Daily Pilot, CA
LATimes.com
Aug 14 2004
Report: Newport is least multiracial
Marisa O’Neil, Daily Pilot
NEWPORT BEACH – One of the state’s priciest cities also has the
lowest percentage of residents who identify themselves as
multiracial, according to a report released Friday.
“California’s Multiracial Population,” a study by the Public Policy
Institute of California, listed Newport Beach as its “least
multiracial” city, with 1.7% of its population checking more than one
box to describe their ethnicity on the 2000 census. That year was the
first in which respondents were allowed to select more than one race,
including “some other race,” on the census.
Multiracial Californians are more likely to live below the poverty
line than are single-race residents, according to the study.
Statistically speaking, that would limit their ability to live in
places with expensive real estate, said Hans Johnson, co-author of
the report.
“Newport Beach is an expensive place to live,” Johnson said. “Because
it is the case that whites have higher incomes than other groups,
that’s a reflection of the cost of living in Newport Beach.”
The state’s multiracial population has an average age of 24, versus
34 for its single-race residents. That’s a reflection of the
increasing acceptance of intermarriage, shown by more mixed-race
children in recent years, Johnson said.
Johnson also co-wrote a 2002 report that showed Newport Beach as the
least-diverse city in California, with a 90% white population.
Average median home prices in June hovered around the $1.5 million
mark. Median household income in the city was $83,455 in 1999,
according to the 2000 census.
Because Newport Beach has so few minority residents, it stands to
reason that few people in the city would intermarry and produce
offspring, said Scott Bollens, a professor of urban planning at UC
Irvine.
“Throughout the years, [residents] would have less interaction – at
libraries, at community events, wherever – that could lead to the
development of households,” he said.
In 2000 census data, 1,220 residents out of 70,032 identified
themselves as being more than one race. Those included – from highest
percentage of occurrences to lowest – white, Asian, some other race,
black, American Indian and Pacific Islander.
Glendale, at 10.1%, was the “most multiracial,” according to the
report. The city has a large Armenian population that checked “some
other race” and wrote in “Armenian” on the census form, Johnson said.
Statewide, 5% of Californians identified themselves as multiracial on
the 2000 census, according to the report. That was more than double
any other state.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress