Favored Quarters

[kwabbit]

Multi-centric urban areas and water features kind of mess this up.  I can't really think of any logic for the location of the "preferred" suburbs on the MS Gulf Coast, for example.  Tampa Bay is another weird area. 

Tampa makes sense. A lot of Southern cities have two favored quarters. An inner, urban favored quarter and then a sprawling outer suburban favored quarter. In Tampa this is South Tampa and Davis/Harbour Islands. Northwest Hillsborough is the sprawling favored quarter. The water is not a significant factor in this, probably because it's on the bay and without nice beaches. Atlanta with Buckhead and the NE sprawl also fits this pattern, as does the Houston Arrow and the semicircle of affluent Western suburbs, as does Dallas with University/Highland Park and the Collin County Sprawl, as does San Antonio with the Alamo Heights area and the Northern Sprawl.

St. Pete is a little different, as the wealth is north of downtown and on the beaches, and the sprawl is not affluent. If you consider the Pasco Coast as part of the area, that is the among the poorest exurbs in the country, but Northern Pinellas is wealthier.

[Continential]

In Pittsburgh its mostly on the Northern side and Western side with a line extending int Butler, however both SW and NE have some high income areas. Only the Southern and SE Pittsburgh suburbs don't really have any favored areas.

Historically, the favored quarter in the South Hills was Upper St Clair (and to a lesser extent Mt. Lebanon) and later on Peters Township as an exurban favored quarter. But since the former two got filled up quickly because they are relatively small and got built out quickly, I'd say that the favored areas of the South Hills aside from USC/Mt Lebanon are largely areas with golf course neighborhoods or near them. 

[Continential]

Inside the city of Pittsburgh, the favored quarter is Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, and the Strip District.

I'd say that Fox Chapel and Sewickley are "old money" suburbs of Pittsburgh, with Cranberry and Wexford being the "new money" suburbs of the North Hills.

In the South Hills, I'd say that Upper St Clair is the "old money" suburb if there is one in the South Hills and I would say that South Fayette, Peters, and parts of Canonsburg not near Peters but near golf courses are sort of the "new money" suburbs.