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March 23, 2006 |

Tony’s Kansas City points out the interesting state of racial geography in Kansas City, where minorities are moving to the suburbs as whites are returning to the urban core. And it’s a lot more than the white gentrification of the Westside or the black middle class migration to Hickman Mills in southeast KC that Tony complains about. It’s happening all over the place.

The black middle class has moved to many blue collar, inner-ring suburbs like Raytown, Grandview, Belton, and Independence on the Missouri side. As they move in, the working class whites are fleeing to exurbs like Oak Grove or Raymore. Hispanics are choosing Kansas burbs like Roeland Park and Mission in NE Johnson County. Africans and Asians are leaving the traditional immigrant gateway of the Old Northeast to join the Italian-Americans in God’s Country (the Northland), but the original Northlanderss are moving further north and even west into Platte County.

Meanwhile, whites continue moving back to neighorhoods that where originally white but spent the last 50 years as home to blacks and Hispanics - places like the Westside, Columbus Park, Old Northeast, Trooswood, etc. Through all of this, KC remains one of the most segregated cities in the country. So perhaps there is a lot of truth to Tony’s assertion that we have few integrated neighborhoods, just lots of areas that are in transition from one group to the next.


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. RBH on March 23, 2006 10:50 pm

    The true “winners” in this are all the people who are selling Real Estate in East Independence/EJC. If you haven’t been out there, you haven’t seen the variety of new developments with man-made lakes. They’re pretty much everywhere.

    And it will get even bigger whenever the whole Jackson Drive thing actually happens (which will connect a huge road from the Little Blue Parkway/39th area to 24 highway, Courtesy of the Highway Bill and Kit Bond). Don’t ask me how the “Giant Little Blue Parkway” thing will work out, I looked at a few ‘projections’ and they don’t make sense. I just suspect that a lot of eniment domain will be used.

    Granted, the whole “Blanket-like movable roof” thing for the stadiums doesn’t make sense to me either.

  2. matt on March 24, 2006 10:19 am

    being a city dweller, i was horrified at the traffic and impatient driving habits i encountered in east jackson county yesterday. i dare speculate that my life was in as much or if not more danger driving through east jack as it would be walking down prospect. theres no bloody way i’d buy a house out there.

    i’ll keep my bicycle and urban core, thanks.

  3. matt on March 24, 2006 10:25 am

    that being said, my response really had nothing to do with the topic.

    during my bike rides east of troost and the paseo, around 39th street, i’m definitely starting to see demographic shifts in what are still poor neighborhoods. accordingly, im seeing demographic shifts around red bridge. this would make for some very interesting academic research.

  4. alex on March 29, 2006 10:26 pm

    people are afraid to be different. If we stand out we feel like a target. so, we go where we blend in and feel safe. that is the problem.

  5. Carman on May 22, 2006 12:23 pm

    Have you been to Hyde Park? It’s a melting pot.

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