New York vs. Philadelphia (Montgomery, Bedford: sales, square footage, sales tax)

[welder]

I lived in PHILLY I know! Some of them Center CITY neighborhoods and others are gorgeous. The homes, the look, the feel. But saying that 90 % of Philly is "LIVING WELL" is way of base. You are saying METRO now. That could be said with NYC too if u included LI. Did u check out the Chicago forum and look at redirect to the Wall Street Journal? People have posted on here before acting like there was no $ in Chicago. I knew better. They got over 171,000 millionaires there. Id say that qualify's as a "little $" in Chicago. Almost EVERY city in America has AFFLUENT city neighborhoods. You every been to areas like Shadyside in Pittsburgh? It's far from a ghetto.

[welder]

I aint going to waste time by looking it up. But in Chicago, COOK county is basically Chicago. I dont know how far it extends into the burbs. If it even does at all. But it aint like La's huge county. The point is, there's alot of $ out there. Philly doesnt have a STRANGLEHOLD on it.

[DITC]

You said North Jersey office...I thought you were referring to actual North Jersey, which would have been some meaningless side office. The article stated it was the Plainsboro, NJ headquarters, which is Mercer County (Central NJ, and actually closer to South Jersey than North). This is a very good move for Philly, although they Blackrock isnt Deutsche Bank, I think this is a good step in the right direction.

Vanguard is a joke in 2008 compared to what else is out there. They just sit on your money and have predictable results. They do not attract top talent, and they do not affect the market like the big banks and hedge funds. Guys with Wharton MBAs and Phds flock to NY/CT/London/Chi/HK/SF, not Pennsylvania. You rarely hear of people doing statistical arbitrage, global macro, or complex quantitative trading in Philly and giving 40% returns to shareholders. Sorry thats not my opinion, thats just the way it is. The innovation in the financial markets is present OUTSIDE OF Philly at this moment. Philly has one market maker which houses much of its workforce in NY and Chi, and maybe a couple money managers that appear on CNBC from time to time. The day the real players come, trust me you will know. But for now, people in CT actively manage the money with the most cutting edge strategies, and they have influenced the market. That is a FACT. Nobody sees this type of activity in Philly.

This site is a quick example. Neither PA or NJ have job postings. CT has 19, all in Fairfield Cty. Look at the salaries.
QuantFinanceJobs.com - Quick Search

I think Philly people cant stand the idea that tiny little Greenwich/Stamford owns them in the finance world.

Originally Posted by rainrock

Yeah I'll have to look into this. I know Vanguard is the largest mutual fund company in the world and their HQ is in Chesterbrook-10 miles west of Philly. I'm fairly certain a region with 6 million people has more financial clout going thru its pipes then a city of 100,000 people.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by DITC

I think Philly people cant stand the idea that tiny little Greenwich/Stamford owns them in the finance world.

This is getting out of hand. Philly is envious of city X.Philly has an inferiority complex with city Y.Philly cant stand city Z. To be honest the Philly area is kind of in its own little world. We dont care about NYC. We dont care about Greenwich. We dont care about Stamford. Seriously we are kind of in our own little bubble who doesnt overly welcome visitors but almost all that go off to college return home to raise their families. Its a very parochial place, we're not out to take over the world, we're very content.

99.9% of the people in Philly could care less about Stamford /Fairfield Co.


I'll compare Stamford to my town Lower Merion which is upscale but middle of the pack upscale as far as the Philly area is concerned.


ECONOMY

Lower Merion township,PA

Population-60,000
Household income-$93,528
Income > 500k 9.3%

Stamford,CT.

Population- 119,000
Household Income-$68,403
Income>500k 2.5%

Nobody in the Philly area is going to be in awe of Stamford or Fairfield Co.. You need to get over that.

[bmwguydc]

Originally Posted by rainrock

This is getting out of hand. Philly is envious of city X.Philly has an inferiority complex with city Y.Philly cant stand city Z. To be honest the Philly area is kind of in its own little world. We dont care about NYC. We dont care about Greenwich. We dont care about Stamford. Seriously we are kind of in our own little bubble who doesnt overly welcome visitors but almost all that go off to college return home to raise their families. Its a very parochial place, we're not out to take over the world, we're very content.

99.9% of the people in Philly could care less about Stamford /Fairfield Co.


I'll compare Stamford to my town Lower Merion which is upscale but middle of the pack upscale as far as the Philly area is concerned.


ECONOMY

Lower Merion township,PA

Population-60,000
Household income-$93,528
Income > 500k 9.3%

Stamford,CT.

Population- 119,000
Household Income-$68,403
Income>500k 2.5%

Nobody in the Philly area is going to be in awe of Stamford or Fairfield Co.. You need to get over that.

