In the Archer Heights community area, Hispanics recently supplanted whites as the most numerous racial group.
Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative
Click here to see the changing racial make-up of Chicago’s neighborhoods.
The electorate that will soon choose the successor to Mayor Richard M. Daley looks a lot different than the voters who first put him in office more than two decades ago.
An analysis of recently released United States Census Bureau estimates by the Chicago News Cooperative shows how racial and ethnic communities have continued to shift dramatically during the past decade in a city long known for its kaleidoscopic population and segregated neighborhoods.
As the mayoral candidates campaign ahead of the Feb. 22 election, campaign strategists determining where they will focus their efforts will have to be mindful of three trends:
¶The city’s black population fell by about 11 percent between 2000 and 2009, a pattern reflected in many neighborhoods across the South and West Sides. Twenty-four of the 25 city-designated community areas with the largest black populations in 2000 saw declines, according to the analysis of the five-year population estimates for 2005-9.
¶There was a marked rise in the white population in some of the city’s priciest neighborhoods in and near downtown. In the Near South Side community, the number of whites more than tripled in nine years.
¶Estimates of the city’s overall white population increased only modestly because of large declines in their numbers on the Northwest and Southwest Sides. Meanwhile, Hispanics continued to supplant whites in the bungalow belt.
When the federal government releases its official 2010 census data in the coming months, it will confirm that every racial and ethnic group in the city is a minority –no single group will make up a majority of Chicago’s roughly 2.85 million residents.
Given Chicago’s election system, which requires the new mayor to garner an outright majority of the vote, the winner will need support from many voters of other races, forcing candidates to seek backing throughout the city.
According to the 2009 estimates, whites and blacks each represent almost one-third of the city’s population, while Hispanics have held steady at about 27 percent and Asians rose slightly to comprise a little more than 5 percent of Chicagoans.
Although demographers caution against drawing firm conclusions until the final 2010 census data is reported, it appears that whites could be the biggest racial group in the city for the first time since the 1980 census.
The 2000 census showed that the city gained population in the 1990s for the first time in a half-century. But during the past decade the decreasing black population, with only modest growth in the white and Hispanic numbers, means an overall loss of about 45,000 residents, according to the 2009 census estimates.
Some of the most dramatic drops in black population came in sections of the city where the Chicago Housing Authority’s “Plan for Transformation” led to the demolition of high-rise public housing. A section of the Riverdale area on the far south side, which included the Altgeld Gardens development, registered the biggest loss of blacks, from nearly 9,500 a decade ago to scarcely more than 5,000 in the latest statistics.
Large declines also were reported in many other black neighborhoods, from South Shore to Austin, where the black community has lost an estimated 17 percent of its 2000 population.
“Black fertility is down quite a bit,” not only in Chicago but also across the country, said Kenneth Johnson, a former Loyola University professor who is senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute.
The 2009 estimates show gains for black communities in suburbs including Matteson, Calumet City, South Holland and Lansing. But there was an overall drop in the black population of the Chicago metropolitan area.
A Brookings Institute study released in May highlighted a broader migration of blacks toward the South, noting that the Atlanta area recently surpassed Chicago as the second-largest black community in the country, after New York.
“This is part of a continued shift of blacks to the South that we are seeing nationally,” said William Frey, a Brookings Institute demographer. “Some of the decline in the black population of the city is suburbanization, but the census data could show a net outmigration of blacks from the Chicago area as a whole.”
At the same time, the latest gentrification wave that began in the mid-1990s might translate into a slight increase in the white population of the city.
Whites are almost as numerous as blacks now in the Near West Side community area, which is home to about 52,000 people. Between 2000 and 2009, the white population there almost doubled, to more than 20,000, as the area’s black and Hispanic communities shrank.
The community area where the white population is up by the largest number was West Town, northwest of the Loop. When the real estate market was booming, many longtime Hispanic residents seized the opportunity to sell to developers who demolished many old houses and built condominiums, said Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno, whose 1st Ward includes much of West Town.
“Hispanics are moving further northwest,” Mr. Moreno said.
He echoed Mr. Johnson’s analysis that many young adults who moved to the city are not going to the suburbs after marrying, as they historically would do, because they are now finding it difficult to sell their condos.
The increase in the young white population near downtown was offset to a great extent by continued white flight and aging in the more working-class sections closer to the edges of the city, which were long known as “white ethnic” neighborhoods. According to the 2009 estimates, the number of whites fell by more than 5,000 in each of four community areas: Portage Park, Belmont Cragin, Ashburn and West Lawn.
Since 2000, Archer Heights became the latest swath of the Southwest Side bungalow belt where Hispanics have become the majority. This trend also intensified in other neighborhoods along Archer Avenue.
