Marc Spector
the 4'11 Cuban
I would say your list is accurate. Phoenix is four, Sacramento is five, Seattle is six
Black Cities of The West...
- Thread starter murksiderock
- Start date
murksiderock
Superstar
Las Vegas has one of the largest black communities in The West, per ACS '23:
•~11%, ~70k black residents in-city
•~12%, ~270k black residents in metro
And our community is visible there, honestly Vegas is one of those cities that if someone tells you its actually only 11% black, you'd question the accuracy. It definitely "feels" like a city more around 20% black, you see black people all over the place, there are black businesses, black people in high profile positions, etc.
That's a southern city. I define "The West" as the states beginning with the row (north to south) of: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico;Tulsa?
But also including West Texas as part of The West, El Paso being the major city there. El Paso/West Texas have some southern influence but it feels like a city in New Mexico, way more than it feels like the major Texas cities.
Never been to Tulsa, but I've been to OKC, which is further west than Tulsa, and OKC is a southern city. I'd assume Tulsa is much the same way.
The thing with SD is that the shyt people say about LA, actually applies to SD. You don't see black people anywhere near as widespread in SD the way you do in LA; there's a significantly smaller wealth base in Black San Diego; significantly smaller middle class; and so on.
You have to very specifically be in Southeast because we really don't live anywhere else in the entire region in large number. Its not like LA, The Bay, LV, or Sac, where there are suburban cities bordering the city, with large black communities. Hell I don't even think SD has an Aurora the way Denver does.
A major difference between the primary black cities of The West and SD, is people know that when they go to LA, The Bay, or Vegas, they will see black culture. Hell, people will argue that Seattle is more culturally black than San Diego, and people know that if they go to Phoenix they will see more black people than in SD.
I'm all ears for you making the case that Black San Diego is underrated, I just don't see it, bro! Tons of black people love San Diego far and wide, I'd argue its got the best overall reputation among Black people, of any California city------>but the many people who love San Diego, it ain't because of black community or culture, its a very specific characteristic nobody brings up, because that ain't what people go to San Diego for.
I'm sure pretty cold
I haven't spent a winter there yet though!
murksiderock
Superstar
Having never been to Seattle or Portland, but having become acquainted with Denver, how would you compare and contrast the black experience in all 3?
O.T.I.S.
Veteran
I like mixed cities with a nice sized AA presence.
I guess thats one reason I liked Diego.
But out west thats going to be hard to find in the states. But I prefer melting pots or cities with diversity on shyt to do. Cities with exciting and progressive shyt going on. Usually one sided places are boring and repetitive filled with “local celebrity” and arrogance doesn’t matter who the majority is.
I guess thats one reason I liked Diego.
But out west thats going to be hard to find in the states. But I prefer melting pots or cities with diversity on shyt to do. Cities with exciting and progressive shyt going on. Usually one sided places are boring and repetitive filled with “local celebrity” and arrogance doesn’t matter who the majority is.
Yagirlcheatinonus
Icon Poster
I got a homeboy in CA that told me regular black dudes be smashing mad white women in areas like Santa Barbara and Beverly Hills just that police might mess with you out there cuz the population of us is soo small out there?
murksiderock
Superstar
See Daygo doesn't fit my description of nice sized black presence, but I feel the same way, I like racially and ethnically diverse places, but not so hyper diverse that the black population is muted.
I was just in San Francisco and Napa/Sonoma for a few days. Could literally count on one hand the number of black people I saw. Although I did run into Danny Glover at lunch one day, I was surprised at the lack of black folks out there. I wanted to go to Oakland, but I didn't have enough time.
Them hills are ridiculous out there. The Waymo was nice.
Them hills are ridiculous out there. The Waymo was nice.
O.T.I.S.
Veteran
I haven’t been there in over 10 years unfortunately, not even in passing.
But from what I remember, I never had a hard time finding other black people and their events. I went out dolo there and met brothers that I’m still cool with now.
And I personally still know a ton of black people there now, even though they are mostly retired.
But in essence, it was a fun city with a lot of variety and still is from what I’ve seen/heard from friends and people on The Coli.
Usually the only complaint is cost of living. But mostly agree with everything you posted.
I always consider Oakland a black city
murksiderock
Superstar
I'm gonna come back to this thread later but the latest ACS release (they released 2024 back in Sept/Oct) shows Oakland down to 18.5%. The legacy of blackness is still there and will be there but black people are still leaving in droves.
I'm gonna come back and post other cities and numbers later!
It’s crazy cause this wasn’t the case just 20-25 years ago…at all lol
Only San Francisco has had more of a drop in Black presence than San Diego, so it’s always difficult trying to explain to people who only know San Diego of the past 10-20 years how dramatic that’s been.
Gatherings like this were normal, you’re definitely not seeing this in 2026…
We had the Gold Coast Classic, an annual HBCU game plus the parade that went thru the neighborhood.
I could go on…
But yeah the last two times I’ve been home (23’ and 25’) I’ve been hard pressed to see too many of us at all, even in Southeast…
murksiderock
Superstar
It’s crazy cause this wasn’t the case just 20-25 years ago…at all lol
Only San Francisco has had more of a drop in Black presence than San Diego, so it’s always difficult trying to explain to people who only know San Diego of the past 10-20 years how dramatic that’s been.
Gatherings like this were normal, you’re definitely not seeing this in 2026…
We had the Gold Coast Classic, an annual HBCU game plus the parade that went thru the neighborhood.
I could go on…
But yeah the last two times I’ve been home (23’ and 25’) I’ve been hard pressed to see too many of us at all, even in Southeast…
San Diego is in major trouble. While the black exodus is slowing in LA; black population is still increasing in Sac; SD is in rapid decline like The Bay and is going the way of SF and Oakland.
San Diego at it's population peak was 9.4% black and 104,261 black people, in 1990.
The '24 estimates have the community at 76,416, which is a 26.7% drop in the last 34 years. To be fair, that's still a decent number of black people, but it's declining sharply.
The overall city is down to 5.4% black from 9.4% then, and Southeast, the "black" area of SD, is down to 13.3% black according to these estimates. Also being fair, anything over 10% is a lot in The West, so that would still be considered alot of black people, within the context of our Western cities.
San Francisco gentrified the fukk outta black neighborhoods and pushed us out, from afar it seems like the same thing is happening in SD. And historically The City was much blacker than SD.
SF at peak was 13.4% black (1970). They've been fukking us over in SF since then. As in other places, "Urban renewal" in SF specifically targeted Black SF, coupled with the War On Drugs, redlining, housing and employment discrimination, and all of these things happened simultaneously with a rapidly growing and increasing cost of living.
San Francisco probably experienced the harshest case of gentrification of any city here. It's effects on Black SF have been astounding. I could be wrong, but the only neighborhoods in SF that are even 10% black today, are Bayview-Hunters Point, which is 23.8% black, and Fillmore, which is 10.9% black.
Ain't nowhere else in SF City over 10% black.
murksiderock
Superstar
Oakland is also in major trouble. Peaked at 163,335 black people in '90, and these '24 estimates have us at 82,238, which is a 49.7% drop in 34 years.
Oakland had a larger foundation of blackness than Daygo but has been losing black people more rapidly. Oakland peaked at 46.9% black in 1980, to now 18.5% black in 2024.
Everything that "worked" in decreasing the black community in The City, they took to Oakland, and it started years ago. Oakland was just so black people didn't notice the effects until later, but you can see it now that there isn't as many black people to mask the issue.
East O is still the blackest single region outside of LA, west of Texas, but even East Oakland is down to 19.9% (in the flatlands; if you include The Hills as part of East O, then it's 17.5% black).
