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chicago is country, philly is way more city like than chicago. that's like what's more urban baltimore or chicago? and b-more is clearly more city than chicago. philly is even more city than b-more so it doesn't make no sense to say chicago's more city like.
chicago is country, philly is way more city like than chicago. that's like what's more urban baltimore or chicago? and b-more is clearly more city than chicago. philly is even more city than b-more so it doesn't make no sense to say chicago's more city like.
Your separation between city and country is crime and violence? This sounds pretty awful and narrow. Does this mean neither Paris nor Tokyo are particularly city-like? Or that Manhattan's ceding its city status?
chicago is country, philly is way more city like than chicago. that's like what's more urban baltimore or chicago? and b-more is clearly more city than chicago. philly is even more city than b-more so it doesn't make no sense to say chicago's more city like.
The one thing I will say is Philly is more compact and this can enhance the urban feel so in terms of the strict OP criteria of "street level" one could make an argument for Philly but again both in US standards would be extremely urban.
I've been to both cities many times before, and this statement could not be any more correct.
I'm quite sure Ohare is significantly larger than PHL, and Midway is significantly larger than PNE respectively. Please somebody correct me if I am wrong on this...
Ohare especially reduced city limit numbers density wise... and wasn't even apart of it prior.
"O'Hare Airport is municipally connected to the city of Chicago via a narrow strip of land, approximately 200 feet (61 m) wide, running along Foster Ave., from the Des Plaines River to the airport. This land was annexed into the city limits in the 1950s, to assure the airport was contiguous with the city to keep it under city control and for the massive tax revenue."
Quite sure this alone added about 20 square miles to the city limits.
In fact, the North/NorthWest side community areas of Chicago hit Philadelphia's total population at 1.54 Million at just 77 connected square miles @ ~20K/ppsqm density...
To put this in perspective for some East Coasters, that is very similar to taking a subsection 70% of Queens, New York and comparable density levels ...
I am quite sure Philadelphia can not match this kind of interconnected density, and nobody from Philadelphia seems to be supporting that. I like Philadelphia but again, I believe Chicago is the more urban & dense city, has the bigger downtown, more subways, pretty much any quantifier of urbanness outside of style of buildings Chicago is going to win.. If it does, again... please provide the numbers instead of just ranting.
Everybody keeps mentioning row houses, but Chicago has much more skyscrapers which as far as I know, that is urban as well, and certainly the more modern version of urbanism which places are trending towards. More #'s.
Chicago is the MUCH taller city and it isn't even close.
Philadelphia has 49 buildings over 100M. Chicago has 272.
Let's span out even further
Philadelphia has 134 buildings over 50M. Chicago has 607...
As anybody who has lived in Chicago will tell you the north side, mostly north side of the city is a totally different city compared to the south side.
I pretty much agree with this post....I wouldnt say one is "more" urban than the other, Chicago just has more of it.
The only thing I would question is what being a "taller" city has to do with being more urban.
I pretty much agree with this post....I wouldnt say one is "more" urban than the other, Chicago just has more of it.
The only thing I would question is what being a "taller" city has to do with being more urban.
It was to question the validity of what row houses have to do with being urban, its just a building, as are skyscrapers. They are equal quantifiers of urbanness, b/c they both in the case of Chicago and Philadelphia happen to be in an urban environment...
If we wanted to do "vibrancy" or anything like that, there are statistics down to the level which track # of people to cross certain intersections. Businesses have this data in order to know where to open a new retail shop for instance.
I agree, they are both urban... if we want to talk which is more urban than the other, I believe that it is a topic that can not be done! You would have to go to another way of describing the two as they are both urban as it gets, by any definition of urban. A place is either urban, or it isn't. They are both easily in the urban category both by the requirements of most sane persons, as well as the US Census Bureau of Urban Area statistics. So how do we define that? Density? # of Subways? # of buildings? Narrowness of thoroughfares? CBD Size? CBD Daytime Population? # of daily subway ridership? How much of a good time a certain poster had when visiting?
I don't think that either city can get any more urban, given that Chicago is the most urban, over the larger scale, I casted my vote for Chicago.
This is a really good debate. I am sort of torn between the two. I have spent time in both cities. On the ground level, the Loop is more urban to me than CC. Parts of Chicago are extremely urban and comparable to parts of NYC. But if you venture on the southside, some of the neighborhoods are really suburban looking. I was in the 70's on Pulanski and it reminded me of the burbs on the east coast. The streets on east coast cities are not that wide for one. Chicago's streets are wide as ever and this decreases its urban flavor. Philly's residential sections trump Chicago's residential sections for urbanity. That's my opinion. I know some of you have posted pics showing row homes in Chicago but that is not an accurate description of the city. Like I mentioned, those Bungalows don't do it for me.
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