Actually it totally cycles. Availability of cars as well as a government policy encouraging home ownership (cheap loans) created a shift of people moving out to suburbs. If you're really familiar with the biggest cities, you can see this shift over time and it happens with subways and commuter rail lines too. Certain areas of New York's outer-boroughs have seen large shifts in class/demographic over the past 200 years. Coney Island used to be a resort/hotel town for the mega rich. With cars and the completion of major highways, the rich moved out to Westchester and Long Island. The subway eventually reached Coney Island and it became a poor neighborhood. It is now starting the swing back the other way because of new construction and the convenience of the Q line. The biggest shift happened right around when the subway lines were first connected at Times Square and the companies merged.
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