I have to comment on this. I grew up in the Larimer Ave area of Pittsburgh which was known as Pittsburgh's Little Italy. Yes, the Avenue was dominated by Italians, but there were plenty of other ethnicities that lived there also. It was a vibrant, attractive Avenue with business dotting the landscape, and houses and apartments along it and its side streets. That was in the 60s and maybe just slightly into the 70s.

Through Google earth, take a look at it now. You'll see huge swaths of empty lots and dilapidated housing. It has no life. It's been that way for a few decades now. So, why? What happened? What's the variable? Black Americans moved in; that's what happened. Drive up and down the Avenue and its side-streets. You won't see white people, or Hispanic people, or Asian people. You will see black people. It's such a tragedy. The white people left, the Italians and poles, and Germans, and Slovaks left, the Catholics and Protestants left.

Over the last few decades when I would visit Pittsburgh and tell my dad that my sisters and I were going to visit the old neighborhood, he would tell me: "Be careful." It was good advice.