Mapping Our Community: Residential Segregation in Mt. Airy and in Philadelphia

The West Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia has been nationally recognized for its efforts to intentionally promote racial integration and neighborhood stability since the 1950s.1 In the more than 50 years since then, residents understand the challenges to integration through a new lens and remain passionate about creating a neighborhood of diversity and inclusion. A contemporary challenge to racial integration in Mt. Airy focuses on the concern that rising housing costs will lead to the displacement of current residents and will inhibit lower-income residents from moving into the neighborhood. A central concern of community leaders is that these market forces will exert a disproportionate impact across racial groups and will segregate a neighborhood whose residents value racial and class diversity. To what extent has the degree of racial integration in Mt. Airy changed since 1990, and how does that degree of neighborhood integration relate to that of the city as a whole?