History Main / UrbanSegregation

[[folder:Real Life]]
Needless to say, this happens in real life. Virtually every city big enough to have separate neighborhoods will have posh residential districts and places to avoid after nightfall.

!!In General/Worldwide Trends
* Merchant districts was a common variation. Foreign residents would often have a district with semi-autonomous status; the rules would depend on the negotiations (which would include how much wealth the merchants brought and how much muscle their government was [[GunboatDiplomacy willing to use]] on their behalf). Details of the relations might include extradition in the case of crimes by one party against another and curious things such as whether foreign women could take up residence [[ItMakesSenseInContext thus making the district self-reproducing and changing a trading post into a de facto colony.]] Treaty ports in China during the 19th and early 20th Centuries are a prominent example, such as the Bund in Shanghai.
* Many if not all "Gated Communities" count, in some ways enforcing the segregation with physical walls and controlled access to the nicely-manicured lawns and well-kept residences. This, however, can lead to Deconstructed cases as while such things as crime can decrease when a community is first opened, over time the community's statistics will normalize to the surroundings due to things like the pizza guy needed the gate code (which in turn allows less savory types to get the gate code). Thus, ironically, eventually people believe their community is in fact much better than it actually is. In addition, gated communities have fewer bystanders hanging around, which cuts both ways as by discouraging people being around it reduces both vagrants and the chance of samaritans and helpful witnesses if a crime does occur. The security measures are also unfortunately effective at delaying the response time of police, firefighters, and paramedics.
* Cities with large numbers of immigrants from other countries often see them congregate into communities along ethnic lines, forming concentrations of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_enclave ethnic enclaves]] where it can seem like stepping into a different country within the same city. The FriendlyLocalChinatown trope gets its start from this tendency resulting in so many Chinatowns popping up across the world, but this is hardly limited to Chinese immigrants.
!!Africa
* Lagos, Nigeria (the largest city in Africa) has extreme wealth inequality, so much that the city doesn't have a clearly defined middle-class. The city is divided into two sections known as "the mainland" and "the island". The poor population resides on the mainland, where they live in huge and undeveloped slums. The wealthy population resides on the island, where they enjoy privileged luxurious lifestyles and live in either mansions or gated communities that are protected by high-quality security. Many wealthy households have personal maids, drivers, and chefs who come from poor rural villages.
* The "zoning" of South African towns and cities in UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra was a classic example of this. White, black and "coloured" people were allocated their own civic zones and this was institutionally enforced under the laws of petty apartheid. Although legally enforced zoning is now a thing of the past, the entrenched effects of this policy can still be seen and felt across the country.
!!Asia
* After the early Muslim conquests, it was common for captured cities to be divided according to tribes. Thus, a given neighborhood belonged to a given kin-group. This system continued for hundreds of years, and as late as the Ottoman era it was common for tribes not only to be responsible for the peace of a given era but for their militia to have a section of wall assigned to them to defend.
* Although slums have disappeared in most of UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}}, "daldongne"'s or shanty towns still exist in some areas, waiting to be redeveloped. One dramatic example is the Guryong village in Gangnam, the affluent district Music/{{PSY}} so famously sang about. A picture showing the contrast between the slum and the residential skyscrapers in the background has became a staple for those who want to pinpoint the income disparity in UsefulNotes/{{South Korea}}. The area is now being demolished, making way for a redevelopment project.
* In a similar vein, the daldongnes or shanty towns still exist in UsefulNotes/{{Busan}}, and this trope is more visually noticeable here as the shanty towns originally built by the refugees during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar mostly occupy steep mountainsides in contrast to the luxurious residential skyscrapers built alongside the famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haeundae_Beach Haeundae Beach]]. This disparity almost evokes the situation in Rio De Janeiro, but the daldongnes are nowhere near as bad as the favelas and in some cases [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamcheon_Culture_Village transformed themselves into trendy tourist destinations using quirky charms from a bygone era]].
* Tel-Aviv, Israel used to (and in many ways still does) fit this trope. There are rich neighbourhoods (some of the richest in the country) and expensive residential towers in the north, industry and slums in the south (now housing a very large illegal immigrant/refugee community), and a cosmopolitan commercial center.
* UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}} can be broadly divided into Yamanote ("towards the mountain") and Shitamachi ("low city") -- the former occupy the mountainous areas generally to the west of the Imperial Palace, the latter the low-lying areas surrounding the Sumida and Arakawa Rivers east of the Imperial Palace. Yamanote was where samurai and other nobles resided during the Edo period; today, its dialect is considered standard Japanese and is the home of modern Japan (it's where the huge corporate conglomerates and its [[{{Salaryman}} white-collar office workers]] are, as well as towering skyscrapers and the latest in contemporary culture). Shitamachi was where the lower class of artisans and merchants lived during the Edo period; today its dialect is considered rough and low-class (though it also carries a straightforward, honest connotation), and the shops there are by and large small businesses run by entrepreneurs. Shitamachi also carries an image of being traditional (as in the Edo era), a recent emergence compared to Yamanote's present and future-looking orientation.
** In Shimatachi there's the San'ya area, slums populated by day laborers and homeless people. The latter especially after the 23 Wards dumped their entire homeless population there (temporarily in theory).
!!Europe
* The concept of the ghetto (from the Italian word "borghetto", meaning "little town") is the TropeMaker. Ghettoes were the Jewish quarters of the town, which usually were gated and segregated communities. They had certain degree of autonomy, and the gates were closed at sundown (the Jewish beginning of day).
* In Renaissance Italy, a great family would often house their clients and retainers around a given neighborhood in the city. Often each family would have a fortified palace to retire into in the event of vendetta.
* This is how most medieval European towns (especially those founded according to German law) were organized. City center housed the Town Hall, townhouses of rich burghers, and the town square that was equivalent with the CityOfAdventure "Merchant District". Artisans lived nearby, and then poorer inhabitants lived on the periphery, usually close to the city walls. Clergy lived in a separate part of the city, usually close to the church or cathedral. Additionally, in cities with several lines of walls, richer people lived closer to the innermost center of the city as the peripheral "rings" were more likely to be overrun and demolished in the case of war.
** This is still the case for many European cities, especially ones where tourism has driven real estate prices in the city center sky high. Paris is very well-known for having a very high class center while the suburbs have high crime rates and riots every few years.
** Brussels is an interesting case, where there is segregation between the local Belgians and the so-called Eurocrats, (EU government officials also being expatriates from other EU member states). Most of the Eurocrats reside in the so-called European Quarter, which some people even call an "administrative ghetto" or "white-collar ghetto" of the EU. (See [[http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/280111-invasion-eurocrats here]] for more details.)
* The north sides of Cork and Dublin are poor, their south sides posh.
* Enlightenment-era Edinburgh was a rare Real Life example of vertical segregation, although unlike the usual trope the rich lived in the middle storeys of the tenements, with the poor dwelling in attics and basements (in these pre-elevator days, living on the 15th floor -- and some tenements did get that tall -- was more trouble than it was worth). After the New Town was built the segregation shifted, with most of the rich people moving there and leaving the Old Town to fall into ruin until the invention of Historical Interest and tourism.
* In UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}} during the days of the Ottoman Empire, much of the city was like this. Part of the reason was the ''Millet'' system in which different ethnic and religious groups had neighborhoods set aside for them with leaders that answered to TheGovernment. In some ways, this was pre-Ottoman. During the conquest in 1453, some neighborhoods were able to avoid RapePillageAndBurn by forting up and then making a separate peace; just forcing the invaders to stop and take a breath before continuing the sack was sometimes enough to save a neighborhood.
* The UsefulNotes/{{London}} of the Victorian Era was divided between the wealthy West End and the overcrowded, filthy, impoverished East End, which infamously played host to the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper murders.
* In Manchester, everybody gets on the 192 bus in the city centre. The majority of black Afro-Caribbean people will have left the bus by Ardwick/Longsight. The majority of Asian people will get off in Levenshulme. The people on the bus who stay on into Stockport are going to be 95% white.
* Anything north and west of UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} (which mostly is flat plains) is filled wit with working-class apartment blocks, main roads and industrial parks, while the south and east (much more hilly and extending to the alps) feature all the more affluent suburbs, hamlets and commercial settlements.
* Tallinn, Estonia, whose Old Town was initially divided not by wealth, but language. The German-speaking people lived at the Upper Town (Toompea Hill where the Toompea Castle is located) while the Estonian-spieaking burghers lived at the Lower Town around Tallinn Harbour. The city wall surrounded (and surrounds still) the town.

