Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't know abut that one. I live near Oxon Hill and when PWC was cracking down I saw the Hispanic population here balloon. Maybe it was coincidental but probably not.
Again, what I said was that the Hispanics who left the county were disproportionately business owners and Hispanics from other jurisdictions stopped shopping in PWC in droves. While a sufficient number to notice did leave the county, there was not a mass exodus of Hispanics from PWC starting in 2008. There was however a reluctance among newly arriving Hispanics to move in. They went instead to places like FFX and PGC. It sounds like you saw some of them.
I don't know abut that one. I live near Oxon Hill and when PWC was cracking down I saw the Hispanic population here balloon. Maybe it was coincidental but probably not.
It wasn't. Winchester also saw an increase when PWC was cracking down.
Such a disgrace. What a blight on the community. What steps have you taken by the way to determine the number of day laborers who are legal and the number who are not? It sounds to me like you might be using the terms "day laborer" and "illegal" interchangeably.
I could give a rats arse if those folks loitering on the corner are legal or not. I don't have the time or inclination to find out. If they were legal I would be surprised that they'd spend all day trying to acquire low paying work at the corner store. Their time would be better spent finding work else where or standing in the unemployment line...
Well I know that not all illegal Hispanics left this area after the "crackdown." My neighbor was an illegal who had a flop house. Lots of people and kids going in/out of the house. Eventually in 2008 his house went into foreclosure, but I still see him in the area. I've seen him twice while shopping at Global Foods. Yes it's anecdotal, but I've not seen groceries like Global and Aldies lacking in the Hispanic shopping segment.
Is intolerance code word for actually doing something about the illegal immigration? The last report I read mentioned that not only Hispanics were detained, but also immigrants from Africa and Europe. Could have been a Canadian in there trying to get healthcare too... So it's not focusing on just one segment.
I'm a legal immigrant to this country and I am a US citizen and I have been mistaken for a Hispanic. I take walks in the neighborhoods and shopping centers. I drive through the county. I've never been illegally detained and asked my citizenship. I've never felt the police has looked at me any differently. If illegal aliens fear the police, they should because they are not in this country legally. They are law breakers by being here and I'm glad there are pockets that actually enforce the law.
I'm black and I'm just going to be frank, it comes down to economics. Plain and simple, a majority of black people just cannot afford to live out in Northern Virginia. Prince George's County and DC (mainly SE) are much more affordable. There was a statistic that came out a few weeks ago that stated whites on average they have wealth about 20 times more than blacks in this nation. When you hear figures like that, it's pretty obvious that a majority of black people just can't afford to live like our white counterparts. I do think there are a few blacks who just enjoy the idea of living around others who look like them even though they have the money to move elsewhere, but then you have individuals like myself and my wife, who would rather live in a diverse area. We would just prefer to live in a much more diverse population as opposed to one that is homogeneous. With that said, the only reason why we aren't currently living in NoVA is finances. If property value was so bad in PG County, we would have been there yesterday. Everybody is different. It all depends on what you value. If you value living around people who look like you, you prefer having more house for your money, and/or you enjoy certain ethnic qualities that are unique to being around certain cultures then as a black person you are less likely to move to NoVA.
This implies that NoVa is mostly white - it just isn't anymore. Yes, it is expensive, but it is one of the most diverse areas I've ever seen. Not only are there folks from all over the country, there are people from all over the world who come here to live. My son's school is mostly Asian (Korean and South Asian Indian). The Indian families moved here for job opportunities and they value the good school system. They live with mulitple generations in one home so that they can afford to be here.
There are also AA families here, but not in the same numbers as the Asian and Hispanic folks.
Maybe there are 'pockets' of white-only residents (McLean, Falls Church City, Old Town Alex.), but I know for a fact that the demographics of NoVa as a whole have shifted dramatically in the last decade. It's exceptionally diverse and as expensive as ever...
This implies that NoVa is mostly white - it just isn't anymore. Yes, it is expensive, but it is one of the most diverse areas I've ever seen. Not only are there folks from all over the country, there are people from all over the world who come here to live. My son's school is mostly Asian (Korean and South Asian Indian). The Indian families moved here for job opportunities and they value the good school system. They live with mulitple generations in one home so that they can afford to be here.
There are also AA families here, but not in the same numbers as the Asian and Hispanic folks.
Maybe there are 'pockets' of white-only residents (McLean, Falls Church City, Old Town Alex.), but I know for a fact that the demographics of NoVa as a whole have shifted dramatically in the last decade. It's exceptionally diverse and as expensive as ever...
I don't understand how you got that out of my post. I never implied that nova was not diverse. I was simply stating on average white people have more wealth than blacks. This statement doesn't account for middle easterners, asians or anyone else. I was only addressing blacks since that is the topic.
I'm not sure anyone has questioned that. But what you describe is a dynamic that is self-reinforcing and self-sustaining. Areas that are already signficantly or predominantly black are often more attractive to newly arriving blacks. Housing costs tend to be lower, there are black neighbors to be had, nearby black churches to attend (a signficant factor, given the historical role of church in black culture), black-oriented shops and restaurants, hair salons, and miscellaneous other amenities to turn to. What's not to like? Schools perhaps, but except among those for whom schools are or become the primary driver of location decisions, they won't outweigh all the rest.
