I live almost exactly in the middle of the city. I come from up north.
I 'm from east of San Diego – far enough east that I had neighbors with horses. I now live on the southern edge of San Francisco. So “no direction” was my answer. If there were a “downtown” in the craphole I grew up in, I imagine we’d have been west of it, or maybe northwest.
Here’s the thing about California, though; most people here live near the coast, but not that many actually live between the ocean and the nearest city center. So for most Californians, the answer will be “same direction” or “no direction,” because you’ll need to change your circumstances considerably to move in the opposite direction.
Now what might be interesting is a theory about how nice a part of town people tend to relocate into. How many people grow up in the “bad” part of town, grow up and move to another city, only to end up in the bad part of that town?
You have my encouragement to start that very thread. It ought to be fun!
I grew up on the east side of Salt Lake City, (but below 13th East so it was more middle and lower middle class compared to the better neighborhoods about 13th East).
We are located in the south-west part of Tokyo, and the major reason for locating there is the schools. However, if you were to go further out in the same direction, then the schools are not a good.
I suspect that neighborhoods and schools play a more important decision for families, and people try to buy into the best areas that they can afford.
Zeldar perhaps you need to adjust for how long people have lived in or near their current city. For a decade I lived in the same direction as my hometown. When I was younger and both my parents were still alive I traveled back to my hometown often and that arrangement made the commute easier. Since I have gotten older and have only a sibling left for family in my hometown, I rarely return and now live in a direction that is most convenient for my daily commute.
Good points. At the very least I ought to try to express what it is I’m trying to find out. I don’t think I was all that clear to start with in this thread/poll. Either that or too many people thought I was asking other questions. In any event I’d say my “theory” needs some revamping or fine tuning. 
Was raised on the North side of town in one city (Syracuse, NY) and currently live on the South side of town (Denver, CO). However, I always (save a short 6 month period) lived on the Northside of Syracuse before moving to Colorado. I chose the Southside of Denver cuz that’s where the Tech center, my job and most of the other opporutnities for my skillset are located.
I grew up west of Rockville. Now I live on the south side of Ft Myers.
I live in the Northwest sector of the city, and my home town is in a Southwesterly direction from there, so I voted “neither direction”. I can also say that although the two relevant points are only 10 miles apart (so the difference between where I live and living in, say, the Northeast part of the city would involve a significant difference in travel time, unlike some other responders), this fact had no bearing on where we chose to live - it was simply that we wanted to live in a nice part of the city that was still within walking distance of the city centre, and within our budget.
As I write, there is no correlation whatsoever in the poll results, being as they are 14, 14, and 22.