The largest concentrations of black community in The West:
Top 10 in Black Population
1 South Central LA 221,371
2 East Oakland 41,701
3 Northeast Denver 34,800
4 South Sac 31,049
5 North Sac 24,988
6 Southeast SD 22,364
7 South Seattle 18,312
8 Maryvale Phx 17,506
9 North O 14,904
10 South Phx 14,200
Top 10 Black Percentage
1 West Oakland 38.6%
2 Westside Vegas 31.6%
3 South Central LA 27%
4 East O 19.9%
5 South Seattle 18.5%
6 Northeast Denver 18%
7 North O 17.3%
8 South Phx 15.3%
9 North Sac 13.6%
10 Southeast SD 13.3%
This is if you're going by a specific "side" or region of a city proper. If going by city overall:
Top 10 in Black Population
1 LA 316,335
2 Phx 128,266
3 Oakland 82,238
4 Vegas 80,888
5 SD 76,416
6 Denver 69,897
7 Sac 67,850
8 Seattle 53,736
9 SF 41,300
10 Fresno 39,708
Top 10 Black Percentage
1 Oakland 18.5
2 Sac 12.7
3 Vegas 11.9
4 Stockton 11
5 Denver 9.6
6 Tacoma 8.5
7 LA 8.2
8 Phx 7.7
9 Fresno 7.2
10 Seattle 6.9
If going by the blackest metros by metropolitan region:
Top 10 in Black Population
1 Los Angeles 1,133,779
2 The Bay 418,532
3 Phoenix 300,728
4 Las Vegas 289,917
5 Seattle 261,845
6 Denver 184,248
7 Sacramento 163,021
8 San Diego 153,722
9 Portland 78,196
10 Stockton 55,283
Top 10 Black Percentage
1 Vegas 12.1
2 Stockton 6.8
3 Sac 6.6
4 Seattle 6.3
5 LA 6.1
6 Denver 6.1
7 Phx 5.8
8 The Bay 5.5
9 Colorado Springs 5.5
10 Bakersfield 5.2
Oakland had a larger foundation of blackness than Daygo but has been losing black people more rapidly. Oakland peaked at 46.9% black in 1980, to now 18.5% black in 2024.
Everything that "worked" in decreasing the black community in The City, they took to Oakland, and it started years ago. Oakland was just so black people didn't notice the effects until later, but you can see it now that there isn't as many black people to mask the issue.
East O is still the blackest single region outside of LA, west of Texas, but even East Oakland is down to 19.9% (in the flatlands; if you include The Hills as part of East O, then it's 17.5% black).
The largest concentrations of black community in The West:
Top 10 in Black Population
1 South Central LA 221,371
2 East Oakland 41,701
3 Northeast Denver 34,800
4 South Sac 31,049
5 North Sac 24,988
6 Southeast SD 22,364
7 South Seattle 18,312
8 Maryvale Phx 17,506
9 North O 14,904
10 South Phx 14,200
Top 10 Black Percentage
1 West Oakland 38.6%
2 Westside Vegas 31.6%
3 South Central LA 27%
4 East O 19.9%
5 South Seattle 18.5%
6 Northeast Denver 18%
7 North O 17.3%
8 South Phx 15.3%
9 North Sac 13.6%
10 Southeast SD 13.3%
This is if you're going by a specific "side" or region of a city proper. If going by city overall:
Top 10 in Black Population
1 LA 316,335
2 Phx 128,266
3 Oakland 82,238
4 Vegas 80,888
5 SD 76,416
6 Denver 69,897
7 Sac 67,850
8 Seattle 53,736
9 SF 41,300
10 Fresno 39,708
Top 10 Black Percentage
1 Oakland 18.5
2 Sac 12.7
3 Vegas 11.9
4 Stockton 11
5 Denver 9.6
6 Tacoma 8.5
7 LA 8.2
8 Phx 7.7
9 Fresno 7.2
10 Seattle 6.9
If going by the blackest metros by metropolitan region:
Top 10 in Black Population
1 Los Angeles 1,133,779
2 The Bay 418,532
3 Phoenix 300,728
4 Las Vegas 289,917
5 Seattle 261,845
6 Denver 184,248
7 Sacramento 163,021
8 San Diego 153,722
9 Portland 78,196
10 Stockton 55,283
Top 10 Black Percentage
1 Vegas 12.1
2 Stockton 6.8
3 Sac 6.6
4 Seattle 6.3
5 LA 6.1
6 Denver 6.1
7 Phx 5.8
8 The Bay 5.5
9 Colorado Springs 5.5
10 Bakersfield 5.2
All of this is facts.
As far as SD is concerned I think it’s probably gonna stabilize around 5%. The military has always brought folks in, though now compared to 1990, it just effectively “slows the bleeding” instead of really adding numbers/presence.
Another big difference between then and now is that the military folks were a lot more integrated into the Black community back in the day. Nowadays they tend to live outside of the community in places like Eastlake down in Chula Vista instead of moving into Skyline, Paradise Hills, Emerald Hills, etc. and the old hangout spots and clubs in the neighborhood either don’t exist or are inactive.
I am curious what the ethnic breakdown is gonna be on this next census. I was back in my old neighborhood (East San Diego/City Heights) last year and I seen more Haitians and Somali’s than AA which was a trip.
murksiderock
Superstar
Finna expound on this in a minute.