Recent events in Portland, Oregon and environs should bring home to some who have mistaken notions that the Northwest is not the refuge that they are looking for. Yet the idea persists that this area of the country, the 'Cascadia' region especially, is the last bastion of 'Whitecentric' America.
I don't know why the official census figures show that cities like Seattle and Portland are less 'diverse' than they seem to be in reality. I tend to believe my lying eyes, and first-hand experience, rather than a census from several years ago -- we all know demographics are changing rapidly, even as I write this. The census records from 2009 show Seattle as being 66.3% White, but a look around the city will give a very different impression. Portland, too, is shown as being 70+ percent White, though I have some doubts about the accuracy of those figures.
Can it be that the census figures are being manipulated? Or perhaps illegals, for example, are undercounted, because they are not likely to comply with census requests? I suspect that either or both of the above may be happening. Then there's the fact that many Middle Easterners, Hindus, and others are counted as 'White'. The statistics are somewhat misleading, and it may be by design.
I admit I haven't been in Portland for some years, but news stories out of that area, such as the recent attacks reported in the links, seem to indicate that things are not what they once were, demographically.
Over at AmRen and other such discussion forums, there is a widespread perception that the urban Northwest is significantly better than other urban areas. I suppose if you come from Chicago, New York, Los Angeles or Houston, it might seem to be an improvement, but those Northwestern cities have their share of urban problems, including many unsafe neighborhoods.
Some also say, while conceding that the cities are not what they used to be, that the rural Northwest is still a good place to relocate. Now, I concede that the rural Northwest contains more 'heartland' kinds of people, and many Republican voters (if that means anything), but some of the rural areas and small towns in Eastern Washington State and Oregon have been sown with 'diversity. Now there are towns which are virtually all Hispanic, like Mattawa, Washington.
I think it's tragic that Northwestern cities have lost their once-placid atmosphere, but it was inevitable, given the ultra-liberal, passive nature of many of the White residents of those cities.
The people who typify the urban Northwest are people who do love their 'diversity', their ethnic restaurants, and all the other pseudo-'enrichment' that has taken place in their cities. So I am afraid the Northwest will, over time, become California North, while California becomes some kind of outpost of Mexico, with the addition of many other disparate peoples to the mix, as well.
I am afraid there is no place left which can be seen as a refuge from the chaos that is urban America in the 21st century. Best to try to do what you can where you are, and try to devise some strategy to deal with what is coming our way.
I tend to agree with those who say that if any area will succeed in at least holding its own, it will be the South, because there are still enough people there who have not been reconstructed or fully 're-educated' as citizens of this new changeling 'America.'