In the Brighton Park neighborhood, Five Holy Martyrs Catholic Church was such a center of local Polish life that Pope John Paul II held mass there during his visit to Chicago in 1979.
The congregation remains almost entirely Polish, though few parishioners live in the area. “They’re in the suburbs,” said the Rev. Wojciech Baryski, the parish pastor. “They come, pray, and leave.”
Just a few blocks away, the congregation at Immaculate Conception is now almost entirely Mexican.
“There are still a few Anglos,” said the Rev. Tom Koys. “Some get to know their neighbors and become pretty good friends, but by and large I think the English-speaking, non-immigrant community is going through sort of an identity crisis.”
Despite huge increases in many sections of the city, the overall Hispanic population appears to have grown only slightly after dramatic increases in previous decades. The analysis of census data found losses of more than 10,000 Hispanics in Logan Square and South Lawndale, which includes the heavily Mexican Little Village neighborhood.
The Hispanic population boom in the suburbs of Chicago, however, has continued unabated. Only high birth rates have kept the city’s Hispanic community from getting smaller, Mr. Johnson said. “There is a net migration loss of Hispanics from the city,” he said.
Mr. Johnson said the situation is because of young immigrants who bypass the city entirely for service-industry work in suburbs such as Wheeling as well as more established families “who started in Hispanic areas of the city and are moving out of Chicago.”
“As whites flow further out, Hispanics are flowing in to take their place,” Mr. Johnson said. “It’s the immigrant story that is as old as Chicago.”
All part of the “spacial deconcentration” plan to disenfranchsie and remove lower income Afrcina Americans from the inner city of Chicago, in anticipation of white people moving into trditioanl black communiteis like Bronzeville and North lawndale. Racial discrimination and white supremacy at work form a top down perspective.
Over the past decade, in the planned regentrificaqtion process designed by yhe University of Chicago, black male youth are being systematically criminalized, murdered and incracerated at an alarming rate.
Do a google search on the term “spacial deconcentration” to get a time line for the dispalcement of African Americans in Chicago!
I don’t subscribe to paranoid conspiracies. Neighborhoods and life is constantly changing, nothing sinister at work here, just life. So goes the cycle. The cities were abandoned in the 60′s and 70′s, now they are making a comeback, largely as a result of rising gas prices. Supply and demand.
it’s as if these ethnic groups follow each other thru neighborhoods in a sort of cyclical nature. the problem though, is it’s still chicago; where it’s black on this side of the viaduct – latino thru to the railroad tracks – and white over by the park. the numbers might change, but they all live together / apart
Blacks Males, who are (or will be) involved in the criminal justice system, are a victim of their own free will via stealing and murdering other Blacks (which is rarely discussed and acknowledged in Black Communities). If huge number of Blacks wind up in jail or dead, they have themselves to blame, not Whites.
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when Englewood, Austin and other neighborhoods were changing from White to Black, the plea from the “new” Black residents was “We want the Whites to stay.”
Now fast forward to 2011, some fifty and sixty years later, the plea is now “Whites get out!”. Harold, you can’t have it both ways. If Blacks continue fleeing Chicago and nobody (i.e. Whites, Hispanic and Asians) buys a home in Bronzeville, you will have even more abandoned housing. Is that what you really want?
Speaking of Blacks fleeing forcibly or via free will, what about Blacks continuously voting for Mayor Daley II, who sanctioned the forced removals? Why have various preachers and community leaders continuously supported Democrats, especially Daley? Look at what the Daley Democratic Machine has done to Black Communities and why those Black Communities still continuously vote that way, before you blame “The Man”.
Mr. Lucas, I became a resident of Bronzeville last year and it was not a part of any conspiracy to gentrify 30th and Indiana. I’m white but a majority of my neighbors are African American and we are all committed to keeping this section of Chicago safe and beautiful (as it is now). In fact. my maternal grandmother lived at 29th and Calumet between 1898 and 1908 only moving when a cheaper yet still close to my greatgrandfathers work place apartment was found. My familial roots are deep here sir. The public amenities, great people, safe neighborhood and affordable condominium are what brought me here and keep me here. As far as the “murdering” of black youth is concerned, it is tragic at best but statistics show black youth being murdered overwhelmingly by black youth. Please try and understand that good people of all backgrounds wish for safe and pleasant places to live.
While I don’t agree 100% with Harold, I think that his overall point of view is not without merit. It is certainly true that poor blacks have often been ghettoized by forces larger than their control. I notice a lot of use of the passive voice in people’s statements that seems to mask historical agency.
