Crossing the great divide - Race and preferences for living in the city versus the suburbs

Drawing on a survey of residents of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the authors compare African-Americans and whites in terms of their percept ions of the special advantages of the central city and the suburbs as place s to live and their overall preferences for the one or the other. Although abroad transracial consensus prevails in most respects about the pluses and minuses of living in the city or the suburbs, some substantial differences also emerge. Moreover, African-Americans and whites seem to weigh these fa ctors differently in forming general preferences about where to live. This pattern of similarities and differences holds out intriguing implications f or the development of metropolitan areas,