One of the five boroughs of
New York City who's south shore is mostly suburbanish while it's North Shore is consdidered urban. Any resident can tell you that the
two shores are
like diffrent worlds. The South shore and
mid-island are heavily
republican while the North shore has been said to have more in common with parts of Brooklyn and Queens then it does with the rest of Staten Island. The South shore is mostly
white while the North shore is primarily black. While the South shore is filled with mostly middle-upper middle class families living in areas that would be considered suburbs, the North shore is filled with mostly low-income urban areas that are
home to mostly blacks and hispanics. The Staten Island Railroad was
even called the "Mason-
Dixon Line" due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of the borough's minorities live above it on the island's North shore, and due to hate crimes that were being commited in Staten Island's
Mid-land and southern areas. Crime is also a problem in most of the neighborhoods that make up the North shore. North Staten Island was giving a zoning law that would allow owners to open stores on it almost tax-free to
help boost the economy because of the long time poverty and unemployment that exists on the island's North Shore. While the majority of the neighborhoods on the North Shore are ran-down areas that suffer from crime, poverty, unemployment,
AIDS, teenage pregnacy and other things of that nature, the South and
Mid-land areas are for the most part nice places to live and to raise a family. The media's reluctance to report things that happen on Staten Island most likely so they don't tarnish it's already fading reputation as a virtually crime-free easy going suburb is probably the exact reason why out-of-towners move in to homes on the North Shore and move out accordinly.