Comment 42109

By Kiely (registered) | Posted June 17, 2010 at 15:42:04

maybe this graph should be making us ask a few questions about ourselves? www.newgeography.com/files/whitecity1.png - thompsmr

Very interesting and honestly, not too surprising. I agree that it should make us ask questions about ourselves but we need to be careful not to read to much into those stats as well.

I would hate to have someone take a superficial look at that and conclude - whites make progressive cities and blacks do not. Many socio-economic factors come in to play.

Is it simply a matter of race or does it have more to do with social class, education, economics and opportunity? White Americans have been fleeing mixed inner-city neighbourhoods for decades (unfortunately some of my relatives were among them). What they leave behind are inner cities with decimated tax bases and large percentages of low income visible minorities. It is hard to be "progressive" in that case. White flight and the decline of inner-city America is a whole other can of worms on top of what is being discussed here.

Also it should be mentioned, since some folks here like to tout Portland's progressive city planning (and often rightfully so), that just because a city has become progressive on the civil engineering side of things does not mean they are progressive in a societal context. Portland is known to be a very white and some even say racist city, with a checkered past.

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