Those guys over at The Daily Finance (I know, I’d never heard of it either) came up with a great idea to look at how Monopoly’s properties are valued 75 years after the game was created. Monopoly was one of my favorite games growing up (right up there with Mall Madness and Pretty Pretty Princess), probably because there were so many colorful pieces. When I would visit my grandparents in Texas as a kid, I would always fuss if anyone else bought Pennsylvania Ave. or Pennsylvania RR.
Oh, but back to the story. Monopoly was based on properties in a boiled-down 1930s Atlantic City. Back then Boardwalk was the most expensive property, Mediterranean Ave. was the cheapest, there were no casinos, four rail roads and lots of free parking. Today? Boardwalk, despite shoreline erosion, is still the most valuable area, you can actually stay in one of the vacant lots on Mediterranean Ave. for free, casinos are the main reason any one comes to Atlantic City, none of the railroads represented in the game exist any more and free parking? what’s that. In between, the yellows and greens and blues are all doing the tango around the board. Watch this video to get an idea of the changes. But me and my urban planning mind would love to diagram the changes using aerial photos from 1935 and 2010 and a box of multi-colored sharpies…
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