Favored Quarters

[King of Kensington]

If you surveyed say, partners at a downtown law firm, I suspect in Chicago a majority would live in the favored quarter (either affluent center-city neighborhoods like Lincoln Park or North Shore suburbs).  But if you did the same in New York - what would the distribution look like for those outside Manhattan?  I'm guessing there would be some bias towards Westchester, but some would live in NJ and Long Island too. 

[palandio]

In Germany:

Berlin: The octanct between West and Southwest clearly seems to be the best guess.
Hamburg: Difficult to find a favored wedge. It's certainly not the South or the East. A wedge going from W to NNE would include all favored areas (Elbe-side inner-city suburbs in the West, quarters around the Außenalster directly north of the center, Walddörfer in the far north of the city), but also a wide range of other quarters.
Munich: There is a belt of favored quarters north of the city center including Obermenzing, Nymphenburg, Gern, Schwabing, Bogenhausen, Waldtrudering. Particularly favored seem to be the areas around the Englischer Garten directly to the N/NE of the center, like Bogenhausen. (The area north of that belt is very proletarian by Munich standards, though.) There is another favored quarter in the far South of the city near the river Isar extending to suburbs outside of the city limits.
Cologne: West to Southwest I would think. Outside of the city limits the East to some degree.
Frankfurt: Areas to the North and to the South of the city center as well as suburbs outside the city limits in the Northwest.
Stuttgart: The South (Filder plateau) and the Halbhöhenlage ("half height position", i.e. the slopes over the city center). (In Stuttgart there is really only center, South, North and East. The West is forest/park.)
Düsseldorf: North and West I think
Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg: The South, although in the case of poor Duisburg you could argue that even its South is not favored in the proper sense, but rather a middle-class suburb of Düsseldorf.
Nuremberg: The West (edit: East) and to a minor degree the North, probably.

Overall there seems to be a preference for the West unless topography makes other areas more preferable: In Stuttgart it was preferable to live on the slopes or the plateau. In the Ruhr area it's clear that you would prefer to live on the hilly Southern margins of the moloch. Munich is strange, but maybe the early construction of the railway station in the West prevented the usual pattern. Frankfurt could be similar. Edit: In Nuremberg it's probably the neighboring and heavily industrial city of Fürth that was in the way of the West becoming a favored quarter.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Maybe sorta kinda Boston or Atlanta? I don't know.

Not so much. DC kinda works--in that the favored quarter is all above the Fall Line. Other clear examples are Phoenix NNE (along Camelback and the Phoenix Mountains), San Diego (north, along the hills facing the ocean), and Baltimore (north, the hilliest direction).

Another good relevant example is Mexico City (west).

[Former President tack50]

Borrowing from Batista, here are my guesses for the 10 largest Spanish cities:

Madrid: Unclear. The richest areas in the city proper would be the neighbourhoods of Salamanca, Retiro or Chamberí in the Northeast. However, right after you cross the area delimited by highway M-30, income drops like a rock. Plus, the eastern suburbs like Coslada, Torrejón de Ardoz or Alcalá de Henares are fairly middle class. Meanwhile it is the western suburbs that are where the super rich live.

In Madrid if anything it makes more sense to talk of an "unfavoured quarter", southern Madrid is very firmly poor.

Barcelona: West. Barcelona has a much clearer favoured quarter. This one goes from the Eixample (just nord of the old city), which is upper middle class, and follows "Diagonal Avenue" to the west, up until the mountais. The wealthiest part of the city is just on the foothills (Pedralbes, Sarriá, etc). It is such a distinct area that "Upper Diagonal" is often used as a synonym of the rich people of Barcelona and what not.

Valencia: East. In the city proper, starting in the old town (which unlike in Madrid and Barcelona is fairly wealthy, especially in the eastern half), you go east to neighbourhoods like Eixample or El Pla del Real. It is worth noting that in terms of suburban areas, the rich ones in Valencia are to the northwest (there is a sort of V shape, but the western half is more like middle class until you are well outside city limits)

Seville: South. The richest parts of Seville seem to be the southern half of the old city, and the neighbourhoods just outside it (Los Remedios, Nervión). Worth noting that if you go too far south you get to Las 3000 viviendas, which is the poorest and worst neighbourhood in all of Spain arguably.

Zaragoza: South. The favoured quarter here is fairly clear. It starts just outside the old city, and goes south along Paseo de la Gran Vía.

