Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
they think Comcast is "tech" and it's a little behind the times. If you're ok with that, and work in an older industry, it's a much better deal than SF.
It is way worse than you may realize elsewhere. When I moved back to the area from Nevada and got my Comcast Xfinity cable box it WAS "tech" to me; (speaking into the remote?!) when coming off a Cox Communications cable box that constantly overheated, had widespread faulty HDD's and had a VERY dated TV guide in whopping 480p. Yeah, the desert southwest is very poorly wired for Internet and the ISP (mainly Cox) is operating like a hoodlum ISP straight out of 1997, no joke. So coming back to Philly felt like it was at least trying to keep up, ya know?
Philly is far more affordable than SF, and you still get big city amenities and don't have to step in poop on your way to work. That said, it's an old school economy, they think Comcast is "tech" and it's a little behind the times. If you're ok with that, and work in an older industry, it's a much better deal than SF.
That really depends on who you’re referring to as “they” as there’s certainly a tech scene in various fields that are younger and smaller companies than Comcast which makes sense given the colleges in and around it and the low cost of living for a walkable urban major city. Philadelphia’s population swings quite young these days and with a lot of transplants foreign and domestic.
The potentially nice thing for the OP may be that neither tech nor any other industry really dominates Philadelphia’s economy and neither does a focus on one’s career or a career in higher paying jobs necessary to live decently.
Well that's because SF is 46 sq miles. A four-mile drive from downtown across the Bay Bridge and there is a huge Black presence.
Yes. They call that place Oakland. That's where my cousin lives, and that's where that San Francisco Chronicle article I read back in '06 said all the blacks in San Francisco were moving to.
IMO referring to Oakland as San Francisco is like calling Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri.
Now, you'll excuse me while I go grab one of my Tower of Power albums and put it on.
Philly is far more affordable than SF, and you still get big city amenities and don't have to step in poop on your way to work. That said, it's an old school economy, they think Comcast is "tech" and it's a little behind the times. If you're ok with that, and work in an older industry, it's a much better deal than SF.
The Philly metro has one of the most post-industrial, service-based/knowledge economies in the US.
Also, it's not 1998 anymore. "Tech" is no longer a niche industry with bootstrapped startups. It's becoming fully integrated into every single sector imaginable and MUCH more geographically dispersed. These trends are only going to accelerate with time.
A company like Comcast isn't immediately thought of as a tech company right now, yes, but it's certainly on that trajectory, like countless other companies.
- After a while of living here the people feel very homogenous: Philly does not at all feel like a bubble to me. I love the mix of Philly-born and out of towners. It honestly probably has less of a "cosmopolitan" vibe than SF, but that "vibe" is up and coming in Philly.
Good luck, OP! I highly suggest you visit before coming! You will have a great weekend regardless.
Muinteoir nails it on the comparatives, and of course I second his recommendation, but I'd also like to comment on the item above:
You won't experience this aspect of Philadelphia society at first, but it will gradually dawn on you as your tenure here grows longer:
I often say that this place is "a small town masquerading as a big city."
This is because there's an everyone-knows-everyone-else quality to both its neighborhood life and its various professional circles. In the latter, if you strike up a conversation with someone you've just met, it's likely that you will be able to establish a connection with that person in only one degree of separation. (For anyone who met or worked with the late, legendary city planner Edmund Bacon, that means there are no "six degrees of Kevin Bacon," for Kevin's his son.) In my field, there's even a musical-chairs quality to the people who practice it, for once you reach the level of the four network TV stations (but especially 6ABC, WPVI-TV), the Inquirer/Daily News/Philly.com, WHYY, KYW Newsradio 1060 and the magazine I work for, there's no further upward you can go; if you want to rise higher, you must leave Philadelphia. This also applies to most other fields aside from the law and biomedicine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
That really depends on who you’re referring to as “they” as there’s certainly a tech scene in various fields that are younger and smaller companies than Comcast which makes sense given the colleges in and around it and the low cost of living for a walkable urban major city. Philadelphia’s population swings quite young these days and with a lot of transplants foreign and domestic.
The potentially nice thing for the OP may be that neither tech nor any other industry really dominates Philadelphia’s economy and neither does a focus on one’s career or a career in higher paying jobs necessary to live decently.
In Comcast's defense, I think that they're aware that they are the 800-pound gorilla in the local tech scene and that they have a responsibility to help nurture the smaller firms that are really on the cutting edge. (Edited to add another Comcast tech-and-media anecdote: I recently had a chance to tour the new studios of Comcast-owned NBC10 along with other members of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, whose chapter president works at the station. (He used to be my go-to guy for inside-SEPTA information when I reported on transportation here.) Among the things we learned on the tour is that NBC10 is now the first all-IP-based TV station in the United States.)