!!Oceania
* The City of Manukau, a city council south-east of Auckland, is more or less divided in wealth by the suburb of East Tamaki. North of it is quite wealthy and peaceful, with places such as Howick, Meadowlands and Botany (commonly stereotyped with being filled with Asians). South of East Tamaki, however, are infamous ganglands ruled by criminal organisations such as the Killer Beez and Tribesmen. Conditions are slowly improving, but despite this, there is still a stark contrast between the two halves of Auckland's Manukau.
!!Latin America
* When Guadalajara, Mexico was founded, the rich Spaniards built their estates in the west bank of the San Juan de Dios river, while they built their servants' barracks on the east bank that was more exposed to attacks from the eastern local tribes. The city has since grown with CrystalSpiresAndTogas on one side and gritty inner city slums on the other, and the separation remained after the river was piped and paved over with the Independencia Drive; to this day, when a middle class person says "the other side of the Drive"[[note]]in local Spanish, ''"de la Calzada pa'llá"''[[/note]], what they mean is "the ghetto".
* Brazil is one of the countries with the greatest number of gated communities, that serves as a safe refuge for the upper/middle-class to the country’s growing violence. These communities are often patrolled 24-hours by their own private police.
* Rio de Janeiro's famous skyline has favelas, which are quite poor and often full of drug-related crime, contrasting sharply to luxury suburbs. This made the 2016 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames very interesting, with several athletes and tourists being targeted by muggers in broad daylight. For the lowdown on the favelas, read the unexpurgated diaries of resident Carolina Maria de Jesus.
* Most of the cities in Brazil are strictly segregated, but one great example could be the megalopolis of São Paulo: while most of the upper-class neighborhoods are located in the central area of the city (even though downtown itself is pretty run-down), the poorer places tend to be far away from the center. Also, a study revealed that while the HDI of a rich neighborhood is similar to Switzerland , in the poorest places it can be just as bad as the one of an African country. In Rio, the “vertical segregation” is inverted. While the poor live in the mountains where the slums (“favelas”) are located, the wealthy reside below them and near the sea. (Most of the cities in the coastline tend to be like this: the nearest to the sea, the richer). Brasília, the country’s capital, was planned to be an “utopian city”, with its center being ultra structured and safe. But, since not everybody (obviously) could reside in that privileged area, other cities (known as “satellites cities”) were built around the central area, containing great levels of poverty and criminality.
!!United States
* In the city of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, northern Atlanta and the Buckhead area tends to be more well of than southern Atlanta ('''S'''outh'''w'''est '''At'''lanta in particular is known as the [[SWATTeam "SWATS"]] in the local hip-hop scene). In the metro ''UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}'' area, it is pretty much common knowledge that the northern counties (North Fulton, North Dekalb, Cobb, Cherokee, etc.) are generally richer and usually has more white people than the southern areas (e.g. South Dekalb, Clayton). Knowing this, when a majority white northern part of Atlanta split off into the city of Sandy Springs in 2005 (and is even considering splitting off from Fulton County itself), this has caused many black leaders to accuse them of racism to sue the city and [[http://www.ajc.com/news/lawsuit-seeks-dissolution-of-888729.html demand that the town be dissolved]].
** An interesting historical note: in the Civil War days, the city of Atlanta was much more wealthy than the surrounding areas, leading the poor rural county of Milton to merge with Fulton to create one large oddly-shaped county. Nowadays, the fortunes are reversed, leading to calls every couple of years for the wealthy northern suburbs to split off and re-form Milton county, usually with the argument that the county taxes collected from the 'burbs are disproportionally spent on the city. (Similar arguments were used to justify unincorporated county areas organizing into cities like Sandy Springs and Johns Creek; by incorporating, they gained the power to tax themselves and use that tax money locally.).
* UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}, of Series/TheWire fame, is an interesting case. While the city is fairly small as million-plus cities go (counting commute-in workers and residents), there are a bewildering number of neighborhoods of varying and almost seemingly randomized class levels; a short drive can take one through areas of affluence to poverty and back again. Even in upscale Inner Harbor, the long row of "gentleman's clubs" on Baltimore Avenue presents an alarming and abrupt contrast. There's still Urban Segregation going on, but it's with smaller blocks of socio-economic groups than in many other cities.
* This is a general rule for UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} -- north of the Loop is generally rich, south of the Loop and West of the river is generally poor. There's a racial aspect as well: if you ride a Red Line train from one end to the other (it runs north-south roughly near Lake Michigan), you can see the racial composition of the train's passengers go from mostly white to mostly black or vice versa.
* Not within a city but a metro area: UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}'s northern limit is 8 Mile Road, beyond which are the upper-class white suburbs of the poor black city (there are some middle-class black neighborhoods north of 8 Mile Road, but this is a newer development). Hence the title of Eminem's pseudo-autobiographical flick ''Film/EightMile''.