Málaga: East. In the area immediately next to the city centre, there doesn't seem to be a clear pattern. However once you start getting to even slightly more peripheral neighbourhoods, the east gets very wealthy, very fast.

Murcia: North. Again a very clear one.

Palma de Mallorca: West. This is a weird one because the city centre is richer than any area surrounding it. However when you head east, you get to the poorest neighbourhoods and it never picks up from there. Meanwhile, when you head west there is a middle class area and then super rich suburbs.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: East. This is a very clear one. Las Palmas is a very mountainous town, and the coastal areas on the east are the ones that are very clearly richer than the inland ones. There is a rich strip all the way from Ciudad Jardín to the old city in Triana. Meanwhile, inland neighbourhoods on the hills and mountains are way poorer (Schamann, San Juan, Las Rehoyas, etc)

Bilbao: West. Bilbao is a weird one because the city centre does not coincide with the old town. In any case, the rich areas are to the west of the old town. (Abando, Indatxu)

So overall it is:

1 North
2 South
3 West
3 East
1 Unclear

So interestingly Spain doesn't really seem to have a preference of East vs West. I guess perhaps it is because Spain never really had much industry to begin with? (so the prevailing winds argument is much weaker).

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Nashville is really due south along I-65 and US-31.  Southwest makes some sense because Belle Meade is SW of Downtown Nashville, but the favored suburban development just went straight south from Belle Meade into Brentwood, Franklin, and now even Spring Hill.  It probably didn't keep heading further west both because the main roads went south from Nashville and because the terrain gets much rougher in Western Williamson County.

[Хahar 🤔]

In contemporary cities, there's an obvious advantage to being east of the city, which is that you face away from the sun on your commute in both the morning and the evening. It's not clear if this has made a difference in any American cities, but it's why residents of Sydney's western suburbs are called squinters.

[Battista Minola 1616]

So interestingly Spain doesn't really seem to have a preference of East vs West. I guess perhaps it is because Spain never really had much industry to begin with? (so the prevailing winds argument is much weaker).

Neither does Italy, though in our case it's because there are (almost) always hills that have oriented the choice. Though Milan is completely flat but the result was instead just a radial distribution, and even using the suburbs doesn't change much, because they are mostly poorer than the main city in all directions although there are outliers.

Also lol Spain has so many rich suburbs apparently.

[Former President tack50]

So interestingly Spain doesn't really seem to have a preference of East vs West. I guess perhaps it is because Spain never really had much industry to begin with? (so the prevailing winds argument is much weaker).

Neither does Italy, though in our case it's because there are (almost) always hills that have oriented the choice. Though Milan is completely flat but the result was instead just a radial distribution, and even using the suburbs doesn't change much, because they are mostly poorer than the main city in all directions although there are outliers.

Also lol Spain has so many rich suburbs apparently.

I mean, there are also lots of poor suburbs too; and I would argue suburbs as a whole are often poorer or on par with the city.

In general Spanish rich people tend to live in 1 of 2 kinds of places:

a) The city itself, in fancy buildings from the 19th century "ensanches" that most cities had (or sometimes the old medieval city centre). I think this is the better definition of "favoured quarter". Places like this include Barcelona's "Upper Diagonal" or Madrid's Salamanca neighbourhood.

b) Far away from the city in suburbs with big detached housing (a rarity in Spain), private schools, etc. Places like this would most notably include Madrid's western suburbs (Las Rozas, Majadahonda, Pozuelo, Boadilla, etc); but I think they exist in every city.

[Battista Minola 1616]

So interestingly Spain doesn't really seem to have a preference of East vs West. I guess perhaps it is because Spain never really had much industry to begin with? (so the prevailing winds argument is much weaker).

Neither does Italy, though in our case it's because there are (almost) always hills that have oriented the choice. Though Milan is completely flat but the result was instead just a radial distribution, and even using the suburbs doesn't change much, because they are mostly poorer than the main city in all directions although there are outliers.

Also lol Spain has so many rich suburbs apparently.

I mean, there are also lots of poor suburbs too; and I would argue suburbs as a whole are often poorer or on par with the city.

