Census: 2021 US Urban Areas by Racial Breakdown

[Crawford]

LA has some housing projects, such as Imperial Courts, in Watts, that are likely very low income, and were (and are still, to an extent) heavily African American.

But it's probably true that LA didn't have the same concentrations of AA poverty, because it didn't really have tenement neighborhoods, or, later, towering housing projects. The AA neighborhoods tend to be SFH, and SFH buyers are usually at least moderate income.

The Bronx and Eastern Brooklyn are mostly large apartment blocks, subsidized housing and tenements, so will have high density concentrations of low income renter households. Brownsville was a poor Jewish neighborhood before it was a poor black neighborhood.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Also, Las Vegas has probably never had a "ghetto".

Yeah, the blackest parts of Vegas are only around 75% black, and it's a relatively small area overall (West Las Vegas, just to the northwest of Downtown). Most black people in Vegas live in integrated neighborhoods however.

Generally speaking I believe it is the case that the West Coast never developed the same hyperblack blighted neighborhoods that the Northeast/Midwest did. Though it helped a lot that Latinos (and Asians) have never really been averse to living in the same neighborhoods as black people.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Yeah, the blackest parts of Vegas are only around 75% black, and it's a relatively small area overall (West Las Vegas, just to the northwest of Downtown). Most black people in Vegas live in integrated neighborhoods however.

Generally speaking I believe it is the case that the West Coast never developed the same hyperblack blighted neighborhoods that the Northeast/Midwest did. Though it helped a lot that Latinos (and Asians) have never really been averse to living in the same neighborhoods as black people.

And numbers matter. Eastern cities with smaller black populations, more analogous to Western cities, tend to be more integrated. There are no real solid black neighborhoods in Syracuse or Binghamton, NY, or Lansing or Grand Rapids, MI. They have moderate black populations, mixed in with lower income whites, Hispanics, etc.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Generally speaking I believe it is the case that the West Coast never developed the same hyperblack blighted neighborhoods that the Northeast/Midwest did. Though it helped a lot that Latinos (and Asians) have never really been averse to living in the same neighborhoods as black people.

Latinos and Asians were excluded from early postwar suburbs too, so they had no choice but to live in close proximity to black neighborhoods.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Crawford

LA has some housing projects, such as Imperial Courts, in Watts, that are likely very low income, and were (and are still, to an extent) heavily African American.

Looks like Imperial Courts is about 2/3rds Latino, 1/3rd black these days. Nickerson Gardens is more like a 60-40 split.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Generally speaking I believe it is the case that the West Coast never developed the same hyperblack blighted neighborhoods that the Northeast/Midwest did.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think LA ever built any massive public housing tower projects like Robert Taylor in Chicago or Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis to concentrate and warehouse the very poorest of the poor of the city's black underclass.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think LA ever built any massive public housing tower projects like Robert Taylor in Chicago or Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis to concentrate and warehouse the very poorest of the poor of the city's black underclass.

Just a minor correction. Public housing projects did eventually concentrate poor black residents, but they were initially built for middle class white families.

[Steely Dan]

^ Robert Taylor, built in the heart of the southside's black belt ghetto, was never intended for white middle class families.

the sad irony of its name was that it was named for the first black board member of the CHA who eventually resigned from his position in protest to chicago's city council rejecting his calls to more widely distribute public housing throughout the entire city specifically to induce more racially mixed public housing.

instead we got the nation's largest public housing tower complex that stretched for 2 over miles along the dan ryan expressway, and at its "height" housed some 27,000 people, over 95% of whom were black and over 95% of households had no income beyond basic public aid.

it did not go well.

[Crawford]

Looking at school data for Watts, basically 100% of kids qualify for free lunch, so the neighborhood is definitely low income.

The elementary school racial mix appears to be about 70-30 Hispanic-Black. So there's still a black population. The elementaries were majority black until about 2000. I bet you the senior centers still have mostly black clientele.

But looking around the retail corridors, this is a Mexican-American neighborhood now. A lot easier to get tacos than soul food. I still see a ton of black churches, however. Churches are probably the last thing to go for legacy populations.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ Robert Taylor, built in the heart of the southside's black belt ghetto, was never intended for white middle class families.

I don't think this contradicts the point that the original intent of public housing was to accommodate white families. Robert Taylor appears to be one of the last projects built in Chicago. Two years after it was built the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made racial discrimination in housing illegal. Cities that steered residents to housing projects based on race would've been the first affected.

[Crawford]

Cabrini Green was mostly white, which makes sense, as it was a white neighborhood. Taylor was built in a black ghetto, so was black from the start.

It was common that cities built projects for blacks in black neighborhoods and projects for whites in white neighborhoods. In Detroit, Brewster Houses were black (made sense as built in Black Bottom) and Jeffries Houses were white until the late 1960's, when the neighborhood started changing.

