Minneapolis has become much more Black today, used to be almost all White

In the 1970s, Minneapolis was 2% African American, probably the lowest of any major US city at the time. Today it is 18.6%.

That is due to African Americans getting pushed out of other major cities due to gentrification and rising prices, and half due to more recent immigration from African muslim countries.


Minneapolis, being so far north and west in the Midwest, traditionally never really had a large African American population.
The population has been bolstered by a recent large scale influx of migrants from Somalia, but still, that is only a smaller part of the equation.
Perhaps African Americans have been pushed out of other cities in the Midwest and have been moving further out to smaller second tier cities like Minneapolis?
Chicago has seen a huge surge in foreign immigration, and lots of Hispanics moving there, so prices have increased.

I'm just trying to put all the puzzle pieces together, because something seems a little strange about all this happening in a city like Minneapolis.

Didn't it used to be a quaint quiet little city in the Midwest?

Not so long ago, maybe just 2 or 3 decades, Minneapolis was one of the most clean-cut cities in America, clean, sophisticated, and crime rates much lower than almost any other city in America of comparable size. It was even common for ordinary people to take the public transportation (something virtually unthinkable in many other American cities at that time).
Although still, people didn't really want to live there and it wasn't really a national destination city because it was only medium sized, considered kind of boring compared to many other big cities in other parts of the country, and the winters were notoriously very cold.

I think over the last 20 years or so, maybe African Americans started to be priced out of Chicago by all the high levels of immigration, so they started moving out to other medium-sized cities further northwest in the Midwest. And then there was lots of refugees from Somalia that Minnesota took in under the Obama Administration.​

Mary Tyler Moore Theme Song

The 1970-1977 sitcom had a famous opening sequence shot in Minneapolis.


Thread on reddit:
The White Flight has begun in Minneapolis

Some are wondering whether Minneapolis will become more like so many other big cities in the belt that stretches from St. Louis Missouri to Indiana and Detroit Michigan, which experienced middle class white flight and urban decay starting in the 70s.

Minneapolis has recently been experiencing many riots, and just recently the governor issued a curfew order in the three largest counties.

7 P.M. Curfews Go Into Effect For 2.5M In Twin Cities Metro Area After Daunte Wright Shooting Death
Governor Tim Walz said that he also is calling a curfew for the entire counties of Hennepin, Ramsey and Anoka. Dakota County officials announced it, too, will observe the curfew Monday night.
7 P.M. Curfews Go Into Effect For 2.5M In Twin Cities Metro Area After Daunte Wright Shooting Death – WCCO | CBS Minnesota (cbslocal.com) April 12, 2021​

During the last riot, it's estimated $55 million of damage was done to the downtown.

The city of Minneapolis says the looting and property damage that following the death of George Floyd in police custody has caused least $55 million in destruction so far.
Vandals damaged or set fire to at least 220 buildings, but that number is expected to go up, city officials said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey will ask for state and federal aid to help rebuild after the civil unrest.
Property damage in Minneapolis is $55 million and rising (apnews.com) June 4, 2020​

Minneapolis never even had an African American community of any substantial size before about 20 years ago, but today there seems to be lots of racial issues in the city.

Minneapolis victims beaten, robbed of their cell phones

Took place in downtown Minneapolis.

So far police have arrested 16 perpetrators, between the ages of 13 and 25. Half the perpetrators were under the age of 18.
The suspects were caught on video punching and kicking the victims.

The perpetrators targeted victims who appeared vulnerable and intoxicated.

In one video, 12 perpetrators can be seen trying to take the cell phone from one victim, viciously beating him. The suspects are seen ripping the shoes and pants off the victim, looking through his pockets, and then they can be seen punching and kicking him in the head.

One of the perpetrator's last names is Lusumbo. Doesn't sound like the typical African American name. Probably migrants from Africa that Minneapolis has been welcoming in recent years.

Within a 3 week period, there were 47 robberies similar to this one.​

https://kstp.com/news/robbery-victi...minneapolis-suspects-arrested-police/5488467/

Over the past two months, Minneapolis police have logged more than 125 carjackings in the city, a troubling surge that authorities had largely linked to small groups of marauding teens. But an increasing number of adults have been arrested in recent weeks for the same crime.

