In the New York Times article “A Stubborn Racial Disparity in Who Calls the Upper East Side Home,” Elizabeth Harris discusses the continued lack of diversity on the Upper East Side, and interviews some of the few African Americans living in the neighborhood.  She cites data and analysis from Social Explorer’s Susan Weber-Stoger.

It has been more than 35 years since the television family the Jeffersons moved on up to the East Side. The main character, George Jefferson — played by Sherman Hemsley, who died last month — was a successful black businessman, and he became a significant cultural touchstone. But he apparently didn’t start a trend.

The proportion of non-Hispanic black residents on the Upper East Side has remained exceedingly low for decades, rising from 2.1 percent of the area’s population in 1990 to just 2.7 percent about 20 years later, according to an analysis of census data by Susan Weber-Stoger of the Queens College department of sociology, which defined the Upper East Side as the area between Fifth Avenue and the East River, from 59th to 96th Streets.

The proportion of white residents, meanwhile, has also held fairly stable, dipping to 81 percent from 88.6 percent…

According to recent census data, there were about 450 black households on the Upper East Side with an income of $100,000 or more, and more than 4,600 in Harlem.

For more on racial segregation, living in a homogenous neighborhood, and being mistaken for a nanny, click here to read the rest of the article.