West side is the best side
 

This seems to be quite a common pattern in Canadian cities where the west side of town is the more prosperous section and the east side is poorer and more working class.

Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton and London all come to mind as having an affluent west.

The most common explanation I've heard this was due to prevailing winds.

The one exception that comes to mind is Saskatoon where the west side is poorer.

Winnipeg and Regina are split more north/south with the south being more affluent, as does Halifax.

Ottawa doesn't really seem to have an east/west difference - except maybe that the east end is both wealthier and poorer? (i.e. Rockcliffe Park and Vanier).

Edmonton is more north/south than east/west.

I read somewhere that's because of the prevailing winds blowing from west to east here. Pollution from the city's industries would be heavier in the east end of cities so that's where the poor ended up.

That's less applicable for us as we're a linear southwest-to-northeast city on the east coast. Parts of Old West End used to be very prestigious. But I think it's safe to say the Old East End (which, again, is actually north of downtown) was always richer. And today the broader East End (again, actually northwest of the Old West End) is definitely the snobby area.

West is best! Parkdale represent!

(I actually love the East End and lived in Riverdale for several years).

I heard this is because because of typical prevailing winds west to east, industry was usually located on the east end of town, while residential (especially higher end) was typically in the west side.

There are those who will make the argument for NDG over the Plateau – the journalist Kristian Gravenor does it particularly well and throws in downtown-west-of-say-Drummond to boot – but I am not one of them.

St. John's bucked that trend.

But if we want to get technical, the "East End" is really the North part of the city, the west being the south part of the city, and what would be considered true east is just water. And downtown. Which I guess has some crumby, run down neighbourhoods.

Intersting topic..Never thought of it..I heard "West is best" used in Ottawa as well..As a mocking joke from a West ender, but Ottawa is a bit of an enigma where, like somebody mentioned, it has the radical difference of having the most wealthiest neighbourhood (Rockcliffe Park), butted against one of the lowest income or working class neighbourhoods (Vanier),with a small wealthy neighborhood buffering the two (New Edinburgh)..You can almost throw a rock between the two large neighbourhoods.

Or more SW/NE? The federal riding of Edmonton Griesbach (formerly Edmonton East) is the east end of the inner city.

Also, the "Jasper Place" suburbs to the west are more affluent than the "Beverly" suburbs to the east.

Toronto's social geography is more complex than most Canadian cities.

The fact that the east side is downriver from downtown also matters, at least in the cradle of Canada (St. Lawrence valley) where you'll see the heavy industry installed on the east side of cities.

I'd say Ottawa follows it pretty well. There's a couple rich neighbourhoods tucked in the North East, and a more working class bit around Little Italy, but over all the East End seems less well off.

Thunder Bay is a bit of a North-South thing, but with East-West divisions on both ends (though that's more an old-new division).

Hamilton is pretty clear, but there's also a north-south thing happening, so you've kind of got quadrants.

This is a big duh, also the fact that in the beginnnings of these towns the east ends were generally settled first, and the west only after a second wave of expansion.

In Toronto, while the original town of York was located east of the current CBD (the St. Lawrence/Old Town area), by the early 19th century growth had shifted westward. The west end developed a bit earlier than the east end:

http://southofbloorstreet.blogspot.c...than-west.html

As far as Halifax goes, the South End is notoriously quite a bit wealthier (on average) than the North End. These areas represent a fairly small area of the city though.

On a slightly larger scale, the "Dartmouth side" (ie. east of Harbour) is quite a bit more industrial and less touristy than the "Halifax side". Both settlements are equally old, but most of the important institutions were placed in Halifax early on because it was much easier to defend (and the capital).

Not just Canada. Almost every major city in the US also follows this trend. The prevailing winds theory makes a lot of sense.

It's true in many European cities as well: London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin (true even before the division) and Lisbon all have had traditionally affluent west sides and working class east sides for hundreds of years.

This generalization is also pretty rough, and depends on the time period you are talking about. In the mid-Victorian era, Brunswick Street was one of the wealthiest parts of the city. You can still find lots of impressive old homes there, even though it is not a very well-off neighbourhood today. Gottingen north of North Street was pretty wealthy too. On the other end, much of the old south (Barrington near Inglis, Hollis) used to be poor and notoriously seedy. It has only gentrified during the past 20 or 30 years. The expensive areas that have been desirable for a long time are in the deep south, south of Inglis, or closer to the Northwest Arm (really the West End).

I think a lot of the north-south division in Halifax is actually fairly recent and seems to be breaking down a bit. If you talked to somebody in 1950 or 1850 about the better and worse off parts of the city that were developed at those times you'd probably find that things were pretty fluid.

Most of the industry in the Halifax area used to be along the waterfront, in the far north end (around Almon and Young Street, west of Robie), and in Dartmouth.

In L.A., yes (obviously being near the ocean plays a role). Washington DC as well, split east/west from Rock Creek Park.

I don't think this can be said for "most" US cities however.

One major exception would be generally anything on the east coast.

In my neck of the woods in FL (Brevard County), the priciest by far is east of the A1A, followed by west of the A1A on the (eastmost) barrier island, followed by the eastern intermediate island, then the western intermediate island, then the eastern part of the mainland, then the western part of the mainland, and as you continue to go west towards Orlando you hit land that's nearly value-less.

In California of course it would be the exact opposite, for obvious reasons.