Maps Show 'Class Divide' in North Andover

It's well known that North Andover has a variety of political opinions, lifestyles and careers. There are blue collar workers, financial executives, working moms, stay-at-home moms, Republicans, Democrats, and everything in between.

And according to an article posted on The Atlantic Cities, North Andover has a distinct class divide as well.

The publication produced a map of greater Boston areas, color-coded according to "creative class" (purple) and "service class" (red).

To sum up the data and methodology, the article used research done by the Martin Prosperity Institute with data from the U.S. Census Bureau to construct a map showing class divide in communities. "Creative Class" refers to "highly paid knowledge, professional, and creative workers." The term "service class" refers to "lower-paid, lower-skill service workers."

The Boston article focuses on Boston, but if you go to the map and scroll up (and zoom in) to North Andover, you can see the details of North Andover's class divide.

Geographically, most of the town is categorized as "creative class." But there is a sharp divide in the west/northwest part of town (from Route 125 at North Andover High School out to Lawrence and around Route 114 near Route 133). This includes much of the downtown area.

And no section of North Andover is dominated by "working class," a blue collar segment of the population the article says is shrinking from the greater Boston landscape.

And if you click on the outlined segments of town, it shows you the percentage of each class. The Boxford Street and Foster Street area, for example, is 65 percent "creative class," 27 percent "service class," and 8 percent "working class."

In the part of town near the North Andover Mall and Rocky's Plaza, it's 41 percent "creative class," 48 percent service class, and 11 percent "working class."

The conclusion is obvious -- area with higher property values and housing prices generally mean higher incomes -- but it allows a birds-eye, color-coded view of that concept in your town, which many of you may find pretty cool.