Defying a Bay Area trend, East Palo Alto saw its population decrease by 4.6 percent over the past decade — a drop precipitated by a shrinking number of black residents, U.S. Census data shows.
The data, which the U.S. Census Bureau released Tuesday (March 8), showed the number of people of one race who identify themselves as black or African-American falling by 30 percent between 2000 and 2010. The city had 6,796 black residents in 2000, but the number dropped to 4,704 in the new census.
Black residents, who made up 23 percent of East Palo Alto’s population in 2000, now make up only 16.7 percent of the city, according to the census.
The dramatic drop in the number of black residents drove the city’s overall population down despite modest growth within other racial groups and ethnicities. Hispanic and Latino residents saw their number rise from 17,356 to 18,147 over the past decade (a 4.6 percent increase) and they now make up nearly two thirds of the city’s population — 64.5 percent in the new census compared to 58.8 percent 10 years ago.
Statewide, the Hispanic/Latino population surged by 27.8 percent over the past decade, census data shows.
The new census also shows that East Palo Alto’s white population remained relatively flat, going up slightly from 7,962 in 2000 to 8,104 residents in the new census. The data suggests that many of these residents were also classified as Hispanic or Latino (which is an ethnicity, not a race). Of those residents listed as not Hispanic or Latino, 6.2 percent are white.
East Palo Alto’s population decline came at a time when most Bay Area cities experienced growth, according to the census. San Jose and San Francisco saw their respective populations go up by 5.7 percent and 3.7 percent over the past decade, while Palo Alto’s population rose by 9.9 percent.
Where did the blacks go?
A lot of the African Americans who lived in EPA for a long time moved to Sacramento & the central valley -Fresno, Stockton, etc. I noticed this trend when I did volunteer work in EPA in the 90s.
They are now DC policy wonks in the current administration.
According to Freakonomics, it might be due to the legalization of abortion. The number of AA babies being born reduces the crime 15+ years ahead. This could also have something to do with the number of AA residents as the women use abortion as family planning.
Black population decreases: Are they just have less babies or are they moving somewhere else? Not trying to be funny…does anyone have an answer?
They moved out back in the late 90’s when the land here was worth a lot. Most sold their houses for top dollar and moved into a house double the size for half the price in cities like Stockton, Yuba City, Sac, Oakland etc. They just took advantage of the housing market at that time. Most bought houses for like 20k back in the 80’s and sold it for about 200k in the 90’s.
To whomever deleted my post.
Have you read the book Freakonomics?
They may have moved out in the 90s, but the article states:
“The city had 6,796 black residents in 2000, but the number dropped to 4,704 in the new census.”
So where did they move from 2000-2010? Or has the police force been more productive?
Here is the wiki link to Freakonomics and its theory on crime.
Pay attention to chapter 4.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics
Perhaps I should have said that the criminal classes are the ones who are using abortion to reduce the number of babies born to criminal class people which affects the crime rate 15+ years later.
Freakonomics,
Thank you. That makes sense. For those of you who don’t want to take the time to press the link, in summary,
They studied the children of 188 women who were denied abortions from 1939 to 1941 at the hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. They compared these “unwanted” children to another group – the next children born after each of the unwanted children at the hospital. The “unwanted” children were more likely to grow up in adverse conditions, such as having divorced parents or being raised in foster homes and were more likely to become delinquents and engaged in crime.
Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago and John Donohue of Yale University revived discussion of this claim with their 2001 paper “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime”.
Donohue and Levitt point to the fact that males aged 18 to 24 are most likely to commit crimes. Data indicates that crime in the United States started to decline in 1992. Donohue and Levitt suggest that the absence of unwanted aborted children, following legalization in 1973, led to a reduction in crime 18 years later, starting in 1992 and dropping sharply in 1995. These would have been the peak crime-committing years of the unborn children.
The authors argue that states that had abortion legalized earlier and more widespread should have the earliest reductions in crime. Donohue and Levitt’s study indicates that this indeed has happened: Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York, and Washington experienced steeper drops in crime, and had legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade. Further, states with a high abortion rate have experienced a greater reduction in crime, when corrected for factors like average income.Finally, studies in Canada and Australia purport to have established a correlation between legalized abortion and overall crime reduction.
Actually, I think the “They are now DC policy wonks in the current administration” comment is really funny, and I am black. I laughed when I first read it, and I read it twice.
Let’s face it folks, this area of the bay area whether you live in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Atherton, Redwood City or wherever in this region, is very expensive cost of living wise compared to the rest of the nation. I am certain, the decrease in black citizens of EPA has to do with economics – meaning other areas in the nation are more affordable. Many of my clients who come from across the U.S. and other parts of the world really love this area for what it has to offer weather and entertainment wise, and they don’t want to leave it when they have to go back home. They always however ask the question, how can anyone afford to live here? And they always say, they could by 3 or 4 houses where they live for the price of one house here.
As more Census data is revealed, I am certain we will be told that this entire area has decreased in population across the races particularly given the economic downfall of the past three years.
Mr. Ironic is right. The decrease in the black population in East Palo Alto happened at the when the housing market was strong sometime in the mid 90s and many homeowners were enticed to sell by realtors knocking on their doors, literally knocking on their doors. Many families, most long time and older residents, sold and moved to Central California towns or out of state.
The cost of living in this area is expensive, but property values in East Palo Alto are still the lowest on the Peninsula so it attracts working families or investors who then rent out the properties. It will be interesting to see if or how the increase of renters affects developments improvements in the city; fewer homeowners usually means less interest in city improvements.
The Freakonomics info isn’t relevant. Mr. Ironic, Member & I know more about why the local black population has decreased than people posting about crime & abortion. I am really tired of nearly anything in a thread about EPA always being tied to crime by people posting who have little real info. I wish the editors would delete more of those sorts of posts for being irrelevant in these cases.
I concur with Mr. Ironic. I know a few black families that sold their homes to investors, moved to towns like Tracy, when Tracy was developing all those tract housing neighborhoods in the early 90’s. The price tags for these brand new homes were too good to pass up.
Problem was, the younger families that were still in the workforce had to commute back to the Bay everyday and that was horrendous. I knew one brotha that just stayed with relatives in Oakland during the week and went home to his wife and kid on the weekends. Now me…I couldn’t live a life like that unless I was single. To me, that brotha was not enjoying life until he got his week vacation 3 times out of a year. If you’re retired, however, it’s a great deal because you’re right there in the central valley where you can go off on road trips close (like Yosemite) or out of state within a few hours.
Overall, I don’t think the younger black families who sold their EPA homes in the last 5 years, were seeing the big picture. Reverse white flight (caused by sub-prime implosion and skyrocketing gas prices) caused a higher rate of exodus of blacks from the Bay, enticed by those cheap central valley homes, before realizing that the plan was for whites to move into the urban, formerly black hoods and THEN city/state-backed development starts to unfold. So now former residents are starting to come back to their hoods and seeing it change drastically for the better, and their just looking like “what the hell!”.
Stay strong West Oakland historic residents and don’t sell….your land is still worth it’s weight in gold and they will try ANYTHING to try and grab it!