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I live in a college town of about 50k+ people (variable depending on students). The median home price here is outrageous even after the bubble burst. There are distinct lines between neighborhoods here, yet because of the presence of the university, some of this is muddled close to campus. Student housing segues into larger homes for professors and other professionals. Our top two employers in town are the university and Hewlett-Packard, both of which contribute to a high standard of living here. The presence of both attracts other engineering and science firms to set up shop here. Despite this, there are some lower income neighborhoods, and they are very well-known to residents here. If you say, "Little Mexico", the other person will invariably reply, "You mean that neighborhood off of Highland?"
I grew up in a small town and then moved to the suburbs of Portland as a teenager. In my suburban town, there are distinct geographic boundaries between neighborhoods where people of a certain income range and skin color don't live. When we moved there, we were warned that white people did not go into x and y neighborhoods after dark because of the presence of Latino gangs. The same went for downtown, but thanks to economic revitalization and a major transportation project, this is not the case anymore. While there, I moved from a neighborhood considered lower middle class to one considered upper middle class, as we were renting a house for a while before we found one to buy.
roachboy is right: wherever you go, there are differences in socioeconomic geography. Even in my small town growing up, a classmate once asked where I lived. "I live on the Island," I replied. "Oh--the Island. You must be rich!" he declared. "Only rich people live out there." I didn't realize at the time just how comfortable my family was compared to others, but now when I go back there, I do notice that the houses for the upper middle class there are all the ones with views--those with less live on the interior of the island.
I think roachboy covered a lot of what is going on and what can happen. I had to write this prediction about political power in this country for a class last spring, and it's very similar: just as wealth is very concentrated in this country, so is political power, and they are hand-in-hand with each other. So long as this is the case, nothing will change.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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