* In UsefulNotes/KansasCity, Troost Avenue separates the more comfortably middle-class neighborhoods to the west from the neighborhoods to the east that are largely very poor and dangerous.
* UsefulNotes/LasVegas in the late 90s through 2007, as a result of the "family friendly" phase the city had during that time, could be divided into "The Strip" and "Everywhere else." While being on the strip was pretty safe, with lots of nice hotels, shops and casinos, and you could walk the strip without much worry, if you went more than a couple blocks in either direction, you could almost ''see'' the dividing line between the safe area and the unsafe ones.
* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles is less a city with a centralized center and more merely the single largest municipality in the mosaic of cities and neighborhoods of Southern California that are all clumped together where you can't tell from up high where one city stops and another begins, all with their own local focus points and character. You got the super-rich millionaire mansions up on the mountainsides towards the west like Bel-Air and Beverly Hills near the film industry and entertainment areas of Hollywood and nearby glitzy areas that piggyback off of it like Downtown and Santa Monica on one side and the San Fernando Valley on the other. To the south is historically-Black South Central with locales like Compton and Crenshaw, while to the Eastside sits several neighborhoods that are predominantly Mexican-American. North beyond the mountains is dry desert and signifigantly less well-off communities. Nearby Orange County is a sea of suburbs and smaller cities with its own variety of income levels among them. And across the area are a variety of ethnic enclaves from more recent immigration waves, many from Asia but includes places like Little Armenia.
* UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity:
** If you take the 4, 5, or 6 train in the UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway uptown, you'll cross a border from some of the richest neighborhoods in the country -- the Upper East Side -- to some of the poorest urban neighborhoods in the country -- East Harlem and the South Bronx. The division is stark enough that you can witness the demographic shift at the 96th Street stop. Interestingly enough, if you keep riding north in the Bronx, the neighborhood will actually improve as you get into Riverdale and closer to Westchester County.
** The city has a history of immigration from a wide variety of countries almost as long as the city itself -- within 20 years of its founding what was then New Amsterdam ''already'' had 18 languages spoken within its limits. Today, even just counting ethnic neighborhoods with widely-used names past and present, there's ''three'' Chinatowns (one each in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens), Little Italy, Spanish Harlem (mainly Puerto Rican but also others from Latin America), Le Petit Senegal, Hell's Kitchen (Irish for many decades), Koreatown, Little Germany, Little Syria, Brighton Beach ("Little Odessa") in Brooklyn, and a Little Egypt/Little Morocco (depending on source) in Queens.
* There are exceptions, but property values in [[FlyoverCountry Omaha, Nebraska]] take a sharp jump once you cross 72nd Street.
* UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} has an interesting one. Within Philly, the downtown area -- Center City -- is well-off, and things only gradually get worse after a certain point as you go further north, south, or west into UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} before getting nicer again; however, since about 2000, the "nice" area has been steadily expanding, particularly in the Near Northeast (where a lot of hipsters have moved in), South (which has benefited from an influx of Asian immigrants and general gentrification), and West (where the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University have attracted students and immigrants in a steady westward march in search of cheap housing close to campus). However, there is one area with a stark dividing line -- going ''east'' across the Delaware River into UsefulNotes/NewJersey from Center City, you hit Camden, at one point the most dangerous city in America. The dividing line is particularly stark, because within Camden, there is a reasonably pleasant area immediately south of the bridge from Philadelphia (on account of the various educational, medical, and civic buildings in that area), but immediately north of the bridge is a hellhole that nobody who lives elsewhere dares go.
* Phoenix, UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} and its surrounding metropolitan area has the richer denizens living in the north and eastern parts of town, while the less-well-off tend to live in the south and western parts of the valley. There are of course some exceptions, but everyone generally agrees that south Phoenix is the poorest area.
* In UsefulNotes/StLouis, Delmar Boulevard separates the very poor Black neighborhoods to the north from the relatively more affluent mostly White neighborhoods to the south.
* In UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, the Anacostia River represents a major socioeconomic divide. To the west, the neighborhoods are primarily middle-class to affluent. To the east, however, are many of the dangerous ghettos that DC is infamous for.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'' has Two River City, a city split into three sections by two rivers. One section contains only Humans, another only Wingers, and the third only Kobold. The Wingers seem to be the slum section, while the Human the elite. As to where the Kobold fit in, this troper is not quite sure.

