A new study analyzing 120 years of U.S. Census Data to chart trends in urban segregation has concluded that Chicago remains the most racially segregated big city. The good news? It's been lessening over the past decade at a faster rate than most cities. The decline is rooted in things like gentrification, immigration, greater minority access to credit, and, more unique to Chicago, the systematic demolition of housing projects. Observers of the study are asking, is overt racism in housing on the decline? Is economic disparity mostly to blame for slow progress? The Sun-Times quotes one of the study's authors: "The difficult thing for a city like Chicago is that once predominantly black neighborhoods are established, they very rarely change. Cities that have integrated the most—places like Houston—they are places with lots of [recent] population growth and lots of new housing." [Sun-Times]
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