Why is the east side of a city usually the poorer side?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

Has anyone else noticed this? In cities that have an east-side, it is invariably less wealthy than the west-side. This works for most Canadian cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto - i think) along with London, LA, Glasgow (and every other Scottish city). Am I onto something, or am I just crazed?

[underpants]

1. I think it is because city's tend to expand westward

At least here in Va they did.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. There is some truth to that, particularly where I live.

Doesn't work for some cities of course, such as Vancouver or LA, where it's impossible to go any farther west.

[GOPisEvil]

2. Rich people like to see the sunset unobstructed by the masses.

:7

[Kolesar]

4. In Chicago, they are so poor they have to live in a lake

...in a paper bag!

[AngryAmish]

19. There is an east side of Chicago

Way south, near Hegwish and Cal City.

Harborside Int'l is on the east side.

[BiggJawn]

5. Maybe the prevailing wind?

In Indianapolis, it was the near-northside (poor Blacks ) and southwest side (poor whites).

Chicago has it's Southside.

Lafayette has it's Northside.

There are railroad yards near these 'hoods. That might be a factor.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

8. Chicago is a north-south oriented city, of course.

Kinda difficult to have an east-side there, eh?

[terrya]

15. Given that, the North side is far wealthier than the South side.

And I hate to bring a racial aspect to this, but Chicago is still, sadly, a segregated city. The North side is overwhelimingly white and wealthier, while the South side is the opposite.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

18. I've been thinking about whether there's a correlation between N and S

sides. It seems to work in a North American context, but not for cities like Dublin, Glasgow or Manchester.

[BiggJawn]

17. No, there's an Eastside.

It's just not suburbs, that's all.
You have the downtown, then you have Lake Shore Drive, with upscale apartments, condos, and homes, then you have Lake Michigan.

[AngryAmish]

20. There is an east side

[rogerashton]

6. Not Philly.

West Philly is generally pretty poor. But a bit of a special case, as that was the result of a huge expansion of well-off working class housing -- to the north and west -- that took place in Philly earlier than most places, and is now pretty undesireable.

NorthWEST Philly -- Chestnut Hill, Roxbury and Manayunk -- get pretty creamy, though "time was" when Manayunk was working class.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. There's a point - is the Northwestern part of a city usually affluent?

Definitely the case with Calgary and Vancouver.

[demnan]

7. A notable exception: New York

New York's upper East side is the more affluent one.

On edit:

Washington D.C. though follows that pattern, the south east part is the less affluent.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

10. Fair enough. Although that may be to do with the geography of Manhattan.

How about the Eastern boroughs of New York?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

21. I don't know - the Upper West side is chock full of millionaires

I think this doesn't really apply to Manhattan

[Lavender Brown]

28. With the exception of yuppies, the lower east side isn't affluent

and the West Village is wealthier than the East Village, etc.

[eyesroll]

9. Milwaukee's east side is its wealthiest...

But, Milwaukee's also a very narrow city, and the east side is its lakefront. So, there's expensive houses north, and then businesses and trendy lofts downtown. (I imagine this is true of many cities -- even rundown lakefront property is expensive.)

I wonder, though, if you take lakefront cities out of consideration, if you'd be right.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

12. Now, I don't know Milwaukee, but is it more North-South?

Obviously, waterfront cities will have their own internal dynamics.

[eyesroll]

16. Yep...I'm not sure of the exact dimensions, but it takes me

maybe 7 minutes to drive on the highway, longer on the surface streets, from the city limits east to the lakefront. Milwaukee's actually pretty compact in all directions, but it's taller (n-s) than it is wide.

[mrboba1]

11. It's true in Raleigh, NC

I think it has to do with the proximity to the Research Triangle Park area (west of the city).

I don't know about Durham, which is on the other side of the Park - any triangle DUers here that know?

[olddem43]

14. In my city (Cincinnati) the east side has the wealth.

Eastsiders who work in town don't have to squint when driving to work and back because the sun is always behind them.

[AngryOldDem]

25. In Dayton, it's south (and east)

Quick demographic study of Dayton, OH: West and north sides of the city: poor. East side, struggling middle class, trending toward poor. Immediate South suburbs: Rich to filthy rich, with a few intruders (like myself), who are just scraping by and are living there primarily because the schools are allegedly better there than anyplace else. Most of the new money, however, has moved way south and east, out of the county.

[carpetbagger]

22. Part of it is a fall-line effect.

Many eastern cities lie at the end of the navigable portion of a river or inland bay, including Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, and Raleigh. So does Houston. Other towns lie along a geologic zone of change from flat lands to more hilly and wooded environments (Atlanta, San Antonio, Austin, Denver's outer suburbs). In general on the east coast, the hillier, more wooded, and less swamp-and-disease prone land lies to the west. Prevailing winds off the sea proivide much more incentive to move closer to the coast in California (San Diego, LA, SF) than it does on the Atlantic. In all of these situations, it is more preferable to live on the western or northwestern side of town.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

23. Damn, that's a comprehensive answer.

Thanks a lot.

[Oggy]

24. You are not crazed

I covered this in my geography degree many years ago. Someone posted about the prevailing wind direction, and that is it in a nutshell.

In the Northern hemisphere the prevailing wind direction is west to east ( Actually must the same in the S. Hemisphere ). As cities expanded after the Industrial revolution, the wealthier citizens wanted to live in the areas most likely to have winds blowing the pollution away from them.

I can't remember if this also covers pre-industrial cities, but I see no reason why not as there would still have been the stench of people!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

26. Thanks, Oggy. I thought there might be a prevailing-wind angle.

[noonwitch]

27. Not true in Detroit, both sides have their good and bad parts

The east side suburbs are the Grosse Points.

In Grand Rapids, MI, the East side is pretty wealthy.

[flamingyouth]

29. Not in Seattle

The "eastside" (which actually isn't in the city) is upper-middle-class suburbia. And the technical east side of the city is adjacent to Lake Washington, so it's also quite nice.

But yes, you're right about LA, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal...

[kitkatrose]

30. Not in Memphis,

but then, if one wanted to expand west they'd have to go into the Mississippi River. Although there is West Memphis, Arkansas. It's a whole different city though. The northwest section is the poorest, I think, and the southeast is the richest. I'm not counting our little mini-cities, but they are all east.

[sir_captain]

31. Nor in New York

the East Side of New York has 5 of the 10 richest zip codes in the whole country...