Despite the urban segregation, there are many ways that the [[ClassRelationsIndex classes mix from time to time]], such as a poor kid getting a scholarship to the university in the elite sector, rich teen volunteering in the slums to help the less privileged, or a cross-class romance.

* The elite district, a gleaming area of well-landscaped buildings inhabited by the "cream of the crop", usually wealthy aristocrats and executives. The government, if one is featured, also has its executive branches and offices here. MegaCorp
executive offices are here. The inhabitants may be shown as [[AristocratsAreEvil evil]] or simply not caring for the common folk. A ShiningCity, often featuring CrystalSpiresAndTogas. It is typically walled off from the poorer section and well guarded.

* The "normal" district, a [[Suburbia clean, middle-class area]] bustling with families and small businesses. This is where different cultures meet. Often the center of trade activity, as well as the place where you can learn the latest news and gossip. The people here are generally satisfied with their lives, or brainwashed into satisfaction in a dystopia. The people in this neighborhood may go into the elite district by day to work for aristocrats or executives. Law and order is observed here, due to the CityGuards.
* The elite district, inhabited by the "cream of the crop", usually wealthy aristocrats and executives. The government, if one is featured, also has its executive branches here. The inhabitants may be shown as [[AristocratsAreEvil evil]] or simply not caring for the common folk. A ShiningCity, often featuring CrystalSpiresAndTogas. It is typically walled off from the poorer section and guarded.

Real-life cities are vast, diverse mishmashes of different cultures and social groups.