Within a one-hour period Saturday morning, police reported three separate carjackings in southeast Minneapolis, including one where an elderly woman was struck on the head. Such attacks are up 537% this month when compared with last November.​

https://www.startribune.com/staggering-surge-in-violent-carjackings-continues-citywide/573257391/


Some information about why Minnesota is a Democrat state

It mainly has to do with the two biggest cities where most of the state's total population is concentrated in: Minneapolis, and to a lesser extent Duluth.

These cold and far north states don't really have much going on, so most of the population is very concentrated into small city areas, rather than rural areas. Even though these states have low population density statistics averaged over the entire state.

Also, if you look at traditional industries, it was mainly mining and logging that dominated the state economy, rather than farming. So that very much affected the political tradition as well. The northern half of the state is too cold and has hard soil and isn't very good for farming. Traditional farming was done by small scale farmers and was mostly for self-reliance, so these farmers living in isolated areas were not as well organized as the union workers, who were concentrated exporting timber and ore from the state at port cities.

They Defunded the Police, Now What? Minneapolis Park Board Votes on Allowing Women to Go Topless
To be clear, the parks are behind the times. As reported by KARE11:
Currently, Minneapolis city ordinance 385.160 allows women... to go topless on city streets, but the park board’s ordinance prevents this from happening in the city’s parks.
Minneapolis resident Barbara Donaghy believes progress is a good thing:
"I think it’s never bad to look at our laws that may be way outdated."
As it stands currently, a Minneapolis Park Board ordinance PB2-21 states no one 10 years or older is allowed to expose their genitals, pubic area, (or) buttocks…​

 

Sorry to take this off track, but what's that about ordinary Americans not using public transport?

That really struck me as curious, so would love to know what you mean by that!

 

mostly has to do with not feeling comfortable and crime rates

Since the city was traditionally mostly middle class and had a very low crime rate, it was an unusual situation and probably had more public transportation than any other other city of that comparable size in the country.

 

I use public transportation a lot. I am just as white as can be.

 

Interesting. In my country, use of public transport has nothing to do with race or wealth. Every demographic uses it. People get off the train and climb into $200k cars for the drive home from the station. White people, and every other racial group use it. It's truly an equaliser here.

What do white middle class Americans have against public transport?

 

I am betting your country doesn't have very high levels of diversity. Probably a lot like Minneapolis in the 1970s.

The type of crowd who typically uses it. The conditions are often filthy. Not because of a lack of cleaning, but the type of crowd who make up its passengers.
It would be wrong to stereotype all people who decide to (or are forced to out of economic necessity) use public transportation, but statistically there is definitely a connection.

People often do not feel safe, and in some areas assaults and robberies on public transportation are common.

Also the type of people who would be most likely to use public transportation in "less diverse" areas are young children, elderly people, and handicapped persons, the same group of people who would have more difficulty defending themselves and for whom safety would be more of a consideration.

 

Are you American? What's the reason that 'ordinary' people don't like PT?

 

Many people aren't too enthusiastic about the idea of sitting near a homeless person.


(this comment meant to be added on to last post, but the time for editing ran out)

 

Why would they be sitting next to a homeless person?

 

1) On the contrary, there are probably as many minorities as there are whites on most of our urban PT. In some areas there are more minorities. We're very diverse, actually.

2) Isn't the 'crowd' who uses it just people commuting to and from work? Corporate types, cleaners, baristas, doctors, lawyers, business owners, fast food workers, etc etc? And why would they be filthy? We do get a bit of grime on our trains, but it's usually dealt with fairly quickly - and anyone observed adding to it is likely to be removed. I don't understand your point about economic necessity. Public transport isn't a poor person thing here. If anything, it's the opposite. Use of PT is much more common in our urban than our suburban areas, and our urban inhabitants are considerably richer than our suburbanites.

3) Even here, trains can be a bit iffey in terms of safety late at night. But it's very unlikely that anything bad would happen to you during ordinary travel times (Mon-Fri peak hours).

4) Again, I don't really understand this 'the types of people who use it' thing. That doesn't apply here. What stops ordinary Americans from using it in the 'safer' areas?

 

.

Some call it the "Great Replacement" = White genocide = evil globalists intentionally destroying White nations.

In 1960 the USA was about 90 percent White. Now it's about 60 percent White and dropping fast [most of that 60 percent are beyond child-bearing age.]

.

