Hispanics, blacks, lead Metropolitan Atlanta population growth

[Mimosa]

The population of the metropolitan Atlanta counties has boomed during the past 10 years:

http://www.ajc.com/news/hispanics-blacks-lead-metro-875918.html

Excerpt:

The state of Georgia added 1.5 million people, an 18 percent increase, boosting its population to 9.68 million in 2010, according to Census Bureau numbers released Thursday. The Hispanic population grew 96 percent, followed by an African American increase of 26 percent. The white population grew 5.6 percent statewide.

Between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population grew more than 152 percent in Gwinnett County; about 100 percent in Clayton County; and about 80 percent in Cobb, the Census numbers show. In Fulton, the Hispanic numbers were up 51 percent and 29 percent in DeKalb.

Each of the state's most populous counties -- Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton -- grew over the past decade, though DeKalb's growth was about 4 percent as it added just 26,000 residents.

Clayton's white population plummeted from 82,637 to 36,610, a 56 percent decline. Cobb's white population fell 7.3 percent, DeKalb's dropped 5 percent and Gwinnett's decreased by 10 percent.

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I lived in the metro Atlanta area while I was growing up and knew most of the areas around us well. Back in the mid 1980s, before we moved from Athanta to New Orleans, the Althanta metro area had a population of 3.4 million people.

What are the biggest changes? Atlanta began to be crowded during the late 1980s. Traffic is horrible of course. Regardless of what the racial mix is now, what the metro Atlanta area lacks is any sense at all of 'community'. The metro area resembles a bunch of unrelated ethnic settlements. The blacks, Asians and Hispanics basically don't communicate with each other, and remain quite separate in the counties in which they live. Some may remember Atlanta described as 'the city too busy to hate' back in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. I'd say Blacks and whites used to get along very well, although not as well as in New Orleans where people came together for common cultural events. and festivals.

Thr biggest change in the metro Atlanta counties during the last 20 years has been the influx of 'undocumented Hispanic workers'. These people came here as the poorest of the poor to participate in the late 1980s-1990s building boom. They have had plenty of children, it seems like 3 , probably 4 is their average. Small and poor South Counties, mainly Clayton County (known to most people only from the novel Gone with the Wind) has basically become a very beaten up dirty looking slum. It was always a humble place where home values (in the late 80s) generally ranged from $45K to $115K. Now the home values range from $14K to $60K at very most. % years ago the public school system, beset by apathy at best and theft from the school board (2 members collected money but it turned out they actually resided in a Northern metro county), lost accreditation. That meant their tests scores meant nothing and students wouldn't be accepted into colleges based on their Clayton County diplomas.

One thing about Atlanta is if you are in a class which can afford home remodeling and repairs, the cost of labour is cheap. Very cheap. I suppose that was the point of the government having allowed many millions of 'illegals' to flood into GA. Remember the building boom I'd mentioned? Now their is a building bust. Imagine what that has done to GA's welfare rolls. Another reason GA wanted/needed foreign labour was to benefit the poultry processing industry as well as to grow and pick agricultural produce. In the 80s many Georgians had left rural counties and the few who remained didn't want to work for nearly nothing.

I'd seen this same situation play out in Randolph County, North Carolina, which is where my mother lived during the last decade of her life. (BTW, my grandmother was born in Mexico, and was Hispanic/Native American. My mother was born in Douglas AZ, so I'm familiar with the border town there, too) Again, allowing millions of foreign workers here has given them no time to assimilate. And when the jobs go bust they have nowhere to go.

During the early to middle 1980s I was a Realtor in the metro Atlanta area. Back then all the construction crews were black and white. I never encountered anybody who couldn't speak English. In the 5 years I've lived here post-Katrina, I seldom see construction people or other labourers who arent Hispanic. I wrote this post because I'm wondering how the immigrant influx affected employment for young African American and white males. Could the paucity of enrey level jobs be part of what impells them to join the U.S. Military services? GA has a tremendous number of active military.

Opinions? Experiences?

[Mimosa]

1. Mods, could you please move this topic to the Georgia state forum?

Obviously the particular situations of individual states aren't interesting to those who don't live in a state.