Population Shift Sees Fewer Affluent Blacks
Number of Well-Off White New Yorkers Surges
The Hollis section of Queens is seeing a rise in its lower-income black population, a new report says. KEVIN HAGEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By
LAURA KUSISTO
Nov. 4, 2014 8:51 p.m. ET
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New York City’s black upper-middle class is fading, while its populations of upper-class white singles and lower-income Hispanics are booming, according to a new report that adds to concerns about a struggling middle class and growing income divide.
Between 2000 and 2010, neighborhoods dominated by the city’s black upper-middle-class residents experienced an 18.9% population decline.
Places such as Woodlawn in the Bronx and Hollis in Queens that were once affluent enclaves of upwardly mobile African-Americans saw a growth in low-income black households at their fringes. These neighborhoods have also had high rates of foreclosure.
The report, titled “Making Neighborhoods,” is set to be released Wednesday by the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a New York City organization founded in 1937 to deal with neighborhood and housing issues. The event is to be co-hosted by the New York State Association for Affordable Housing. The event is to be co-hosted by the New York State Association for Affordable Housing.
Darnel Lyles, 48 years old, an African-American who lives in Queens Village, adjacent to Hollis, with his wife and two children, said he had noticed the makeup of the neighborhood change since the predatory lending that began during the early 2000s followed by the foreclosure crisis.
“You have these houses that were previously owned by people of color in the community. They become sucked up by people who are looking to extend them to make them multifamily dwellings. You have a loss of ownership in these communities,” said Mr. Lyles, who works for the outreach organization of his church, which is based in Jamaica.
The report creates clusters of population based on factors such as race, income and family size and assigns them to each of the city’s census tracts based on which cluster represents the majority of people in that tract. It then compares the locations of the clusters between the 2000 and 2010 to chart neighborhood shifts over time.
“What are we going to do about protecting, maintaining and growing the black middle-class homeowner? These neighborhoods in Queens have been big drivers of prosperity for African-Americans,” said Jerilyn Perine, executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council.
As the black middle-class shrunk, the cluster of white, high-income, largely single people grew at the fastest rate of any group in the city. This group dominated by affluent whites increased 44% in population and 32% in the geographic area they occupy. In particular, whites moved into racially diverse neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City.
The cluster led by low-income Hispanic population grew to more than 1 million. Hispanics were the only group that didn’t have a middle- or high-income cluster. The low-income cluster has the highest percentage of single-parent families and the highest percentage of adults without college degrees.
Ritchie Torres, a City Council member for the central Bronx, said he had seen the population of his neighborhoods swell and was concerned about a lack of housing.
His neighborhoods need jobs and better schools to promote upward mobility he said, though he said universal prekindergarten would help residents of his district.
“New York City is becoming less and less conducive to upward mobility,” he said.
Ms. Perine cautioned that while the results seem to confirm fears about gentrification and income stratification, they capture just one moment in the long life of a changing city. She pointed to neighborhoods such as Elmhurst, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn as areas dominated by Hispanic families that transitioned from low-income to low-middle-income—possible evidence of an emerging middle class.
“I would look at it as a lot of different groups and a lot of different people trying to find their way in a city that is always changing and presents all kind of obstacles to people,” she said.
Write to Laura Kusisto at laura.kusisto@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/articles/population-shift-sees-fewer-affluent-blacks-1415152267
. There are also businesses relocating to the region. If it's not your thing, that's fine, but people have legit reasons to do it.