  Jacaden Member Username: Jacaden Post Number: 31 Registered: 11-2003 |
You can check out the whole article here http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03 /23/nyregion/23kid.html?_r=1&r ef=nyregion&oref=slogin In Surge in Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead Way <snip> Whites now account for about 35 percent of the youngest children in Manhattan, compared with about 24 percent for the city as a whole. The raw numbers are subject to interpretation, but, coupled with anecdotal evidence, what they generally suggest is that more well-to-do Manhattanites who might otherwise have moved to the suburbs with their children are choosing to raise them in the city, at least early on. Compared with those in the rest of the city, the youngest children in Manhattan are more likely to be raised by married couples who are well off, more highly educated, in their 30s and native born. “This differs from the rest of New York City and the suburbs, where small kids are present among a more diverse array of economic and demographic groups — single-parent families, renters, those in their early 20s with low to middle income,” said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “Clearly having kids in Manhattan is a luxury for only those that can truly afford it,” he said. “Others with small toddlers avoided or left Manhattan in favor of more affordable cities or suburban communities.” In 1989, the median income of similar Manhattan parents with the youngest children, adjusted to 2005 dollars, was $143,000. As recently as 1999, the median was $187,000. Since 1989, the proportion of families making more than $200,000 a year (in current dollars) in Manhattan about doubled. Since 1999, the share making less than $50,000 dropped below half of the households in Manhattan. Some advocates of affordable housing say the trend toward Manhattan becoming more wealthy and white is another troubling sign that longtime lower-income and minority communities will inevitably be displaced by gentrification. But Fred Siegel, a history professor at Cooper Union, said a growing population of upper-middle-class residents was an asset. “How different it makes Manhattan from other cities,” Mr. Siegel said. Kenneth T. Jackson, a Columbia University historian, said: “Imagine the reverse — that nobody with money wants to live here, and then you have Detroit. I don’t see how anybody benefits in that circumstance.” |