In Comcast's defense, I think that they're aware that they are the 800-pound gorilla in the local tech scene and that they have a responsibility to help nurture the smaller firms that are really on the cutting edge. (Edited to add another Comcast tech-and-media anecdote: I recently had a chance to tour the new studios of Comcast-owned NBC10 along with other members of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, whose chapter president works at the station. (He used to be my go-to guy for inside-SEPTA information when I reported on transportation here.) Among the things we learned on the tour is that NBC10 is now the first all-IP-based TV station in the United States.)
They are very much aware of it. Most people on these boards know they own NBC-Universal, all(or most of Sky UK) and came close to buying 20th Cent. Fox.
Muinteoir nails it on the comparatives, and of course I second his recommendation, but I'd also like to comment on the item above:
You won't experience this aspect of Philadelphia society at first, but it will gradually dawn on you as your tenure here grows longer:
I often say that this place is "a small town masquerading as a big city."
This is because there's an everyone-knows-everyone-else quality to both its neighborhood life and its various professional circles. In the latter, if you strike up a conversation with someone you've just met, it's likely that you will be able to establish a connection with that person in only one degree of separation. (For anyone who met or worked with the late, legendary city planner Edmund Bacon, that means there are no "six degrees of Kevin Bacon," for Kevin's his son.) In my field, there's even a musical-chairs quality to the people who practice it, for once you reach the level of the four network TV stations (but especially 6ABC, WPVI-TV), the Inquirer/Daily News/Philly.com, WHYY, KYW Newsradio 1060 and the magazine I work for, there's no further upward you can go; if you want to rise higher, you must leave Philadelphia. This also applies to most other fields aside from the law and biomedicine.
In Comcast's defense, I think that they're aware that they are the 800-pound gorilla in the local tech scene and that they have a responsibility to help nurture the smaller firms that are really on the cutting edge. (Edited to add another Comcast tech-and-media anecdote: I recently had a chance to tour the new studios of Comcast-owned NBC10 along with other members of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, whose chapter president works at the station. (He used to be my go-to guy for inside-SEPTA information when I reported on transportation here.) Among the things we learned on the tour is that NBC10 is now the first all-IP-based TV station in the United States.)
I think what was trying to be said with “they even consider Comcast tech” in Philadelphia is that Comcast is a large telecomms and media corporation and as such is an institutional dinosaur somewhat on the fringes of tech when it comes to actually developing new technologies which is to some degree true though it does have its own VC arm. I piped in to say that that’s dependent on who’s talking as there is actually a substantial number of people in the growing tech scene in Philadelphia who are unlikely to consider Comcast a tech company or would do so only with significant qualifications for what that word means.
I know this is city data and we’re supposed to be one upping each other’s cities - but really don’t choose to go to a school based on where it is. Base it on how good your program is and how big the alumni network can help you get work. If you’re whatever about SF and got into Stanford or Berkeley, that beats out going to a school like Westchester U, even in Philly.
And once it gets to the grad school level, chances are you will be working in the area where your school feeds into most. I went to U Mich for grad school but it was a huge feeder school into NYC. Consider that.
I think what was trying to be said with “they even consider Comcast tech” in Philadelphia is that Comcast is a large telecomms and media corporation and as such is an institutional dinosaur somewhat on the fringes of tech when it comes to actually developing new technologies which is to some degree true though it does have its own VC arm. I piped in to say that that’s dependent on who’s talking as there is actually a substantial number of people in the growing tech scene in Philadelphia who are unlikely to consider Comcast a tech company or would do so only with significant qualifications for what that word means.
But there is a sense in which Comcast is a tech company.
Case in point: Those voice-controlled multifunction set-top boxes the transplant from Nevada loved? Comcast bought the Philly startup company that developed the technology.
I know this is city data and we’re supposed to be one upping each other’s cities - but really don’t choose to go to a school based on where it is. Base it on how good your program is and how big the alumni network can help you get work. If you’re whatever about SF and got into Stanford or Berkeley, that beats out going to a school like Westchester U, even in Philly.
And once it gets to the grad school level, chances are you will be working in the area where your school feeds into most. I went to U Mich for grad school but it was a huge feeder school into NYC. Consider that.
You're right, but I suspect that if someone living in the San Francisco Bay Area is considering graduate study in Philadelphia, he's not aiming to study at West Chester (two words - the one-word Westchester is a New York suburban county) University. More likely, that person is considering Penn, Temple or Drexel, in about that order, depending on the field of study (if engineering, Drexel first; if communications in practice rather than in theory, Temple first, for instance).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
