Amid the brouhahas about the Nunes memo and immigration, an item from Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business caught my eye. Demographers crunching census data estimate that Chicago's black population fell to 842,000, while its white non-Hispanic population increased to 867,000. National political significance: In our three largest cities — New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago — gentry liberals have become the dominant political demographic.
That's consistent with election results. Gentry liberals — the term is urban analyst Joel Kotkin's — are the political base of those cities' mayors, Bill de Blasio, Eric Garcetti, and Rahm Emanuel. That's something new in American politics. Modest-income Jews used to be the key group in New York. White, married homeowners were it in Los Angeles. “Bungalow ward” ethnics dominated in Chicago. In time, they faced challenges from candidates with nonwhite political bases — blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans in New York, Mexicans in Los Angeles, and blacks and Hispanics in Chicago. Now gentry liberals are on top.
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