Charlotte, NC

First in fast-growing Charlotte, NC, then in visits to Greensboro, Raleigh and Indianapolis, I’m noticing what seems to be a new geography. Do you see it, too?

As immigrants have arrived in large numbers since the 1990s, they have not settled in distinct neighborhoods like the Little Italys and Chinatowns of older America.  Instead, they scatter wherever rents are affordable, mostly in older post World War II suburbs.  Newcomer and native-born  intermingle without ethnic boundaries – a suburban “salad bowl.”

At first glance, one or two suburban boulevards mayseem to be a Latino barrio, or perhaps an “international corridor.” That’s because foreign language signs are the first things to catch your eye.  But look close and you’ll see many ethnicities plus old-line white and black entrepreneurs, often side-by-side in the same strip shopping plaza.

Where to start looking?  Find a suburban area that came to popularity with middle-income folks in the 1950s – 1980s, a place of mid-sized single-family homes plus lots of apartment complexes.  Not the posh part of town.  That’s because rents are too high.  Not the worst part, since immigrants, like the rest of us, are looking for the best affordable places they can find to raise families and start businesses.

Look around your city and add your findings to this web site.

DINING & WINE
New York Times

In Indianapolis, the World Comes to Eat
By JOHN T. EDGE
Published: February 22, 2011
As immigration patterns transform neighborhoods outside urban centers, they are also changing what, and with whom, suburbanites eat.