Maps of ethnic divisions in US cities

[Stephane Dumas]

I spotted this topic at the Skyscraperpage forum http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=185164

[6a]

Wow, that's fascinating.  I used to live in Atlanta and the joke was I-20 divided it in half, but that's nothing compared to that map of Detroit.  God I love stuff like this, thanks for sharing.

[Bickendan]

Finally, visual proof that Portland's the whitest major city in the country. It's kinda scary.

[Brandon]

Absolutely fascinating maps.  Chicago's is dead-on from what I've seen just from driving around the region.  You can even see the Cook/DuPage County line between Maywood/Bellwood and Elmhurst.

Here's the flickr page they can be found on as well:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/sets/72157624812674967/with/4981444199/

[Grzrd]

My in-laws live in Uptown New Orleans.  For years, they have told me that circumstances can change dramatically in just a few blocks ... GREAT visual.

[Zmapper]

It looks like the melting pot needs to do a bit more melting. 

[bugo]

Racist.

[Zmapper]

Not necessarily. I simply noticed how different ethnicity's naturally separated and remembered at a common nickname for NYC, The Melting Pot.

[agentsteel53]

Racist.

damn it, Jeremy, stop hating on the people of ZMapper's ethnicity, whichever that may be.

[Scott5114]

Kind of surprised to see how integrated Oklahoma City is. The only really identifiable ghetto area is that little patch of blue on the east-central side, which I'm guessing represents the area between I-235, I-35, and I-40.

[kurumi]

Check out his main Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/, Eric Fischer) for hundreds of San Francisco highway and bridge plan documents (e.g. cancelled SF freeways).

[BigMattFromTexas]

Racist.

Yeeeah... So I'm half black and in no way did I find that racist. I actually laughed. I'm not sure how that's offensive, but I'm not you so... And yes New York is known as The Melting Pot..... Soooo. Yeeeah...
BigMatt

[Grzrd]

I'm sorry if I started "racist" digression with my comment re Uptown.  Quite simply, I love New Orleans because it is unique.  Part of my feeling comes from constant visits to Uptown; people of different ethnicities live close together in different "pockets"; it reminds me of the Balkans in that regard.  I've always thought that is why New Orleans has contributed more than its fair share to American culture, particularly in regard to music and cuisine; diversity creates new strains.  The rest of the maps seemed to have large pockets of ethnicity with major divides.  Post-Katrina, I think people of all ethnicities have done a tremendous job of rebuilding New Orleans.  Uptown is simply unique in the U.S. in terms of the close proximity in which people of different ethnicities work and live in close quarters. 

BTW - The most offensive, vile racist comments I have been exposed to occurred while I was obtaining an Ivy League degree from an institution "Up East", even though I grew up in Georgia.  Fellow students, from all geographic areas of the country, believed that they were "safe" in making those comments with me because I have a Southern accent.

Calling someone "racist" is extreme; if it was directed at me, at least make the effort to understand the context of a comment before taking an uninformed cheap shot.  If you want to follow up "off-line" via email, please do so.

[agentsteel53]

I'm sorry if I started "racist" digression with my comment re Uptown. 

you didn't.  Jeremy's just fucking around.   

[Grzrd]

Thx 

[bugo]

Calling someone "racist" is extreme; if it was directed at me, at least make the effort to understand the context of a comment before taking an uninformed cheap shot.

It wasn't directed at you, you didn't start the topic.

[Grzrd]

Thx.  I probably should have had some  before posting. 

[bugo]

Thx.  I probably should have had some  before posting. 

I have to drink my morning Coke before I can function.

[Alps]

I was going "wow" several times.  Amazing.  Wish the background graphics were stronger so you could make out waterways and highways more easily and get your bearings.

[mightyace]

It wasn't directed at you, you didn't start the topic.

As those maps are simply a representation of reality, I see nothing racist about them.

Now, as to why the maps are as they are, that's another subject entirely.

[BigMattFromTexas]

I find these maps really interesting. And I'd like to see one of those for Angelo. I'm pretty sure I know how it'd be..
Orange/blue - North Angelo to central Angelo.
Red - South(west) to West Angelo.
No offence in this, but the Southwest part is the nicer part of town, and the North-East-central part is not so great... Numbered streets here = bad.....
BigMatt

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I was going "wow" several times.  Amazing.  Wish the background graphics were stronger so you could make out waterways and highways more easily and get your bearings.

Most likely the maps were made with ARCview 3.1 technology, thus the white background and grey lines (versus using google earth as a background nowadays.)

[Alps]

No need for fancy background.  Black lines instead of gray lines would go a long way.

[Marc]

No wonder San Antonio has awesome Mexican food inside Loop 410. Alamo Cafe FTW. Then again, that's not inside 410

[Stephane Dumas]

Slightly off-topic, I spotted this one via the City-Data forum. this article from the Detroit Free Press

A stunning demographic reversal is taking shape in Detroit.

After six decades of white flight, the percentage of white Detroiters has shot up dramatically, according to a new census survey released Tuesday.

The survey, more estimate than precise numbers, shows that the percentage of white, non-Hispanic Detroiters rose from 8.4% of the city's population in 2008 to 13.3% last year.

Much of the rise can be pegged to younger white people -- along with some empty nesters -- moving to the city, even as African Americans continue to leave for the suburbs.

"What we're seeing is a move back to the city by a younger population that sees the city as cool," said Kurt Metzger, director of Data Driven Detroit.

The numbers were found amid grim economic data showing that the national economic meltdown hammered Michigan especially hard, with the state seeing worst-in-the-nation drops in income and working hours.

It can be interesting to see how the Detroit ethnic division map will look in 2020.

[Fixed URLs. -S.]