The Baddest Part of Town

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
61

CY1035:

Unnnhhhh. . .yeah. And what way does it run in the Southern Hemisphere?

Are you another one using a rather strange approach toward claiming downhill is southward in North America, because the Mississippi mostly runs southward? I’ll admit, things could only go downhill from this stance of yours. I’m wondering, though, where all that water goes when it either drains out of the equator or the South Pole.

MAEDBH & heretic:

I’m really glad to see that my N/S concern hasn’t actually gotten the Catholics and Protestants raging again over there. But, of course, 1) apparently my bringing this subject up in GQ in the SDMB was not the basis of Cecil’s column as to which I placed the OP of this thread; some other person seems to have written to him suggesting this N/S distinction, and 2) all of this issue is, of course, not exactly a “scientific theory” that is likely to be “scientifically proved”; it’s just something ponderable, and accumulation of anecdotal data tends to suggest something, where there is no inherent reason why more people, for some ulterior motive would support either the N or the S here (well, maybe there are more Yankees than Rebels). One could, I suppose claim that better-off people on the N sides of cities would have more computer access and thus predominate here, claiming their side of town was the best. . .but that would only prove the point, wouldn’t it?

I’m not sure exactly how I would get a grant from the US Govt. to do a scientific study on this subject, although I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that it had paid for such a thing. ;

tomndeb:

I mistakenly referred to the prevailing winds in the contiguous continenetal US (mostly 30 to 55 deg N lat.) as Trade Winds (which blow from the NE in the northern tropics). What I meant was the Westerlies, which blow from various directions in the north-temperate zones. This page:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~jmegonig/rockwood/p2climate.htm

says they start at 30 deg N lat. blowing to the N, but the Coriolis effect makes them, furthr up blow to the E. However, as I look at my old atlas (Hammonds Universal World, 1951), it shows different directions for mid-winter and mid-summer and quite different, in each case, on the two coasts. Whatever, the predominant winds in NoCal are from the NW in essentially all seasons. Of course, they switch around during specific storms.

Well, I don’t know if the prevailing winds across the US and Europe are presently really somewhat as shown in this atlas for around 1951, and as different at different seasons and locations as shown here, but I know from “sittin’ by the Bay” that NoCal winds are usually from the NW any time of year and in most places around here.

As to the latter clause, no question about it!

The Kybernetic Control Freak:

Yeah, I worship the wind god (Mariah?). Anybody that doesn’t agree gets blown outta town. . .or at least to the degenerate south side. :wink:

Ray (Scientific way to find the answer: Shake up all the votes and put all them in a pile on top of a circle. The last one to blow out of the circle is correct.)

62

TBone2:

What would you have done with CA.US if we aliens hadn’t been dumped here?

So if we weren’t dumped here, we might’ve been dumped there.

Ray (It’s only those in SoCal that came from another galaxy anyhow.)

63

The Mississippi.

And the Penobscott, and the Kennebec, and the Connecticut, and the Hudson, and the Delaware…

There appears to be a major bias toward north-to-south river flow in the eastern US. Even the ones that don’t run N/S tend to run southward overall.

John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams

64

[[Are you another one using a rather strange approach toward claiming downhill is southward in North America, because the Mississippi mostly runs southward? I’ll admit, things could only go downhill from this stance of yours. I’m wondering, though, where all that water goes when it either drains out of the equator or the South Pole.]]

Ever hear of the Continental Divide?

65

Oh, phooey! Where I live (northern OH), EVERY stream, big and small, flows S-N into Lake Erie. While the southern 2/3 of the state drains southward into the Ohio River, that nearly 1,000-mile long waterway flows mainly E-W, and carries water from a number of major tributaries, including the Kentucky, Kanawha, Big Sandy, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, all of which flow mainly northward. The mainstream Ohio forms at Pittsburgh, from the combined flow of the Allegheny River (NE-SW) and the Monongahela River (S-N).

To argue that there is some ‘predisposition’ for water to flow north-to-south anywhere is just silly. In my experience, water – like many other substances – runs downhill, ever obedient to the principles of gravity. Are we opining that gravity is significantly stronger to the south?

In any case, what does any of this have to do with the south side of town being the baddest?

I don’t know why fortune smile on some and lets the rest go free…

T

66

I don’t care if local data doesn’t help, it’s fun to read what people think is the bad part of town.

In Kansas City, at one time one of, if not the biggest stockyard town in the US, pretty much the whole city is S-SW of the stockyards.

The bad part of town, such as it is, is the north, with bad neighborhoods sprinkled around. The (arguably) best part of town is S of the downtown area, and the southern suburbs are very wealthy.

The worst part of the planet is obviously Antartica. I lived in a housing project in the shadow of the Vinson Massif and you just didn’t leave the house.

67

There nevertheless seems to be a tendency for final (ocean-exiting) rivers in the eastern U.S. to run almost due south. I would suppose (as I said in my very first posting) that this is a glacial artifact.

John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams