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Yep, you're a hater haha. Center City offers everything you could want for a car free lifestyle for every kind of person. Single, young couple, young professional, college student, young family, empty nester, retiree, straight, gay, white, black, Asian, middle eastern, Hispanic... doesn't matter.
We have that car-dependent LA like lifestyle too, it's called the suburbs.
You could also try Northwest or Northeast Philly.
The Main Line will give you a Northeast style LA-like vibe. Suburban areas, mansions, and urban, walkable areas all mixed together.
You want beach town living? No problem, Philly area's got that covered.
You can find pretty much any lifestyle you want in the Philadelphia region with relative ease. Stop acting like LA is so unique and different.
Its fine to boast for Philly and ITS UNIQUENESS vs LA. But you also need to ACCEPT LA's UNIQUENESS TOO. Just because Philly has examples Beverly Hills type mansions..... there is only one Beverly Hills. Sure you can boast a hour or less to AC on a very straight expressway and hitting South Jersey beaches. LA still has beachfront IN its city limits and Hollywood to the original Disney next door.
But If others Post some LA uniqueness? Respect that too. Really, having examples SHOULD NOT LESSEN another city's uniqueness. Both cities have different histories and their contribution to America. Both these cities are more polar opposites. It is what makes them MORE SPECIAL and yes preferences too. Philly's Core has restored and restoring to a new prominence. While LA's is re-storing and re-evolving a new core from what it had. Both still WILL EVOLVE more too. LA probably has more areas to totally rework?
Neighborhood's differ GREATLY in common housing ..... polar opposites in general (namely row-housing). Yes far northern and northwest areas are forested suburban. But not why most think of Philly as? That is tight-knit row-housing on a narrow street-grid. While LA's is not.
Of course .... only good of LA Philly has too. It's differences ARE ITS TRUE COLORS and makes them unique and special.
You really should stop saying LA isn't Unique too..... and it is different. So is Philly.
I’m considering going back to LA some time in the future because of family and I’m hoping this mentality ebbs substantially by that time. It’s probably why I’m so willfully optimistic about the urban core and transit in the region improving a decade or two from now.
It will improve, but its still public transit. You can't take public transit to Palm Springs or Santa Barbara. I can see taking transit if you had a very regular commute or to a ball game or something like that, but otherwise LA is way too big to rely on public transit solely.
A car filled lifestyle is much easier than a car free one.
Disagree.
It 100% depends on where you live. There are places where a “car filled lifestyle” is extremely difficult and impractical. They may be somewhat rare in America compared to places like Europe and Asia, but they do exist here.
It will improve, but its still public transit. You can't take public transit to Palm Springs or Santa Barbara. I can see taking transit if you had a very regular commute or to a ball game or something like that, but otherwise LA is way too big to rely on public transit solely.
The bolded part isn't true in several other large cities I've lived in and the city I live in now which is a pretty strong reason for living in it and not in Los Angeles. On the occasion I feel like it, I rent a car, but I'm very happy to never feel like I have to drive a car or that I've run out of things of interest because of the lack of owning one. Again, I'm hoping your take no longer becomes the dominant one in the next couple decades otherwise I'll have to buy more property in NYC which is a bit of a nuisance.
I would love to see LA massively expand its transit network. I have gone to Santa Barbara several times via transit though and that's been great.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 11-14-2017 at 06:59 PM..
It will improve, but its still public transit. You can't take public transit to Palm Springs or Santa Barbara. I can see taking transit if you had a very regular commute or to a ball game or something like that, but otherwise LA is way too big to rely on public transit solely.
Well there is uber and lyft. One very nice thing about core Philadelphia (similar to Manhattan), is that you can wave down a taxi too. Don't have to call for one. That's unheard of in LA.
There are other ways to get around aside from public transit.
Center city is nice but way to small to satisfy every need or want for variety.
Wrong!
Center City Philadelphia is so dense and compact that absolutely everything I want or need I can walk to. Within a 10 to 30 minute walk from my home I can reach the following:
Grocery: While Foods, Acme, Trader Joe's, Reading Terminal Mkt, plus numerous smaller grocers;
Theater: Merriam Theater, Walnut Street Theater, Forrest Theater, Prince Music Theater, Wilma Theater, Perelman Theater, Susanne Roberts Theater;
Opera/Ballet: The Academy of Music (America's oldest, and arguably most beautiful opera house)
Symphony: Verizon Hall (home of the world famous Philadelphia Orchestra)
Cinemas: Ritz 5; Ritz East; Ritz at the Bourse (all multi-plex);
Libraries: Three branch libraries including the huge Central Library;
Museums: Natural History, Science (includes IMAX and planetarium), PAFA (art), Barns (art), American and local history; American Portrait Gallery, Constitution Center, and many others
Historic sites: Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, and others too numerous to list;
Department Stores: Macy's, Century 21;
Discount Stores: Target, Marshalls, Burlington, Ross and others;
Retail: hundreds of stores especially along Chestnut/Walnut Streets;
Restaurants: hundreds offering every kind of dining experience;
Medical: some of the world's finest hospitals plus hundreds of doctors/dentists
Parks: Washington, Franklin, and Rittenhouse Squares.
I got rid of my car eight years ago and haven't pumped a gallon of gas since. During all that time NOT ONCE have I needed an automobile to get the things I need or experience the things I enjoy. I do take public transit to places like Fairmont Park, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and University City, although I could walk to those places if I needed to.
Yes, Center City is small (relatively speaking), but that's the beauty of the place. It is an area so compact and dense, and so full of activity that one can walk to just about everything one needs. I can think of no place else like it in the country--and I've visited every major American city.
Why is it when people talk about Philly, they only talk about City Center. Did the entire city and Metro live only the city center except for Will Smith who lived in West Philly. Seems like people are limited to one part of the city. Similar to those who talk about NYC. It is only Manhattan below Central Park. It is good that you can get around without a car, walk everywhere you need to if you live there.
When people talk about LA, they talk about the city and Metro region rather than restricted to one section of the city. This part of city is good for this and another part is good for that. People in LA like having the choice to live in different areas that are nearly equal in amenties and freedom to drive or whatever mode, still be in the city, but has to deal with the pain of traffic, congestion and commute.
I prefer Los Angeles. It is moving towards becoming like other spread out cities like London, Tokyo, Seoul. Places where their museums, large parks, business districts, sport facilities, nightlife, cultural and urban modes are spread out. So many interesting areas but with good separation. It will take a long time to catch up to those cities mainly due to to its infantile rapid transit system and its strong opposition to densify for fear of manhattanization and traffic woes.
Why is it when people talk about Philly, they only talk about City Center. Did the entire city and Metro live only the city center except for Will Smith who lived in West Philly. Seems like people are limited to one part of the city. Similar to those who talk about NYC. It is only Manhattan below Central Park. It is good that you can get around without a car, walk everywhere you need to if you live there.
When people talk about LA, they talk about the city and Metro region rather than restricted to one section of the city. This part of city is good for this and another part is good for that. People in LA like having the choice to live in different areas that are nearly equal in amenties and freedom to drive or whatever mode, still be in the city, but has to deal with the pain of traffic, congestion and commute.
I prefer Los Angeles. It is moving towards becoming like other spread out cities like London, Tokyo, Seoul. Places where their museums, large parks, business districts, sport facilities, nightlife, cultural and urban modes are spread out. So many interesting areas but with good separation. It will take a long time to catch up to those cities mainly due to to its infantile rapid transit system and its strong opposition to densify for fear of manhattanization and traffic woes.
Well, you sort of have to cover a lot more ground in LA because everything is spread out. It's also why tourists (see: the world forum on this site) give LA a lot of unnecessary **** because they spent a bunch of time on freeways going between one thing and another and thought that had to be the case.
Philadelphia has a lot going on outside of Center City, but its density of things in and around Center City makes it easy to fill a long weekend itinerary or more with just Center City.
Similarly with NYC, though what you said is even less true. People do go up to Harlem or go to Williamsburg, Bushwick and DUMBO in Brooklyn. There's certainly been a large number of posts and topics on this forum about the outer boroughs especially Brooklyn. People also definitely go up to Museum Mile, though that does border Central Park. There's even been a spate of tourists going to Flushing which is well outside of the NYC core.
A full itinerary of NYC and its area to me would include the beach during summertime, going out to various neighborhoods in the city and making a trek out to one of the ridiculously quaint Hudson River valley towns and maybe a bit of hiking. It's just that people talk about Times Square and Soho and the like a lot, so that's what the tourists do with their limited amount of time nevermind the fact that an also ran museum like the Brooklyn Museum has a more interesting collection than probably anything in Los Angeles (except for the Museum of Jurassic Technology).
I do like LA's potential though. You're right that it does have an infantile rapid transit system and should be greatly improved, but its polycentric nature makes it so that infrastructure can be well used when built out. It just actually needs to be built out which it's in the process of doing so, but building infrastructure in the US isn't that easy apparently.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 11-14-2017 at 10:06 PM..
The counties are ceremonial for the most part. I’m pretty sure there was only one other poster in recent times on this board who thought this was a reasonable argument.
I left LA mainly because of that train of thought, so we are not all agreed on this.
Well on that note we have to keep in mind that the entire Eastcoast is built different from the Westcoast
Different geographical location and land size.
I'd put Philly against San Francisco but not the mammoth Los Angeles
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While LA's is re-storing and re-evolving a new core from what it had. Both still WILL EVOLVE more too. LA probably has more areas to totally rework?
It's differences ARE ITS TRUE COLORS and makes them unique and special. 
