Why Black Families Are Leaving New York, and What It Means for the City​
Black children in particular are disappearing from the city, and many families point to one reason: Raising children here has become too expensive.

By Troy Closson and Nicole Hong
Jan. 31, 2023Updated 10:32 a.m. ET

Athenia Rodney is a product of the upward mobility New York City once promised Black Americans. She grew up in mostly Black neighborhoods in Brooklyn, graduated from public schools and attended a liberal arts college on a full scholarship. She went on to start her own event-planning business in the city.

But as Ms. Rodney’s own family grew, she found herself living in a cramped one-bedroom rental, where her three children shared a bunk bed in the living room. It was hard to get them into programs that exposed them to green spaces or swim classes. As she scrolled through friends’ social media posts showing off trampolines in spacious backyards in Georgia, the solution became clearer: Leave.

Last summer, the family bought a five-bedroom home in Snellville, Ga.

“I felt like it became increasingly difficult to raise a family in New York,” Ms. Rodney said.
The Rodneys are part of an exodus of Black residents from New York City. From 2010 to 2020, a decade during which the city’s population showed a surprising increase led by a surge in Asian and Hispanic residents, the number of Black residents decreased. The decline mirrored a national trend of younger Black professionals, middle-class families and retirees leaving cities in the Northeast and Midwest for the South.


The city’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people in the past two decades, or about 9 percent. Now, about one in five residents are non-Hispanic Black, compared with one in four in 2000, according to the latest census data.

The decline is starkest among the youngest New Yorkers: The number of Black children and teenagers living in the city fell more than 19 percent from 2010 to 2020. And the decline is continuing, school enrollment data suggests. Schools have lost children in all demographic groups, but the loss of Black children has been much steeper as families have left and as the birthrate among Black women has decreased.

The factors propelling families like the Rodneys out of the city are myriad, including concerns about school quality, a desire to be closer to relatives and tight urban living conditions. But many of those interviewed for this article pointed to one main cause: the ever-increasing cost of raising a family in New York.

Harlem lost 5,000 Black residents between 2010 and 2020, according to census data. During the same time, 9,000 white people moved in.Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Black families drawn to opportunities in places where jobs and housing are more plentiful are finding new chances to spread out and build wealth. But the exodus could transform the fabric of New York, even as Black political power surges. It has alarmed Black leaders, as well as economists who point to labor shortages in industries like nursing where Black workers have traditionally been overrepresented.

The filmmaker Spike Lee, a longtime New York booster, said he worries about the city becoming more expensive and less accessible to people of color in particular, who have contributed so much to the city’s culture, from the birth of hip hop in the South Bronx to artists like Alvin Ailey and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2 .. dents-nyc.html

Gentrification pushing people out of all the old hoods in in Houston.. Money talks

they support it so what


Dominicans ran y’all out NY like Mexicans ran y’all out of LA but people will never learn

The great reverse migration

Booda Sack said they support it so what Dominicans ran y’all out NY like Mexicans ran y’all out of LA but people will never learn

Who is Y’all?

I thought u were black ?

Florida and Texas are the most free states so if you move there don't take your trash voting habits with you. Democrats have intentionally destroyed NY so vote accordingly wherever you decide to move to.

Bought a crib in the mid west for a a quarter of what my baby mother paid for hers.

left the City and I have not regrets...

Redlining

GoldenKnight said Florida and Texas are the most free states so if you move there don't take your trash voting habits with you. Democrats have intentionally destroyed NY so vote accordingly wherever you decide to move to.

I live in FL and vote blue

So if you want good 'ole 'Merica type vibes get ready to move to the corner of bumblefu*k terrace and swampbutt avenue

All the good cities are ran by dems..


Just name a city, try it

It makes sense. Why work hard to live in a tenement building when the same work gets you a house and savings elsewhere?

Living in the city is more convenient no doubt, but the prices to live somewhere relatively safe are too crazy

WindyCitySavage said I live in FL and vote blue So if you want good 'ole 'Merica type vibes get ready to move to the corner of bumblefu*k terrace and swampbutt avenue All the good cities are ran by dems.. Just name a city, try it

Nah Democrat run cities are sh*t holes. You will vote blue though until you are run out of your city and you'll vote blue wherever you go because you are dumb.

WindyCitySavage said I live in FL and vote blue So if you want good 'ole 'Merica type vibes get ready to move to the corner of bumblefu*k terrace and swampbutt avenue All the good cities are ran by dems.. Just name a city, try it

Jackson, Mississippi, and I vote blue

Or are you talking about a great Republican ran city? Orange County is probably the best place in Southern California.

No one should live in them expensive a*s cities

Madblack1 said Who is Y’all? I thought u were black ?

He slipped! we knew this fake a*s racist agent would crack sooner rather than later. Pretending to be another is just pathetic and Miserable.

Edit: and now fam is still pretending to be black on the 6th page some jokes write themselves

Booda Sack said Yea look at this pale white skin view image

Booda Sack said n*ggas is furious because I said they vote for people who want unregulated immigration and then wonder why their communities went from black to nothing but immigrants. Even after it’s know illegal immigration hurts blacks the most so stay out the south y’all got y’all wish now live with it.

Damn when the article said places like Jamaica and St. Albans becoming less black that sh*t hit me

That’s my ends… word really lots of Hispanic and people of like Indian/Bengali descent moving in

Then also how Harlem and Bedstuy losing its black population

Then hoods used to be the face of like black excellence

GoldenKnight said Florida and Texas are the most free states so if you move there don't take your trash voting habits with you. Democrats have intentionally destroyed NY so vote accordingly wherever you decide to move to.

Took your hoe a*s off ignore just to tell you to go have s*x with your mother

I live in Florida and all the major cities are Blue, and most importantly, Hoe n*gga Free so do yourself a favor and don't bring your wh*re of a soul to Florida.

Back to the ignore list.

It’s ok , because where every black ppl go that’s where we are at . The culture will follow.

I've lived in NYC my entire life. As an adult you have to really want to be here. It takes sacrifice.



The woman interviewed was an event planner with 3 kids. She should've planned her life better.

Thats the reason? Expenses...Not the rats, the filth, the violence, the cornball loud mouths, the overall annoyance of new yorkers?

That's why nyc hasn't been the forefront of new pop culture


Over the last 3 decades, wherever the new yorkers moved to, is all-of-a-sudden a pop culture hub.


By pop culture, i mean black culture that the world then hijacks... which is the actual original meaning of the term "pop culture"

Booda Sack said they support it so what Dominicans ran y’all out NY like Mexicans ran y’all out of LA but people will never learn

Andddd nailed it. Knew you were white. Also that fake booda “check in” was clearly not you writing on a piece of paper

It’s too expensive and hard working folks can move elsewhere. They can get a house for much cheaper than the city. Most folks leave “downtown life” for the burbs when they start having kids.

Same happens in most major cities. Folks can move a little bit away and get more Bang for their buck. Yet, they still can be close to the city for nightlife/restaurants/sports etc

Booda Sack said they support it so what Dominicans ran y’all out NY like Mexicans ran y’all out of LA but people will never learn

Madblack1 said Who is Y’all? I thought u were black ?

Jad95 said He slipped! we knew this fake a*s racist agent would crack sooner rather than later. Pretending to be another is just pathetic and Miserable.

I want a brownstone in Park Slope/Windsor Terrace one day.