Obviously, the entirety of a city cannot always be adequately presented in a work, and often there is no point in doing so, due to TheLawOfConservationOfDetail. However, since ''some'' diversity is needed, the CityOfAdventure you happened to end up in will usually be split into districts by their prestige and socioeconomic level. Most often, there are three of them:
* The IndustrialGhetto, a dirty slum of crumbling buildings and poverty. It is often a WretchedHive inhabited by [[TheCityNarrows scum]] and [[WrongSideOfTheTracks poor people]]. In a {{Dystopia}}, it may be a [[FantasticGhetto ghetto for beings judged as "inferior"]] by whoever is in charge. Home to many poor workers, servants and refugees. Low-level criminals abound, with a few [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]], MosesInTheBulrushes, and ragtag entrepreneurs among more malicious elements. This is a BazaarOfTheBizarre, as any BlackMarket goods or personal services (TheOldestProfession or a hitman) can be obtained--for a price. The BadGuyBar can also be located here if the bad guys are of [[LowerClassLout low enough social class]].
* The "normal" district, a clean, middle-class area bustling with small businesses. This is where different cultures meet. Often the center of trade activity, as well as the place where you can learn the latest news and gossip. The people here are generally satisfied with their lives, or brainwashed into satisfaction in a dystopia. The people in this neighborhood may go into the elite district by day to work for aristocrats or executives. Law and order is observed here, due to the CityGuards.

* The IndustrialGhetto, a dirty slum of crumbling buildings often a WretchedHive inhabited by [[TheCityNarrows scum]] and [[WrongSideOfTheTracks poor people]]. In a {{Dystopia}}, it may be a [[FantasticGhetto ghetto for beings judged as "inferior"]] by whoever is in charge. Home to many poor workers, servants and refugees. Low-level criminals abound, with a few [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]] and MosesInTheBulrushes, among more malicious elements. The BadGuyBar can also be located here if the bad guys are of [[LowerClassLout low enough social class]].

Obviously, the entirety of a city cannot always be adequately presented in a work, and often there is no point in doing so, due to TheLawOfConservationOfDetail. However, since ''some'' diversity is needed, the CityOfAdventure you happened to end up in will usually be split into districts by their prestige level. Most often, there are three of them:
* The slum, often a WretchedHive inhabited by [[TheCityNarrows scum]] and [[WrongSideOfTheTracks poor people]], and, in a {{Dystopia}}, it may be a [[FantasticGhetto ghetto for beings judged as "inferior"]] by whoever is in charge. Home to many a GentlemanThief and MosesInTheBulrushes, among more malicious elements. The BadGuyBar can also be located here if the bad guys are of [[LowerClassLout low enough social class]].
* The "normal" district, where different cultures meet. Often the center of trade activity in the area, as well as the place where you can learn the latest news and gossip. The people here are generally satisfied with their lives, or brainwashed into satisfaction in a dystopia.
* The elite district, inhabited by the "cream of the crop", usually the aristocrats. The government, if one is featured, also resides here. The inhabitants may be shown as outright evil or simply not caring for the common folk. A ShiningCity, often featuring CrystalSpiresAndTogas.

[[TruthInTelevision Notice that this also happens in real life]]. A glaring example is UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}, which is divided in rich North and poor South by 8 Mile Road, while many smaller western cities are divided in this way by the town's railroad tracks, justifying the phrase "born on the WrongSideOfTheTracks." Do note, though, that while income levels are by far the most common means of delineating areas within a city, Urban Segregation doesn't ''have'' to be by money lines: race ([[FantasticGhetto fantasy]] or otherwise), one's occupation (specialized trades like meatpacking or jewelry-working have a tendency to congregate close to each other in real life), and common tribal/clan lineage are other ways one neighborhood can become distinguished from the next (though, admittedly, differences in income and wealth usually end up happening anyway).

* ''Recap/BlackMirrorNosedive'' presents a dystopian future StepfordSuburbia where people rate each other (out of five stars) on a Facebook-style phone app, and this rating is taken extremely seriously, in fact it affects almost everything about your life; where you can live or work, and even ''your priority for hospital treatment''.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Gridlock", it is revealed that the poor people of New New York live in underground slums, while the rich live above ground. [[spoiler: Or they would, if the latter weren't all dead.]]

