Location within Metro Detroit

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Location within Metro Detroit
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Detroits High Costs

• James and Sophie Womack picked their house -- a
  large ranch set behind black iron gates in
  Detroit's wealthy Golf Club neighborhood --
  because it was close to their jobs. Both doctors,
  they earn more than enough money to buy a home
  almost anywhere and friends urged them to look in
  the wealthy neighborhoods sprouting on the
  fringes of Metro Detroit.
• When considering their daughter's education,
  the Womacks made a choice that reflects the
  difficulty families face in breaking the
  continuing cycle of separateness.
• "I didn't want (my daughter) to have to deal
  with being the only African- American in her
  class," Sophie Womack said. "I thought she needed
  to be in a more diverse population or, if nothing
  else, an African-American population." That
  choice left the Womacks in a neighborhood where,
  despite some integration, blacks outnumber whites
  11-to-1.
• A small but slowly growing percentage of Metro
  Detroit's affluent blacks live scattered in the
  suburbs, primarily in Oakland County's booming
  wealthy fringes or in southern Southfield. Many
  times, those families earn more than the white
  families that surround them.

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Detroits High Costs

• But far more of the region's richest blacks
  reside in stable, family-oriented Detroit
  communities such as Palmer Woods and the Detroit
  Golf Club.
• Census figures show that blacks who made more
  than 100,000 in 1999 lived in areas where
  incomes were lower and poverty rates were far
  higher than the neighborhoods of well-off whites.
  Two-thirds of their neighbors were black.
• The affluent blacks who live in Detroit do so
  despite obvious costs They generally pay more
  for insurance, frequently pay for private schools
  to avoid Detroit's troubled public system and
  often supplement higher city taxes by paying for
  private security patrols. They endure snow-packed
  streets in winter and longer travels for fresh
  groceries or to dine out. But they say their
  larger homes and close- knit communities are
  worth it.
• By Brad Heath, Oralandar Brand-Williams and Shawn
  D. Lewis / The Detroit News, November 3, 2002
• http//www.detnews.com/2002/specialreport/0211/03/
  a01-629402.htm