ParticleGirl's Journal: demographics

Way back in the day, a poll suggested an interesting breakdown by gender. I wonder how much the breakdown of /. readership has changed, and if that 'means' anything. Changed in terms of gender breakdown (I'll bet there are a lot more women now... though maybe I'm wrong. Hmm. I dunno.) and also things like age and geographical location and occupation (is tech a hobby? a job?) ...that kind of stuff.

I think that web usership in general has gotten more female, older, and less professional. Geographically? Maybe more Asian? I don't know, but I suspect that a lot of these ideas are actually founded on things I read somewhere and filed away in 'lost' but retained ideas about. (in other words, I think I'm right but can't give proof! What else is new.)

My neighborhood has changed a lot, demographically, in the last few years. It's younger and more sober, I think. It also seems to be populated by people who are on their way to somewhere else more then it used to be. When I first moved to Little Italy, it was all old retired couples who'd lived there for fifty years dammit, or young people who had grown up and moved out of the house and then inherited it from their parents and decided to come back to the old neighborhood to live in the family homestead. Now there are a lot of young professionals doing a stint somewhere for a few years before moving on, or artists who aren't sure how long they'll be staying, or people buying the old houses and flipping them to sell to the burgeoning hipster community.
 
All communities change.

I love neighborhoods. I love ones that seem to be very self-contained in the way that mine is: there's one or more grocery store, hardware store, church, school, barbershop (I mean, it's even got the swirly pole!), &c. all within walking distance. You don't have to leave the community for any of the basics or most of the luxuries. People know and look out for each other. Block parties happen.
 
It all seems so quaint!

London

[BWJones]

I just got back from London, U.K. and many of the neighborhoods there (at least in central London) seem very much like the neighborhood you are describing on steroids. Lots of upwardly mobile young folks with outrageously large amounts of disposable income that come to live for brief periods of time before moving on. I should have some photos of the trip up on Jonesblog in the next few days...