Contours

Reading the constant flow of ‘reported brush fires’, really homeless campfires gone out of control, I was struck by the perfection of Sailer’s altitude rule.

Height = status.

The homeless occupy the floodplain and hillsides next to the river. The urban Democrat types are on the first shelf near downtown. The working class and retired Repoofs are on the first shelf north of the river. The wealthy are on the commanding top shelf as always.

Applying the contour map to an old but still mostly valid map of Spokane:

(The x in northwest is my neighborhood. In 1909 it was purely the edge of town. It’s still the edge on the west, but lots of suburbs have grown to the north since 1960.)