Third World Patterns in the Bay Area

As students of cultural geography know, in the Third World, property values in the cities tend to be highest, where the wealthy live, while shantytowns tend to surround the cities in the steeper terrain. In the First World, this pattern is often reversed, due to the wealthy fleeing the city centers and being able to afford the expensive engineering required to build in steeper terrain. Naturally these are generalizations, but it is always interesting to note when they don't apply.

San Francisco (left) and Mt. Tamalpais, the highest
point in hilly and forested Marin County.

In the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, the First World pattern tends to hold. Steep and hilly Marin County, a short walk across the Golden Gate Bridge north of the densest city in the state, is the richest county in the state and tends to have some of the highest property values.

As you move outward, property values tend to fall again, which is why commuters spend so much time in their cars and buy houses in hot, inland locations. Recent events in the housing market and higher fuel costs have tended to make house prices in these areas even lower.

Historic LA (back when it was legal to walk)

The header image for this blog shows a historic 1900 map of the area between downtown L.A. and Santa Monica. My dad grew up (drinking water from the Owens Valley) in the 1920s in the area toward downtown L.A. on Hobart Blvd., just east of Western Avenue.

2013 map (thanks to Google Maps) of the area in the 1900 map in the header.

 These maps are centered on the area seen in the photos below (found in the Facebook album Vintage Los Angeles).