Who’s Moving to the Suburbs?

Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? More African-Americans, That’s Who!

May 29, 2011 by Joseph Rand

Since I moved to the suburbs and started this blog, I’ve been trying to validate my decision by pointing out all the OTHER people who are ALSO moving to the suburbs. For example, we’ve seen how Amy Winehouse moved to the suburbs, and then the Crips and the Bloods (that was a big day for us), and then immigrants in general. We’ve also discussed the debate about whether people in general are still moving out to the suburbs, or whether they’re starting to go the other way.

But today, we have a report on a big “get” for our side: African-Americans:

Kendall Taylor grew up on this city’s tough South Side and is a pastor at Lodebar Church and Ministries in his old neighborhood. But he lives 35 miles away, in Plainfield, Ill.

“I didn’t want my children to grow up in the same environment I did,” says Taylor, 38, who bought a house in Plainfield with his wife Karen, 38, in 2007. They have one son, Jeremiah, who is 15. Taylor’s mom, sisters, nieces and nephews still live in Chicago. The youngsters, he says, “all want to come and live with me” in the quiet, but fast-growing suburb of about 40,000.

Taylor’s decision to live outside Chicago makes him part of a shift tracked by the 2010 Census that surprised many demographers and urban planners: He is among hundreds of thousands of blacks who moved away from cities with long histories as centers of African-American life, including Chicago, Oakland, Washington, New Orleans and Detroit.

(From USA Today) (emphasis added).

That’s right! The cool people, the ones who set the cultural trends for all the white people to follow. They’re all moving out here, those traditionally lily-white suburbs that everyone in the city makes fun of. Talk about validation!

This is sooo much better than Amy Winehouse.

Filed Under: News, Suburbs versus Cities, Who's Moving to the Suburbs? Tagged With: African-Americans, Census, Migration Patterns

Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? More Immigrants, That’s Who!

January 7, 2011 by Joseph Rand

The New York Times reported recently on Census Bureau data that really challenges some long-held belief about who lives in and moves to the suburbs:

The country’s biggest population gains were in suburban areas. But, in a departure from past decades when whites led the rise, now it is because of minorities. More than a third of all 13.3 million new suburbanites were Hispanic, compared with 2.5 million blacks and 2 million Asians. In all, whites accounted for a fifth of suburban growth.

The information comes from the American Community Survey, which gathers data from about 10% of Americans between 2005 and 2009. As the Legally Sociable blog pointed out, “the recent trend runs counter to the typical American immigrant experience one learns about in history class where immigrants settled first in big cities…then moved out to the suburbs in subsequent generations.”

If indeed we’re seeing a demographic shift like that in the suburbs, with increasing numbers of immigrants, that could be something that starts to soften the stark differences between the urban and suburban experience. If we’re really looking at a future where the suburbs are less “lily-white” and more diverse and ethnic, we might start to see the suburban experience bring more of both the advantages and the challenges of a vibrant and growing immigrant culture.

For example, at the risk of trivializing what is a very real and important demographic issue, maybe I’ll be able to get a decent bowl of soup or something out here.

Filed Under: News, Suburbs versus Cities, Who's Moving to the Suburbs? Tagged With: Census, Demographics, Suburbs versus Cities

Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? The Crips and Bloods, that’s who!

April 14, 2009 by Joseph Rand

Now, this is certainly exciting news. Who wants to live in an area bereft of some of the urban conveniences offered by gang colors, tags, hand signs, drive by shootings, and easy access to illegal drugs? No one, that’s who!

So that’s why it’s such good news to hear about a recent FBI report that gangs are starting to expand into the suburbs. Just like Starbucks!

Here’s what the FBI had to say:

“Gangs have long posed a threat to public safety, but as this study shows, gang activity is no longer merely a problem for urban areas. Gang members are increasingly moving to suburban America, bringing with them the potential for increased crime and violence,” said Assistant Director Kenneth W. Kaiser, FBI Criminal Investigative Division.

Talk about serious hipster credibility. There are gangs in the suburbs. Gangs!

Filed Under: Living in the Suburbs, My Life in the Suburbs, SUMA Lifestyle, Who's Moving to the Suburbs? Tagged With: Crime, Gangs

Who’s Moving to the Suburbs? Amy Winehouse, That’s Who!

April 12, 2009 by Joseph Rand

You always want to be on top of a trend, right? Well, it’s good to see I’m not alone in making the move to the suburbs: crazy person Amy Winehouse is apparently also moving to a quiet suburb of London when she gets out of her latest rehab. Sadly, her purpose is not to bring her particular brand of falling-down-drunk to the suburbs; instead, she’s moving there to avoid the temptations of the city.

This sort of goes against my Suma philosophy, the idea that you can bring a little bit of your city to the suburbs. My point is that I’m going to try to find something in the suburbs that feeds that pretentious, pseudo-hip sides of my personality that’s so deeply important to me. Then again, my pretentious, pseudo-hip side doesn’t include a massive heroin problem (which I guess is what you get when you’re really seriously hip, not pseudo-hip), so my baggage is a lot easier to carry, like on rollers.

And I guess Amy would be moving to “Sulo,” not “Suma”. But it makes me happy to know that celebrities are doing what I’m doing. I feel validated!

UPDATE: This didn’t work out so well. RIP, Amy.