Census Tells of New Local Demographics

Morningside Heights may have become one of the most integrated neighborhoods in New York City due to a sharp decline in the white population and an increase in minorities in the area, according to a Spectator analysis of results from the 2000 Census for racial and ethnic population.

Compared to 1990 data, there has been a 12 percent, or 2000 person decrease in the white population of Morningside Heights. Concurrently, minority representation has increased to 32 percent of the Morningside Heights population, as opposed to 27 percent in 1990.

While racial diversity has been increasing throughout the United States, according to a March 23 report by The New York Times, "there has been little change [in the city] in the tendency of whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians to live apart from one another. In fact, in some cases, their isolation has increased," the Times reported.

The white population of New York City has declined significantly, and non-whites now represent more than half of the total city population. Yet a Times map depicting the percentage of residents of the predominant racial or ethnic group in individual neighborhoods showed that much of the city is more than 60 percent segregated.

Of the Morningside Heights residents who marked only one racial category, 15,398 were white (68 percent), 3,661 were Asian or Pacific Islanders (16 percent), 1,979 were black (nine percent), 61 were Native Americans (0.2 percent), 755 were bi- or multi-racial (three percent), and 705 marked the "Other" category (three percent). Hispanic origin was considered an ethnicity separate from the racial categories and was marked by 2,254 Morningside Heights residents (10 percent).

While the percentage of whites in the Morningside population is higher than the percentage for the total city population (45 percent) and the minority percentage is lower than the city percentage (55 percent), the neighborhood shows a high level of integration, or racial consistency, within its blocks--going against a recent New York City trend.

"If ... Morningside is bucking the trend of racialized segregation for the city, then I see that as progress," said Gary Okihiro, director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

The census divides the country into "tracts"--small, semi-permanent subdivisions within a larger area--to measure statistical change over time. Morningside Heights, which extends between 110th Street and 122nd Street, and between the Hudson River and Morningside Avenue, is divided into six tracts within which racial makeup remain fairly even and diverse. The percentage of whites in each tract ranges between 62 percent (in tract 201.01, which envelops Morningside Park) and 72 percent (in tract 203, which is made up mostly by Columbia's campus).

The decrease in the white population, however, may simply be a result of comparative statistical misrepresentations.

"I haven't noticed significant change [in the diversity of Morningside Heights] in the past decade," wrote Chairman of the English and Comparative Literature Department Roger Bagnall in an email. "It is possible that the difference in numbers is partly an artifact of the changes in ethnic/racial categories used by the government in this census."

The 2000 Census is the first to let respondents declare that they are bi- or multi-racial by checking more than one racial category, including white, black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or other race.

"Data on race from Census 2000 are not directly comparable with those from the 1990 census and previous censuses due, in large part, to giving respondents the option to report more than one race," according to an FAQ sheet from the Census Bureau. The change created 63 possible racial categories as opposed to only five in previous censuses.

It is possible that residents who said they were bi-racial or multi-racial in the 2000 Census replied simply "white" or another single race in 1990, causing a decrease in the number of people identifying themselves as white in last year's numbers. This issue, however, does not appear to have had much effect on Morningside Heights, as only 755 respondents marked two or more races, hardly enough to account for the almost 2000 fewer white residents reported in the neighborhood.

Another change in the race and ethnicity question of the census was the placement of the question of Hispanic origin. While in both the 1990 and 2000 censuses, Hispanic descent was considered separately from the question of race, the 2000 census questions Hispanic origin before it questions race. The expectation was that Hispanics would be more inclined to identify themselves as such, rather than discouraged by having already marked "black" or "white" as their race. A Hispanic or Latino person is defined by the census as being of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of their race.

This change also does not appear to have had much affect on Morningside Heights. While the Hispanic population increased by approximately 200 people, the percentage of Hispanic representation in the area remained stagnant at approximately 10 percent of the total Morningside population.

The Columbia Effect

Some question, however, whether the changes in the racial makeup of Morningside Heights are a result of the transformations outside or inside of the 116th gates.

"I suspect that Morningside is exceptional in that Columbia and its students and faculty/administrators pose major factors in the neighborhod's composition," said Okihiro.

Approximately 90 percent of undergraduate students are housed in residence halls in Morningside Heights. According to data of the student body in 1996, there has been little change in the minority makeup of the student body between then and now. 1990 numbers were not available on Columbia's website.

While Columbia and SEAS students make up approximately 23 percent of the Morningside Heights population, the racial makeup of the student body in 2000 is quite different from the percentages reported for Morningside Heights as a whole. For example, whites made up 48 percent of the student body last year, compared to 68 percent in the neighborhood. In addition, while Asians made up only 16 percent of the neighborhood population, according to the 2000 Census, they composed 22 percent of the undergraduate population last year.

But tract 203, of which Columbia makes up the largest part, generally reflects the trends of the Columbia population. Tract 203 reported the second-lowest percentage of whites in the neighborhood (after tract 205, where Barnard is located) and the second largest Asian percentage, after tract 201.01, which envelops Morningside Park.

Against the Grain

The increasing size of Columbia's undergraduate population did not increase the general population size of Morningside Heights. The total population of Morningside Heights has decreased by about five percent since 1990, from 23,732 to 22,559.

Like the increasing racial integration, the decreasing population in Morningside Heights is contradictory to the population trends of New York City as a whole. Breaking with long-standing trends of decreasing population, for the first time in decades the city as a whole actually grew by six percent to 8,008,278.

Many professors said they could not speculate on the decreasing population of Morningside Heights, but did not suspect it to be a situation of "white flight" in response to increasing diversity.

"A higher percentage of Columbia faculty has been choosing to live in the area," said Bagnall, "which certainly doesn't point to white flight."

Many professors said the diversity of the community was what attracted people, not what turned them away.

"I'm not sure what to say, except that diversity--racial and class--is one of the attractive things about this neighborhood," said Eric Foner, Dewitt Clinton Professor of History.

"My two children, who both grew up in Morningside Heights and went to a local school, are enthusiastic about the diversity of the population of the area and of their school," Bagnall said. "This isn't the result of our propaganda either; it's just how they turned out."