Why are the east of cities usually poorer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#61

Post by quant18 » Mon, May 31, 2010, 6:38 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #60

louislouis wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 day out of 7 I might be able to see out my window for more than a mile here whether its winter or summer and I'm on the main island looking north. Now I'm not sure if it's the China pollution or general smog which every major city suffers from?

Must be China.

53% of the time, Hong Kong-based sources of pollution are to blame. Primarily cars idling in traffic, boats (which don't have to use low-sulphur fuel), and CLP's filthy power plants (which are worse than some in Shenzhen and Dongguan)

http://www.civic-exchange.org/eng/upload/files/200703_HKAirP...

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#62

Post by apphacker » Mon, May 31, 2010, 6:56 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #23

maukdaddy wrote: post #7

Actually in most of the major US cities, the south side is bad. For example, SE DC, south side Chicago, south-central LA

Interesting. Applies to Boston too - to the north are the rapidly gentrifying yuppie suburbs of Cambridge, Somerville and Medford, while to the south are the more depressed areas of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan. Same for the non-San Jose parts of Silicon Valley: Palo Alto and Mountain View are ritzier than neighboring Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. I don't know enough about San Jose itself to say, nor about San Franc…

Saratoga, Campbell and Los Gatos are in the south of San Jose and Silicon Valley. Hardly poor areas. The poorer areas are East-Palto Alto, which is not south and has nothing to do with prevailing winds. This has basically turned into attempting to find patterns in television static.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#63

Post by micaelwidell » Mon, May 31, 2010, 7:26 AM UTC

Stockholm (capital of Sweden) seems to be an exception to this.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#64

Post by SamReidHughes » Mon, May 31, 2010, 7:29 AM UTC

qq66 wrote: post #41

West Philadelphia born and raised? The article would be much stronger if there was some quantitative backing of the assertion that east sides are poorer.

East Philadelphia is also known as Camden, NJ, but I don't think that means anything. West Philadelphia was originally a middle and upper class community, before its decline in the second half of the 20th century. If you ride the el through it, you can see some fine office buildings from the era, and you can see the history in the architecture of the rowhouses, too.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#65

Post by arethuza » Mon, May 31, 2010, 8:24 AM UTC

mynameishere wrote: post #2

It's better to live in the east since you don't have to look at the sun on your commute.

I used to live on the north east side of Edinburgh and commute by bicycle to a location on the south west side of the city (Riccarton campus) - this was great as it was up hill and into the prevailing wind in the morning and down hill and wind behind you at night.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#66

Post by limmeau » Mon, May 31, 2010, 8:30 AM UTC

fuzzmeister wrote: post #36

While it's hard to know if the distribution of any given city is the result of this trend, St. Louis is certainly a great example - East St. Louis is tied with Opa-Locka, FL as the most dangerous city in the United States.

Never heard of Opa-Locka. What's so dangerous about it?

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#67

Post by vorg » Mon, May 31, 2010, 8:40 AM UTC

JacobAldridge wrote: post #25

tszming wrote: post #17

In China, the opposite. Coastal cities (in the east) are usually richer.

The OP was discussing the east side of cities, not cities on the east side of the country.

The high-speed railway network being created across China reduces travel times so much it's often quicker to go between cities than between two places within one city, e.g. only 30 minutes Beijing to Tianjin, or 3 hours Wuhan to Guangzhou, one section of which is now the fastest railway line in the world. Perhaps soon all of mainland China could be considered as one city.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#68

Post by rmc » Mon, May 31, 2010, 8:43 AM UTC

Tombar wrote: post #55

In my country => Uruguay is the other way round.. east part of the cities is the richest one.. but i believe it's related with the coast line and the ocean :)

As others have pointed out, in the southern hemisphere, the prevaling winds are easterlies.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#69

Post by kazuya » Mon, May 31, 2010, 10:02 AM UTC

Interesting. It's kinda true for Tokyo too, though probably due to historical reasons, not just polluted winds.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#70

Post by Goosey » Mon, May 31, 2010, 10:27 AM UTC

limmeau wrote: post #66

fuzzmeister wrote: post #36

While it's hard to know if the distribution of any given city is the result of this trend, St. Louis is certainly a great example - East St. Louis is tied with Opa-Locka, FL as the most dangerous city in the United States.

Never heard of Opa-Locka. What's so dangerous about it?

Criminals.