Suburbia

As y'all know I live in New York, but where...?

My parents are exceedingly proud of where we live and if you ever have the pleasure of visiting our house you will receive a verbal explanation of the many reasons why it is an awesome place to live. Examples of statements I have heard from my parents to guests:

1) We live 20 minutes away from the Clintons! (said in such a tone as to imply that they regularly come over for tea with cucumber sandwiches). We are 20 minutes away from them, but I truly don't care.
2) Do you know Martha Stewart lives near here? (This is true, but since when is having an ex-con in your neighborhood an achievement?)
3) The houses here are so expensive! (Congrats to us...)
4) We only have designer stores at our mall (A bit of a mis-statement. There are 2 main malls. One is "normal" with Sears, Macy's, Forever 21, etc. The other one is full of high end labels like Barneys, Louis Vuitton, BCBG, etc and I only go there if I want to feel bad about myself.)

Where I live, there is an interesting social phenomenon that occurs between whites and minorities in the area. The best place to observe this is at the train station and at the movie theater/mall. First, a little background for those of you who aren't familiar with New York City and its surrounding areas.

Despite the fact that majority of the Fortune 500 have offices in Manhattan, the executives at these companies do not actually live in the city. They may own or rent expensive apartments there, but most people will tell you that raising a family in the city is a terrible idea. So, these white collar types have homes in the suburbs so that their little babies can grow up safe and sound amongst their Crate and Barrel furniture and closets filled with Neiman Marcus outfits. Because of this, on any given weekday on the New York suburban rail systems (i.e. Long Island Railroad and Metro North Railroad) you are very likely to discover people making over 6 figures a year sitting next to that teenager who just skipped school to spend the day in the city.

On the other hand, Suburbia offers multiple employment opportunities for your non-white collar person. From gardens that need tending, to stores that need attending, to children that need nannies.

Hence the phenomenon in my suburb as observed at the train station.

In the mornings during rush hour on suburban trains and buses heading to Manhattan, you will discover white collar America. With their suits, PDA phones, laptops, black overcoats, etc--and they will be mostly white. At the same train station at the same time that the white collar crew is leaving for work, blue-collar America is arriving on suburban trains coming from the city--and they will be mostly black and latino.


In the evenings the reverse happens. On the trains coming from the city we find white collar America tiredly napping after a hard day wheeling and dealing on Wall Street and making tens of thousands of dollars. On the trains going to the city we find blue collar America tiredly napping after cleaning up after shoppers and making tens of dollars. Occasionally on the evening trains heading to the city, you will find the "Suburbian" young person heading to Manhattan for a night of partying before returning to the safety of their home around 5am.

Another place where this "difference" can be observed in glaring detail is at the mall/movie theater. When you want to go see a movie, your ticket will be handed to you by a black/latino person, your drink and popcorn will be dispensed by a black/latino person and your ticket will be checked by...you guessed it, a black/latino person. However when you enter the theater to watch your movie, you will be surrounded by white people.

Strange, no?

I suppose this happens in other parts of the country, maybe somewhere like L.A. where there is a bustling city within reach of some expensive suburbs. I have always found it interesting.