Hispanic influx reshaping big cities
A big factor going forward is how the boomers of well off parents spend the inheritance.
With welloff parents medical and golf membership bills going up - will there really be all that much left for kids/grandkids Vosilla? 40K for westin innisbrook golf membership here in the clearwater area. I suppose the real question to ask is how much will the parents sacrifice to give thier kids? Everything?
Sounds like more luxuries and spending by the well heeled so don't expect any depression on Park Avenue, in Newport, Palm Beach or Beverly Hills..
Palm Beach - so congested when I was there last - and the hispanics were walking in groups everywhere just outside the walls - I felt like bogart in his final scenes of sierra madre - how long do the jews/gentiles of palm beach expect to keep them out? hehe
seattletimes.nwsource.com
Hispanic influx reshaping big cities
By Anushka Asthana
The Washington Post
Anushka Figueroa recently decided to make a change. She gave up her life in California's Silicon Valley and headed to Phoenix to work in marketing. The 37-year-old, originally from Puerto Rico, said she was searching for a better quality of life.
Her new home, she says, offers all the benefits that California did when her family moved there in the '70s. "California became too expensive," she said, "and Phoenix has advanced dramatically. It is the best decision I have ever made, and I would not go back."
An influx of Hispanics such as Figueroa has reshaped many urban areas' demographics; demographers say non-Hispanic white people soon will be a minority in 35 of the country's 50 largest cities.
An analysis of census data released last week has shown that the white non-Hispanic population in three more of America's 50 largest cities has become a minority. In Phoenix, Tucson and Denver, the non-Hispanic white population has recently fallen below 50 percent, according to William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.
He predicts that four more cities will soon follow. Non-Hispanic whites will become a minority in Arlington, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; in Las Vegas within two years; and in Austin, Texas, within four years, he said.
Although the changes were once driven by "white flight," Frey said, something else contributed in the cities that most recently reached the tipping point. While they were still losing some whites, the more dramatic shift was the increase in Hispanics, some of whom were moving from California and elsewhere in the United States in search of a better — and more affordable — life.
Figueroa is part of a Hispanic population in Phoenix that has increased from 34 percent of the population to 41.8 percent in just five years.
"For years, Phoenix has been a retirement magnet, but now the big gain is immigration and secondary migration from California," Frey said. "Phoenix is still West but more affordable. All three cities are influenced by the exodus from California, and Hispanics are part of that."
He said Phoenix and Denver were "new-West cities" where economic change and new industries had created jobs.
Harry Garewal, president of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said part of the explanation for the growth in the Hispanic population is the area's "very robust economy."
(where is the Arizona Caucasian chamber of commerce?)
Speaking from his Phoenix office, he said growth has created a greater demand for labor, particularly in construction. He said Arizona has 35,000 Hispanic-owned businesses, adding that the "Hispanic population in the state of Arizona have $26 billion in buying power." The local white population, he said, has benefited from a Hispanic-driven boost to the economy.
The demographic shift has social as well as economic consequences. Schools have to cope with more children who don't natively speak English, and politicians have to accept that their constituencies have changed.
"They will wake up one morning, and it will be a different city," Frey said.
My VERY rich friends Vosilla - 10 million and higher in liquid assets - they are all talking about leaving the USA for countries like ireland or sweden - why do they want to leave the greatest country on earth just because some new americans are showing up? Palm Beach will probably never be the "camelot" it once was. |