I don't think the question is over why blacks congregate, but rather over why it is in MD and DC moreso than in VA. We are all aware of Chinatowns, and Koreatowns, and of various Jewish and Irish and Puerto Rican enclaves past and present. Go abroad and you will find American enclaves. Clustering is something that is to be expected. It can happen quickly (as in after the Civil War) but tends to change more slowly. Change does come, however. How many residents of Vienna realize that the town's first black school was opened years before its first white school? How many residents of the Chesterbrook area between Falls Church and McLean realize that a century ago, the entire area was the domain of wealthy black dairy farmers making a fortune off their ability to transport fresh milk into the District via the newly-opened trolley line? Times changed and population dynamics with them. The same is happening today. Blacks are now less than 50% of the District's population. Will that decline continue? Is there an offset in PGC and NoVa? What will the region look like 50 to 100 years from now? It's hard to tell without the benefit of hindsight, but hindsight suggests that the current patterns evolved from the events of the Civil War and the relatively less favorable treatment that blacks received in Virginia over quite a number of decades in its aftermath.
this is ridiculous. Some of you are just going to believe what you want. There has been two black people from pg county who told you why we don't live in nova and you still are trying to tell us we're wrong. All I can go on is myself and who I know. I have family on my side and my wife side who made the same decision that I've made to live in pg. Some people on this site are clueless. Why do you think dc black population has declined? Gentrification. If projects that house mostly black people are being torn down and they are building $300k condos do you think those people living in projects can afford to live there? How are you going to tell people who the question is addressed to how we made our decision when two of us have said the exact same thing. Are you black? Do you live in pg or dc? What makes you so qualified to answer this question over me?
Anecdotal evidence is easily come by. Every federal agency produces an EEO profile at various strata within the organization. Just ask around and you will hear plenty of anecdotes and stories about minorities being promoted ahead of whites in order to make the EEO numbers look good. No doubt that happens in some cases. And no doubt some instances of racism occur as well. But these are the counter-balancing extremes. In the main, people get promoted in a federal job because they have demonstrated the capacity to succeed at the next higher level.
You are completely clueless. Do you really think it works that way? There are plenty of black people who work for the government but how many of them work in management or ses positions? Sure a great deal of this has to do with the fact that blacks aren't as educated as our white counterparts, but racism is still an issue. Eel job just isn't that easy that you can make a complaint and it gets turned over. There is much to be proven to even have a chance.
This map was posted here a while back. The strongest divides seem to be between NW/NE in DC as well as Prince Georges/Anne Arundel and Calvert counties in Maryland.
I think that's essentially correct. The numbers of Hispanics who actually pulled up stakes and moved out of PWC were on the order of less than 10,000 or so, with the real effect coming in the reduced numbers of Hispanics who then chose to move in. Most jurisdictions in the DC area (inclduing PGC) have seen growing Hispanic populations, while PWC has remained much closer to flat. That said, much has been done in PWC in attempting to expunge the memory of the boondoggle of 2007-08, and the downstream effects of it are likely to erode slowly over time as the result.
Hogwash. Why would anyone listen to you when your status supports illegals. If what you said is true then show the proof. From my view pwc is doing much better than pg. Since the influx of illegals in to pg, guess who hospital system is near bankruptcy, guess who schools are overcrowded and spending unneccessary resources on non English speaking parents to learn English? There are a lot of things you aren't accounting for, and before illegals pg was in a much better place than it is now. After all you failed to mention that pwc had the highest foreclosure rate in the dc region. Why do you think that is?
Hogwash. Why would anyone listen to you when your status supports illegals. If what you said is true then show the proof. From my view pwc is doing much better than pg. Since the influx of illegals in to pg, guess who hospital system is near bankruptcy, guess who schools are overcrowded and spending unneccessary resources on non English speaking parents to learn English? There are a lot of things you aren't accounting for, and before illegals pg was in a much better place than it is now. After all you failed to mention that pwc had the highest foreclosure rate in the dc region. Why do you think that is?
Since Saganista was responding to my post, I'll jump back in to say that I was simply pointing out that the fact that the Hispanic population in PGC increased after PWC decided to crack down (at least temporarily) on undocumented residents doesn't prove there is a strong correlation between the two events. The Hispanic population has been growing in many metropolitan regions and Hispanics immigrants tend to end up in lower-cost jurisdictions. In this area, that includes sections of PGC. That has occurred at the same time as many AAs in PGC have moved to more expensive parts of PGC, as well as to neighboring counties like Charles, which results in a continued supply of comparatively affordable housing in PGC. The policies in PWC may have led some Hispanics to move to PGC, but you haven't shown that most current Hispanic residents of PGC lived previously in PWC. Their last residence prior to PGC may have been Arlington, DC, Fairfax, Hialeah, Los Angeles or San Salvador, rather than Woodbridge.
On the other hand, if your point is that "gentrification" is a real phenomenon in this area, I have to agree - it's not simply an issue of people self-selecting where to live based on events that occurred 150 or more years ago. In NoVa, that has clearly led, for example, to AAs leaving places like Arlington that have become increasingly expensive.
Again, with respect to AA residents, Alexandria continues to have a large AA population, and the percentage of AA residents in NoVa's most populous jurisdiction (Fairfax) is only slightly below the national average. For those who think "balance" in public schools is important, you'd find many schools in NoVa that have significant numbers of white, black, Asian and Hispanic students. I have to believe that included in that category are quite a few black parents who have concluded that, for them, a smaller house or townhouse in Fairfax is preferable to a larger SFH in PGC.
Last edited by JD984; 09-04-2011 at 09:54 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
