In the last decade, Kansas City's integration improved 6 percent, while the national average was 9 percent, and Los Angeles passed Kansas City by. Those other cities have benefited from bigger building booms. We interpret this result as suggesting that growth facilitates change. Meanwhile, older Eastern or Midwestern cities are not only traditionally more segregated, but their progress overcoming it also is slower, too. Segregation levels improved only slightly in such places as Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Cincinnati.
Cities just move very, very slowly.