Posted on 08/15/2006 8:55:21 AM PDT by gcruse
Aug. 15 - KGO - Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows an exodus is taking place in some of the Bay Area's largest cities. And even though the nation is getting more diverse, those Bay Area cities are losing their minority populations.
These are the first numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau since 2000, and demographers say there has been an extraordinary explosion of diversity all across the United States. The number of immigrants in the U.S. has gone up 16-percent.
Diversity has reached almost every state. West Virginia is the only state that didn't see an increase in the number of immigrants.
California, Texas, New York, and Florida have the nation's largest immigrant populations. Whites are the minority in Hawaii, New Mexico, California, and Texas.
But in San Francisco, the number of Latinos went down 10-percent. The black population dropped by 25-percent. In Oakland, the black population shrank by 19-percent. But the Latino population grew by 12-percent.
The region is still diverse. Whites are now the minority, making up less than half of the Bay Area's population.
Minorities are leaving the big cities for the suburbs. In Antioch, the black population doubled. Demographers suspect affordable housing is luring minorities to the suburbs and away from the expensive big cities.
In San Jose, the black and Latino populations didn't show significant change.
There are critics who are questioning the accuracy of these numbers. The survey does have its limitations. For example, people in nursing homes, hospitals, prisons and other institutions were not included in the count.
Oakland is telling us something; maybe that's why the census results are being criticized.
SHHHHHHHHHH! Please don't spread this news about WV. You know that we mountaineers don't like ferinners. Shoot em on sight we do. Don't come here. Stay away. Awful place to live. You wouldn't like it.
oaktowns murder rates might have a hand in the decline of some populations there.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
But just think of the boon to housing values and economic development if WV started a campaign around the slogan "West Virginia: Where You Don't Have to Press 1 for English."
Of course, white society is perfectly homogeneous and not diverse at all. Especially if you're in prestigous, guilt-mongering colleges and newsrooms.
I'm here in the Bay Area. What's going on is that middle class blacks are leaving places like Oakland, San Francisco and Richmond to get away from crime, drugs, gangs, etc. They don't want their kids exposed to this dysfunction, so they are moving to the exurbs like everyone else. Actually, for once, this is not a racial issue, although the Chronicle tries to make it one.
I live in the East Bay, in a racially mixed city with an average income of nearly $100k a year. Many people here have escaped from the big cities and are great neighbors.
It's not color - it's culture.
As my mother used to constantly remind me when I was growing up....
It's not about race, it's about class (social status)
Don't get mad if I say this, but West Virginia is one of the prettiest states and the best kept secret in America. I went to college at Ohio University (about 30 miles from WV) and spent almost all of my free time roaming WV. It is a great state. Robert Byrd should also be keeling over sometime soon.
But you won't be able to understand it the way we speak it...
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Hush. We're trying our best to keep it that way. Yeah, the ole Byrd is about done and our conservative state is turning Republican little by little. I pray that we continue to stay 50 years behind the rest of the USA.
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