Why is it that the “east side” of a city seems to be the yucky part?
 

Hey everybody,
I’ve visited cities and I’ve lived in cities and I’ve noticed a common theme.
More often than not, the east part is usually the yucky part.

Vancouver’s “East Vancouver” is yucky.
Toronto’s east part is yucky (only it’s called Scarborough…..eeeewww)
Calgary’s Northeast is yucky.

London’s east end was yucky (hello…Jack the Ripper’s haunting grounds)
East L.A. is allegedly yucky (Cheech and Chong made up a song about it)

So what gives? In *YOUR* city, is the east side the yucky side?

Discuss.....

Hmm...in chicago the east side is the lake...and its yucky.

Well I don't know if you would consider Tallahassee a city (I don't personally), but the east side is actually real nice, some people have ranches and huge houses etc...perhaps this is more of a northern phenomenon? Any opinions?

ETA: nevermind, just saw east L.A. mentioned...although I think that would make more sense that the area closer to the coast would be more cleaned up and nicer cos wealthier people could afford to take better care of it.

Actually, in America at least, I always thought it was the "south side" that was notoriously bad.

In Madison, the west side is nicer than the east side, but the worst part of town is on the south side. Of course, "worst" is pretty relative . . . I don't think it's all that bad.

Ummm what are you talking about? That's the wealthiest part of Chicago (Gold Coast and more)...

Also in NYC the Upper East Side is extremely affluent.

This is such a silly thought to even have by anyone.

-Rudey

Umm...I've never heard anyone say they live on the "East side of Chicago". Usually north, south or west. So when someone says east I think Lake Michigan and that lake is yucky. :p

I was discussing this with my dad a few weeks ago and he said that it was because the east side of the city was generally the side of the city that was designated for industrial purposes. The east side had all the factories and such. In turn, that made the quality of the air very bad and thus reduced property values. Therefore you would/still will find the lower socio-economic classes residing in those neighbourhoods because that is what they could afford.

Yeah well Chicago is divided into the North and South sides and everyone likes to have their fun with that. But I've heard the east and west denotations in the neighborhoods denoting areas close to the lake.

Yes nobody swims in the lake, but that area close to it is priced at a high premium. Oprah doesn't have a place in wicker park, she's by the place. The gold coast prices (to buy) are very high too.

Where is the lake side bad though? In Hyde Park it was very nice and I thought the rest of the South Side had built a lot of condos by the lake that were expensive, no? I haven't been back there in a little while and Chicago puts up new buildings every 5 minutes so I don't know.

-Rudey

Yeah, there is no "East Side" of Chicago. If anybody says "East Side" you know they're a big fat dork who doesn't know anything about the city. Either that, or they're from Gary and full of wishful thinking and foul-smelling pollution.

I think the bad part of Denver is on the east side. It's called "Aurora" -- HAHA just kidding!!

lol is Gary really that bad? I know that it has a large Serb descendant population, meaning it was most likely a coal mining town or something to that extent...

Haha - I got it. I remember once talking to a guy who had just moved to Lincoln Park and was trying to tell me he lived on the "east side" of the city. I asked him if he lived in a houseboat. But yes, the geographic "east side" of the north side is the nicest part of the city.

Now, recently it seems that realtors have created the "New East Side", which from what I can tell, is a different way of saying River North/Streeterville. No one actually uses it in conversation, though.

The Jackson family came from there and there are lots of strip clubs there. What's bad about that?

-Rudey

I think in Seattle, as you head in an easterly direction, there is a yucky pocket called "Factoria". But there is also Bellevue which is chi-chi and very nice. I don't know Seattle like a local though.

I'm also noticing that yucky neighbourhoods are quickly becoming gentrified and are getting turned into nice neighbourhoods, b/c people don't want to live too far out in the suburbs and would be closer to the city. Vancouver's Yaletown was yucky warehouses and yucky industrial land and it's all nice and 'purty' now.

West Palm Beach vs. Palm Beach in Florida. I'll let you decide which is nicer.

I've also heard that as you edge away from Brooklyn and head to the Hamptons in NY, that you can find some pretty expensive homes.

-Rudey

As you go west, I'd like to know of one expensive neighborhood.

http://www.sudler.net/NeighborhoodInfo.asp

New East side is different from River North and from Streeterville.

-Rudey

Parkdale in Toronto is like that. The residents are trying to fix it up by welcoming new restaurants and art galleries (it's all arsty-farsty in Parkdale now) and driving out the hookers and the crack addicts. It's still pretty run down though.

Poor Gary. I've heard a lotta people live in Gary or Hammond and commute to the city because its so cheap to live there.

In reference to Chicago's east side...I've live across from the lake on the south (South Shore) and north (Lincoln Park & Uptown) sides and never called it the east side. It's all good though.

The last time I drove through it, I thought I was going to vomit or die. The pollution is terrible and it smells like sulfur.

The actual physical east side in my hometown is a beach and the west and north sides are the "yucky" parts.

RE: Chicago and Lake Michigan
 

I've been to Chicago a few times but never had the chance to go to the beach.

Well, for my graduation present I was supposed to go back to Chicago last January and stay in a expensive hotel and the works. I delayed that trip for six months JUST SO I COULD GO TO THE BEACH AND SWIM IN THE LAKE. I've been to websites where pictures of the lake was sapphire blue and tons of people were swimming. So those were fake pictures or something? Say it isn't so. :( St. Louis does this all the time. Our post cards make the Mississippi river look soooo attractive, but it is really NASTY in person.

