Why did Pittsburgh stay so white? (Etna, Republic: 2013, how much, neighborhood)

[eschaton]

If you look at nearly every rust-belt city in the country, the number of whites and blacks are fairly even. Places like Cleveland, Cincinnati and Saint Louis, all have white and black populations in the 40-50% range. Cities with a notable Latino population (Buffalo, Philly, Milwaukee, Chicago) have smaller black percentages, but the white population is still somewhere in the 40s.

Pittsburgh has been getting more diverse, but in 2010 it was still 65% white, which is among the highest for any city. This chart is old (from 2007 ACS) but Pittsburgh was the whitest MSA at that time, with only Portland and Seattle being whiter core cities overall.



Obviously the low number of Latinos and Asians is due to how much our economy sucked until recently. But I find myself wondering why we never got as large a black influx during the Great Migration as other U.S. cities. Someone well-versed with mid-century Pittsburgh history can feel free to school me.

Edit, I found this list of cities over 250,000 from the 2010 Census...those more white than us are:

Lincoln, NE: 83.1%
Lexington, KY: 73.0%
Portland, OR: 72.2%
Colorado Springs, CO: 70.7%
Fort Wayne, IN: 70.3%
Henderson, NV: 68.7%
Louisville, KY: 68.3%
Omaha, NE: 68.0%
Seattle, WA: 66.3%

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by eschaton

If you look at nearly every rust-belt city in the country, the number of whites and blacks are fairly even. Places like Cleveland, Cincinnati and Saint Louis, all have white and black populations in the 40-50% range. Cities with a notable Latino population (Buffalo, Philly, Milwaukee, Chicago) have smaller black percentages, but the white population is still somewhere in the 40s.

Pittsburgh has been getting more diverse, but in 2010 it was still 65% white, which is among the highest for any city. This chart is old (from 2007 ACS) but Pittsburgh was the whitest MSA at that time, with only Portland and Seattle being whiter core cities overall.



Obviously the low number of Latinos and Asians is due to how much our economy sucked until recently. But I find myself wondering why we never got as large a black influx during the Great Migration as other U.S. cities. Someone well-versed with mid-century Pittsburgh history can feel free to school me.

Edit, I found this list of cities over 250,000 from the 2010 Census...those more than us are:

Lincoln, NE: 83.1%
Lexington, KY: 73.0%
Portland, OR: 72.2%
Colorado Springs, CO: 70.7%
Fort Wayne, IN: 70.3%
Henderson, NV: 68.7%
Louisville, KY: 68.3%
Omaha, NE: 68.0%
Seattle, WA: 66.3%

I agree with you. Pittsburgh, since its economy stunk for the last 30 years, did not have the influx of African Americans and other minorities like many other cities had, which in turn reduced the amount of white flight.

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by eschaton

IBut I find myself wondering why we never got as large a black influx during the Great Migration as other U.S. cities. Someone well-versed with mid-century Pittsburgh history can feel free to school me.

One of my professors in grad school said that this was because of Pittsburgh's isolated location vis-a-vis the railroads. People migrating north on trains would either go up the east coast into Baltimore, Philly, NYC, or they'd go up through the mid-west into St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit. Pittsburgh would take an extra East-West trip.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

One of my professors in grad school said that this was because of Pittsburgh's isolated location vis-a-vis the railroads. People migrating north would either go up the east coast into Baltimore, Philly, NYC, or they'd go up through the mid-west into St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit. Pittsburgh would take an extra East-West trip.

I also wonder if we were getting more Eastern Europeans to counteract the "mix." Pittsburgh was of course exploding in population around that time.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Obviously the low number of Latinos and Asians is due to how much our economy sucked until recently. But I find myself wondering why we never got as large a black influx during the Great Migration as other U.S. cities. Someone well-versed with mid-century Pittsburgh history can feel free to school me.

At the time of the Great Migration, the real growth areas in the US economy was in automobiles, and if you look at population figures, cities like Detroit and Cleveland really skyrocketed in the 10's and 20's compared to Pittsburgh.

In fact, in Pittsburgh, we were already closing major steel works like the Isabella Furnace in Etna and Lucy in Lawrenceville were already being phased out in the 20's.

Migrants tend to go where the jobs are, and there were a lot more elsewhere.

[gg]

Never understood why people call having blacks in an area "diverse"? Americans are Americans. Diverse to me means culture and an international presence.

[SteelCityRising]

Are we sure this information is accurate? According to this chart the city's population was around 290,000 in 2007 whereas the U.S. Census Bureau reported we housed around 306,000 in 2010. I know rush-hour gridlock in the East End seems to be worsening on an annual basis, but did we really gain 16,000 people in three years? If the overall population was severely undercounted, then maybe the minority population was also severely undercounted in 2007? On the flip-side, if our estimated population in 2013 was almost the same as the official count in 2010, maybe that, too, is lagging, and we really have 320,000 people in the city right now? I just don't seen any value in the American Community Survey if their numbers are so inaccurate. I just wish we would do an OFFICIAL Census every five years instead of every ten.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Are we sure this information is accurate? According to this chart the city's population was around 290,000 in 2007 whereas the U.S. Census Bureau reported we housed around 306,000 in 2010. I know rush-hour gridlock in the East End seems to be worsening on an annual basis, but did we really gain 16,000 people in three years? If the overall population was severely undercounted, then maybe the minority population was also severely undercounted in 2007?

I know I've read other places that 2007 was considered basically the nadir of the city's population shrinkage (meaning the 2010 numbers, which showed a decline, hid a more massive decline followed by growth), so it wouldn't be shocking to me.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I just don't seen any value in the American Community Survey if their numbers are so inaccurate.

Not to worry, congressional Republicans defunded it well before the current government shutdown.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Never understood why people call having blacks in an area "diverse"? Americans are Americans. Diverse to me means culture and an international presence.

There's a notion with white-guilt laden Americans that "diversity" should be about race. In other countries diversity is about diverse view points, ideals, and culture.

It is not about real diversity, but making people feel better about themselves. "DON'T YOU SEE! I have a black family in my neighborhood! That means I'm not racist!"