Reader Brian C. shares his thoughts on the 2010 Bay Area census results:

The results from the Mission's census tracts are pretty interesting.

As we'd probably guess, since the 2000 census, the white population is up in every Mission census tract, and the Hispanic population is down, 15-25% in most census tracts. In the census tract just east of Garfield Square, for example, the white pop. increased by 38% and Hispanic pop. decreased by 26%. One thing that sort of surprised me is that total population is down in most of the Mission despite lots of new buildings and renovations of previously abandoned buildings, which I guess is because of people with children moving out and childless people moving in.

Similar patterns in Bernal Heights, while in neighborhoods a little farther out—Excelsior, Mission Terrace, Balboa Park, Ingleside—the white population decreased and minority populations increased pretty significantly.

One way to interpret this is negative: traditional minority enclaves are being broken up because of gentrification, evictions, rent increases, etc, and minorities are being pushed into less desirable areas. The positive spin would be that segregation is breaking down and in the last ten years we've seen a blurring of the previously stark divisions between white and non-white neighborhoods. So SF has become more diverse in the sense that people are now less likely than before to live somewhere where most of their neighbors are the same ethnicity as they are.

Brian's latter intepretation holds up.  Despite the Latino populations falling in the Mission, they're up by 57% in the Lower Haight, over 50% in multiple tracts in the Marina, and up significantly in the Richmond, Sunset, North Beach, and the TL.  The Asian population exploded in the eastern half of the city over the past 10 years.  However, the African American community fell by 19% in SF (and 25% in Oakland), which Chronicle suggests is because of years of racial equality breaking down community.

And San Francisco as a whole?  The white population actually decreased slightly, with other enthic demographics on the rise.