I live in Northwest Indiana. There is a big mix of people here, most of which consist of Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. The town I live in is mostly White. Over the years there have been several surrounding towns that used to be mostly White, but now have mostly minorities living there. The neighborhoods have deteriorated, and "White Flight" is a real syndrome here. As an example, Gary, Indiana used to be mostly White and was a booming city. Now, it is mostly black, and is just a dump in most areas. Several other towns and cities are heading in the same direction. Gangs, drugs, and violence have gone up tremendously in those deteriorating areas. I hate to have my observations labeled "racist", but there is a common-denominator to the deteriorating conditions in several areas. So I ask, do minorities contribute to the downfall of mostly White neighborhoods?

__________________

Support Our Troops!
In God We Trust
McCain / Palin

It's the fault of the white people that don't want to live in a multi-racial community because they think that minorities will lead to the degradation of their neighborhoods. They leave and devalue the property, letting poorer people in (who often happen to be more minorities). Poverty then contributes to the downfall of those communities, as crime rates, drugs, and gangs all increase.

__________________
.

"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

Yup...pretty much.

Here in St. Louis, we suffer from major urban sprawl. All the whitey-whitebreads are packing up and moving to predominantly white suburbs. They're moving into neighborhoods where the mean income is so high, they're guaranteed their own little whitebread oasis. What's even worse, is that these cute little planned communities also house all their commercial needs as well (quaint little grocery store, doctors, dentists, etc.). They literally have no reason to go back into the city...and they shun it like a dominating mother-in-law.

__________________
"What do you mean, I'm not kind? I'm just not your kind." - D. Mustaine.

I don't think it is racism that causes the whites to leave. I think they leave because of escalated crime, or a lack of cohesion that once existed in the community, or a shift in values in the community, and then it just spirals downward from there in a very stereotypical way.

__________________
My enduring personal, original quote: Many mistake what should rightly be called "passivism" for pacifism. Pacifism and passivism are COMPLETELY different.
----------------------
Ronald Reagan was not the only one to suffer from Alzheimer's Disease. America did, too.

That's true. However, there is a reason these White people don't want to live in the same neighborhoods. This is going to open the flood gates, but minorities just seem to be the "riff, raff" that people don't want. Out of all the bad areas where I live, none of them are mostly White. I read everyday in the news that another innocent person was hit by stray bullets from some gang fight. It always turns out to be some Black or Hispanic gang member, never White. I don't know if there are any White gangs in the area. Unfortunately, stereotypes do exist, and they exist for a reason.

__________________

Support Our Troops!
In God We Trust
McCain / Palin

Unfortunately, not in St. Louis. You ask any debutante suburban soccer mom why they moved out of the city, and her answer will begin with a "N" and end with an "R."

__________________
"What do you mean, I'm not kind? I'm just not your kind." - D. Mustaine.

Neighbors getting ruder?

__________________
My enduring personal, original quote: Many mistake what should rightly be called "passivism" for pacifism. Pacifism and passivism are COMPLETELY different.
----------------------
Ronald Reagan was not the only one to suffer from Alzheimer's Disease. America did, too.

Yes there is.
The reason is that:
They have stereotypical ideas about minorities and act in accordance and create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Either that or they assume their neighbors are racist and decide to leave before their alleged racist neighbors sell and drop their property values.

It's either because they are racist or because they think others are racist.

Your explanation is ridiculous as you basically imply that a minority who responsibly works and saves and moves into a nice suburb to send his kids to a good school is going to start a wave of crime. The crime wave does not begin until the property values are driven down by racist nimrods and the people who assume their neighbors are racist nimrods sell.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

BTW...

This is too political for off-topic. It's going to the Race forum.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

I can tell you from a superfical perspective yes. I'm a minority from a neighborhood that was mostly white when my family moved here (The Alief area in Houston). When my family moved to my subdivision in the mid 80s, it was 80% white. Houston was a boomtown mostly because of the high price of oil during the 80s. When oil drastically dropped in prices the Houston economy suffered greatly. This caused many middle-class family to default on their payments and causing them to sell their houses or have their house taken away by the banks. As minority which traditionally make less money than their white counterparts started buying cheaper housing many other whites saw new faces and got scared so they decided to move away. That's what happen to my neighborhood, most white left because of economic reason whiles a fewer left because of racial reasons.

__________________
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the king
- Nas