Doylestown PA to Greater Boston

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

Pension funding is supposed to be funded at the state level but it has been pushed to the local school districts in PA, which is making for HUGE problems in most school districts there. In MA, the way pensions are handled is different, so the local school boards don't have to deal with it directly.

The issue is at least being addressed in PA, with a new retirement mechanism for new teachers moving forward. Again, despite ranking lower than PA in a measure of unfunded liabilities, I haven't heard much leadership on this issue in MA:

Connecticut pension system worst in the nation, according to new study | Yankee Institute for Public Policy

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

If you look at any ranking of school districts, MA comes out at the top.

Look, if you want to speak to the aggregate, that's fine. I'll concede that the median school district performs higher in MA than essentially any other state, but again, it's a highly nuanced topic about which statewide generalizations are absurd.

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

You said Doylestown was like Winchester. I addressed that specifically. I have no doubt that the further out you go from any city center, including Boston, the more strip malls and chains there are. But, I have been surprised to see that even in towns further out, there are still cute and vibrant town centers with independent shops and restaurants here in Boston. At a comparable distance from Philadelphia, that is absolutely not the case. It's not that there aren't any in Philadelphia, but I have found a much greater devotion to patronizing independent, local stores here than I ever saw in the Philadelphia area.

I was referring to the "feel" of D-town v. Winchester, from my personal experience. Not their respective distances as suburbs.

And you just discussed how towns like New Hope and Doylestown are "so far" out from the city proper. Other very strong town centers like West Chester and Kennett Square would be at similar distances. Clearly strong main streets are not foreign to the outer-ring of the Philly area.

And any area that has among the highest small business densities in the US certainly has widespread commitment to them.