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Old 08-08-2013, 10:50 AM
 
Location: The big blue yonder...
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I'm noticing that (as it seems to me) pretty much any city you go to, the South Side of town is supposed to be more dangerous, more ghetto, more run down, etc... And the North Side of most towns seems to be the more affluent side.

Does anyone know of any US cities that it is the reverse of this observation?

And does anyone know WHY it always seems to be the South side?


I've lived several places, and in each place I've noticed this...

A few Southsides off the top of my head...

Southwest Atlanta
Southeast DC
South Central LA
South Phoenix
South San Diego
South Side Chicago
South Philly
Tacoma(South of Seattle)

any others???

Are there any places where North means trouble?

Seems to me like NYC may be the only anomaly...
Because Flatbush, Bushwick, Fort Greene, etc are all north of Sheepshead Bay,
But still the term South Brooklyn is supposed to be a rough area with Red Hook and Sunset Park and all...
And South Bronx is supposed to be rough, but then again Harlem is north of Midtown Manhattan.
NYC seems to be all over the place. But for most other cities I know, seems like South side, and also ofter East side both seem to be the bad sides of town.

A few East sides

East LA
East St. Louis
East San Diego
Oakland/East Bay
East Atlanta
East DC
East New York


Anyone have any insight on the Southside thing. I realize the East/West sides can go either way (even though it seems a little more east being worse to me).
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Old 08-08-2013, 10:54 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia
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South Philly can be pretty affluent and the more troubled areas continue to gentrify so I guess Philly may be an exception.

North Philly is most definitely the infamous side of town.
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Old 08-08-2013, 10:59 AM
 
Location: The big blue yonder...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a View Post
South Philly can be pretty affluent and the more troubled areas continue to gentrify so I guess Philly may be an exception.

North Philly is most definitely the infamous side of town.
Well... with Philly, it seems to me like North Philly, South Philly, West Philly AND East/Camden are all rough... LOL.
Kind of another anomaly.

But if you say it's more affluent in South Philly than North Philly, I'll have to take your word for it.

In Philadelphia
Where do more rich people live? Where are the better schools?
Is that South Phil?
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:00 AM
 
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South east SF contains some of the bad areas.
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:02 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psykomonkee View Post
Well... with Philly, it seems to me like North Philly, South Philly, West Philly AND East/Camden are all rough... LOL.
Kind of another anomaly.

But if you say it's more affluent in South Philly than North Philly, I'll have to take your word for it.

In Philadelphia
Where do more rich people live? Where are the better schools?
Is that South Phil?
Camden is rough, but you can't group it with Philly. Different city, different state. It's not fair for Philly to put Camden in there considering it's legitimately the 1st or 2nd most dangerous city in the country. Close and tied to Philadelphia yes, but not Philly or PA.
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:06 AM
 
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Minneapolis. Southwest side is the wealthiest, North side is the poorest.
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:14 AM
 
Location: The big blue yonder...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lakal View Post
Minneapolis. Southwest side is the wealthiest, North side is the poorest.
WOW... I did not know that
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:14 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psykomonkee View Post
Well... with Philly, it seems to me like North Philly, South Philly, West Philly AND East/Camden are all rough... LOL.
Kind of another anomaly.

But if you say it's more affluent in South Philly than North Philly, I'll have to take your word for it.

In Philadelphia
Where do more rich people live? Where are the better schools?
Is that South Phil?
Philly is a city of neighborhoods so it's difficult to generalize entire sections of the city. But North Philly, for the most part, is the most troubled section of the city. But even in North Philly Fairmount and Northern Liberties for example are some of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city. Southwest is nearly all troubled while Northwest Philly is majority affluent and Northeast and the Riverwards are majority middle class. West Philly is a mixed bag-maybe 50/50 especially with the continuous growth of University City and of course Center City is nearly all affluent.

South Philly has many affluent neighborhoods-Packer Park, Queen Village, Girard Estates, Bella Vista, Passyunk East, Graduate Hospital and also a couple notoriously poor neighborhoods namely Point Breeze and Grays Ferry. A large chunk of South Philly remains working class though. Where/when did you live in South Philly?

So I guess your theory actually is correct for Philly but when using Southwest Philly (Kingsessing namely) not South Philly.
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:14 AM
 
Location: The City
22,379 posts, read 38,675,909 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psykomonkee View Post
Well... with Philly, it seems to me like North Philly, South Philly, West Philly AND East/Camden are all rough... LOL.
Kind of another anomaly.

But if you say it's more affluent in South Philly than North Philly, I'll have to take your word for it.

In Philadelphia
Where do more rich people live? Where are the better schools?
Is that South Phil?

Southwest Philly has some bad areas west of Broad and South of Washington. Most of the remainder of South Philly is actually pretty good (Queen Village, Pennsport, Bella Vista, Gho Passyunk etc.)

Meredith school in S Philly is one of the best public schools in the city.

North Philly (the worst) and West Philly would generally be considered more blightened on the whole.

Though the most afluent areas of the city would be Chestnut Hill (in the NW), Rittenhouse Sq, Washington West, Filter Sq and Society Hill which are all in what is CC (sans Chestnut Hill) but directly border South Philly and spill over into South Philly.

Norht Philly is the most notorious ghetto in Philly, bar none

I lived in S Philly for years in Queen Village and was on a block where most homes went between 700K -1.3 million, S Philly also to the point above has a pretty substantial working class set of neighborhoods that on the whole have held up well for a century
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Old 08-08-2013, 11:20 AM
 
Location: The big blue yonder...
2,061 posts, read 3,715,198 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RadicalAtheist View Post
South east SF contains some of the bad areas.
Right! South San Fran is the rough side of San Fran. Although, you keep further south and it gets really nice in Menlo Park and Redwood City... Still, South San Fran is rough.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415 View Post
Camden is rough, but you can't group it with Philly. Different city, different state. It's not fair for Philly to put Camden in there considering it's legitimately the 1st or 2nd most dangerous city in the country. Close and tied to Philadelphia yes, but not Philly or PA.
Nah man... Can't deny little cousin across the Del! They are still Philly metro, out of state or not...
Just like St. Louis can't disown East St. Louis, Chicago can't disown Gary and Kansas City can't disown Kansas City...
But that's all beside the point. You say in Philly, Southside is the more affluent area?



So, so far, Philly and Minneapolis are 2 cities where the Southside is more affluent. But generally (Philly's past included) most cities claim South side as the bad side... Anyone have insight into WHY the South side is usually the rough side???
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