West quadrant of all cities is richer (ZH)

[ZenOps]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-31/where-americas-wealthiest-suburbanites-live-and-where-they-dont

Warning: ZH article (for those who aren't conspiracy nuts)

Rich people are a little bit neutral on north south, but west always seems to be worth more across the globe.

I always attributed it to "if there ever was a nuke that exploded in city center, all the fallout would fall to the east due to prevailing winds"

FWBUl7oT9sA

I fart in your general direction!

[ExtraSlow]

Prevailing winds is the reason all right, but it's got it's roots way back before nukes were invented. Slaughterhouses and factories are located in the east so that the smells are carried away from the city. Thus the richer folks live in the west.

[Amysicle]

.

[msommers]

Wonder if it has to do with mountain access/views?

[whiteout]

Originally posted by Amysicle
http://www.calgarysun.com/2014/02/01/east-calgary-communities-beltline-top-the-list-of-car-theft-hot-spots-in-2013

It's not the only thing they have going against them.

Calgary Police: 'People in Falconridge are poor and probably leave their vehicles unlocked with the keys in them".

[Supa Dexta]

Originally posted by msommers
Wonder if it has to do with mountain access/views?

Considering there's not very many cities with mountain views.. No

More often, it's the fact the people settled from east to west. So the east was always built up first and then the richer people would expand to the west, to escape the city and slums already in place.

[zaider]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Slaughterhouses and factories are located in the east so that the smells are carried away from the city. Thus the richer folks live in the west.

This. If you have the means to move away from the pollution, you generally do. However, geographical features can influence that as well and that might be why Phoenix is an exception (less industry there too)

[FixedGear]

depends where in the world you are. winds don't blow west to east everywhere.

[zaider]

^^ True.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Map_prevailing_winds_on_earth.png

It would be interesting to see how those charts changed with geographic location.

[FixedGear]

The pollution idea might apply to some cities but not Calgary, which isn't even an industrial city. I think in Calgary it's just that the land on the west (foothills) is more desirable than the land on the east (prairie).

[khanan]

This habit has been since the Middle Ages too, back in England. When the industrial revolution was at its peak, all the excess waste would flow down towards the east so the richer folks would live on the west side of the city. It also has to do a lot with the wind patterns and how smell travels from those factories into the east side of the city. So practically a lot of cities that were built from there on had this same mindset as they tried to locate all the manufacturing towards the east, also that's where the poor working class lived as it was closer to work.

Take a look at palace of Versailles, it is located in the west quadrant of Paris, almost outside of Paris when it was made. Just to give you an idea that richer folks have been moving out of the city towards the west since a very long time, it isn't just Calgary.

[zaider]

Really? Not an industrial city?

Here's two:

Imperial Oil built a refinery in the 1920's in Ogden...

Hub Oil Refinery began recycling used oil in 1958... we all know where that one is...

... that's good enough reason to move west out of the path of refinery pollution

[FixedGear]

Originally posted by zaider
Really? Not an industrial city?

Here's two:

Imperial Oil built a refinery in the 1920's in Ogden...

Hub Oil Refinery began recycling used oil in 1958... we all know where that one is...

... that's good enough reason to move west out of the path of refinery pollution

If you think calgary is an industrial city you need to get out a bit.

Edit: calgary is the cleanest city in the world. People don't move west to escape pollution, they do it because the mountains rule and the prairies suck.

[Supa Dexta]

Then why did they build east to begin with? ...

[Sugarphreak]

...

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
Then why did they build east to begin with? ...

I heard from older people in their 60s or so who've been here all their lives, that the NE used to be a good area, in the 50s and 60s when those houses were first being built. Forest Lawn for example was like an Ogden or Bowness, some small village or town then it was annexed by the City of Calgary.

My guess is, people started moving to newer areas that popped up in the 70s and 80s around Calgary, the NE became less desireable, lower income families/real estate owners took advantage of a cheaper/older single family homes and just started populating the quadrant, then it's just a wave. The newer places like Taradale, Saddleridge etc are the work of those looking to take advantage imo of the NE demographic.

[Supa Dexta]

I mean the very original people.. Why did they even bother to stop and make calgary when they could have went right to banff if the west and mountains are so great?

I already know the answer and its because of the river and the land quality, and Im sure weather as well.

[2Legit2Quit]

The closer you are to Vancouver the richer you are, thus everyone on the west side is loaded, because Vancouver.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by FixedGear


If you think calgary is an industrial city you need to get out a bit.

Edit: calgary is the cleanest city in the world. People don't move west to escape pollution, they do it because the mountains rule and the prairies suck.

While Calgary is not the worse, just look at downtown on a day that has no wind. Smog hovers above the core/beltline area.

I think everybody tried to be as far from NE/SE as possible because:

1) It's the only part of the city that's industrial
2) Down wind from smog
3) lower value = more crime

[zaider]

Originally posted by FixedGear


If you think calgary is an industrial city you need to get out a bit.



Im not saying it's an industrial city. I am saying there *were* reasons to move west away from pollution (industrial facilities). It isn't the only reason, but it is a contributing factor to the distribution of wealth in the city.

There isn't a lot of industry in the city right now, but there was for about 50-60 years and that was a contributing factor.

[AudiPWR]

west is best

nuff said

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
I mean the very original people.. Why did they even bother to stop and make calgary when they could have went right to banff if the west and mountains are so great?

I already know the answer and its because of the river and the land quality, and Im sure weather as well.

iirc it's all because of rowdy Americans, Hudson's Bay fur trading and an Irishman.

Besides the Natives living here, this Irish immigrant named John Glenn makes a cabin in what is now the Fish Creek area of Midnapore. The NWMP (RCMP now) decides this is a great place to build a fort (Fort Calgary) to protect the fur trade and it's strategically located to keep an eye out for american alcohol traders.

The CP Railway finally makes it to the Calgary area, brings people, then in the 1900s they basically tell Europeans 'come to Calgary and we'll give you a plot of land for free if you come give it a try'.

Agriculture and livestock happens and the whole Calgary Stampede thing etc, they find huge amounts of oil in the north during the late 1940s and the rest is history.

I guess I paid attention at the Glenbow museum field trip in elementary. :D