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Re:How to know if where you live is “up and coming”: fried c... by amyjess on Thursday October 15, 2015 @10:24AM (#10393289)
For me, check cashing shops are a huge sign I'm in a poor neighborhood.

Businesses with signs in Spanish is another, though that's probably specific to Texas and the southwest, since we have a lot of poor Hispanic neighborhoods here. Unfortunately, the Hispanic neighborhoods here are almost universally poor. You go farther north, there probably won't be many Hispanic neighborhoods at all.

Put them together, and seeing "Cambiamos Cheques" is a huge red flag.

Re:How to know if where you live is “up and coming”: fried c... by scarecrowbob on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:27AM (#10393700)
Your experience here is a bit anecdotal and might say a bit about what your frame of reference for what it means to be "hispanic".

But of course, I don't know you, so feel free to ignore my point :D

However, if you walk around the (objectively affluent) La Cantera mall in San Antonio, you'll hear maybe 1/3 of the conversations in Spanish.

About 30% of the folks in Texas speak Spanish, so if you're in Texas you're in a hispanic area by definition....what you're describing are areas where people are or aren't willing to pander to folks who aren't bilingual.

I don't know if that describes a line between affluence and poverty though. It's possible, though I'm not sure if I believe it.

Re:How to know if where you live is “up and coming”: fried c... by pdeuchler on Thursday October 15, 2015 @12:10PM (#10393971)
As someone who lived in florida, those affluent hispanic areas don't have billboards in spanish. Billboards in spanish signal a large amount of single-language homes, and when that single language isn't the native tongue it doesn't bode well for socio-economic prospects