Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Wrong Side of the Tracks




Willis Avenue, Looking South at the Railroad Tracks. Source: Google Maps Streetview


For the past two years, I led a split life, geographically speaking—driving up to Champaign to attend graduate school during the week, and back to St. Louis to be with my wife on the weekends. This meant putting about 500 miles per week on my 2000 Toyota Corolla. Needless to say, I became close friends with auto mechanics in both cities.

I would ride my bike to pick up my car from the mechanic in Champaign. I took back roads for this.The route, which mainly used Willis Avenue, was split almost perfectly in half by a railroad track. I never actually saw a train using this track, a spur of the Norfolk Southern. Nevertheless, it formed a formidable physical barrier. Not only did the road stop abruptly, there was no pedestrian path to the other side. Crossing required getting off my bike and walking it over the tracks. This was a minor inconvenience for me, but it had a remarkable effect on the neighborhood.

Railroad Tracks Form a Barrier on Willis Ave

Source: Google Maps

North of the railroad tracks, the neighborhood shifts notably. Some homes are less well-maintained. The cars parked in front are generally lower value. This is, apparently, “the wrong side of the tracks.” The data back this up. Conveniently (for the purpose of this blog post, at least) the railroad tracks also divide two census tracts. Here are 2014 median home values in these adjacent tracts:
  •        Tract 10 (South of the tracks): $131,700
  •        Tract 9.01 (North of the tracks): $84,200

Home values in the southern tract are over 50% higher than those to the north. It is no secret that neighborhoods change, and home values fluctuate between areas. In fact, median home values continue to rise as you move in a straight line south of this point. What is notable here is the scale of the change—comparing adjacent tracts for the next three tracts to the South shows an average of only a 15% increase in median home value—and how quickly it occurs.

Looking more closely at the area surrounding the tracks indicates that the tracks themselves play a role. I pulled assessed value data for the 10 homes I estimated to be closest to the Willis Ave tracks barrier, for both the north and south sides of the tracks. This is an admittedly unscientific approach. Despite is flaws, offers a picture of how quickly property values change. The 10 homes north of the tracks had an average assessed value of $18,533. The 10 homes south of the tracks assessed for $28,899, on average.[1]

Homes just south of the tracts assessed for about 56% higher than homes north of the tracts. This is the same percentage difference that existed between census tracts. The differences in home value between the two tracts may be less of a gradual progression, and more of an abrupt jump at this physical barrier.

What does this mean, and why does it matter? To some, this may just be a function of how the world works. Given a choice between sides of the tracks, people will pay a premium to live on the “right” side. I would argue that its implications are actually much more troubling. The very fact that there is a right side of the tracks means we have created a built environment that works against social mobility and reinforces inequality.

Social barriers tend to coalesce around physical barriers. These simple railroad tracks can become the dividing line between different neighborhood associations, youth sports teams, and elementary schools. The sum total of all these divisions means that people living on opposite sides of the tracks are far less likely to intermingle and form social bonds. Children growing up on the wrong side of the tracks miss out on a million little opportunities, like seeing the different professions of their friends’ parents and becoming inspired to pursue a career path. Poorer households north of the tracks have less political capital and ability to resist unwanted or noxious development, like liquor stores. Over time, disparities reinforce and calcify.

This is not to say that the purpose of these railroad tracks is to divide, or that they were built with malicious intent.[2] However, we must acknowledge that they have a very real effect. Physical barriers beget social barriers. This doesn’t just apply to railroad tracks, either. Highways, blocked streets, and inhospitable intersections are just a few examples of the physical barriers we erect that harden social barriers. If we believe social mobility and integration are good things, then we have to reflect on our built environment and its role in either supporting or hindering them. If we want to prevent stark disparities between places, then we must make our built environment as permeable and connected as possible. We must work toward cities where no child has to grow up on the wrong side of the tracks.  



[1] In Champaign County, assessed value if 1/3 of market value.
[2] Although some certainly are. Kevin Fox Gotham’s Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development documents how the Kansas City Public Schools promoted Troost Avenue as a physical and social barrier in order to preserve segregated schools. 

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