[edale]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think LA ever built any massive public housing tower projects like Robert Taylor in Chicago or Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis to concentrate and warehouse the very poorest of the poor of the city's black underclass.

Jordan Downs is probably the largest project complex in LA. It has been undergoing redevelopment for a while, but there are still quite a few of the old project buildings still around. A little southwest of there is another large housing project, though I'm not sure what it's named. Further south there's Nickerson Gardens and Imperial Courts projects. Avalon Gardens is also around there, just to the northwest.

While they're not high rises, there is a pretty significant cluster of public housing in that southeast corner of where the 110 and 105 freeways meet. These areas are still very poor. The wealthier Black neighborhoods are to the west-- Ladera Heights, Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills, etc. The 'Black Belt' of LA is basically south of DTLA/USC, between the 405 and 110, all the way down to Long Beach. Picking up other cities like Gardena, Inglewood, Compton, and Hawthorne.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I don't think this contradicts the point that the original intent of public housing was to accommodate white families. Robert Taylor appears to be one of the last projects built in Chicago. Two years after it was built the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made racial discrimination in housing illegal. Cities that steered residents to housing projects based on race would've been the first affected.

Yeah, it's broadly true that the first public housing in the U.S. was built for white families. A lot of the public housing in the Pittsburgh area started out being built either explicitly to house white families, or a bit later during World War II to deal with the wartime housing shortage (and in many cases offer apartment-style living to the workers in the hastily-constructed factories making war armaments. They only became black enclaves later on.

In some areas of the country (like South Boston) public housing remained pretty much white through to the modern era.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Yeah, the blackest parts of Vegas are only around 75% black, and it's a relatively small area overall (West Las Vegas, just to the northwest of Downtown). Most black people in Vegas live in integrated neighborhoods however.

Generally speaking I believe it is the case that the West Coast never developed the same hyperblack blighted neighborhoods that the Northeast/Midwest did. Though it helped a lot that Latinos (and Asians) have never really been averse to living in the same neighborhoods as black people.

Yes. One of the more famous "ghetto" locations of Northern California/Bay Area is Marin City.

The 2010 United States Census[12] reported that Marin City had a population of 2,666. The population density was 4,967.0 inhabitants per square mile (1,917.8/km2). The racial makeup of Marin City was 1,037 (38.9%) White, 1,017 (38.1%) African American, 15 (0.6%) Native American, 287 (10.8%) Asian, 21 (0.8%) Pacific Islander, 120 (4.5%) from other races, and 169 (6.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 365 persons (13.7%).

Wiki

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Yeah, the blackest parts of Vegas are only around 75% black, and it's a relatively small area overall (West Las Vegas, just to the northwest of Downtown). Most black people in Vegas live in integrated neighborhoods however.

Generally speaking I believe it is the case that the West Coast never developed the same hyperblack blighted neighborhoods that the Northeast/Midwest did. Though it helped a lot that Latinos (and Asians) have never really been averse to living in the same neighborhoods as black people.

East Palo Alto?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

East Palo Alto?

It's 65% Latino and only around 10% black now. Apparently it peaked at 43% black in 1990.

[dimondpark]

