The White City

[Sbane]

Austin and Denver are only 50% white non hispanic so yeah...... And yes the Northwest has a lot of white people, but is this surprising? They are far away from the south so they were the least impacted by the great migration (and this is true of most of the west including California, which is only 6% black in contrast to the conventional wisdom that California has a large black population), and they are farther away from the southern border so they were less impacted by latino immigration (but that is changing rapidly). And since they don't have a very large city (Seattle is large, but doesn't compare to NYC, LA, Chicago, SF, Dallas, Houston etc), they weren't impacted that much by other immigration either.

It's interesting that SF wasn't chosen as one of the cities since it's pretty much the definition of a progressive city. I guess discussing a place as ethnically diverse and yet progressive as SF would have detracted from the "point" they were trying to make.

[Sbane]

Austin and Denver are only 50% white non hispanic so yeah...... And yes the Northwest has a lot of white people, but is this surprising? They are far away from the south so they were the least impacted by the great migration (and this is true of most of the west including California, which is only 6% black in contrast to the conventional wisdom that California has a large black population), and they are farther away from the southern border so they were less impacted by latino immigration (but that is changing rapidly). And since they don't have a very large city (Seattle is large, but doesn't compare to NYC, LA, Chicago, SF, Dallas, Houston etc), they weren't impacted that much by other immigration either.

It's interesting that SF wasn't chosen as one of the cities since it's pretty much the definition of a progressive city. I guess discussing a place as ethnically diverse and yet progressive as SF would have detracted from the "point" they were trying to make.

San Francisco and Austin are 6% Black, less than San Diego's 7%.

Austin has a large latino population and SF has a large asian population. Or can it only be white vs black?

I would have expected more Blacks in SD tbh, due to the large military presence.

[Sbane]

DC is a progressive city, and it's only like 40% white. We have all the socially liberal things the cities in the article have (gay marriage, medical marijuana, a city-wide free condom program, a better public transportation system than any of those cities, hipsters).

The author selectively chose cities that proved his point. And even there he failed.

[Sbane]

I think Storebought is conflating different things. People moving from Detroit to Atlanta or Houston does not make it white flight. As pointed out already, many blacks are themselves making that move. Why these cities are "looked down" upon as compared to "progressive" cities is because these cities have become examples of sprawl gone wrong. Cities like Portland, Denver and Austin have taken steps to ensure their cities don't sprawl out like the ones I mentioned. You may disagree with their city planning, but how does that make them racist?

People are moving to these places from all over the country for certain reasons and apparently blacks aren't wooed by it. So should we blame white people for that as well? When given a chance (as in they have broken into the middle class), blacks are overwhelmingly ditching places like Cleveland and moving to a place like Memphis or Nashville. And maybe that is because they don't care much for "livability" and care more about getting themselves a nice home for a cheap price and living the American dream? Let's face it, blacks and progressives do have different priorities. Doesn't make any of them racists.

I would also like to address your point about SF having more Blacks before. What is wrong with blacks moving out of the city if they so wish? Nobody is forcing them out. Rather, they are probably seeing that for the same amount of money they can ditch their small house in the city and move to the suburbs like Antioch, Dublin, Tracy or Fairfield. There they can have a bigger house and better schools for their children. These are things that don't interest young progressives. They would much rather stay as close as possible to the city. The same process is going on in Oakland currently. The city used to be 48% black but now it has dropped down to about 36%. I think whites have become a plurality now in Oakland. And it's those same motivations that are pushing out middle class blacks into the suburbs from the city. And at the same time young progressives are moving in who want to be close to the city but can't afford to live in SF. Again I don't see any of these developments as racist or whites trying to avoid blacks. I mean if a white person wanted to avoid blacks, would they move to Oakland? Well right now progressives are moving in droves to that city. Sorry to puncture your pre conceived notions.