Northwest Cities Become Whiter

"As white gentrification accelerates in Portland and Seattle, where the percentage of black residents was already the lowest among the nation's largest cities, it is erasing the only historically black neighborhoods these cities have ever had."

Norman Rice, Seattle's first and only black mayor in the 1990s comments: "It clearly isn't racist; it's economics. The real question you have to ask yourself is: Is this good or bad?" He believes black flight to the suburbs is beneficial to those who can sell their homes for a profit and save for retirement. However, he cautions that suburban African Americans are isolated from one another and "will have to find new places to embrace our black heritage."

Some white residents of Seattle and Portland are also concerned about losing black neighborhoods. "Many of the white liberals who condemned white flight are just as angry at the white folks who are moving back into the cities," says Dan Savage, editor of the Stranger, an alternative weekly in Seattle.