Large UAs

Large Urban Areas, Pop 500,000+
Akron, OH 557,021
Albany-Schenectady, NY 609,947
Albuquerque, NM 761,927
Allentown, PA-NJ 700,942
Atlanta, GA 5,225,579
Austin, TX 1,653,539
Bakersfield, CA 563,189
Baltimore, MD 2,300,170
Baton Rouge, LA 639,129
Birmingham, AL 763,704
Boston, MA-NH-RI 4,490,042
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT-NY 951,252
Buffalo, NY 967,537
Cape Coral, FL 661,617
Charleston-North Charleston, SC 630,136
Charlotte, NC-SC 1,523,844
Chicago-IL-IN 8,636,074
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 1,724,514
Cleveland, OH 1,774,219
Colorado Springs, CO 618,537
Columbia,SC 593,144
Columbus, OH 1,554,047
Concord, CA 674,633
Dallas-Ft Worth-Arlington, TX 5,901,118
Dayton, OH 732,165
Denver-Aurora, CO 2,690,882
Des Moines, IA 516,172
Detroit, MI 3,773,566
El Paso, TX-MN 792,338
Fresno, CA 727,075
Grand Rapids, MI 621,711
Hartford, CT 928,384
Houston, TX 5,721,108
Indianapolis, IN 1,672,159
Jacksonville, FL 1,205,353
Kansas City, MO-KS 1,643,120
Knoxville, TN 635,692
Las Vegas-Henderson, NF 2,187,181
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 12,257,919
Louisville, KY-IN 1,021,977
McAllen, TX 805,274
Memphis, TN-MS-AR 1,073,300
Miami, FL 6,001,189
Milwaukee, WI 1,379,895
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN-WI 2,891,208
Mission Viejo-Lake Forest-San Clemente, CA 599,834
Murrieta-Temecula-Menifee, CA 529,751
Nashville-Davidson, TN 1,113,076
New Haven, CT 562,708
New Orleans, LA 941,414
New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT 19,182,900
Ogden-Layton, UT 633,081
Oklahoma City, OK 960,222
Omaha, NE-IA 797,325
Orlando, FL 1,762,210
Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL 505,407
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 5,672,800
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ 4,120,530
Pittsburgh, PA 1,763,650
Portland, OR-WA 2,082,248
Providence, RI-MA 1,247,602
Provo-Orem, UT 589,744
Raleigh, NC 1,074,720
Richmond, VA 1,047,835
Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 2,079,515
Rochester, NY 733,491
Sacramento, CA 1,919,826
St Louis, MO-IL 2,141,818
Salt Lake City-West Valley City, UT 1,151,350
San Antonio, TX 1,996,409
San Diego, CA 3,120,959
San Francisco-Oakland, CA 3,440,874
San Jose, CA 1,752,498
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 724,926
Seattle, WA 3,560,825
Springfield, MA-CT 615,180
Tampa-St Petersburg, FL 2,758,459
Toledo, OH-MI 500,831
Tucson, AZ 871,757
Tulsa, OK 716,723
Urban Honolulu, HI 837,641
Virginia Beach, VA 1,495,997
Washington, DC-VA-MD 5,047,533
Worcester, MA-CT 531,066

Large Urban Areas by Percentage of Adults with a Bachelor Degree or Higher, 2021:
Concord, CA 60.6%
San Jose, CA 56.4%
Washington, DC-VA-MD 56.4%
Raleigh, NC 55.9%
Austin, TX 53.8%
Mission Viejo-Lake Forest-San Clemente, CA 53.7%
San Francisco-Oakland, CA 52.5%
Boston, MA-NH-RI 51.0%
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT-NY 50.1%
Charlotte, NC-SC 48.5%
Seattle, WA 48.5%
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN-WI 47.5%
Denver-Aurora, CO 47.1%
Provo-Orem, UT 46.0%
Nashville-Davidson, TN 44.9%
Atlanta, GA 44.6%
Portland, OR-WA 44.3%
Columbus, OH 43.6%
New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT 43.6%
Baltimore, MD 43.3%
Albany-Schenectady, NY 43.1%
Pittsburgh, PA 42.6%
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 42.3%
San Diego, CA 42.3%
Charleston-North Charleston, SC 42.1%
Richmond, VA 41.8%
Chicago-IL-IN 41.5%
New Haven, CT 41.5%
Kansas City, MO-KS 41.1%
Worcester, MA-CT 41.1%
Indianapolis, IN 40.9%
Rochester, NY 40.8%
Birmingham, AL 40.7%
St Louis, MO-IL 40.7%
Colorado Springs, CO 40.4%
Grand Rapids, MI 40.2%
Columbia,SC 40.1%
Hartford, CT 40.1%
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 39.6%
Milwaukee, WI 39.5%
Des Moines, IA 39.4%
Omaha, NE-IA 39.1%
Dallas-Ft Worth-Arlington, TX 38.0%
Buffalo, NY 37.9%
Orlando, FL 37.8%
Knoxville, TN 37.2%
Albuquerque, NM 36.9%
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 36.9%
Salt Lake City-West Valley City, UT 36.7%
Urban Honolulu, HI 36.7%
Cleveland, OH 36.6%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 36.2%
Virginia Beach, VA 36.2%
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ 36.0%
Tampa-St Petersburg, FL 35.8%
Houston, TX 35.5%
Sacramento, CA 35.5%
Miami, FL 35.3%
Springfield, MA-CT 35.2%
Jacksonville, FL 34.7%
Louisville, KY-IN 34.6%
Detroit, MI 34.6%
Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL 34.4%
Providence, RI-MA 34.3%
Tucson, AZ 34.2%
Ogden-Layton, UT 33.6%
Oklahoma City, OK 33.3%
Baton Rouge, LA 33.0%
Dayton, OH 33.0%
New Orleans, LA 32.8%
Allentown, PA-NJ 32.6%
Memphis, TN-MS-AR 32.2%
Akron, OH 31.4%
Toledo, OH-MI 29.2%
Murrieta-Temecula-Menifee, CA 28.7%
Cape Coral, FL 28.4%
Fresno, CA 27.4%
Las Vegas-Henderson, NV 27.0%
El Paso, TX-MN 25.2%
Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 21.6%
McAllen, TX 21.0%
Bakersfield, CA 20.1%

