An interesting analysis. I think it might be colored a bit by the commercial/residential mix; I know the Blue Line, I know the Red Line, I know the Expo Line, I know the Purple Line and I know the Gold Line:
- BLUE LINE - all looks poor. The Blue Line is Thunderdome. I've seen fistfights start multiple times and homeless cussing at each other over who smells worse (they all win on the Blue Line).
- EXPO LINE - theoretically Crenshaw/USC is poor because the people who "live" in Crenshaw/USC are poor but that misses the USC students who maintain a permanent residence at their parents' house. I have friends who dumpster-dive USC at the end of the semester because you'll find skateboards and LCD televisions and refrigerators thrown away by exchange students going back to Singapore and Dubai at the end of the semester.
- PURPLE LINE - Over half of these stops are business districts. The other half are shopping districts. People live there but the representative sample is different.
- RED LINE - Some over-sampling because until Wilshire/Vermont the Purple Line and the Red Line run on the same tracks and use the same stations (I know, right? That one will bite you in the ass when you're sleepy). The rest of it is business districts until it hits North Hollywood, at which point it hits the Orange Line which I guess they don't count because it's buses. I'd be curious as to which is poorer - the Orange Line or the Blue Line. I'll say this: the Blue Line is 98% African Americans while the Orange Line is 98% Mexican nationals.
What'll really freak you out is they're FULL.
I initially felt quite flattered because pretty girls would sit next to me. KB got game. Then I gained and lost a million dollars in cryptocurrency and the construct of class became oh-so-very-much-more obvious and I realized the pretty girls would sit next to me the same way they'd sit next to a cop: a tall white guy in his '40s on the metro is a dude in waistcoat, tails and pince-nez in the East End. Ain't nobody gonna fuck widat 'cuz nobody wants the heat.
The last vignette in Jack Vance's The Dying Earth anthology is about an adventurer who goes to an ancient city to query an oracle:
- Ampridatvir: Ampridatvir is, like Kaiin, an ancient city whose people now dwell in its half-ruins. Although many of the buildings are crumbling, much of its ancient technology is still usable, such as moving walkways and anti-gravity elevators. The city was once a highly advanced civilization where all needs were met by technology and magic, ruled by the wizard Rogol Domedonfors. However, the city fell into decline because of the bickering between two cults, the worshippers of the god Pansiu and the worshippers of the god Cazdal. Before dying, Rogol created two tablets which, when combined, would provide the secrets of his power. He gave one tablet to the leader of each sect.
The people of Ampridatvir now live under a curse. The worshippers of Pansiu wear green, and cannot see any person wearing grey, while the worshippers of Cazdal wear grey, and cannot see anyone wearing green. As a result, the two sides are completely unaware of one another's existence. In accordance with tradition, glory-seekers dress themselves in red and attempt to retrieve the tablet of the opposing side. Little do they realize that this will make them visible to everyone, and doom them to being killed by invisible attackers. The people rationalize this by assuming that the red-wearers are killed by ghosts.
LA in a nutshell. Find a news crew, wear red.