Old Article: Best Cities For Black Families

[DaTrain]

Source: http://www.bet.com/articles/0,,c3gb3934-4620,00.html

BET.com's Best Cities for Black Families

Posted Oct. 1, 2002:

1. Columbus, Ohio

2. Houston

3. Boston

4. Charlotte

5. Indianapolis

6. Los Angeles

7. Washington, D.C.

8. Oakland

9. Philadelphia

10. Nashville/Jacksonville, Fla.

11. Dallas

12. Detroit

13. New Orleans

14. Memphis

15. Cleveland

16. New York

17. Atlanta

18. Chicago/Milwaukee

19. Baltimore

20. 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 index and 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 econonmic 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.

City Facts related to the article for Houston

- One measure of how a city is serving its residents is the rate at which babies die before their first birthday, an indicator of a number of public health concerns. Houston has 10 deaths of Black infants per 1,000 live births. Source: Centers for Disease Control And Prevention

- The Cities: Home Ownership. N/A data for Houston on percentage of Blacks Who Are Homebuyers. Source: Mumford Institute

- Kids in Single Parent Households. Houston has 26% of children in Householdes With Single Parent. Source: Annie E. Casy Foundation "Kids Count" data.

- AIDS Infection. Houston has 21.2 AIDS infections per 100k residents. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

[houstonsemipro]

This is old news. That's back in 2002. You need to get update with 2004-2005.