BET.com's Best Cities for Black Families
BET.com
Posted Oct. 1, 2002:

Columbus, Ohio
Houston
Boston
Charlotte
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Washington, D.C.
Oakland
Philadelphia
Nashville/Jacksonville, Fla.
Dallas
Detroit
New Orleans
Memphis
Cleveland
New York
Atlanta
Chicago/Milwaukee
Baltimore
St. Louis, Mo.
HOW WE RANKED THE CITIES: For six months, BET.com compiled data on African Americans in those U.S. cities with the largest Black populations.** The data, for African Americans specifically, involved infant mortality, high school graduation, median income, homeownership, unemployment and businesses ownership. Rates of poverty and AIDS infection, the percentage of children in single parent, typically fatherless households, teen pregnancy, an economic segregation indexand violent and property crimes for each city were also collected. The data used represents statistics for the traditionally defined cities and, in some cases, what the census bureau calls "Metropolitan Statistical Areas," which include core urbans area and their surrounding urbanized areas.
Each set of data was scored and weighted to determine how each city ranked on each of the above mentioned set of criteria. Studies show that economic opportunities for Blacks tend to improve when African Americans are in the mayor's office so each city also was given a score for political representation based on whether or not they have a Black mayor. The data were divided into seven categories, which were scored and weighted to get an overall score for each city. A city's score determined its place/rank on the BET.com list.
BET.com considers the list a starting point for serious discussions about how families are doing in major urban areas.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Kids Count Data Book," "County and City Data Book 2000," Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau Economic Census, Census 2000 Supplementary Survey, The Mumford Center, Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now, The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Washington Post Market Analyses.
**Birmingham, Ala., excluded for insufficient data.

I've been noticing a lot of black families fleeing the Big Apple and heading further south. When I ask why...basically they tell me that the quality of life is better. When I visited NC last summer, I realised that you can prosper greatly vs. what u can do in this concrete jungle called NYC. I may ride out soon myself.

Off the bat, one glaring thing I see missing imo is anything dealing with health, e.g. access to healthcare, the healthcare expenditures of ppl/families, quality of health, incidence of diseases like cancer and diabetes, etc. Health seems important to be on that list too.

Mystic - you bring up some very good points about areas that seem to be missing from their composite..

I have been trying to do research on various cities myself and the best site so far with seems to be http://www.bestplaces.net/

It has a city to city comparison on such areas as:
General
Housing
Education
People
Health
Climate
Economy
Crime
Transportation

There is also a questionnaire you can fill out that can give you sample cities that fit your "profile" -->http://www.bestplaces.net/fybp/

Interesting stuff. I've been living in Boston for the last 5 years and my sis is in NY.

Nothing on San Francisco tho, but I guess dat to be expected

Here is another site to help you find the right place for yourself-->http://www.findyourspot.com/

how bout culture.. i doh kno but you.. i love to be among my people - west indians

That's a good area as well, unfortunately I have not come across many sites that capture that aspect of an area.

This is a tough one. We are everywhere, but to find some place where we are in significant enough numbers to make a difference may not be easy. I must say that Imix has opened my eyes to alot of places where we do reside. From the list though, I know that Boston, DC, Ohilly, Bmore, Atlanta and of course NY have the largest populations.

houston has a pretty large west indian population but i hate the means of transit.. ny is better there for sure

trinisunshine thanks for those links, I've been looking into this info for some time now

Your welcome!

I am surprised that none of the Florida cities made the list except for Jacksonville. It seems that many blacks are moving to the Miami/FLL areas and Orlando.