In general Spanish rich people tend to live in 1 of 2 kinds of places:

a) The city itself, in fancy buildings from the 19th century "ensanches" that most cities had (or sometimes the old medieval city centre). I think this is the better definition of "favoured quarter". Places like this include Barcelona's "Upper Diagonal" or Madrid's Salamanca neighbourhood.

b) Far away from the city in suburbs with big detached housing (a rarity in Spain), private schools, etc. Places like this would most notably include Madrid's western suburbs (Las Rozas, Majadahonda, Pozuelo, Boadilla, etc); but I think they exist in every city.

Well of course a) is the norm in Italy too (just like in all of Europe, really). But I don't think b) is really a thing here? I mean there are Milano Due and Milano Tre and Milano Visconti which are planned communities for rich people built by none other than Berlusconi, but they're small.
In Italy 'suburbs as a whole' are only poorer than the city. Not even close. Well, Turin may be close.

[morgieb]

In Australia:

Sydney: Pretty much all of the area north of Sydney Harbour and east of the Hornsby train line; also the area immediately east of the CBD (if anything that is even more of a favoured quarter than the North Shore!)
Melbourne: That area east of the Yarra River and the bits around Port Philip Bay to the north of the Seaford/Frankston area
Brisbane: The area on the northern side of the Brisbane River and to the west of the CBD
Perth: Most of the East Coast on the northern side of the Swan River
Adelaide: area immediately to the west (and to a lesser extent the east) of the CBD
Canberra: not entirely sure as the demographics here are so uniform but I get the impression the area around Capital Hill is the closest?
Hobart: IIRC the south is more well-off than the north, but really nowhere is super well-off
Gold Coast: areas around the middle of the "strip"
Newcastle: the Inner West I guess, but the city is far too traditionally working-class for this to really apply
Wollongong: areas closest to Sydney in the northernmost part of the city (but read what I wrote about Newcastle)

The bottom line is that with the exception of Brisbane rich people like waterfronts.

[Tintrlvr]

If you surveyed say, partners at a downtown law firm, I suspect in Chicago a majority would live in the favored quarter (either affluent center-city neighborhoods like Lincoln Park or North Shore suburbs).  But if you did the same in New York - what would the distribution look like for those outside Manhattan?  I'm guessing there would be some bias towards Westchester, but some would live in NJ and Long Island too.  

There are favored quarters in New Jersey and Long Island, too. Places like Millburn, NJ and Port Washington, NY are definitely favored quarters.

These days a notable portion live in brownstone Brooklyn, too (Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, etc.).

But I would guess it would be something like:

Manhattan: 35%
Westchester: 25%
Connecticut: 10%
New Jersey: 10%
Brooklyn: 5%
Nassau: 5%
Elsewhere: 5% (e.g., I know one who commutes in from Pennsylvania, and there are a handful out in Suffolk, Rockland, etc., and some live in places like Riverdale, Forest Hills and Jamaica Estates)

But that's also going to depend on where the firm is located. Firms located downtown will have a higher percentage of Brooklyn and New Jersey and almost no Connecticut, e.g.

[DINGO Joe]

New Orleans--Western

I guess the West (Jefferson Parish) was originally the favored quarter, but now it's clearly North (St. Tammany).

I'd also say that Houston is North not West as Montgomery is more favored than Ft. Bend

[Del Tachi]

Jackson - Northeast from Downtown, picking up portions of Madison/Ridgeland and Flowood as well

In the US Birmingham (Hoover) seems another obvious example. Maybe sorta kinda Boston or Atlanta? I don't know.

It's true that Mtn Brk/Hoover and Buckhead are all more elevated than Downtown BHM/ATL, respectively

Not too sure about Boston though...

[Alcibiades]

Jackson - Northeast from Downtown, picking up portions of Madison/Ridgeland and Flowood as well

In the US Birmingham (Hoover) seems another obvious example. Maybe sorta kinda Boston or Atlanta? I don't know.

It's true that Mtn Brk/Hoover and Buckhead are all more elevated than Downtown BHM/ATL, respectively

Not too sure about Boston though...

Beacon Hill was the original favoured quarter, but Back Bay and (to my knowledge) the suburban towns to the West are not elevated.

[Sol]

The city I live in, Durham NC, has sort of a favored quarter to the Northwest (though it isn't really a perfect example, and it's also thrown off by the fact that much of the development in the area is to the south of the city). However, a lot of the income patterns overall are clearly influenced by elevation--richer white areas tend to be in the city's relatively low hills, while the gullies tend to be traditionally poorer and Black. This is ofc a bit complicated by Durham's history of white flight and then gentrification, but the pattern has been surprisingly resilient.

