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Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

thejanuarist.com

71–80 of 101 posts

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#71
post #42

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

This is true in most cities. Charlotte is the only major city I know of that has the south side of town as its most desirable area.

San Jose as well (Almaden).

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#72
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

San Francisco shows both trends -- South San Francisco is poorer, and so is Oakland to the East (although there are lots of other non-weather-related reasons for Oakland). I've never understood why South San Francisco is quite so neglected while commuter cities like Redwood City do so well. It's literally the next-closest town, why is it not super-expensive there?

Are we talking about southern San Francisco (Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, etc.) or South San Francisco?

For the neighborhoods of southern San Francisco, you are looking at historically highly industrialized areas. White collar workers didn't want to be there and ended in San Mateo County.

For South San Francisco, I disagree on it being neglected. Sure it isn't as rich as Redwood City, but it is a far cry from say East Palo Alto or Richmond. (You can also note the many luxury apartments and high-end office buildings popping up). Like southern San Francisco, it historically was hurt by being, as the San Bruno Mountain sign reminds everyone, the industrial city.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#73
post #47
post #3

In Australia, where the prevailing winds are also westerlies, the opposite is true. i.e. the east of most cities is more prestigious than the west.

True for Sydney, false for Brisbane. In Sydney it's because East means harbour and/or beach. In Brisbane east is flat industrial wetlands, West is hilly with views/breezes, with the exception of Clayfied/Hamilton/Ascot. However, if you travel further west towards the city fringes, this reverses quite quickly. I'd say on balance true for Melbourne, but I'm not enough of an expert to say for sure. Generally I would say…

Melbourne's western suburbs are definitely regarded as less desirable than the eastern suburbs.

Historically (in the 1880s), the western suburbs were where the working class lived, and where heavy industry was located.

Today, the majority of the wealthy suburbs are still east of the city - Toorak, Camberwell, Kew, Hawthorn etc.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#74

In Santiago, Chile, the East side is richer. I thought this was an exception to the rule until I realised that in the Southern hemisphere the winds are Easterlies!

Here in Brazil Rio has a richer southern zone and a poorer northern and western zones. São Paulo has a tiny rich western zone and a large and much poorer eastern zone. I think that both are exceptions.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#75
post #61
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Just saying that I haven't noticed smog as a rule in other big cities. But I have never been to megacities, I am talking about London or Berlin when I say big cities.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#76
post #70
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Criminals.

Any special kind? Wikipedia doesn't tell me much, and from the map it looks like it could just be a high-crime corner of Miami which has the misfortune of being a town of its own.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#77

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

Curiously, the "east side" of Chicago is where the wealthy people live, largely because that's where the lakefront is. For Chicago, in very rough terms, poor people live in the south and west, rich people in the north and east.

Missing from the article, it seemed to me, is evidence of the claim that the east side is generally poorer. I mean, that seems to jive with my anecdotal experience and the explanation for the phenomenon makes intuitive sense, but is there any hard evidence for this statement?

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#78

In Santiago, Chile, the East side is richer. I thought this was an exception to the rule until I realised that in the Southern hemisphere the winds are Easterlies!

Actually it isn't being south of the equator. In general (there are variations), between 30 degrees and the equator, both north and south, prevailing winds are easterlies; between 30 and 60 degrees, they are westerlies; then above 60 degrees they are generally easterly again.

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#79

In Santiago, Chile, the East side is richer. I thought this was an exception to the rule until I realised that in the Southern hemisphere the winds are Easterlies!

Same here (Montevideo, Uruguay) - the eastern part has the most expensive neighbourhoods (also, the south part of the city is more expensive than the north, but that's because the southern part is the waterfront).

Another interesting thing is that the hill to the west of downtown, which should be the most expensive part of the city if it followed some European city pattern (it has a beautiful view, and even a golf course), is actually one of the poorest (same for Río de Janeiro, which has the "favelas" in the hills IIRC).

Re: Why are the east of cities usually poorer?

#80
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 :)

Sorry, hadn't seen your reply, posted the same :)

(OT: more than 1 Uruguayans on HN, on the same thread? Nicolas Jodal pointed me towards here, you?)

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