7 ms·
Why are the east of cities usually poorer?
- mynameishere 16y agoIt's better to live in the east since you don't have to look at the sun on your commute.
- spxdcz 16y agoNice reasoning. (Though only applicable to 'newer' cities, or at least more recent expansion of cities).
- arethuza 16y agoI 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.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoAssuming you drive in a western direction to get to work, sure. I go directly north.
- xsive 16y agoIn 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.
- spxdcz 16y agoOut of interest, is that typical on both coasts? Just wondering if the river direction has anything to do with it.
- thristian 16y agoI don't know about Perth, but it's definitely true in Sydney (Ocean on the east) and Melbourne (Ocean on the south).
- stoney 16y agoAccess to the surf is definitely a big factor in Oz cities. Also many of the cities started as coastal settlements, so the older parts of the city tend to be closest to the coast (and they tend to be the richer bits??). In Brisbane much of the east of the city is taken up by port and airport, so not such a desirable area.
- xsive 16y agoOn the east coast it tends to be true. As others have mentioned it might not hold on the west coast. I just wanted to give a counterexample that shows how shallow the OP's argument is. The reality is that there are many factors which make certain parts of a city more desirable to live in than another. In Australia proximity to the beach is strongly correlated with desirability. In other places the reasons will differ. Whatever the reason, I don't believe for a second this oversimplified fairy tale about the prevailing wind.
- tokenadult 16y agoWhatever the reason, I don't believe for a second this oversimplified fairy tale about the prevailing wind. Agreed. Here (Twin Cities of Minnesota) the location of lakes and rivers has much more to do with what areas are the wealthiest. The wealthiest towns are west or southwest of Minneapolis, terribly located for prevailing winds or for commuting without the sun in drivers' eyes.
- 16y ago
- lazyant 16y agocounterexample: Louisvile, KY
- spxdcz 16y agoMaybe because the city underwent a massive transition post Industrial Revolution? "In late January and February 1937, 19 inches (48 cm) of rain fell during a month of heavy rain. It caused the "Great Flood of '37".[23][24] The flood submerged about 70% of the city, caused the loss of power, and forced the evacuation of 175,000 residents. It led to dramatic changes in where residents lived." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky)
- maukdaddy 16y agoActually in most of the major US cities, the south side is bad. For example, SE DC, south side Chicago, south-central LA
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- kgermino 16y agoI don't know about DC and LA(though I wonder if both have developed recently enough that the effect would be negated) but in Chicago the souh side is the furthest east (due to lake michigan) and the suburbs to the east of the city aren't exactly wealthy either.
- billpaetzke 16y agoSouth Los Angeles is a poor region of greater Los Angeles. There is more crime and unrest there. One historical example: it was the location of the LA Riot back in '92(?). South LA is about 20 minutes from the ocean, by car. I would generalize that any part of Los Angeles that's further than 15 minutes from the ocean or the mountains (there are several mountain ranges to choose from) is relatively poor.
- spokey 16y agoI think for Chicago it is less about "developing recently enough that the effect would be negated" and more about Burnham's "forever free and clear" plan for the lakefront (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham_Plan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham_Plan) which, unlike many cities, kept the waterfront from becoming industrialized.
- spxdcz 16y agoThere's an interesting discussion (and some suggestions) about the North/South divide here: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1126279 http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1126279
- jrockway 16y ago
- subwindow 16y agoSaying 'east' is an oversimplification, but generally the prevailing wind theory seems to hold up. Atlanta, for instance, the wind is SSE, with the richer areas being in the north. It doesn't really explain how the west is poorer than the east, however.
- palish 16y agoShort and to the point, lacking any kind of fluff. Very refreshing. Almost every other article of this kind is so incredibly long that it feels like a game of "spot the explanation".
- spxdcz 16y agoThanks. (I wrote it!)
- benatkin 16y agoOoh! I have a question. Do you know what the situation is in Seattle? Is it so odd, with water separating cities and neighborhoods, impacting traffic, and a corporate empire in the eastern part, that it's hard to make out? Would it have been easier to see the situation you describe decades ago?
- spxdcz 16y agoAs a Brit-in-the-US, I don't know that much about the history of US city growth (sorry!). From a quick Google, it seems Seattle has a potted history of urban planning, with perhaps a greater focus on beautification/planning than many similar cities: http://www.seattle.gov/planningcommission/docs/Introduction%20to%20Seattle%20Planning%20&%20Development%20History.pdf http://www.seattle.gov/planningcommission/docs/Introduction%...
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoSeattle's interesting. The traditionally more-affordable and more-diverse neighborhoods have been rapidly gentrifying, and are—for the most part—pushing minorities north and south. I just found this interesting (and hideously formatted) PPT deck from the University of Washington that explores the topic further: http://faculty.washington.edu/morrill/papers/Gentrify.ppt http://faculty.washington.edu/morrill/papers/Gentrify.ppt
- akkartik 16y agoIt makes me sad when someone does this much work but fails at the final hurdle to get the point across :( +1.
- tszming 16y agoIn China, the opposite. Coastal cities (in the east) are usually richer.
- JacobAldridge 16y agoThe OP was discussing the east side of cities, not cities on the east side of the country.
- tszming 16y agoYes, you are right :)
- garply 16y agoI can't speak for the other cities, but East Beijing actually is much wealthier than West Beijing.
