Census: Salsa Supplants Sauerkraut

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) April 20, 2005 — The city's Cabbage Hill neighborhood got its name from the many German immigrants who grew cabbage to make sauerkraut, but nowadays you're more likely to hear "hola'' than "hallo'' as younger Hispanic families displace older German residents.

The makeup of many cities across the United States changed in the 1990s as the number of people of European ancestry declined and were replaced by Hispanic and, to a lesser extent, Asian immigrants.

The shifts are especially noticeable in cities in the Northeast and Midwest that were heavily settled in the 19th and early 20th centuries by European immigrants. They arrived there for many of the same reasons that today's new immigrants do: jobs and cheaper housing.

The 2000 census shows declining numbers of Irish in Boston, a smaller Polish population in Chicago and fewer Italians in New York.

In Lancaster, the heart of central Pennsylvania Amish country and home to horse-drawn buggies, handmade soft pretzels and rolling farmland, about 20 percent of the residents were of German heritage in 2000, half as many as 1990.

Gone are most of the German-owned bars that once lined street-corners on Cabbage Hill. Drive through the neighborhood and some of the city's other main streets and you will see Puerto Rican flags, hear children talk in Spanish as they walk home from school, and listen to salsa music blaring from car stereos.

Many of the older families of German heritage moved away to the suburbs, local residents say.

"The German families and the culture -- they've all scattered. It's gone,'' said Terri Wendel, a gray-haired drug store employee who grew up on Cabbage Hill. Wendel, a German-American, now lives in a suburb about 20 minutes from her childhood neighborhood.

Some of the decline in residents with white ancestries is due to people moving to the suburbs, where cultural ties may be weaker and enclaves less conspicuous, said University of Michigan demographer William Frey. Those couples who did stay in older urban neighborhoods tend to be elderly and may stay in their homes until their death.

Immigration from northern and western Europe has decreased to a trickle compared to the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. Many new immigrants from those countries today don't have the familial connections in those cities that drew immigrants before them.

Another possible explanation is that fewer whites may relate to the heritage and customs of relatives who may be at least four or five generations removed, said Census Bureau analyst Angela Brittingham.

In general, fewer people associate with any ancestry. While the U.S. population rose 13 percent between 1990 and 2000 to 281 million, the number of ancestries cited on the survey -- based on a sample -- declined from 296 million to 287 million over the decade. People could write in up to two heritages that described their background.

Cultural ties can often dissolve as people marry spouses from other backgrounds, Brittingham said. "Some people have so many ancestries they may not know what to report.''

Of the five largest white ancestries in the United States:

--German is the largest at 42.9 million, or about 15 percent of the population. That is down from nearly 58 million or 23 percent a decade ago.

--Irish ancestry dropped from nearly 16 percent of U.S. residents in 1990 to 11 percent in 2000, while English declined from 13 percent to nearly 9 percent.

--Ancestries traced back to other parts of Europe did not show as big a drop. For instance, Polish was selected by 3.2 percent of U.S. residents in 2000, as opposed to 3.8 percent in 1990, while Italian declined from 5.9 percent to 5.6 percent.

Overall, whites number at least 194.6 million, up 13 percent over the decade. Hispanics number 35.3 million, up 58 percent, and now rival blacks as the nation's largest minority group.

The Asian population also rose to at least 10.2 million, up 52 percent.

In Boston, some blocks in longtime Irish neighborhoods like South Boston and Charlestown have turned into more diverse havens for new immigrants looking for cheaper housing, said Paul Dwyer, president of the Irish Networking Society in the city. Other areas have turned into trendy destinations for young professionals.

In 1990, 22 percent of Boston residents were Irish; that number declined to 16 percent in 2000. During that time, the Hispanic population rose from 11 percent to 14 percent of city residents, and the Asian population surged from 5 percent to 8 percent.

"But the city still maintains its Irish identity by default,'' Dwyer said. "The people who move out still maintain it because they still work in the city.''

Karen Popowski, president of the Polish American Association in Chicago, said that a move to the suburbs for many families weakens cultural connections established in urban enclaves.

Chicago's Polish population stood at more than 210,000, or 7 percent of city residents, in 2000, down from nearly 262,000 in 1990, or 9 percent of the city's population then.

"In the city, culturally there is still vitality,'' Popowski said. "Once you get into the suburbs, people really do tend to blend in, and I think that's true of a lot of ethnic groups.''