[parochial boy]

Kind of irrelevant but I'm Italian so why not. The eight largest cities in Italy:

Turin: East side i.e. the nice hilly right bank of the River Po. Extends to the suburbs - Pino Torinese is in the top 10 richest municipalities in Italy. [also the historic centre and the immediately southward neighbourhood Crocetta, but that's less notable]
Genoa: East coast, especially near East (Albaro), plus the 19th century additions immediately north/east of the historic centre. It's absurdly clear. [the medieval centre itself is notably quite poor instead]
Milan: It doesn't exist, actually. Wealth pretty much decreases radially away from the centre.
Bologna: South side i.e. again, the nice hilly side - the very name of the neighbourhood is Colli (Hills). Starting out from the historic centre.
Florence: Unclear? It's easier to identify a "non-favoured quarter", which is the West side.
Rome: Near North side. Not the only place (there is also e.g. EUR, the home of the corporations, to the south) but overall it's fairly clear. Bougie Roma Nord vs. proletarian Roma Sud is a pretty famous meme. [the actual #proletariat lives outside the Great Ring Junction, but that's beside the point]
Naples: Near West side, though it's a bit complicated to describe because it has an extension protruding on the coast (Posillipo).
Palermo: Can't find any proper data, but I suspect it's something like centre-to-North-side.

Speaking of hills, they are a very obvious place for wealthy neighbourhoods to be - in London, Richmond, Wimbledon, Hampstead and Highgate are all on hills. In terms of the US, LA and San Francisco immediately spring to mind as having a similar situation (and Portland, IIRC?) - any other US examples?

Typically, they have the advantage of being above pollution, more exposed to the sunshine, and a little bit more exposed to the breeze/cool air on hot summer nights. Although, here YMMV still. Thinking of French cities - Montmartre is the highest point of Paris, but became the arty centre precisely because it wasn't bourgeois; the hilly part of Lyon is the wealthy part, but is also the West end, therefore the point about prevailing winds applies; the wealthy end of Marseille is South of the city, I don't really know why, although it is "prettier" geographically; Toulouse is wealthy in the hyper centre and near the airport (ie, well paid airbus employees); Nantes is rich in the West, but Rennes more in the North East, even though it is very much on the route of prevailing winds (but industrialised late) - there's no real consistent pattern.

In particular a hill on the eastern side of the city, facing west is going to be very desirable because it gets the evening sun (something that has been very obvious here recently, when the snow completely melted on the East bank of the lake about a week before it did pn the West bank). That is why, for example, all of the larger cities in Switzerland have wealthy eastern and poorer western suburbs.

[Alcibiades]

Kind of irrelevant but I'm Italian so why not. The eight largest cities in Italy:

Turin: East side i.e. the nice hilly right bank of the River Po. Extends to the suburbs - Pino Torinese is in the top 10 richest municipalities in Italy. [also the historic centre and the immediately southward neighbourhood Crocetta, but that's less notable]
Genoa: East coast, especially near East (Albaro), plus the 19th century additions immediately north/east of the historic centre. It's absurdly clear. [the medieval centre itself is notably quite poor instead]
Milan: It doesn't exist, actually. Wealth pretty much decreases radially away from the centre.
Bologna: South side i.e. again, the nice hilly side - the very name of the neighbourhood is Colli (Hills). Starting out from the historic centre.
Florence: Unclear? It's easier to identify a "non-favoured quarter", which is the West side.
Rome: Near North side. Not the only place (there is also e.g. EUR, the home of the corporations, to the south) but overall it's fairly clear. Bougie Roma Nord vs. proletarian Roma Sud is a pretty famous meme. [the actual #proletariat lives outside the Great Ring Junction, but that's beside the point]
Naples: Near West side, though it's a bit complicated to describe because it has an extension protruding on the coast (Posillipo).
Palermo: Can't find any proper data, but I suspect it's something like centre-to-North-side.

Speaking of hills, they are a very obvious place for wealthy neighbourhoods to be - in London, Richmond, Wimbledon, Hampstead and Highgate are all on hills. In terms of the US, LA and San Francisco immediately spring to mind as having a similar situation (and Portland, IIRC?) - any other US examples?

