San Francisco vs Philadelphia 2019- Grad Student

[frbrown]

Lots of people from the Philadelphia area do talk about the "Tri-State Area" meaning PA-NJ-DE.

[globalcitizen96]

Originally Posted by Bubb Rubb

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.

Thank you and yes 100% considering that into my decision- the Philly school is on par or even better for my education and career goals than my other options. I will be in healthcare and there are alumni from the school all over the country.

[globalcitizen96]

Originally Posted by kyb01

The OP literally said the school was in N. Philly so, lol, it's Temple. Plus, the OP is likely busy checking out the suggested neighborhoods and has stopped looking at this thread for now.

Im considering 2/3 of those school but leaving the rest out for sake of anonymity

[globalcitizen96]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

OP mentioned that their program being in N Philly is great because it can serve a community in need. As someone who’s gone through this, somehow I doubt this is a CS program.

You are correct my friend, healthcare not CS!

[globalcitizen96]

Originally Posted by Muinteoir

OP,

I have visited SF and live in Philly. Having visited SF, it strikes me as a really fun place to visit, but impractical to live there. Philly, although not as affordable as many smaller US cities, is matched only by Chicago in "bang for your buck" among large, urban cities. Philly does not at all feel homogeneous to me.

Here are my thoughts on how Philly compares in regards to things you do and don't like about SF:

Areas Philly will match/out-do SF:
- Walkability: Philly is incredibly walkable. Its tight street grid makes walking incredibly practical. Getting around CC on foot is very easy because most streets are one way/lane, so you rarely have to wait - it is very easy to J-walk. I think perhaps on NYC beats it in walkability, and honestly I'd go as far to say Philly is better.

- Decent food though not as good imo as people on these forums seems to think: Philly is easily a top 5 food city. You will have no complaints or lack of options. Quality food from around the world as well as some distinct Philly flavors.

- Parks: Fairmount Park is huge - I can't quick recall what it ranks. It connects all the way up to Wissahickon creating a fantastic path for biking, running or just enjoying nature. Much of Wissahickon and West Fairmount feel quite wild, which is very nice.

- Distinct neighborhoods: Philly is top notch in this department. From a post a made before: "I love the different neighborhood vibes, from the Italian Market European-lite feel, to the hustle of Center City, to the Baltimore Ave trollies with chess in Clark Park, and to the bridges, bluffs, hills and nature of Northwest Philly. With all these distinct neighborhoods, the city is well connected by public transit and the neighborhoods run smoothly into one another."

- Young crowd: There are plenty of young people, from the university and the recently graduated.

- Wonderful and accessible suburbs: Philly has some of the nicest suburbs in the country and highly connective regional rail to match. Just look up photos of the Mainline.


Where SF out-does Philly:

Weather: If you like to the mild weather of SF, Philly will be a shock. Our winters are true winters. Our summers are true summers and incredibly humid. I honestly love the seasons here (although winter gets old fast). Unlike higher latitude areas of the NE, Philly has a real springtime and a long autumn. But yes, our weather is nothing like SF.

Views: There are of course views, especially if you get on a cool rooftop, but they are nothing like SF. That was one of my favorite parts of visiting SF as well: Views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the skyline from Dolores Park. Yeah, we've got nothing to match that here.

And in regards to your gripes about SF:
- COL: As I stated, Philly is matched only by Chicago in this department. The "nice" neighborhoods are by no means cheap, but you can go to a "transitioning" neighborhood like Point Breeze, Brewerytown or farther West in West Philly and get a cheap place.

- Housing options: Philly still has a housing abundance, albeit many of which are in the hard-pressed neighborhoods and are quite dilapidated. We have great housing options here (Rowhomes throughout much of the city, Victorians in the Western and far Northern parts of the city)

- Public Transportation: I think Philly ranks just above SF in this regard. If you live and work nearby the MFL or BSL you are solid, but they do not cover nearly the majority of the city. Trolleys and buses cover the rest of the city quite well, but those options are less efficient.

- 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.

Thank you this is extremely helpful! Looking forward to my few years (and maybe many more) on the east coast!

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

There’s a rail right of way and single track on it though probably room for more that seems to go from Cheltenham station on the Fox Chase line to Neshaminy Falls station on the West Trenton line and parallels Roosevelt decently enough—were there ever proposals for the use of that for Regional Rail with stations?

The Bay Area also has SMART for commuter rail in Marin and Sonoma and the Capitol Corridor commuter rail line that’s San Jose through East Bay and out to Sacramento and a bit beyond.

Capitol Corridor, ACE, BART, Muni Metro, Capitol Corridor, Caltrain and VTA light rail are all currently in some stage of expansion/improvement which is pretty interesting, though little steps as the US generally does with mass transit. The slated improvements also seem like they’d benefit San Jose more so than San Francisco overall.

Even with those improvements, the meat and potatoes of good heavy rail rapid transit goes towards Philadelphia which is more to the OP’s purposes. Greater Philadelphia or Delaware Valley, like the Bay Area, also has a hodgepodge of agencies and services for rail service though SEPTA at least controls the lion’s share of services.

The return to population growth, and seemingly accelerating population growth, for Philadelphia is pretty interesting as the city is quite large and there’s quite a bit of room in places for development without displacement both within the city and the region in general. There’s a lot of infrastructure with which it’s endowed.

Regarding your first paragraph: That single-track line is known as the "New York Short Line." It's used by CSX for freight; it meets up with the West Trenton Line just south of Langhorne station and follows that corridor up into the New York area. There have been no proposals to use this for passenger rail service, nor IMO should there be, given the volume of freight traffic that moves on it. They had to add a third track to the West Trenton Line beyond Woodbourne so that freight and Regional Rail trains wouldn't get in each other's way.

The Greater Philadelphia Area really doesn't have the hodgepodge of transit operators that the San Francisco Bay Area does. We have five: SEPTA, which covers the five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania region: Pottstown Area Rapid Transit, which operates bus service in that one small city in upper Montgomery County; New Jersey Transit Corporation, which operates all of the intrastate mass transit in the Garden State; the Port Authority Transit Corporation, which operates the interstate subway between Philadelphia and South Jersey; and Delaware Transit Corporation, which operates all mass transit service in the First State.

The Bay Area has SamTrans (San Mateo County Transit), MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency), VTA (Valley Transit Authority in Santa Clara County [San Jose]), AC Transit (Alameda [Oakland and Berkeley] and Contra Costa counties), Golden Gate Transit (cross-Bay ferries and bus service in Marin County), Caltrain (Peninsula Joint Powers Board - the commuter train from San Francisco to San Jose), ACE (Altamont Commuter Express, another commuter train line run by a separate agency), and BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit District). That's eight agencies, several of whose service territories overlap.

Our regional rail network is more extensive than the Bay Area's; our rapid transit system isn't; we have better rail transit in the 'burbs, and our bus service is at least largely the province of one agency.