In the 50s and 60s communities didn’t “change” from white to black on their own. The sad fact is that blacks were either kept out of predominantly white communities via restrictive housing codes and oftentimes, physical violence (see: Cicero, Bridgeport) or else they were allowed to move in to neighborhoods which were then immediately abandoned by whites, and ignored by police and city services.
These aren’t the only causes of the deterioration of many black inner-city neighborhoods, to be sure. Loss of family structure, black-on-black crime and low graduation rates all played their part, but these existed within a larger pattern of racial bias. There’s a reason why black students work to get into nicer schools outside their own neighborhoods and never the reverse.
The overall problem is that there is not a fair shake. There is also a reason why, things like recreational drug use is no higher in the overall black than white population yet a black person is many, many times more likely to be incarcerated on drug charges. You look at stats across the board, from availability of healthy food, to police response times to emergency room wait times to access to quality education and the deck is overwhelmingly stacked against African-Americans in Chicago. On top of that add the outright violent oppression seen at the hands of CPD under Burge and Daley and you start to get a pretty clear picture.
This is also true in many Hispanic and some poor white neighborhoods, however these groups don’t bear the same social stigma nor history of repression and discrimination going back centuries that African-Americans. The discrimination and structural barriers faced by descendants of immigrants is far less in both kind and degree than ones faced by those whose predecessors were willing immigrants.
Zero black people in Edison Park… really? Sad for us
We are discussing today, 2011, not 1951 and 1961. Sure back then, there were restrictive covenants and racism. As a younger Black Man, I wondered why Whites left Austin, Lawndale, etc. As an older Black Man, I understand why.
Look at what happened to most neighborhoods (sans Chatman, Avalon Park, Park Manor, etc.) then. Basically, they are still crime ridden and look awful. Whites won’t tolerate barbecue grills on wooden porches, men congregating and drinking Colt 45s, unauthorized car shops and high number of bars & lounges. For many years, Blacks in Chatham, Avalon Park and Park Manor said no to that stuff too.
Even when Whites remained in Lawndale then and Scottsdale (covered by Mary Mitchell a few years ago), they were subject to Black Racism, but that is ok.
Moving on historically for the most part, the community organizers, preachers, Democratic Politicians and people did absolutely nothing to revive them. Sure, there are some Black Kids that attend White Schools. Regardless of the schools’ majority racial/ethnic group, some Black Kids excel. Unfortunately, most(?) Black Kids aren’t interested in education, even though some slave ancestor fought and died for their education via candles and bibles. How do I know? Almost anytime I ride a bus, I see Black Kids with no books, paper, pens and pencils.
Regarding food, the Chicago Public Schools serve healthier food, which is mostly tossed in the trash. Parents are supposed to feed their kids, not Chicago Public Schools. Black Communities would have more stores, if they weren’t looted and burned down. Sure, I’d love to open a grocery store in Englewood and Lawndale, but the risks are too high. My proposed store would fare much better in Edison Park!
On the police response tip, Burge & Daley and emergency wait times, whose fault is that? Daley II and the sheepish aldermen cut the police. How many times did Blacks vote Daley II as Cook County States Attorney and Mayor? How many times did Blacks vote for the same, do nothing Democratic (usually Black) Politicians? It seems that the 1980s’, 1990s, 2000s’ Blacks cheerfully voted for Daley, while ignoring why Bernard Carey defeated incumbent Cook County States Attorney Ed Hanrahan in 1972.
Back to the local populace, what happened to accountability via parents, school, church and community? Before Civil Rights and the Great Society, Black Families had more accountability and stability than White Families! Today, even Chatham, Avalon Park and Park Manor are subject to the same ills, but “nobody” says “Stop it!”.
If the local populace wants a fair shake, it’s time for it to something about Black on Black Crime. Voting out Democrats and electing empowered people parties might help. Otherwise, Emanuel (or whomever) will continue Daley I’s and II’s ethnic cleansing.
PS Blacks live in once restricted covenant areas (i.e. The Villa and Old Irving Park).
This is a miserable article. All of the races self-segregating and moving around, blacks leaving here, Hispanics moving around there, whites moving, etc. This just shows the utter failure of “diversity” and how it keeps people from building communities that truly last. When races are moving around like this, it keeps communities from creating long-lasting institutions and cultural roots.
Get rid of the Democratic machine and you will eventually see some real change.
In today’s Tribune there was an article about the integration of Rainbow Beach. They said that the neighborhood around the beach is now mostly black and the people at the beach are also. In 1961 when the fight to integrate the beach took place, what was the racial makeup of the neighborhood around the beach? Would I be able to go safely to the beach today as a white? My grandparents were the last whites on their block at 55th and Princeton. The little store where I used to go with my grandpa is for sale today. I have the money, could I buy it? The oppressed are no better than the oppressors.