and large metro areas, oil shortage, collapse of the federal government and relocalization, collapse of big ag, collapse of internet and a return to something like 19th century America.

Wendell Cox and Joel Kotkin: Suburbia is the way forward towards the modern future that Americans want, and cars and highways will be good for everyone including minorities and the working class, rail is a waste of money and smart growth causes inequality.
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  #13  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 5:14 AM
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My partner is Black, and he and I have talked about this because you notice it even in popular media. Being Black does not equate to having good taste, which is the only explanation I can find for his love of Tyler Perry movies. Watch one of those, or watch pretty much any movie in which Blacks are the main characters, and you'll quickly conclude that the only city in the entire country where Blacks live and work is Atlanta.
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  #14  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 5:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinlee View Post
Okay, someone give me a very brief rundown and comparison of the agendas of:

Joel Kotkin
James Kunstler
Wendell Cox
James Kunstler: built and population densities are great because in post-oil America, people concentrated around localized production and agriculture will be in the best positions for success

Joel Kotkin: pre-auto cities are an outdated built environment ill-positioned to meet the contemporary wants and needs of middle-class America, thus budgeting for rail is a waste of taxpayer money

Wendell Cox: whatever anti-urban theme the Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation are currently paying him to talk about
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  #15  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 6:11 AM
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^And we have a winner. (imho)


And like I always say, if you've gotta look up to people like this to help you form your opinions, then you've got a serious personal problem. First, stop forming opinions. Second, go back and learn how to think critically for yourself. Third do your own research on the issue, and study the research of others. Then, and only then, form your own opinions.
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  #16  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 2:06 PM
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I have thought that there is a discrepancy between how non-black America and black America view Atlanta. To non-black america it isn't that much different than Denver minneeapolis Seattle and such. But to black America I would say it just behind nyc and la in significance.
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Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 4:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Chase Unperson View Post
I have thought that there is a discrepancy between how non-black America and black America view Atlanta. To non-black america it isn't that much different than Denver minneeapolis Seattle and such. But to black America I would say it just behind nyc and la in significance.
the Jermaine Dupree-effect
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  #18  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 4:56 PM
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Real thread title should read "Atlanta: the unofficial capital of American blacks"

Discounts the Jamaicans, Haitians, Guyanese, Africans etc that make up significantly larger numbers in places like NYC, Miami, LA.
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Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 6:28 PM
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What is nuts to me is that with the high number of blacks in the Detroit Metro region the number of black entrepreneurs is so low. It is sad that an area with such a high number of minorities is at the bottom of the list, and i know this is true even without using census data. This is a serious issue that needs to keep being addressed. There is no reason that blacks shoild not have more control and wealth in their own community.
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Old Posted Jan 23, 2015, 9:00 PM
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I recently calculated that, if recent trends continue, Georgia will be a black majority state somewhere around the turn of the century.
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