Seeing a reference to “the wrong side of the tracks” in another thread, I was wondering what side of the tracks most people here live on. If you’re not comfortable sharing what your years add up to, you may give a % number.
For my part, I would say that I have lived on the right side for about 42 years, the wrong side for six, and not near enough to any tracks to have real meaning for about one year.
Right now, I live on the wrong side, though I am typing this from the right side.
I’m living right on the tracks. And yes, there’s a train coming.
Where I am right now, the other side of the tracks is all water and a racetrack. Most of the tracks hereabouts don’t really divide any of the towns, freeways do. I’ve generally lived on the right side of the freeway.
When I moved into my neighborhood, it was definitely the wrong side of the tracks, but there’s been gentrification since and it’s actually reasonably desirable these days.
There’s actually a pretty interesting back story to it in that when the railroad went through and really got the town going, the railroad only allowed prostitution and Chinese people on the side of the tracks I’m on. Even though the last of the brothels shut down probably in the 50’s sometime, for decades later it still definitely had a skeezy reputation that started exactly when you crossed the tracks. Eventually the young professional types figured out that the houses were cheap and right across the tracks from downtown and now these days it’s a pretty “hot” neighborhood, whereas some of the formerly respectable areas on the nice side of the tracks are getting run down.
So I don’t know… maybe 20/80% wrong/right side of the tracks, even though it was which side of the tracks was wrong that moved, not me.
Since the crash of the steel industry a couple decades ago, a catastrophe from which this area never recovered, we don’t have a “right side of the tracks.”
I live East of the railroad tracks. If I’m making a grocery run and a train is coming by, I have to stop and wait until the gate opens. I can’t hear the warning bells from my house, but if the driver blows the horn, I can hear that.
The engineer blows the whistle. And keeps his hand on the throttle. And his eye on the rail. 
Except for when I was living out in the country, I guess I’ve always lived on the right side of the tracks. Where we are now the other side drops into the bay.
What side is the ghetto cause that’s where I’m at. The tracks are about 600 yards away but the far side of them is the Ohio River and living in it seems a little silly to me.
I spent a lot of time living in a mid sized city who’s close to downtown area didn’t have clearly delineated sides of the metaphorical tracks; it was more a matter of individual neighborhoods. One neighborhood had was mostly mixed between students and professionals working in the downtown area. A couple blocks over the stores had bulletproof glass on the windows and regular busts of street level drug dealers. Another direction there was a neighborhood that was mostly older/retired people that had owned their homes for decades. My neighbor had a Mercedes (IIRC) in his garage. Buying crack or visiting upscale bars near the state capital was more a matter of the direction you walked than distance.
One place I lived for a year was just across the tracks to the bad side. The neighborhood itself was mostly working class with a strong block watch and no real issues itself. Some of the nearby blocks you could see gang symbols though. Because we had the bridge across to the nearby park we saw a lot of foot traffic from the less desirable nearby areas. The result was two incidents of gunfire related to people just passing through to/from the park in the year there.
I live on the “right” side of the tracks, although it should technically be the wrong side, as the prevailing winds come towards us from the tracks.
Thankfully, steam engines have been out of favor for a little while now.
The tracks here do not divide anything meaningful. I do, however, live on the right side of the interstate, although a few parts of the area on my side that are immediately adjacent to the interstate are starting to look a bit iffy.
Wait a minute, railroads are allowed to legislate?
Or do you mean that the railroad owned the land on both sides? Or do you mean that the railroad had a policy that employees and/or customers who engaged in prostitution on the “disallowed” side would be fired or denied service?
I live on the right side of the tracks, in a town that can be a little snooty. You need the right outfit to go to yoga, to walk your dog, etc. All the women have expensive, straight highlighted blonde hair. You know the type.
I don’t think I’ve ever lived on the wrong side of the tracks. I’d economize some other way to have a good address.
I was born and grew up on the right side of the tracks, but my best friends lived on the wrong side.
I went to college and grad school on the right side, but tended to live on the wrong side while doing so.
The area of the city I live in is very much on the right side of the tracks, but the particular subsection of that area where I live is looked down upon, relatively speaking.
It’s all relative, isn’t it? People who live in Portland’s west hills think that people who live on the east side of the Willamette River are somewhat inferior. People who live in the inner east (near the river) often think that the people who live in east Portland are less than to be hoped for.
I’ve never lived in poor or dire circumstances, which is what I’m guessing the OP is getting at, other than when I lived in SE Washington, DC. But even then, I was on a military base.
I live in the caboose.
you have a big caboose.
It was more that like in a lot of early western towns the railroad dominated the local politics. While technically the early town government set up the red light district, it was entirely at the behest of the railroad.
Generally speaking, most people say living inside* the tracks is better than outside in Tokyo.
So, AppallingGael, (love your username), I’ve lived on both sides. After student years, in the toolies, which for city folk, makes me a hick. All the tracks around here have been converted to bike and hike trails;). As a student I’ve lived on the “wrong side” but found it both affordable and entertaining not least because it drove my parents crazy. Peasant roots help, I think. Currently i have internal smirks because I live where being a farmer is cool, especially if you are pretty much organic, but I’m an established professional in a setting where many of my clients have no idea of the other part of my life.