My kids grew up in rural Vermont. It is not racially diverse at all. However, we were in an extreme minority being Jewish. Typically, my kids were one of the only Jewish kids at school, though they knew a couple who were half Jewish. It really wasn’t an issue, though it came more to the forefront around the holidays.
One of my daughters lives in Brooklyn. Not sure about the apartment she has lived in the past year, but at her previous one, it seemed to me that she may have been one of the only white people in her building and perhaps a minority in her neighborhood. Was not an issue for her.
In NYC as a single adult, I did, since it was Spanish Harlem on the edge of the Upper Upper East Side…and I didn’t need to concern myself with the quality of the local public schools. I was just looking for a cheap two-bedroom apt. I tried to buy milk once from a storefront “store” and was told curtly that they didn’t sell milk…I didn’t realize it was a set up for selling something else. But no one ever bothered me or my roommate.
As a parent, when we came to LA to live, I looked for the neighborhoods with the most affordable housing and the best public schools I could find and that turned out to be not a neighborhood in which I was an ethnic/racial minority. It is a somewhat diverse neighborhood, but we are most definitely among the majority.
I have done it and would again. I have been the only Jew in a small southern town and I have been one of the few non Jews (Reform with an impure lineage) in Israel. How is that for a switch! Now am one of the few Anglos in a majority Hispanic town.
I do see some truth in the observation that I am basically privileged, however: a white, upper income, well educated American wherever I live.
It matters most whether the neighborhood is safe. There is little risk in living among the rich, and I suppose some poor neighborhoods are less safe than others, you would need to check the data.
I have spent most of my life living as a small minority, and frankly for retirement I look forward to moving back to where I can be invisible in the majority.
Yea, in college and law school, in was an ethnic minority and fine with it. It rarely even occurred to me, except when I looked at photos and saw that I really didn’t look like any of my friends and was not the same race as any of them.
My city has a good mix of cheap housing and expensive housing. It’s a safe city. You can be poor but live in apartment and has accessed to good public school. But 2br apartment here is about $3000 a month.
I go to a church where we are the minority. If the neighborhood I was moving to treated us as well as my fellow parishioners do, then, heck yeah, I’d move there.
We are the minority in a prominently jewish neighborhood. If we had to do it again, we won’t. My kid’s school simply skipped anything related to middle east in their history class. Too much pressure on teachers to present one side. If any discussion was brought up, you can count on some kid leaving the class slamming the door.
I am always amused with people looking for diversity, as if that’s some sort of plus. I like interesting people, not because of their color or SES, but because of their life experience. I also do not need those interesting people to live in my neighborhood, I can travel.
I want to live in a safe neighborhood where I could come and go as I please without feeling I maybe attacked. I want my kids to go to a rigorous and safe school where they don’t have to feel like they would be attacked in a bathroom or hallway.
If I have black or Hispanic family living either side of my house, if I don’t find them interesting, what would that really do for me? Am I supposed to be friends with them just because they are neighbors? Am I supposed to absorb their culture because I happened to live next to them?
When I first moved to my NYC neighborhood, everyone was a minority. It was nice that no group was the majority. According to the American Community Survey, we’ve now crossed the line and the neighborhood is 55% white. In the 2010 census we were 51% white. In 2000, we were 49% white. When I moved here well before that, it was about 40% white. The percentage of blacks has declined from about one third when I moved here to about 17%. We now have a lot more Asians. In 2000 we were just under 11% Asian; now we are somewhat above 19%. The kind of Asians has changed dramatically. In 2000, most of the Asians living here were Indian or Korean. We’ve had a huge influx of Chinese and they now outnumber every other Asian group by about 5 to 1.
The demographics of our local public school are somewhat different though. Whites are about one-third; Asians a bit more than a quarter and blacks about one-fifth. Hispanics are about 15%.
Personally, as a white person, I would not want to live in a neighborhood that was less than about 20% white. When I was younger, the “acceptable” percentage was lower. However, as I grow old, I am more of a target than I used to be. That’s just reality.
And before everyone dumps on me for being racist, remember that I am perfectly content to be in the minority and I have lived in diverse communities my entire life. But reality is that “white flight” is not just about the change in neighborhood demographics. It’s usually accompanied by an increase in crime, a decline in the quality of public schools, and other symptoms of a decaying neighborhood.
When I first moved to my neighborhood it had a very, very high number of professionallly successful African-Americans. They had the $ to flee their old neighborhoods…and did. NYC wasn’t all that nice a place in the 1970s.
In my city, criminals go where the money is.
The car prowls, the pedestrians assaulted for their smart phones, the car jacking, and home break ins, are in every neighborhood.
The drive bys, & the mowing down of pedestrians in crosswalks, are generally limited to lower income areas, but not always.
Drunks are everywhere. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/dui-sentencing-232124031.html?mobile=y
My neighborhood seems to be predominantly Asians and Caucasians, as is our state. The high cost of purchasing housing does segregate communities somewhat, as many homes in East Honolulu are high 6 figures and more and more are 7 figures. That’s a lot of money to pay to purchase (or rent) housing. Most of Oahu is fairly expensive to own or rent, unless one qualifies for some rental assistance.
Yes, we speak to our asian and caucasian and part-Hawaiian neighbors and know many of those that have lived in the neighborhood for years. We have lived in our home for over two decades now and many of our neighbors have been there about the same length of time.
I’ve lived in apartment buildings in NYC and New Jersey for all but 13 years of my life. Speak to neighbors, other than to say hello if you happen to see them in the elevator? Who does that? Not I.
Don’t know if this counts as diverse but I live an apartment building that’s mostly White and Indian, and across the street there are two buildings (windows in our apartment face that way so I see who’s coming and going a lot) that appear to be all Black. But no, I don’t talk to them at all, nor really anyone else in my building.
The only way I could benefit from having diverse neighborhood would be through osmosis. I have always been a minority wherever I worked or lived. If I want my kind of food, I go to a restaurant to get my fill. If I want to get back to my roots more, I watch a movie, talk to my family, maybe go down to Chinatown, but I don’t need “my kind” of people to be around me. I stopped long time ago to think I am different or special because of my race.