Minorities have greater opportunities in southern cities

Washington Times:

The best cities for racial minorities isn’t New York or San Francisco, with their progressive politics and robust welfare packages, but in the Sun Belt — where less regulations, greater individual independence and housing opportunities reign.

Ironically, of the top 15 cities for African-Americans, as rated by median household income, self-employment, housing affordability and population growth, 13 are in the former Confederacy, according to an analysis by Joel Kotkin’s Center for Opportunity and Urbanism, published last year.

“The data also show a strong contrast between America’s luxury cities, such as New York, San Francisco or Boston, where high costs have significantly reduced opportunities for middle and working class households, and “opportunity cities,” often located in less costly portions of the country like Texas or the South but that have also sustained more rapid and broadly based economic growth,” Mr. Kotkin wrote in his report.


“Although most, if not all, luxury cities sustain strongly progressive politics African-Americans, Asians and Latino households have done relatively worse in these locations; cities in the states with the more generous welfare provisions aimed to help the minority poor — notably California, New York and Illinois — tended to perform worse than those that were less forthcoming, notably in the sunbelt,” he wrote.

“Ironically, in many of these places, such as metropolitan New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the media and public officials may be the most adamant in attacking racial and class inequality, but their outcomes have been generally less than optimal,” Mr. Kotkin found.

Atlanta was found to be the best city for African-Americans, followed by Raleigh, North Carolina. Washington, D.C., and Baltimore were included in the list only because of their proximity to federal jobs, which offset both cities otherwise unfriendly business environment, Mr. Kotkin noted.
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San Antonio was also in the top 10 cities for  minority opportunities.  Another thing I have noticed is that much of the racial animosity appears to be outside the South.