- quant18 16y agorandom link dump: Beijing air pollution statistics by district http://www.bjepb.gov.cn/air2008/Air.aspx http://www.bjepb.gov.cn/air2008/Air.aspx
- vorg 16y agoThe 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.
- nostrademons 16y agoThe article's referring to wealth distribution within a city, not wealth distributions between cities within the country.
- ww8520 16y agoFung Sui
- S_A_P 16y agothis is certainly the case in Houston- the east side is all industrial/chemical/refineries...
- moolave 16y agoIt seemed true in Washington DC. Northwest DC (Georgetown, tourist spots, etc) was considered better than Southeast DC - albeit recent real estate developments in the past couple years. Same thing with East Palo Alto although there has been some major improvement happening in that area. Can't be true for all though.
- fuzzmeister 16y agoWhile 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.
- quant18 16y agoYep, it's similar over here in Hong Kong too, though a bit more complicated and the directions are different. When you go up north of the Kowloon Peninsula into the mountains, there's a lot of commuter towns built in valleys, where you can find surprisingly cheap housing. Now, the thing about valleys is, wind direction depends on time of day. In the daytime, the sides of the valley get hotter than the centre, so winds blow out of the valley, making the air nice and clean --- but no one's home to enjoy it because they're all off at their jobs in other districts. And at nighttime when the sides of the valley cool faster than the centre, winds blow down into the valley. Just in time for the people coming home to enjoy everyone else's pollution, PLUS whatever they generate locally. Car exhaust is one obvious source, but cooking exhaust is a surprisingly big problem too --- you'd never think of it until you live in a place full of 50-story apartments, closely packed together, where everyone comes home at about the same time and cooks up a stir-fry for dinner. Conversely, the most expensive houses (aside from the ones up on hilltops with nice views) are generally on the south of the main island. You've got mountains to your north and the ocean to your south. So in the summer, when prevailing winds come from the south, you get a clean ocean breeze. In the winter, when prevailing winds come from the north, you get all of mainland China's factory pollution plus all of Hong Kong's car and power plant exhaust blowing in your direction --- but you're protected by the mountains, so most of it goes around you and blows out to sea.
- louislouis 16y ago1 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?
- Tichy 16y agoMust be China.
- quant18 16y ago53% 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_HKAirPollution.pdf http://www.civic-exchange.org/eng/upload/files/200703_HKAirP...
- qq66 16y agoWest Philadelphia born and raised? The article would be much stronger if there was some quantitative backing of the assertion that east sides are poorer.
- smokinn 16y agoWell here's an extra data point: It's definitely true of Montreal. The poor live in the north and east ends whereas the rich live in the "West Island" (the west side of the island where all the suburbs are) and Westmount (which is roughly the west/southwest side of Mount Royal). Most of the majorly polluting industry is just off the east side of downtown Montreal.
- SamReidHughes 16y agoEast 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.
- seltzered 16y agoThis effect seems to be the opposite in Austin. If I'm interpreting the map correctly, the winds blow SW, and most of the affluent/rich areas are out there. The counterpoint is that west austin has more geographical features such as hills, lakes and rivers to offset it.
- edash 16y agoThe east side of Austin is the poorer side of town. That seems to support the assertion of the article.
- andrewcooke 16y agoIn 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!
- zppx 16y agoHere 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.
- billswift 16y agoActually 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.
- GFischer 16y agoSame 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).
- callmeed 16y agoAre there any maps that plot mean/median income levels across different regions of large cities?
- known 16y agoSun rises in the East.
- Dobbs 16y agoSalt lake is a bit different the east bench along the mountains is much more expensive. These areas are also much older. Things get cheaper the further west you go.
- hristov 16y agoThis is not true for Manhattan. The upper west side has seen quite a renaissance lately, but it is nowhere near the upper east side in terms of price.
- Tombar 16y agoIn 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 :)
- micaelwidell 16y agoStockholm (capital of Sweden) seems to be an exception to this.
- kazuya 16y agoInteresting. It's kinda true for Tokyo too, though probably due to historical reasons, not just polluted winds.
- moultano 16y agoI always thought the western side of most cities was poorer as a result of having to look into the sun each way on a commute.
- patrickk 16y agoThe concept of a commute wouldn't have been around in medieval times when many European cities were founded. Or even when American cities were born. People who lived in cities tended to work there, and rural communities worked the land. The concept of satellite towns is a recent phenomenon.
- moultano 16y agoWhich neighborhoods are considered poor has changed drastically over time in most American cities that I'm aware of.
- tlb 16y agoEast-blowing pollution was a huge problem in early industrial London, where many American settlers came from. Whether or not there was a pollution problem where they later built cities, the meme of west=fancy, east=working class was ingrained. Certainly in places like East Palo Alto, the problem is not being downwind of something. It's just that the name "East" is a self-fulfilling prediction of being worse. It only takes a tiny nudge to tip the economic divide towards one side of town or the other.
- jff 16y agoRochester NY, a city with a strong industrial history, is yet another anecdotal counterexample. The very finest houses are in fact directly east from the city center (the Kodak mansion, for example), and in general the nicest neighborhoods are to the east and southeast. To the north and east of the city are the poorer, generally more dangerous areas. Of course as you start to get far enough from the city center to the north and west you'll see the wealthier neighborhoods again.