I visited New York last summer, and I thought it was interesting how you could go from extremely wealthy areas in the upper east and west sides with old ladies in fur coats walking their afghan hounds etc. and then within a mile, or a few blocks even, it becomes much more poor looking in Harlem and north of that, with lots of burned down buildings and vacant lots. Why didn't the area north of the park gentrify a long time ago, given the high rent prices. Seattle has lots of high tech jobs and a low unemployment rate, and the gentrification engulfs the entire city. They're building expensive condos all over in the poor, asian and black neighborhoods which had had a reputation to the suburbanites as places where you would surely get carjacked as soon as you drove in.