Suburban Diversity

The National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University on Long Island will be hosting a big academic conference later this week on the increasing demographic diversity of suburbs. In preparation for that event, the center has released its latest national poll of suburbanites.

You can examine the poll for suburban-eye views of the economy and Obama, but I found some of the racial attitude material more compelling.

Not surprisingly, given the fact that racial diversity in suburbs is a growing phenomenon, mobility among minorities shows up as greater than that for Anglos. Half of white suburbanites (49 percent) have lived in their neighborhoods for 11 years or more. By contrast, two-thirds of suburban Hispanics (66 percent) have lived in their neighborhoods for five years or less.

About half of suburbanites say that their communities are racially mixed -- 52 percent of whites say so and 45 percent of African Americans agree, as do 48 percent of Hispanics. Nonetheless, the survey says that fewer suburban respondents find racial tension to be a problem or a big problem than people who live in central cities.