Race factor in Columbus (Cleveland, Dayton: low income, crime, home)

[scottie]

Originally Posted by Zippy7fo

Cincy and Cleveland are very segregated and toss in Akron as well. I have AA friends who said the same thing that southern attitude exists in Detroit, Cincy, Cleveland that should belong down south.....

I wouldnt say Cleveland but I agree that Cincy does have an attitude with segregation that you could find similiar to the south

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Traveler87

I wouldnt go that far. Esp. after I have visited cities like Birmingam and Montgomery.

I didn't say Birmingham and Montgomery weren't Deep South cities. I just said that my friends who are from Ohio have commented on Cincinnati being like the deep south based on the racial tensions.

[Traveler87]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I didn't say Birmingham and Montgomery weren't Deep South cities. I just said that my friends who are from Ohio have commented on Cincinnati being like the deep south based on the racial tensions.

I understand that. I was just showing 2 other major cities that have far worse problems than Cincy.

[joepeffer]

Renay2001,
When it comes to schools, Bexley, Worthington and Upper Arlington are the best in Central Ohio. The $/sf to get into those communities and the taxes there are higher than most of the rest of the Columbus area.
Joe Peffer
Moderator cut: linking to real estate sites is not allowed

[gtsurfer05]

Calling Cleveland segregated like the deep south is crazy. Sure, the Blacks typically live on the East side of town, but thats where they moved to in the first place, so they're wouldn't be some mass migration to the west side of town. For all you 'diversity' folks out there, there are many cities on the east side that are pretty mixed, some are decent like Shaker Hts, while others are transitional(aka getting worse). As for racial tension, on the part of the whites more of mistrust, however on the side of the Blacks I would say there would be more hatred. You'll have instances today where whites who go into Black areas to teach or for school are routinely insulted with racial slurs and vulgarity. You'd never see open hostility like that in any other city around Cleveland. Now for the mistrust on the white side, it goes back to the 50's-70's, when you had the ethnic areas in the city. Speaking from what I know of, would be the Poles on the East side in the Warszawa Neighborhood(Slavic Village now). These immigrants who were not racist, had nothing against Blacks, would obviously work in the city. Some of these immigrants who worked in the non-immigrant areas would get beat up/attacked by Blacks and get called racial things. This would obviously build mistrust between these two groups. As time went on too, the immigrant areas started to fall into decay when first the Hillbillies came in and then the Blacks after them. So now the people that had beat up and insulted these immigrants were ruining their formerly very nice neighborhood. These Poles,Czechs, Germans, etc, said heck with this and moved the the West side and the other east side communities. Their experience with blacks was on the most part a negative one. Now obviously ever group has their bad parts, but for these Immigrants, their interaction was bad enough to move out.
The one thing that you can not say though, is the situation of today is racism(a overused, and misunderstood term) dominating Cleveland.

[stationplay]

Columbus is not a segregated city at all. There are all types of folks living in everycorner. Most of us who live here don't realise how mixed our city is because we are so used to it. I love Columbus for this reason.

[Dorian]

Originally Posted by stationplay

Columbus is not a segregated city at all. There are all types of folks living in everycorner. Most of us who live here don't realise how mixed our city is because we are so used to it. I love Columbus for this reason.

I am from Pittsburgh and when I visited Columbus last summer that was one of the first things I noticed was that everybody was mixed together, black(american decent), white(american decent), hispanic, european, African, rich, poor, middle class. I thought that was pretty amazing to see that. Here in pittsburgh we have neighborhoods that are mostly black and neighborhoods that are mostly white, they might be right next to each other but not as mixed as c'bus. I couldn't even tell if I was in a poor neiborhood or in a middle class one. Also, everything felt new in c'bus, sure we have a lot of history and culture here but c'bus seems so fresh. I have consistantly heard that columbus has very little racial tension and that most don't even care about race altogether, and from being there I belive it.

[Dorian]

IMO Cincy has a good bit of racial tenson but, I think the issues between the black community and the police is far worse than the tension between black and white altogether. for that reason I would say cleveland is worse off than cincy. I recently came in contact with someone from cleveland that told me that "they have no reason to come to our neighborhoods and we have no reason to go to theirs, They have their stores and we have ours." And he was a black male (I am also by the way). I also have family members in Cleveland and they said that's just how things are there from both sides. It doesn't matter if cleveland is 51% black or not, the racism and divison of the city comes from all the races in the city, black, white, or hispanic they just choose not to mix.

[nbtiell]

I have lived in several places, two cities in Florida, Cleveland OH, BFE Ohio (currently), Columbus OH. Out of every city I've lived in Columbus has the BEST integration and lack of racism of any I've seen. In fact, when I moved to Cleveland it was a horrific shock to me how horribly racist that city was. I'd never experienced anything like it and it still sickens me everytime I think of it (I'm positive the whole reason Cleveland has declined to the state it is in is because of the rampant racism...the younger generations are moving out in record numbers because the enviornment is awful so all the city is left with is a bunch of bitter old people who are stuck in an event that happened 40 years ago). But I digress! Columbus is a great town, I was not surprised to here they were voted best town for AA to raise children in (I think it was by BET). As for Westerville, the level of minorities in Westerville is horribly out of whack (it is approx. 92% white, 3% black, 2% Latino, 1% Indian, 2% other ethnicity). But even with the reduced levels of minorities, the racism is exceedingly less there. I actually graduated from WNHS (but...this was many moons ago and things change) and the racism was just not there (although, even though the racism wasn't the mean girl syndrome was rampant, I'm pretty sure the movie Heathers was based on my HS).

Most of the suburbs of Columbus have a distinct lack of minorities. However, that does not always mean the school districts do. Something a lot of people aren't aware of (because it hasn't been done in most cities and the people in Columbus take it for granted) is that a lot of children who live in the city of Columbus go to suburban schools. In exchange for tax benefits for the suburban school districts a lot of the "border" neighborhoods go to their nearest suburban school (almost all of the school districts in Suburban Columbus have students that go to their schools that live in the city of Columbus). So even though the suburbs have lowered levels of minorities (Worthington 94% white, Hilliard 93% white, Westerville 92% white, Dublin 89% white, Gahanna 86% white, Reynoldsburg 85% white, Whitehall 75% white), the schools are probably less so.

[Traveler87]

I love how people talk about how racist Cleveland is. I can't believe people's lack of knowledge, let alone a few visits gives them an overall picture. That gets me upset.