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As far as the mixing with others in small towns, well there is a problably an advantage to "everyone knowing everyone" in a small town--people have an idea if someone is from a "good family" irrespective of class in a small town, in a city or suburb folks know nothing of folks as indiviuals so they revert to stereotypes, because that is all they have--you are judging a lot of good poor people in the city and suburbs because of the "scary" poor people that you see.
I agree jeoff, when I consider a place to be undesirable I am speaking of those I see out on the street, the decent people are of course going about their business unnoticed for the most part and not drawing attention to themselves. Unfortunately, it is naturally the ones you notice that contribute to the environment, and that is what you will base your decision to live there on.
OK - well, I don't have the advantage of having been in Minneapolis so I have no idea whether the nicest parts of Minneapolis are slums or not.
But I am travelled and I have lived in quite a few places and I take note of my surroundings I can say without a doubt that I've never seen the "nicest" parts of the towns and cities I've been in as anything like a slum.
If you mean there are some old buildings that could be rehabbed given millions of dollars. . . then sure, most every town has these. But it takes a special kind of person to take on a project like this, willing to sink unknown amounts of money (anyone who's ever rehabbed a building knows this), fight neighborhood associations, city bureaucracies and whatever else, all to have a "nice" house surrounded by squalor. BTW, these urban pioneers exist, but they're fewer and farther in between than people who have money and want to live in a nice place.
It's not just the lot, they most people want to live in a nice house on a nice block, in a on a nice street, in a nice neighborhood w/nice parks and nice schools, etc. Rich people have the means to do so. . .hence congregation.
I don't think there's any mystery here or you need to apply any fancy sociology. . .some things are self evident.
Just one little comment - the Twin Cities have a fairly liberal populace when it comes to interracial/intercultural marriages.
David Brooks makes an interesting point that people in small towns used to marry between classes all the time. It was not unusual for the town lawyer to marry his secretary or a doctor to marry a school teacher.
In New York, a doctor from Harvard Medical often marries a lawyer from Yale Law. When you’re in a city you simply have a lot more people like you to socialize with—especially if you have an elite education.
This is certainly not true in all cases. I live in a county of about 25,000 with perhaps another 25,000 in the market area. Everyone I've ever met here shops at Walmart from rich to poor. I can't believe that the people are hickish given either their speech or demeanor not to mention the fact that our Walmart carries many expensive items not available in at least some big city stores. They order what people are buying.
Social classes mix far more in smaller towns and cities. Sure, people with more income are the primary patrons of expensive restaurants and stores but we mix for our basic purchases. There's no surprise in seeing a lawyer talking to a stove up old cowboy. We don't worry about the latest clothing styles or the trendy cocktail of the moment. Rich and poor have the same values as far as I've observed. Part of the reason for this sort of society is certainly that almost everyone is white. But in big cities there's a big gap between rich and not rich whtes. I've never seen that gap in small town America, even when that small town is a market center of 50k.
I should mention that i'm origially from the Chicago area; I'm familiar with both worlds.
The Orginal Poster is brillant and makes lots of great points. I reped him or her!
Being from small town Minnesota and in my 60s I can agree exactly what is being said. I understand the small to mid sized town in the midwest and understand how things were in the good old days.
Very nice neighborhoods often lie next to slums in urban area. Think about all those people living near Central Park just a hop skip and jump from Harlem. Granted, Harlem's a lot better than it used to be, but that sort of arrangement is not unusual in cities. In my hometown, a railroad track will frequently divide the halves from the have not. It is the suburbs where people choose to live in economically homogenous areas.
Very nice neighborhoods often lie next to slums in urban area. Think about all those people living near Central Park just a hop skip and jump from Harlem. Granted, Harlem's a lot better than it used to be, but that sort of arrangement is not unusual in cities. In my hometown, a railroad track will frequently divide the halves from the have not. It is the suburbs where people choose to live in economically homogenous areas.
Sometimes you can find this trend in suburbs. I live in a subdivision with middle class homes. A mile up from my subdivision, you can find some trailer parks. There is also another subdivision next to mine, and it's nicer. There is an artificial lake, some large homes, and a sign that said prohibits non-residents from being on the lake without a guest. There is another trailer park. That trailer park is literally next to the subdivision. In fact, there are no train tracks dividing the trailer park from that very nice subdivision. There's nothing separating the two. You can walk right into the trailer park because the street runs through both the trailer park and the subdivision. There are a few places like this where I live. You can have nice homes literally down the street from a poor area, not even a mile away.
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