* Pratchett homages this in ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', where Sam Vimes is contemplating gnolls, the lowly city scavengers, who live on the absolute dregs cascading down from all the social levels above.
* Goblins have a similar second-class-people status in the city. Their shanty town just outside the accepted city limits is explicitly compared to a native township in the old UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica in UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra for the same historical and political reasons: a people who may work in the city but who are not generally permitted to live there.

* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles is less a city with a centralized center and more merely the single largest municipality in the mosaic of cities and neighborhoods of Southern California that are all clumped together where you can't tell from up high where one city stops and another begins, all with their own local focus points and charcter. You got the super-rich millionaire mansions up on the mountainsides towards the west like Bel-Air and Beverly Hills near the film industry and entertainment areas of Hollywood and nearby glitzy areas that piggyback off of it like Downtown and Santa Monica. To the south is historically-Black South Central with locales like Compton and Crenshaw, while to the Eastside sits several neighborhoods that are predominantly Mexican-American. Nearby Orange County is a sea of suburbs and smaller cities with its own variety of income levels among them. And across the area are a variety of ethnic enclaves from more recent immigration waves, many from Asia but includes places like Little Armenia.

* UsefulNotes/LasVegas in the late 90s through 2007, as a result of the "family friendly" phase the city had during that time, could be divided into "The Strip" and "Everywhere else." While being on the strip was pretty safe, with lots of nice hotels, shops and casinos, and you could walk the strip without much worry, if you went more than a couple blocks in either direction, you could almost ''see'' the dividing line between the safe area and the unsafe ones.

** Then there is the

** There's also Meiyerditch and Darkmeyer. Meiyerditch is practically a blood farm but Darkmeyer itself is divided into 3 zones based on wealth of the inhabitants.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Kugamayama City, run by OneNationUnderCopyright, is a CyberPunk {{Dystopia}} city separated into the Upper District, Middle District, Lower District, and Slums. People in the top two consider the bottom two to be nothing more than an extension of the DeathWorld wasteland.

* In ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'', the Elites live in the advanced cybernetic city Tanagura, while the "mongrels", the descendants of the people who rebelled against the supercomputer Jupiter's authority and thus had their citizenship records erased, are forced to live in the squalid, violent slum area of Ceres. The average citizen lives in Tanagura's satellite city Midas, of which Ceres was once part of. A mongrel who is caught in Midas is beaten by the police known as the "Darkmen" and sent back, usually broken.

* Exaggerated ridiculously in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' -- Chester and AJ literally live across the railroad tracks from each other. However, Chester's side is a rundown trailer park, and AJ's side is a wealthy suburb where everyone lives in a huge house.

* ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'': Technocrats living in a floating city (actually, it hangs from an orbiting satellite) and a slum around a trash heap on the surface. Construction of a flying vehicle is a death sentence.

* The manga and film version of Osamu Tezuka's ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'' has a layered society, much like the Fritz Lang version below: the elites live in the top of the skyscrapers, middle classes on/near the ground, workers in the first underground layer, while only robots toil in the depths of the city.

* This is what happens to people who outspend their credits in Gondawa, the [[MarySuetopia idyllic civilization]] in Creator/ReneBarjavel's ''The Ice People'' (''La nuit des temps''). The way the system is set up, it's very hard to overspend, but apparently some people do. They are ostracized, have their credit keys revoked and are left homeless, living in abandoned tunnels and eating -- ugh -- living things.

