Are ghettos usually on the south side of town?

[Crandolph]

@ryobserver

Center City and South Philadelphia are closest to the Delaware, and University City is close to the Schuykill, which is more evidence for RickJay’s theory that the poor areas tend to be away from the water. OTOH Old City is closest to the water, and within living memory (meaning, when my mother was young) was a pretty rough area. It became desirable after a lot of the old housing was leveled to make room for Independence Mall and the whole area was made tourist-friendly.

There’s about 12 miles or more of Philadelphia along the Delaware River, and actually a good deal more of it is the “River Wards” (Fishtown, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Frankford etc) plus outright Northeast (Wissinoming, Tacony, Upper and Lower Torresdale etc) than Center and South Philly combined. Check any map.

There are also many neighborhoods abutting the Schuylkill River.

University City proper has been quite safe for several years, and has simply never been the most dangerous area of the city. It’s difficult to say that all of West Philly beyond UC is super-dangerous; some parts are better than ohers.

The levelling of buildings near Independence Mall happened in the 1950s, along with the demolition of the “Chinese Wall” and other Center City-area major renovations. But Old City (there is no “e”) real estate didn’t take off until the 1990s. This was classic artist-first, richer yuppies-next loft-driven, market-driven development/gentrification in old warehouse and factory stock. Nothing to do with tourism (although they will be happy to take your money…). Society Hill just south of that area was run down until the public-private partnership to renovate the area, which is the country’s largest collection of Colonial and Federal housing stock. That’s now the most expensive realestate in the city.

It’s difficult to say where the “bad areas” of the city are. Parts of North Philly (which is not the northernmost part of the city), Kensignton (variably defined), Nicetown and other parts of the NW, and parts of South (Southwest and the area down near, say, 8th and Wolf) and West Philly all have horrific areas just blocks from quite civilized areas. Poverty stricken and middle class or better residents often live just around the corner from each other. One block on either side of the el tracks is a drug and violence zone pretty much the whole length, yet Fishtown of all places is getting gentrified.

The only areas that seem to outright ghetto-free and extraordinarily safe for an urban environment are the Northeast proper, Manayunk, Roxborough and Center City itself.

It’s very difficult to make any generalizations about compass direction and poverty/crime here.

[Crandolph]

@ryobserver

Center City and South Philadelphia are closest to the Delaware, and University City is close to the Schuykill, which is more evidence for RickJay’s theory that the poor areas tend to be away from the water.

As if I didn’t blather enough already, I wanted to comment upon this assertion. There are two things that usually happen to a riverside area in the development of a city: it gets used for industry (water/power source and dumping, shipping) or it becomes desirable real estate with a good view and a nice breeze, etc. Both happen along the same rivers and other bodies of water.

For example in the case of Philadelphia the vast majority of the Delaware is or was industrial (Bridesburg, Port Richmond) and port/shipping/train depots (South Philly) and the housing stock right off of these facilities is rowhomes for workers. Most of those jobs are gone in post-industrial America and the neighborhoods by and large got worse. But Old City is a historic district where the white collar job concentration meets the river, and people like to have a view (of Camden?! :smack: ) at the waterfront, thus high realestate prices. Likewise the Schuylkill has both tradtionally industrial sections (Brewerytown) and areas that were reserved as beauty spots (Fairmount Water Works).

I suspect most cities of any size have to have the human usage of the waterfront areas taken into account before being near the water means anything as a socioeconomic predictor.

[Walloon]

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, bucks the trend. All the black neighborhoods are on the north side.