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GUYANESE INFLUX
    The city gained more than 4,000 blacks, 1,000 Asians and 3,000 “other” — a category likely to reflect the Guyanese population.
    Those numbers came as something of a blow to Guyanese leaders, who had hoped the census would prove that 10,000 Guyanese live here. Now, it looks like there are fewer than 5,000 here, even if they assume some of the African-Americans and Asians counted are actually Guyanese.
    “We were thinking 7,000 to 10,000,” said Schenectady County Legislator Philip Fields, a Guyanese advocate.
    Fields said it’s now far more likely that the city’s efforts to bring Guyanese here at the start of the decade led to many Guyanese buying houses in the suburbs.
    “They could be spread out in the county. I know a lot of them live in Rotterdam and Niskayuna,” he said.
    The census isn’t conclusive — it did not ask whether residents were from the non-Spanish-speaking parts of South America. Instead, it asked residents to choose among white, African-American, Native American, Hawaiian Islander, Asian and “some other race.”
    Since Guyanese are descended primarily from Africans and Indians, some of them may have chosen those categories. But a neighborhood-by-neighborhood analysis of the census results showed that the big increases in “other” are in the neighborhoods that have seen an influx of Guyanese, including Hamilton Hill, where the percentage of blacks did not change, while the number of “other” doubled.
    Fields said the evidence indicated that many Guyanese reported themselves as “some other race.”
    “Truly, ‘some other race’ could be a lot of Guyanese,” he said. “Look at Central State. That makes sense to me — there’s a lot more Guyanese living in Central State. Lots of Guyanese.”
    In the Central State Street neighborhood, “other” rose from 4 percent to 14 percent of the population, while the percentage of blacks did not change.
BLACK PROGRESS
    The neighborhood analysis also gave black leaders far more information about the 4,000 blacks who have moved to Schenectady.
    They’re particularly pleased by how blacks have spread out in the city.
    The influx did not center in Hamilton Hill, which has historically been the biggest enclave of blacks in the city. It’s also the poorest neighborhood, with deteriorating housing and a significant percentage of the city’s most violent crime.
    Instead of locating there, many of the city’s new black residents settled in the city’s richest neighborhoods, particularly Woodlawn and the Stockade.
    In Woodlawn, there were just 850 blacks in 2000. Now they make up 15 percent of the population, an increase of 400 people.
    In the Stockade, 100 new black residents moved in — a 60 percent increase in blacks in the predominantly white neighborhood. The number of blacks doubled in the Union Street neighborhood as well, an area with both wealthy and working-class sections.
    The Bellevue neighborhood also saw a large increase, with 560 blacks moving in. They now make up 9 percent of the neighborhood’s population, up from 4 percent in the 2000 census.
    In every neighborhood except Hamilton Hill, the percentage of blacks grew in the past 10 years.
    That indicates not only the growth of the middle class but a significant increase in working-class blacks, city offi cials said.
    “Which is wonderful. It’s a total value to the city,” said Director of Development Richard Purga. “Everybody benefi ts from that.”
    University at Albany sociology professor Samantha Friedman said a minority middle class is critically important as living proof that it’s possible to be successful in a mostly white city.
    “From a social perspective, the entrance of the black middle class would mean a gain in role models to the less privileged blacks living in the area. Having access to such role models could facilitate better academic achievement on the part of those poorer folks already living in the community,” she said.
    The Rev. Ted Ward, NAACP chapter president, was particularly heartened by the increase of blacks in Woodlawn, where there are very few apartments. Most residents must have the wherewithal to buy a house if they want to live in the suburblike neighborhood, with its wide lawns and garages.
    “It’s a very well-to-do neighborhood,” Ward said. “You might have more middleclass or high-middle-class African-Americans moving over into that area.”
    The NAACP has also seen many middle-class blacks joining the chapter, which Ward said would build the group into a more effective advocate for the many minorities still living in poverty here.
    “We’re hoping we have more people with experience in education, in the political arena, experience in social issues, have experience they can bring into the NAACP, that we can make more of an impact,” he said. ..............>>>>................>>>>.................... http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00100&AppName=1

Who cares what race people are except demoKKKrats! LOL!!! It is all about dividing America for them.

I don't know, doesn't it seem kind of like South Africa under Apartheid or something? If you come to Schenectady aren't you now American and not some third world nationality?
A young woman I know of Indian descent told me she heard that a lot of Guyanese had gone back to wherever they were before they came here, chiefly because there aren't a lot of job opportunities.
Why do the mainstream media love race/ethnicity so much? Remember how shocked they were when Obama was elected? They were all set to run stories about how a black man can't succeed in America. Wake up, Katie Couric. It's been this way (not really caring about color) in the real world for a long time.

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The influx did not center in Hamilton Hill, which has historically been the biggest enclave of blacks in the city.

The biggest "enclave" of blacks!!!  That screams Apartheid.  Who writes this stuff?

I'm glad we have progressed to the point of describing the city along racial lines.  Maybe next week, the gazette can do a piece about the shrinking European demographic.  

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“We were thinking 7,000 to 10,000,” said Schenectady County Legislator Philip Fields, a Guyanese advocate

Is there a Democrat Caucasian European advocate on the County Legislator?  How do Fields non-Guyanese constituents feel about their representative ADVOCATING for a particular race and nationality within their district?  

This is an example of political pandering of the worst kind.

Quoted from CICERO

This is an example of political pandering of the worst kind.

Stratton made this a key part of his campaign, I still remember the fliers we got in the mail that targeted the Guyanese instead of the regular every day Schenectadians, it made me want to puke.

Quoted from Madam X

A young woman I know of Indian descent told me she heard that a lot of Guyanese had gone back to wherever they were before they came here, chiefly because there aren't a lot of job opportunities.
Why do the mainstream media love race/ethnicity so much?

The Guyanese population is leaving in droves returning to NYC/Queens were there are good paying jobs. Not Metrograft hot dog jobs. They came to Schenectady fixed up properties and got whammied by the assessor/DEM morons. Now they can't sell. When their is nothing positive-wax on about diversity or the "arts".

Quoted from benny salami

The Guyanese population is leaving in droves returning to NYC/Queens were there are good paying jobs. Not Metrograft hot dog jobs. They came to Schenectady fixed up properties and got whammied by the assessor/DEM morons. Now they can't sell. When their is nothing positive-wax on about diversity or the "arts".

I agree- I think your timing is a little off though-

Just after 911 my cousin sold her " duplex "  to A Guyanese buyer - he bought 4 more houses in the same neighborhood- but  he sold everything and was gone FIVE YEARS ago.  This guy was smart He saw the door open and close.