You are correct. The only part of Stamford that I would compare to Lower Merion is North Stamford, away from the downtown, north of the Merritt as this area shares borders with Pound Ridge, NY and New Canaan. This area is a little more rural than Lower Merion, however, but downtown areas of Stamford are much more up-and-coming than established areas on the Main Line, since parts of Stamford were not too nice until recent years.

As for awe of Fairfield, I don't see it either, since Fairfield is not that dissimilar from Chester, Montgomery, or Bucks. Some towns, or some sections of some towns may be coveted in Fairfield, but that's more a function of housing stock and development style if one wants the classic New England feel of Fairfield, but then some are attracted to the Quaker style in the Philadelphia region as well, so that really would not be a factor. Overall, Fairfield is a county not unlike Chester, Bucks, or Montgomery, PA or Westchester, NY or Fairfax, VA, or Howard, MD, where you have affluence concentrated within the region. Any other differences about which people may like are lifestyle preference issues such as housing stock, etc., since many of the same conveniences exist such that any one county does not necessarily rank any higher once one lives in those areas. You can easily drop someone from Easttown into Greenwich, CT or Bedford, NY or McLean, VA and they would not feel as though they had been catapulted into another dimension, since they would have the same conveniences and neighborhoods, differences would be concentrated on geographic features, development patterns, and housing styles, with some cultural elements as well, but the communities are more similar than they are different and any notions of longing for one over another are due to personal preference.

[welder]

I think u are missing the point Rainrock. I dont care if every swinging d.ck in Philly was walking around wit hundred bills taped to their foreheads, and wiping their .sses wit the Wall Street Journal, Philly will never be NYC. Nobody would care. They know it, and it p.sses them off living in the shadows of NYC. The average guy in Philly walks around like some tough guy with a chip on his shoulder. Almost, how most people think (but the stereotype of a NYC'er aint true) guys here would be. They dont have nothing to prove here though. Pittsburgh is your little guy. Philly is NYC little guy. That how it works. I talked to a lawyer in the burgh from Philly. He told me Philly people are "paronoid" from living in NYC's shadow. The guy was from Philly, and that's what he said! How can u argue with that?

[solibs]

How can you argue with anecdotes and hearsay?

With more anecdotes and hearsay - most people here don't give a crap what happens in NYC. The only people that think that are New Yorkers. People here talk about New York about as much as they talk about DC, Lancaster or Atlantic City. Unless you're in art or finance it's really not that important.

[welder]

You really believe that I'd make that up? I believe it cause I lived in Philly and I KNOW how they ACT there. The women there even try to buffalo people. I end up getting into a big beef over the phone with this EXTERMINATOR when I lived there. The way this guy TRIED talking to me. I thought he was going to be 8 ft tall and built like a bull. After the screaming match over the phone was over, he finally shows up. I swear to God, I opened the front door of the building to let him in, I thought it was Danny Devito standing there holding a canister of rodent spray! The LITTLE italian guy was like 5ft tall. Everybody there thinks they're tough guys. Thinking and being is two different things. You guys do know that "ROCKY" was just a movie, right?

[scatman]

I will not go near comparing New York to Philly. New York is the international mecca, the metropolis, the city that never sleeps, "just like I pictured it, skyscrapers, everythang!" (Stevie Wonder 'Living for the City' quote).

But I will say this...I love New York more than anyone; born and raised. I will say, though, that people are looking for an affordable place to live with a whole lot more square footage than New York property. That's why places like Philly are considered by quite a few folk. Now, one has to consider other factors, such as jobs, salaries, quality of living, etc.

That being said, I am always attracted to college towns. Many, if not most, colleges and universities are situated next to ghettoes. However, many of those ghettoes, or distressed college neighbors, are on the upswing, due to university expansion and community/town/city investment. Morningside Heights/Harlem next to Columbia comes to mind. Also, I have friends who are Penn alum, who bought their house down the block from the campus (Spruce Hill). They told me of the needles they found in front of their house when they bought it. I couldn't believe that! But they bought their house at a steal (house is georgeous), and now that neighborhood maybe one of the best in Philly. It was a risk, but for them, it was worth it!

Now, tell me something...isn't Spruce Hill considered West Philly?

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by welder

I aint going to waste time by looking it up. But in Chicago, COOK county is basically Chicago. I dont know how far it extends into the burbs. If it even does at all. But it aint like La's huge county. The point is, there's alot of $ out there. Philly doesnt have a STRANGLEHOLD on it.

Cook County is the second largest County in the US behind LA County, close to 6 M people so the data makes perfect sense. There is no story here, its a feel good story for LA and Chicago who are part of enoromous counties. This data has no significance in regards to metroes.

Whoever said Philly had a stranglehold on $? I certainly did not. You've been busting on Philly and Philly metro pretty good and I have tried telling you its not in as bad as shape as you think it is. Thats all.