What caused white flight in the New York city/New Jersey metro area?

Question

I am very interested in sociology and the concept of white flight and midddle to upper-middle class people's moves to the suburbs interests me. I've heard about the Newark race riots what I can't understand is this: Did Newark just suck really bad all along or did it get worse causing those who could afford to to go to a nicer area

Answer 1

Its a complicated story, many books have have written about each of the many different aspects of it. Here's an overview as I understand it.

Particularly at the end of World War II, the economy was strong and there was a range of policies that encouraged the growing middle class to move out to the suburbs. There was highway construction, the GI bill for returning vets, tax write-offs on mortgage interest, and so on. People wanted to own their own homes, and the suburbs were the place to do it.

It was generally white people who were able to take advantage of homeownership. First of all, they already had advantages which meant that they were the bulk of that "emerging middle class". But suburbanization greatly increased the wealth gap because, there was blatant discrimination on the part of the real estate industry, known as "red lining", that prevented blacks and Latinos from owning homes in the suburbs.

Part of the problem is a vicious circle, as follows. 1) Middle class whites moved out of cities and into the suburbs 2) the cities lost their tax base 3) the cities therefore became a worse place to live 4) more and more people left, until things have finally gotten so bad in some places that the only people who stayed, pretty much, are the ones who couldn't afford to leave.

Another important piece of the puzzle is de-industrialization. Around the same time that the white middle class was moving to the suburbs, factory jobs were moving down south. Why? The main reason was the strength of labor unions, which were driving up wages. Labor unions also help explain why whites were the ones who could afford to move to the suburbs, because they discriminated against non-whites, kept them out of the best paying jobs.

Suburban whites started going to college in much greater numbers then before (again thanks in part to the GI bill), and became white collar professionals. Largely because they weren't allowed the chance to own homes in the suburbs, people of color were not able to get college degrees and become successful professionals.

The race riots were a product of this whole extremely frustrating situation. Cities like Newark were very desirable places to live, in the days before sprawling suburbs and abandoned factories that is. The sources I listed are some relevant books, most of which I have not read :)

Answer 2

(hates to sound racist and apologizes for saying any thing that may be offensive) white flight occurred because white people in the north found that they could make more money in the south back then (becaus the southerners where kinda slow) but now their all coming back. Eventually white flight will happen again