After a decade of playing second fiddle to Los Angeles, New York now reigns supreme as the most diverse city in America, according to census data.
Bloomberg reports that perhaps nowhere is New York's increased diversity more evident then in one Brooklyn neighborhood.
The section of Dyker Heights in southwest Brooklyn, long dominated by Italian-Americans, had one of the biggest increases in diversity of any census tract in the nation’s most-populous city. The area of 1,133 people has seen an inflow of Asian residents, a group that is helping to transform the profile of New York, along with those of other major municipalities throughout the U.S.
“Some of the residents here were so concerned about blacks moving in, they didn’t even notice the influx of Asians,” said Nick Venezia, 33, manager of Ben Bay Realty Co. in Brooklyn.
A study by the Brookings Institution shows that more than 50 percent of American cities are now majority non-white. The report also finds that minorities represent 35 percent of suburban residents and more than half of all minority groups in large metro areas live in the suburbs.
An increase in diversity in New York also coincides with a decrease in "white flight" from the city. Fewer whites left New York in the last decade, than they did in the '90s. That trend is also true of Los Angeles, the study finds.