Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
HISPANICS/LATINOS
ASIANS/PACIFIC ISLANDERS
RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION
BY CENSUS TRACT IN
BALTIMORE, MD - 2009
Over 10 percent
5 to 10 percent
2 to 5 percent
1 to 2 percent
Less than 1 percent
0
2.5
5 Kilometers
0
2.5
5 Miles
Figure 5.6
Residential Segregation of Hispanics/Latinos and Asians/Pacifi c Islanders in Baltimore,
Maryland.
Percent of Hispanics/Latinos and Asian/Pacifi c Islanders by census tract.
Data from
: United States Census Bureau, 2010.
metropolitan areas with at least 3 percent of the popu-
lation fitting one of these identities. Based on calcu-
lations for all five statistics of residential segregation,
the most residentially segregated metropolitan area for
Asians/Pacific Islanders was San Francisco, followed
by New York and Los Angeles. The data and maps
change depending on how statistics are calculated. A
report after the 2010 census examined Asian segrega-
tion using a dissimilarity index with white populations
in 102 large metropolitan areas. The report based on
the 2010 census data found Buffalo/Niagra Falls to be
the most segregated for Asians (not including Pacific
Islanders) based on the dissimilarity index and consid-
ering all large metropolitan areas, not only those with
at least 3% of the population being Asian.
Baltimore, Maryland (Fig. 5.6) is one of the more res-
identially integrated cites in the United States for Asians
and also for Hispanics/Latinos. The report based on the
2000 census found that the cities with the highest number
of Hispanic residents experienced the greatest degree of
residential segregation. They focused their analysis on the
36 large metropolitan areas with an Hispanic population
accounting for at least 3 percent of the total urban popula-
tion. The city with the greatest residential segregation for
Hispanics was New York, and Baltimore was one of the
least segregated.
The numbers and maps produced by the Census
Bureau based on 2000 data and from Brookings Insti-
tute demographer William Frey based on the 2010 data
show the outcomes of a variety of stories, but they do
not tell us the stories. Why does residential segregation
persist in some places and not in others? In some of the
most segregated cities, people know where the “other”
lives and will purposefully choose to live in neighbor-
hoods with people like themselves instead. Real estate
agents and community leaders may consciously or sub-
consciously direct people to their “own” neighborhoods
(blockbusting and redlining are discussed in Chapter 9).
In some cities, race is related to class, making it diffi -
cult to afford a higher class neighborhood that is also
populated by another race. In other cities, people may
choose to live in a blighted neighborhood because it is
their neighborhood, one they have helped create and
that refl ects their culture.