Typically, they have the advantage of being above pollution, more exposed to the sunshine, and a little bit more exposed to the breeze/cool air on hot summer nights. Although, here YMMV still. Thinking of French cities - Montmartre is the highest point of Paris, but became the arty centre precisely because it wasn't bourgeois; the hilly part of Lyon is the wealthy part, but is also the West end, therefore the point about prevailing winds applies; the wealthy end of Marseille is South of the city, I don't really know why, although it is "prettier" geographically; Toulouse is wealthy in the hyper centre and near the airport (ie, well paid airbus employees); Nantes is rich in the West, but Rennes more in the North East, even though it is very much on the route of prevailing winds (but industrialised late) - there's no real consistent pattern.

In particular a hill on the eastern side of the city, facing west is going to be very desirable because it gets the evening sun (something that has been very obvious here recently, when the snow completely melted on the East bank of the lake about a week before it did pn the West bank). That is why, for example, all of the larger cities in Switzerland have wealthy eastern and poorer western suburbs.

Yep, the Zürich Goldküste is a very good example of various geographic factors creating a desirable location.

[parochial boy]

Kind of irrelevant but I'm Italian so why not. The eight largest cities in Italy:

Turin: East side i.e. the nice hilly right bank of the River Po. Extends to the suburbs - Pino Torinese is in the top 10 richest municipalities in Italy. [also the historic centre and the immediately southward neighbourhood Crocetta, but that's less notable]
Genoa: East coast, especially near East (Albaro), plus the 19th century additions immediately north/east of the historic centre. It's absurdly clear. [the medieval centre itself is notably quite poor instead]
Milan: It doesn't exist, actually. Wealth pretty much decreases radially away from the centre.
Bologna: South side i.e. again, the nice hilly side - the very name of the neighbourhood is Colli (Hills). Starting out from the historic centre.
Florence: Unclear? It's easier to identify a "non-favoured quarter", which is the West side.
Rome: Near North side. Not the only place (there is also e.g. EUR, the home of the corporations, to the south) but overall it's fairly clear. Bougie Roma Nord vs. proletarian Roma Sud is a pretty famous meme. [the actual #proletariat lives outside the Great Ring Junction, but that's beside the point]
Naples: Near West side, though it's a bit complicated to describe because it has an extension protruding on the coast (Posillipo).
Palermo: Can't find any proper data, but I suspect it's something like centre-to-North-side.

Speaking of hills, they are a very obvious place for wealthy neighbourhoods to be - in London, Richmond, Wimbledon, Hampstead and Highgate are all on hills. In terms of the US, LA and San Francisco immediately spring to mind as having a similar situation (and Portland, IIRC?) - any other US examples?

Typically, they have the advantage of being above pollution, more exposed to the sunshine, and a little bit more exposed to the breeze/cool air on hot summer nights. Although, here YMMV still. Thinking of French cities - Montmartre is the highest point of Paris, but became the arty centre precisely because it wasn't bourgeois; the hilly part of Lyon is the wealthy part, but is also the West end, therefore the point about prevailing winds applies; the wealthy end of Marseille is South of the city, I don't really know why, although it is "prettier" geographically; Toulouse is wealthy in the hyper centre and near the airport (ie, well paid airbus employees); Nantes is rich in the West, but Rennes more in the North East, even though it is very much on the route of prevailing winds (but industrialised late) - there's no real consistent pattern.

In particular a hill on the eastern side of the city, facing west is going to be very desirable because it gets the evening sun (something that has been very obvious here recently, when the snow completely melted on the East bank of the lake about a week before it did pn the West bank). That is why, for example, all of the larger cities in Switzerland have wealthy eastern and poorer western suburbs.

Yep, the Zürich Goldküste is a very good example of various geographic factors creating a desirable location.

Although getting the other side to be called the "runny nose coast" was truly a work of marketing genius

[Tintrlvr]

If you surveyed say, partners at a downtown law firm, I suspect in Chicago a majority would live in the favored quarter (either affluent center-city neighborhoods like Lincoln Park or North Shore suburbs).  But if you did the same in New York - what would the distribution look like for those outside Manhattan?  I'm guessing there would be some bias towards Westchester, but some would live in NJ and Long Island too.  

There are favored quarters in New Jersey and Long Island, too. Places like Millburn, NJ and Port Washington, NY are definitely favored quarters.

These days a notable portion live in brownstone Brooklyn, too (Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, etc.).