** Sigil, City of Doors, in ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' is divided into Wards. The Lady's Ward is where the elite live, the Market Ward is the "normal" district and the Hive Ward is the slums. The Clerks Ward is somewhere between "normal" and "elite", being home to the city's bureaucracy, and the Lower Ward is somewhere between "normal" and "slums", being home to the heavy industry.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', Sharn, the city of Towers, is divided in multiple wards and levels. Like the 40k hives, the lower you are, the poorer you are. In decreasing level of prestige, the levels are: Skyway, High City, Middle City, Lower City, and the Cogs. In fact, Sharn takes things a step further than usual. The High City is the tops of the towers, but it's only for the independently wealthy. If you're ''obscenely'' wealthy, your entire Skyway estate ''[[FloatingContinent floats]]'' above the entire city.\\

[[TruthInTelevision Notice that this also happens in real life]]. A glaring example is [[LondonEnglandSyndrome Detroit, USA]], which is divided in rich North and poor South by 8 Mile Road, while many smaller western cities are divided in this way by the town's railroad tracks, justifying the phrase "born on the WrongSideOfTheTracks." Do note, though, that while income levels are by far the most common means of delineating areas within a city, Urban Segregation doesn't ''have'' to be by money lines: race ([[FantasticGhetto fantasy]] or otherwise), one's occupation (specialized trades like meatpacking or jewelry-working have a tendency to congregate close to each other in real life), and common tribal/clan lineage are other ways one neighborhood can become distinguished from the next (though, admittedly, differences in income and wealth usually end up happening anyway).

* In the city of Atlanta, northern Atlanta and the Buckhead area tends to be more well of than southern Atlanta ('''S'''outh'''w'''est '''At'''lanta in particular is known as the [[SWATTeam "SWATS"]] in the local hip-hop scene). In the metro ''UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}'' area, it is pretty much common knowledge that the northern counties (North Fulton, North Dekalb, Cobb, Cherokee, etc.) are generally richer and usually has more white people than the southern areas (e.g. South Dekalb, Clayton). Knowing this, when a majority white northern part of Atlanta split off into the city of Sandy Springs in 2005 (and is even considering splitting off from Fulton County itself), this has caused many black leaders to accuse them of racism to sue the city and [[http://www.ajc.com/news/lawsuit-seeks-dissolution-of-888729.html demand that the town be dissolved]].

* UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} has an interesting one. Within Philly, the downtown area -- Center City -- is well-off, and things only gradually get worse after a certain point as you go further north, south, or west into Pennsylvania before getting nicer again; however, since about 2000, the "nice" area has been steadily expanding, particularly in the Near Northeast (where a lot of hipsters have moved in), South (which has benefited from an influx of Asian immigrants and general gentrification), and West (where the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University have attracted students and immigrants in a steady westward march in search of cheap housing close to campus). However, there is one area with a stark dividing line -- going ''east'' across the Delaware River into New Jersey from Center City, you hit Camden, at one point the most dangerous city in America. The dividing line is particularly stark, because within Camden, there is a reasonably pleasant area immediately south of the bridge from Philadelphia (on account of the various educational, medical, and civic buildings in that area), but immediately north of the bridge is a hellhole that nobody who lives elsewhere dares go.
* Phoenix, Arizona and its surrounding metropolitan area has the richer denizens living in the north and eastern parts of town, while the less-well-off tend to live in the south and western parts of the valley. There are of course some exceptions, but everyone generally agrees that south Phoenix is the poorest area.
* In St. Louis, Delmar Boulevard separates the very poor Black neighborhoods to the north from the relatively more affluent mostly White neighborhoods to the south.
* In Washington, D.C., the Anacostia River represents a major socioeconomic divide. To the west, the neighborhoods are primarily middle-class to affluent. To the east, however, are many of the dangerous ghettos that DC is infamous for.

* UsefulNotes/LasVegas in the late 90's through 2007, as a result of the "family friendly" phase the city had during that time, could be divided into "The Strip" and "Everywhere else." While being on the strip was pretty safe, with lots of nice hotels, shops and casinos, and you could walk the strip without much worry, if you went more than a couple blocks in either direction, you could almost ''see'' the dividing line between the safe area and the unsafe ones.