{"id":55325,"date":"2013-05-26T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=55325"},"modified":"2013-05-17T19:49:40","modified_gmt":"2013-05-18T00:49:40","slug":"underground-demography-race-class-and-the-subway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/05\/26\/underground-demography-race-class-and-the-subway\/","title":{"rendered":"Underground Demography: Race, Class, & the Subway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The magic of demographic knowledge is a memorable moment in John Sayles\u2019s 1984 movie \u201cBrother From Another Planet.\u201d On the A train, a young man shows an elaborate card trick to the title alien, who looks like an African American but seems to have no understanding of the trick. So the magician offers another.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

From 59th St. to 125th St. is one stop on the express.\u00a0 But as the movie shows, that short ride covers a large demographic change, and it\u2019s not just racial.\u00a0 The New Yorker has posted interactive graphics<\/a>\u00a0showing the median income of the census tracts surrounding subway stations.<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Take the A train one stop — from the southern border of Central Park to a few blocks above its northern border — and see median income drop by $100,000.<\/p>\n

Many other lines travel the extremes of economic inequality.\u00a0 My line is the 2:<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the early morning commute, I see blue collar workers in their hoodies or rough jackets and steel-toe boots next to well-dressed people reading The Wall Street Journal<\/em>.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t get on at the same stop.\u00a0 The people who live in and work in the Wall Street census tract, which includes Park Place, are not on the train.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what their housing looks like:<\/p>\n

\"BATTERY<\/a><\/p>\n

And here is Franklin St., Brooklyn:<\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The subway demographic trick is not limited to New York. Here\u2019s a time-lapse video of the Red Line of Chicago\u2019s CTA.<\/p>\n