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C Ch ha ap pt te er r 1 13 3 Latino Landscapes and Latino-Black Districts: A Study of Allentown, PA EUGENE L. TETTEY-FIO INTRODUCTION Like all communities, Allentown, Pennsylvania is a unique place. It mirrors complex historical and contemporary socioeconomic, cultural, and political processes that continually reshape its geographic landscapes. At the beginning of the 21st century, Allentown is a city of conflicting images, containing signs of prosperity and indicators of inequality and urban decay. These are the contradictions of the post-industrial city that appear on most metropolitan landscapes throughout America. Allentown has special qualities that pique the interest of the visitor. It has traditional row houses, commercial strips and industrial centers, all visible artifacts of the American industrial city. The visitor to this cultural milieu also observes bilingual signs (English and Spanish), Latino restaurants, an occasional Puerto Rican flag, and neighborhood convenience stores that cater to an increasing Latino population. These reflections of Latino culture are visible in center city Allentown and diffuse as one moves in any direction from the “inner city” to the city’s border. Previous chapters of this text have explained the nature of changing Latino geographies in the U.S. and the reasons for the migration of Latinos to Allentown. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on elements of the emerging Latino landscapes and to empirically document and compare some of the socioeconomic and ethnic attributes of racially/ethnically defined sub-areas of the Allentown area, including census tracts immediately adjacent to the city. Before illustrating particular aspects of the emerging Latino landscape, it is useful to review the historical evolution of Allentown, when the dominant local culture was German and the community evolved, first, into an industrial city, and then a post-industrial city. The latter involves the economic decline suffered by many older American cities. This is the local environment encountered by migrating Latinos to Allentown in the 1970s. After reviewing Allentown’s cultural and economic evolution, a visualization of contemporary Latino cultural landscapes is provided. This is followed by an empirical regionalization of Allentown and vicinity into three urban sub-regions. A comparison of these sub-regions is based on four socio-economic attributes. The three urban sub-regions are defined in terms of the proportions of Latino, black and white populations in each census tract. PRE- AND POST-1970 ALLENTOWN, PA: A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT The decade of the 1970s was a period of economic decline in segments of the U.S. economy. Although certain processes were underway before 1970, the realization that America was becoming a predominantly service , rather than manufacturing economy, crystallized with the relocation of manufacturing employment and major economic problems related to an energy crisis, high unemployment and inflation of the 1970s. Allentown, 192 Eugene Tettey-Fio as part of the Lehigh Valley, evolved into an industrial city during the 20th century. However, by 1970, it was experiencing the same economic losses as other aging American industrial cities of the Northeast. Pre-1970 Allentown: European Roots and Industrial Expansion The agricultural economy of the Lehigh Valley, including Allentown, was gradually replaced in the 19th century with the discovery of coal and limestone, the development of a canal linking the region to the nearby large cities, and the advent of cement production. After rail linked Allentown with other markets and resource areas, late 19th and, then, 20th century industries expanded rapidly, including silk, bus and truck production, and iron and steel, among other manufacturers. Allentown became an industrial city. Its reputable labor force, known for its reliability and strong work ethic, became an attraction for future manufacturers and the city prospered . Although several early ethnic Europeans migrated to the Allentown area during the 18th and 19th centuries , it was Germans who became the dominant local culture. Coming largely from immigrant farmer backgrounds , they worked hard to build successful lives for their families and descendants. These German immigrants developed their own dialect, which later was termed “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Allentown historian Anna Adams has provided an excellent history of both the European and Latino populations in the Lehigh Valley region (Adams, 2000). She made a number of important observations about the historical evolution of Allentown that are useful context for understanding white Allentown’s cool reception to incoming Puerto Rican migrants. Among her observations are the following: 1. German influence was dominant by the early 19th century as reflected in a single German language newspaper and language instruction (the first English-teaching school opened...

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