Hell, maybe I will go somewhere else this summer.

Re: RE: Chicago and Lake Michigan
 

After your swim in the lake, take a dive into the chicago river.

-Rudey

Re: RE: Chicago and Lake Michigan
 

I've just seen too many kids release bodily waste in there. And when I lived up north the lake reeked of dead fish smell. So you won't catch me in that water. :(

In cities on the eastern coast of Florida the "east side" tends to usually be the higher end areas to live in being as they are closer to the beaches.

Dont Cities when they were Plated begin at the Eatern Point of the Town?

Well, We are in The Burb Mode, lets move West?

Who Was The Dude that Said," Go West Young Man".

Oh, that was before Women Were Equal and could Vote.:)

Oh, who was the first person that said, Honey, Lets Move West into the Burbs?:rolleyes:

That'd be Michael W Smith.

Wrong!:rolleyes:

But lots of artsy-fartsy types like run-down. :)

southside is the yucky side. too much crime and grafitti.

In South Florida, the East and South side of the city tend to be nicer. In Ft. Lauderdale for instance, the East side has all the nice homes and condominiums on Las Olas which is a really ritzy street in the downtown area.

In Orlando, there wasn't a "side" that was bad. There were just certain areas scattered around downtown (mainly in the southwest part of the city) that you don't go to at night! The East part of downtown is Thornton Park which is a really nice area with expensive homes. The eastern edge of Orlando has more of a suburban feel to it. UCF located there and an area called Waterford Lakes that has many upper-middle class families.

As for Atlanta, the eastern part is nice here with Buckhead being Northeast of the city. There are a lot of nice homes in Buckhead, especially along a street called West Paces Ferry where a bunch of HUGE mansions are located. The governor's mansion is along this road. The not-so-great part of Atlanta is located South of the city.

East County San Diego is known as the redneck part of SD

Santee (Klantee), El Cajon, Lakeside, Mountain Empire, etc...

LOL, so true...but do they like the hookers and the crack addicts?

Most of the Eastside in King County where Seattle is located is fairly decent until you get into the remote areas were there are very few paved roads--think past Washington's highway 202 on the backside of Bothell-Woodinville-Redmond area.

Once you are in Redmond, you are at Microsoft which naturally upgrades the area.

And the whole Lake Sammamish plateau along with Issaquah is getting really ritzy. Folks who want a house with land and new construction have to move to these areas... And Kirkland that is east of Lake Washington has always been rather pricey--Yarrow Point...

Now in San Diego, and Imperial County there is this area called the Sweetwater District that hold Bonita. That is east of Imperial Beach. Since Imperial Beach use to have water quality problems with bacterial counts being high, most folks moved way out in Bonita in the hills... But once you go north on the Silver Strand close to Coronado, you get back to the ritzy areas again... However, anywhere in SoCal by the beach is gonna be costly... Maybe the cheapest place to live in SoCal is Yuma, Arizona or Boulevard, California... You could get to Casa Del Zorro, but even then you are paying out the butt...

Now in Dallas, Texas... Since I couldn't place my locations very well, it sounded like the Bubble area was "north east ish"... It was call "Park Cities" area. Highland Park, University Park, etc. Very large--TEXAS sized houses... Extremely immaculate off the 75 freeway (N Central Expressway). South Dallas was always put down--unless you went to I think, "Greenwood", which was rather artsy... But I hardly ever hung out in that area...

Don't know much about Fort Worth area.

I live on the East side of Fort Worth and the part where I live is nice. My neighborhood is mostly homes built in the 1950s and many have been updated. Go to the southeast side and it gets bad. The near south side, or the hospital district, is pretty rough, as are parts of the north side. I like the East side - it's convenient to major freeways (30 min. to Dallas), easy drive to downtown.

Its good to know that if anyone ever needs information about Florida they can always come to ZTAngel. :p

In Dallas, much of the areas south of the Trinity River are the bad parts of town, though there are pockets of gentrification in the area.

Northwest Highway near Bachman Lake ain't the greatest either, though the city has taken steps to rid themselves of many strip joints.

Yep... the 'Park Cities' (Highland Park and University Park) is the 'bubble' of Dallas. Deep Ellum (Elm Street east of downtown) is artsy.

West Plano and parts of Frisco and McKinney are turning into 'bubble' communities as well.

Has Santee gotten that bad since the brush fires of 2003? That's too bad 'cuz they were the first to have the gas station at the Costco...

But I can see why El Cajon has gone to the toilet, they had a change in their governmental structure roughly about 10 years ago alienating them from La Mesa, Helix and off the Fuerte Ave.

But who lives in Lakeside, really--that doesn't own a horse and a wannabe Texas sized pickup truck? Wannabe TEXAS sized because they just don't sell the REAL TEXAS sized GMC, CHEVY, RAMS with HEMIs and HUMMERS with 4 door dualies and dual loudners and roof lights jacked up in Cali... Just don't sell them like that out there... Folks will slash tires for the principle of it... Or isht gets stolen...

In NYC, the Upper East Side is the Old Money area - where most of the celebrities live.

Sorta true - not always the east end but usually... why you ask? Well it does have to do with air quality - but in case of point the "bad side" woul normally be the side down wind (very apparent in older cities)... and wind predominately travels west to east in the northern hemisphere. As for why they remain the "bad side" even after the removal of the industrial nature - social stigma and tradition I guess.

I heard that it has to do with the sun not being in your eyes during a commute, too.

BTW, Gary really DOES stink!!