Jax no longer a hypersegregated metropolitan area

[thelakelander]

America Has Half as Many Hypersegregated Metros as It Did in 1970
That's the good news. The bad: U.S. cities aren't necessarily more integrated.

A city is "hypersegregated" if it meets four of the following five criteria:

1. Black residents are "unevenly distributed," geographically; that is, the percentage of blacks within residential areas doesn't mirror their citywide population share.

2. Black residents are isolated—they predominantly live in African American neighborhoods and don't tend to have that much contact with white residents.

3. These neighborhoods are clustered together in certain parts of town as "one large, contiguous ghetto" as opposed to being scattered across the city.

4. The black population is highly concentrated these small, geographically compact areas.

5. These residents tend to live in the urban cores of the city.

The concept of hypersegregation was developed in 1989 by Douglas Massey, currently a sociologist at Princeton and director of the university's Office of Population Research. Its social effects are predictably terrible: poverty, crime, and bad schools among them. But as Massey reports in a new paper in the journal Demography, the number of U.S. metro areas suffering hypersegregation seems to be on the decline—down from 40 in 1970 to 21 in 2010.

Full article: http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/05/america-has-half-as-many-hypersegregated-metros-as-it-did-in-1970/393743/

[CG7]

It always amazes me that people think because they live a certain way everyone else must too. I live in Avondale, and yesterday I came home to 3 black, 3 white and 1 mixed teenagers laying around my house. I am only related to my incredibly handsome mixed son, so I haven't seen anything close to segregation in 18 years.

[Steve]

I was in Baltimore last weekend. Based on just my time in Jacksonville and seeing Baltimore last weekend, I'd buy this study. Baltimore seemed incredibly segregated.

[urbanlibertarian]

One of the cool things about living on the northbank and adjacent to Springfield is the ethnic diversty.

[Tacachale]

"Hypersegregation" is a term referring to a specific phenomenon. A community not being "hypersegregated" doesn't mean segregation doesn't exist (especially in certain areas), let alone that a city is well integrated, it just means that specific phenomenon doesn't exist there.

These days, while there are parts of town that are are mostly black or mostly white, it's not the case that the bulk of African-Americans live in those isolated neighborhoods. In fact, I'd doubt even half the African-American population does. So most parts of the inner Northside and Northwest are mostly African-American, more African-Americans live in more mixed neighborhoods in the Westside, Arlington, old Southside, and Northside around and above the Trout River, as well as mixed into the majority-white neighborhoods all over.

This would mean Jacksonville is likely not hypersegregated, but as the article notes, degrees of segregation can still exist in cities in a more localized and dispersed scale.

Metro Jacksonville ran a really cool series of maps for various cities, I'll try to dig it up if Ennis doesn't beat me to it.

[Tacachale]

Here it is, from 2010:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-oct-race-and-ethnicity-in-urban-america

This is the picture of Jacksonville for that time:



Here's the more classically hypersegregated Chicago:

[ProjectMaximus]

It always amazes me that people think because they live a certain way everyone else must too.

This isn't just people, it's Murder_me_rachel, whose experience trumps all!

[CG7]

you're right PR it is MMR. I'm just glad I don't live in his world.

[I-10east]

Jax is one of the most underrated cities when it comes to race relations in the US. There's alot of bad things (I'm not getting all into detail) that happens frequently in other metros, that are virtually non-existent in Jax.

[ProjectMaximus]

It always amazes me that people think because they live a certain way everyone else must too. I live in Avondale, and yesterday I came home to 3 black, 3 white and 1 mixed teenagers laying around my house. I am only related to my incredibly handsome mixed son, so I haven't seen anything close to segregation in 18 years.

It always amazes me that people think because they live a certain way everyone else must too.

This isn't just people, it's Murder_me_rachel, whose experience trumps all!

Uh, I never said anything about people must live exactly the same way I do, did I?  Nor did I say anything about my experience trumping anything, did I?  Since you all apparently lack reading comprehension skills, I will help you out: No, I didnt.  I guess everyone must live some magical multi-racial world because you do CG7?

I simply said, in my experience, as a white, upper-middle-class, longtime resident of this city, I find Jacksonville to be highly segregated, despite the findings of this study. Moreover, I cited the criteria for the study and my thoughts on them.  If your mileage varies, cool, I would love to hear it.  That's much more informative than shit-talking me for something I didn't say.

Lol, you seem strangely sensitive. I was alluding to your comments in numerous other threads. In any case, your viewpoint really doesn't bother me much but I can't imagine you honestly don't have the self-awareness to recognize how you come across on internet forums.

If I knew you in real life I bet I would find you engaging and entertaining, so don't take my jab personally. Given your online persona, you should be expecting these reactions.

[InnerCityPressure]

When we moved from DC to Jax (in 2009), we were actually surprised by the amount of integration.  There seemed to be an inordinate amount of mixed race couples around town.  Also, the lower SES youth seem to all be a part of hip hop culture and hang out in mixed race groups.  It was a big surprise as I fully expected to see a lot more racism and general "southiness."  We always love when we see a middle-aged white guy that we would have assumed racist having a great convo with a black guy.  It happens way more often than one would think. 

[ProjectMaximus]

Fair enough.  It is just that with something as sensitive as race and segregation, did not want my comments perceived in the wrong light.  Sorry to act like a butt hurt weenie.

lol. fwiw, I never did share my viewpoint, which is that Jax does still feel rather segregated. But it's also not as bad as other parts of this country, nor, apparently, as it used to be.

When we moved from DC to Jax (in 2009), we were actually surprised by the amount of integration.  There seemed to be an inordinate amount of mixed race couples around town.  Also, the lower SES youth seem to all be a part of hip hop culture and hang out in mixed race groups.  It was a big surprise as I fully expected to see a lot more racism and general "southiness."  We always love when we see a middle-aged white guy that we would have assumed racist having a great convo with a black guy.  It happens way more often than one would think. 

Are you thinking DC has worse segregation, or just that you had low expectations before you moved. Just curious? Apparently DC, like Jax, has improved in this regard since the 70s.

[Ocklawaha]

All minnows of a certain color and size tend to swim together. Perhaps it's not some evil conspiracy to hold back various races but a natural tendency of mankind to be with his own family. As a kid that ran wild through the streets of Jacksonville in the 50's and 60's along with my little black sidekick Tommy Garcia and Robert West, I never felt like we've been nearly as segregated as other large American cities. While there are clearly ethnic neighborhoods peppered throughout the city, none of us ever had a care if we were in a white, black or Hispanic house. So while on a map it might look like all of the NW side of Jax is black, but no one I knew back then cared who 'was coming to dinner.' The lid on the house might have been black, or in my case white, but the people inside were JAXSONS!

[peestandingup]

Jax is one of the most underrated cities when it comes to race relations in the US. There's alot of bad things (I'm not getting all into detail) that happens frequently in other metros, that are virtually non-existent in Jax.

I agree.  Its not enough, we can do better. But we are doing better than many other places.  Other than a couple of eras and leader groups, the actual people here have a very long history of tolerance against the backdrop of the rest of the south.

Yep. And honestly, having lived & traveled all around the northeast urban areas (and that means nose to the street type living), I'll tell you right now that in many ways race relations down here are MUCH better than they are up there. Which is kinda funny seeing that most up north see the south as "backwards". Meanwhile everything gets turned into a race topic up there whether it is or it isn't. It's a bit nuts IMO.

Things happen here, sure. But you hardly hear of them, esp in just normal everyday things. Up there its constant.

[Ocklawaha]

Yeah, Milwaukee is so damn bad I think I saw color stripes painted on the floors of the VA facilities to keep everyone within their proper place.