But I would guess it would be something like:

Manhattan: 35%
Westchester: 25%
Connecticut: 10%
New Jersey: 10%
Brooklyn: 5%
Nassau: 5%
Elsewhere: 5% (e.g., I know one who commutes in from Pennsylvania, and there are a handful out in Suffolk, Rockland, etc., and some live in places like Riverdale, Forest Hills and Jamaica Estates)

But that's also going to depend on where the firm is located. Firms located downtown will have a higher percentage of Brooklyn and New Jersey and almost no Connecticut, e.g.

I was curious about this again and wasted a big chunk of time of my day checking all of the partners in my (white shoe NYC biglaw) office. Home residences are all shown on our internal website. Below is the breakdown. I was pretty accurate. Percentages are rounded significantly for some anonymity.

Manhattan: 35%
Westchester: 20%
Fairfield, CT: 10%
Brooklyn: 10%
Nassau: 5%
Bergen, NJ: 5%
All Other NJ: 5% (surprisingly, none in Essex or Hudson, but scattered elsewhere)
All Other NYC: 5% (mainly Queens but scattered, one Bronx (Riverdale), no Staten Island)
All Other NYS: 2.5% (interestingly, none in Rockland or Orange, but multiple further up in the Hudson Valley, mostly on the east side of the river)
Non-NYC Region: 2.5% (multiple Florida and even one in Canada)

The dominance of Westchester (and Fairfield) over Nassau is pretty indicative, I think.

[Battista Minola 1616]

I realized that a funny (or maybe, extremely sad) way to find favoured quarters in Italy is just to look at neighbourhoods where No overperformed significantly at the constitutional referendum last September.
I'm pretty sure it works using the Yes at the 2016 referendum as well.

For what it's worth, the favoured quarter here in La Spezia, in so much as such a thing exists, appears to be a section of the historic centre and the immediately adjacent hills. Although more peripheric villas on the north(west) hill or the (south)west hill are fancy too.
The very first industry (i.e. the Military Arsenal) was built on the western plain right next to what is now the historic centre, but all the subsequent heavy industry developed in the eastern edge of the (larger) eastern plain.

[King of Kensington]

The dominance of Westchester (and Fairfield) over Nassau is pretty indicative, I think.

Interesting.  Nassau wealth seems somewhat less "prestigious" and more "nouveau riche" than Westchester/Connecticut, there's probably fewer Ivy League grads and that sort of thing.  Plus transplants to the NYC area, if they opt for the suburbs, tend to avoid Long Island. 

But still more dispersed than what I'd expect to see in say, Chicago. 

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

The dominance of Westchester (and Fairfield) over Nassau is pretty indicative, I think.

This mostly makes sense, but I'm rather surprised by how underrepresented NJ is (Essex, Morris, Somerset, etc.) I suppose on some level it has to do with how much quicker MNR trips are from Westchester and Fairfield than NJT service west of Newark is.

[Tintrlvr]

The dominance of Westchester (and Fairfield) over Nassau is pretty indicative, I think.

This mostly makes sense, but I'm rather surprised by how underrepresented NJ is (Essex, Morris, Somerset, etc.) I suppose on some level it has to do with how much quicker MNR trips are from Westchester and Fairfield than NJT service west of Newark is.

I was surprised that Bergen was the #1 NJ county, too. The rest were very scattered; there was no more than one partner per other county.

[jimrtex]

New Orleans--Western

I guess the West (Jefferson Parish) was originally the favored quarter, but now it's clearly North (St. Tammany).

I'd also say that Houston is North not West as Montgomery is more favored than Ft. Bend

Fort Bend is more westsouthwesterly. The county line is note perpendicular to a radial out from downtown. The portions due west in Katy and Cinco Ranch are definitely favored over those to southwest in Missouri City. You are still in Harris County at a given distance going west, compared to being in Fort Bend if you go southwest.

East is disfavored because it is the industrial area and also the Port of Houston, and the ship channel, and San Jacinto River and Galveston Bay, etc. mean less habitable residential land. It is easier to maintain a trend if you can just expand outward a mile at a time.

[Tintrlvr]

New Orleans--Western

I guess the West (Jefferson Parish) was originally the favored quarter, but now it's clearly North (St. Tammany).

I'd also say that Houston is North not West as Montgomery is more favored than Ft. Bend

The only "favored quarter" in the New Orleans metro is inside the city of New Orleans itself, and it's the west side of the city (the Garden District to Audubon).

Similar for Houston: the main favored area is inside Harris County.