When considering borders of Berlin, the Berlin Wall comes to mind. This physical wall separated West Germany from East Germany, DDR from GDR, a democratic nation from a socialist nation. Growing up in Rochester Hills has been a major blessing. There were no physical barriers that separated our city. However, despite not having a physical wall, Rochester Hills has an invisible border. This invisible border is the income spread in our city. The physical Berlin wall and the imaginary border in Rochester Hills may seem very different, and rightfully so, but they also have some similarities.
Rochester Hills is one of the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Every northern suburb of Detroit is very wealthy in comparison to downtown Detroit and Rochester Hills is no exception. The median income is $77,764 and the nearly 20% earn over 100k a year. Overall, the city of Rochester Hills is wealthy, but if you break the city up into different sections, you find that certain parts of the city and schools are significantly poorer than the rest of the city. Around 50% of the city earns less than 50k a year. All these statistics are excluding just north of Rochester Hills, known as Oakland Township. Oakland Township and Rochester Hills are essentially one, and the township includes some of the wealthiest of the city, so the city median income is actually larger.
The Darker the squares, the higher the median income is.
The red lines are the actual borders or Rochester Hills but I included Oakland Township. Rochester Adams is broken up into 3 different high schools. Rochester Adams is on the north west border of Oakland Township and Rochester Hills, where the squares are incredibly dark. Southern and middle area of Rochester Hills has the Rochester High School. The bottom half of the city is significantly poorer. The 3rd school is Stoney Creek High School which is the Northeast section. As the picture shows, it is once again wealthy.
The different area wealth of these schools have some surprising differences. The wealthier schools, Rochester Adams and Stoney Creek have a higher ranked education system and better facilities. The running joke in the city is that Rochester High School (the poorer school) is known as Ratchet High School. These different median income barriers seem to give a glimpse of social classborders and the benefits of living in a wealthier area.
Berlin on the other hand, has a physical wall. However, it could similarly be related to the income barrier of Rochester Hills. Western Germany was, in general, wealthier than East Berlin and the different cars and varieties of products showed that. The border divided the differences in opportunity. The difference in education strength in Rochester Hills is also considered an opportunity. Some students who live in the lower half of Rochester Hills do a lottery system to try to get placed in to Adams High School rather than their nearby Rochester High School.
The main difference of the Berlin Wall and the Rochester Hills imaginary border is the magnitude of meaning. The imaginary border effect is noticeable, but not nearly to the scale of the effect of the Berlin Wall. The physical wall actually separated families and literally divided the country in half. While education is important, having a completely different government and a way of life on either side of the border is something that the citizens of Rochester Hills could not even imagine.
Sources:
http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/michigan/rochester_hills
http://www.city-data.com/income/income-Rochester-Hills-Michigan.html
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/MI/schoolrank.aspx?level=3