Large Urban Areas by Median Income, 2-Earner Families, 2021:
San Jose, CA $221,893
Concord, CA $218,277
San Francisco-Oakland, CA $190,318
Mission Viejo-Lake Forest-San Clemente, CA $175,172
Washington, DC-VA-MD $172,657
Boston, MA-NH-RI $156,401
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT-NY $156,378
Seattle, WA $152,048
Baltimore, MD $139,453
Austin, TX $136,956
Raleigh, NC $135,317
New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT $135,231
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN-WI $134,940
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD $132,997
Denver-Aurora, CO $130,869
Hartford, CT $130,633
Albany-Schenectady, NY $130,353
San Diego, CA $129,808
Worcester, MA-CT $129,029
Portland, OR-WA $128,492
Charlotte, NC-SC $126,971
Chicago-IL-IN $125,969
Honolulu, HI $124,938
New Haven, CT $123,250
Sacramento, CA $123,089
Pittsburgh, PA $120,808
Providence, RI-MA $120,291
Richmond, VA $120,289
Atlanta, GA $119,885
Murrieta-Temecula-Menifee, CA $118,970
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN $117,911
St Louis, MO-IL $115,715
Milwaukee, WI $115,606
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA $115,129
Columbus, OH $114,519
Springfield, MA-CT $113,798
Cleveland, OH $113,332
Des Moines, IA $113,311
Detroit, MI $113,141
Baton Rouge, LA $112,067
Rochester, NY $111,103
Charleston-North Charleston, SC $110,889
Kansas City, MO-KS $110,852
Indianapolis, IN $110,809
Dallas-Ft Worth-Arlington, TX $110,602
Omaha, NE-IA $110,590
Allentown, PA-NJ $110,210
Birmingham, AL $109,472
Albuquerque, NM $109,205
Buffalo, NY $108,493
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ $108,203
Colorado Springs, CO $107,254
Virginia Beach, VA $107,047
Dayton, OH $106,734
Nashville-Davidson, TN $106,538
Tampa-St Petersburg, FL $105,818
Ogden-Layton, UT $105,696
Houston, TX $105,106
Louisville, KY-IN $104,400
Salt Lake City-West Valley City, UT $102,958
Jacksonville, FL $102,605
Knoxville, TN $102,526
Toledo, OH-MI $102,241
Columbia,SC $102,143
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL $101,755
Fresno, CA $100,906
Memphis, TN-MS-AR $100,729
Akron, OH $100,690
Tulsa, OK $100,180
Orlando, FL $100,061
Riverside-San Bernardino, CA $99,838
Grand Rapids, MI $99,605
Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL $99,041
New Orleans, LA $97,029
San Antonio, TX $96,425
Oklahoma City, OK $95,219
Miami, FL $94,001
Cape Coral, FL $93,184
Bakersfield, CA $93,171
Provo-Orem, UT $92,708
Tucson, AZ $92,353
Las Vegas-Henderson, NV $92,027
El Paso, TX-MN $72,133
McAllen, TX $67,291

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

East Palo Alto?

Originally Posted by eschaton

It's 65% Latino and only around 10% black now. Apparently it peaked at 43% black in 1990.

When I was young, East Palo Alto was considered to be one of the "dangerous" parts of the Bay Area. Don't know if that's the case now.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

When I was young, East Palo Alto was considered to be one of the "dangerous" parts of the Bay Area. Don't know if that's the case now.

EPA is more seedy than it is dangerous these days imo. I drive through there a few times a month going back and forth on the Dumbarton Bridge and it's nothing like it was in the 1980s and 1990s--fairly quiet these days. It's more like a mini-Hayward now.

[dimondpark]

Urban Areas by Population Age 5+, Speaks a language other than English, 2021:
El Paso 521,314 - 70.3%
San Jose 915,803 - 55.1%
Los Angeles 6,358,459 - 54.8%
Miami 3,108,983 - 54.7%
Riverside 985,058 - 50.6%
San Francisco 1,452,886 - 44.4%
Houston 2,292,486 - 42.9%
New York 7,197,174 - 39.8%
San Diego 1,089,994 - 37.0%
Dallas 1,927,128 - 34.9%
Las Vegas 694,428 - 33.7%
Washington 1,594,852 - 33.7%
San Antonio 678,770 - 32.5%
Orlando 532,669 - 31.9%
Chicago 2,514,620 - 30.8%
Sacramento 533,010 - 29.5%
Boston 1,180,815 - 27.7%
Austin 431,363 - 27.6%
Seattle 895,735 - 26.6%
Phoenix 1,025,665 - 26.4%
Tampa 631,585 - 24.1%
Denver 529,897 - 20.8%
Atlanta 1,017,226 - 20.7%
Philadelphia 933,233 - 17.4%
Detroit 564,785 - 15.9%