Location within Metro Detroit

1. Location within Metro Detroit

3. Detroit’s High Costs • James and Sophie Womack picked their house -- a large ranch set behind black iron gates in Detroit's wealthy Golf Club neighborhood -- because it was close to their jobs. Both doctors, they earn more than enough money to buy a home almost anywhere and friends urged them to look in the wealthy neighborhoods sprouting on the fringes of Metro Detroit. • When considering their daughter's education, the Womacks made a choice that reflects the difficulty families face in breaking the continuing cycle of separateness. • "I didn't want (my daughter) to have to deal with being the only African- American in her class," Sophie Womack said. "I thought she needed to be in a more diverse population or, if nothing else, an African-American population." That choice left the Womacks in a neighborhood where, despite some integration, blacks outnumber whites 11-to-1. • A small but slowly growing percentage of Metro Detroit's affluent blacks live scattered in the suburbs, primarily in Oakland County's booming wealthy fringes or in southern Southfield. Many times, those families earn more than the white families that surround them.

4. Detroit’s High Costs • But far more of the region's richest blacks reside in stable, family-oriented Detroit communities such as Palmer Woods and the Detroit Golf Club. • Census figures show that blacks who made more than $100,000 in 1999 lived in areas where incomes were lower and poverty rates were far higher than the neighborhoods of well-off whites. Two-thirds of their neighbors were black. • The affluent blacks who live in Detroit do so despite obvious costs: They generally pay more for insurance, frequently pay for private schools to avoid Detroit's troubled public system and often supplement higher city taxes by paying for private security patrols. They endure snow-packed streets in winter and longer travels for fresh groceries or to dine out. But they say their larger homes and close- knit communities are worth it. • By Brad Heath, Oralandar Brand-Williams and Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News, November 3, 2002 • http://www.detnews.com/2002/specialreport/0211/03/a01-629402.htm