 

Type of diversity matters. Diversity isn't simply diversity. I imagine it might be a little bit different in your country.

Oh no, anyone who could possibly afford to avoid it, even many people who really can't, would avoid it, in many places. We're talking people with absolutely no other options.

Because of the type of people. You have no idea. Some of them have no respect for other people's property, and don't have common curtesy. Will carve things into the seats, eat messy food, dump trash, spit, stick chewed gum on things.
And then there are also the homeless people, which hopefully doesn't need to be explained to you. You can't get that smell out of the fabric in the seats.

It's enough sometimes if there are homeless people on the bus. People don't like to see that, sometimes don't feel comfortable. Often they are obviously homeless. Then there's the smell, sometimes haven't cleaned themselves for a while. If the homeless person has obvious mental issues, obviously people may not feel comfortable.
You might not see that in your country since those type of persons would not be left on their own to be homeless.
Sometimes the buses may be overcrowded, so you might not have much choice who you sit next to.

Well that's the issue. Most of America's big cities, where the common public areas are where public transportation would be most concentrated are not the 'safer areas'.

Where the safe areas are typically are not areas very amendable to public transportation.

I actually lived near a city at one point that I heard (I can't actually confirm if this is true) that they intentionally designed the city to be unfriendly to lower income people without cars because they hoped that would help keep the homelessness and crime out, since it was located next to another city with those problems. The city even claimed to be designed to be "pedestrian friendly" but in reality that's really only more for recreational use.

 

1) We have primarily Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern minorities here. Not sure what 'type' is a problem in America.

2) Wow .. that's so different to here. Millionaires use PT here. There are people on trains in $2000 suits, people going to corporate jobs, professionals, everyone really. We use PT because it's very often more convenient than driving - especially if you need to get into the inner city. Many people consider it a luxury to be able to relax on the train and read a book or take a nap, instead of sitting in traffic. It's can be more expensive than driving, also.

3) We get train wreckers here, too. But they do get caught, and their nasty habits are cleaned up for passengers. Homeless people are kicked off trains and buses, and can't usually afford it in any case, so they don't have a chance to stink up seats.

4) Oh we definitely have homeless people. We just don't cut them that much slack.

 

Public transportation is very often very inconvenient in US cities (although it depends on the city). Despite the nightmare of trying to be able to find a parking space, it is still not as bad as public transportation.

Trains are not really a very popular form of transportation in the US. There are many Americans who have never been on a train. Public transportation usually refers to buses.

The seats on public buses are often designed not to be very comfortable, to discourage the homeless from sleeping on the buses.

While it's true that in some ways traffic may be easier being a passenger on a bus and not having to drive, it's also true that traffic can sometimes delay a bus longer than a car, due to all the stops the bus has to make.

Public transportation buses in the US are heavily subsidized. Some homeless people will buy a bus ticket on a long bus route just to sleep for two hours or stay out of the rain. Many public buses just go around in circles on their route, so if you buy a ticket you can stay on the bus for the whole day.

The homeless are rarely ever kicked off buses. The drivers don't want to bother with it. In fact there have been many cases where people were being attacked on buses and the driver just intentionally ignored it and kept on driving as normal, that sort of thing is very common. They don't want to get themselves involved.

This is a complicated issue, and this side discussion is beginning to derail this thread. Suffice to say, there are many differences between public transportation in the US compared to your country.

 

Atlanta is much the same. Blacks went from 34% in 1940 to 51% 1970 to a whopping 68% in 1990 and now is back to 54% of the Atlanta population. Perhaps more interesting is Atlanta had a population of 497,000 in 1970 which has dropped to 420,000 today. People are leaving Atlanta, blacks have moved into the southern countries such as Clayton and Henry completely changing the demographics of those two counties. Clayton from 90% white in 1990 to 90% black today. Henry from 90% white to 50-50 black and white. Some whites have moved back into the city. From a low of 30% of the Atlanta population in 1970, whites now make up 38%. It seems that folks regardless of race move out of Atlanta when they can afford too.

The only thing I can say is change is constant and happens everyday.

 

VERY different, it seems. We think of trains when we think PT here so traffic isn't an issue, and homeless people aren't tolerated. We also have ferries as public transport here, incidentally. Quite a lot of people commute via ferry.

 

We can all move out to the country and sell fudge to the tourists.