New York vs. Philadelphia (Buffalo, Lancaster: apartments, rental, townhouses)

[welder]

I lived in Philly a few years back. 1500 hundred block of South Broad street. I completely disagree with the 2 or 3 times more expensive part. Philly is by NO MEANS cheap. Even compared to NYC. Unless your only comparing it to MANNHATTAN. I actually think Philly is over priced. When I first moved there I was really excited. I had been living in Chicago, and me being from Pittsburgh, i was glad to be back in Pa. again. But, after a couple months, it felt like I was living back in Pittsburgh. To me, Philly is just a bigger version of Pittsburgh. For the most part, it's a white and black city too. There are streets in south philly that looked like they were plucked right out of Pittsburgh. Rowhouses that looked EXACTLY alike. I never felt unsafe there. But Im a guy too. Maybe if I was a woman Id think different. Although, the week in a half leading up to me moving out, there were 3 teenagers shot an killed within a couple block radius of my apt. All under the age of 16. On seperate nights too. It wasnt just one shooting that killed all three of them. Philly's cost of living in pretty close to the outerboroughs of NYC. Plus dont forget, Philly has a 4% wage tax to all city residents. Its not as cheap as some people make it out to be.

[rainrock]

Good illustration solib although I think you could have extended the green a bit in west Philadelphia. Between Market +Baltimore is fabulous until you hit 50th. The Green in NW Philly should be a special hue as it is absolutely flawless.

IMO 1/3 of philly is world class, 1/3 is normal stable working class, 1/3 is so bad it defies human comprehension and unfortunately is the portion that usually defines Philadlephia.People hear about the crime +poverty in Philaldephia but they dont hear about the amazing neighborhoods like Chestnut Hill,MtAiry,East Falls,Andorra,Overbrook Farms,Spruce Hill etc etc etc.

Props to the individuals who took these photographs. Not mine.

[rainrock]

Welder I have to disagree. Philly is a closer resemblance of NYC than it is to Pittsburgh.There is a reason that Center Citys costs are fairly prohibitive, its a great urban area, one of the best in the country. After NYC, big drop off. Chicago, drop off.Center City is in the next tier with Boston, SF,Sea as far as dynamic downtowns go.

Here is an excellent lazy summer day photo tour of Center City Philly by Philadweller from skyscrapercity.com.

[welder]

Im just telling u my experience. Living in South Philly, looked like and felt like the Bloomfield (just a bigger version). I dont know if u've even been to to Pittsburgh or not. Pittsburgh skyline is rated in the top 20 in the world. Philly, like Pittsburgh, has a VERY blue collar FEEL to it. Chicago has a way MORE international feel to it. Im not dumping on Philly either. The history there is incredible (Pittsburgh fairs well in that dept too). Sometimes visiting a place and living there is different too. There is a VERY big difference between Chicago and Philly. Besides Chicago almost having twice the city population. Pa. cities and towns have a very different look and feel to them, compared to the rest of america. The housing stock, attitudes of the people, etc. Philly to me, is alot more Pittsburgh, than NYC. Did u ever see the movie "13th and Wolf"? If not, rent it. They filmed the entire movie in Pittsburgh. The movie is based on a true story about the mob in Philly. Philly is where the movie was supposed to take place. Now, if Pittsburgh didnt have a similiar look, they wouldnt been able to pull that off. Some of the movie took place in my old neighborhood there of Bloomfield. The drugstore scene was one from bloomfield.

[welder]

One more thing to add. If I wasnt from either NYC or Philly, and had to choose between the two, id go with NYC. Thats just me. If I had kids, probably not. But being single, Im going with NYC. The rents in south Philly are pretty close to the outerboroughs here. Not Center City, South Philly. Id rather drink in the bars here in NYC too. South Philly has some lame a.. bars.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by welder

I lived in Philly a few years back. 1500 hundred block of South Broad street. I completely disagree with the 2 or 3 times more expensive part. Philly is by NO MEANS cheap. Even compared to NYC. Unless your only comparing it to MANNHATTAN. I actually think Philly is over priced. When I first moved there I was really excited. I had been living in Chicago, and me being from Pittsburgh, i was glad to be back in Pa. again. But, after a couple months, it felt like I was living back in Pittsburgh. To me, Philly is just a bigger version of Pittsburgh. For the most part, it's a white and black city too. There are streets in south philly that looked like they were plucked right out of Pittsburgh. Rowhouses that looked EXACTLY alike. I never felt unsafe there. But Im a guy too. Maybe if I was a woman Id think different. Although, the week in a half leading up to me moving out, there were 3 teenagers shot an killed within a couple block radius of my apt. All under the age of 16. On seperate nights too. It wasnt just one shooting that killed all three of them. Philly's cost of living in pretty close to the outerboroughs of NYC. Plus dont forget, Philly has a 4% wage tax to all city residents. Its not as cheap as some people make it out to be.

You lived a block from where I live. I don't know where you went when you lived here but i'm not sure how you missed the huge cambodian and indonesian neighborhood along 15th/16th/17th Streets.

I don't know, i've never heard anyone describe South Philly as being a black/white place. There's no majority here. The Vietnamese are now the biggest minority just ahead of italians. African-americans are right behind then followed by irish and then probably mexicans. Still, there are indians, lao, thai, guyanese, jamaicans, albanians, serbians, algerians. You don't have huge enclaves like you do in NYC because neighborhoods here are, IMO, a lot more integrated. You have a neighborhood with a lot of chinese and russians or a koreans & puerto ricans or vietnamese/mexicans/italians.

I'm guessing you lived at Broad & Tasker more than a few years ago, b/c I don't how you could call the Cantina, the POPE, Devil's Den, the SPTR, Royal Tavern, 1601, etc - "lame." Those are all nice bars with awesome beers and good menus within a 5 block walk of where you lived.


There's no comparing what you get for your money here. A brand new, 2 bedroom, 940 s/f rowhouse, a block from the subway, with all mod cons, at 15th & Tasker rents for $950/mo. The only thing coming close to that in Brooklyn will be a tiny apartment in Bushwick or Canarsie
In Fitler Square, one of the best neighborhoods in Center City you get this for $1900 2Bedroom/2Bath with Great Outdoor Space & Parking
For the same price you get this at 117th & Lex
apt for rent by owner

Finally, the movie is called 10th & Wolf. It could've just as easily been filmed in Trenton, Wilmington, Baltimore, Lancaster, Allentown or Harrisburg. Just because a city has rowhouse neighborhoods doesn't mean they're alike. I've been to Pittsburgh. I like the place a lot but I wouldn't compare living there to living in Philly. First, no one lives in downtown Pittsburgh, certainly not 80,000 people. Second, pittsburgh proper is about 1/6 the size of Philadelphia and the metro is what, 1/3 the size? Pittsburgh is basically Northwest Philly with a little bit of West Philly thrown in - then take 1/4 of Center City and drop it in the middle.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Good illustration solib although I think you could have extended the green a bit in west Philadelphia. Between Market +Baltimore is fabulous until you hit 50th. The Green in NW Philly should be a special hue as it is absolutely flawless.

I wasn't trying to leave anyone out - it's just hard to work with a map that's broken down by census tracts and has no streets labeled. I was just trying to give a rough idea.

It's funny how you never hear people say "oh, be careful when you visit DC." or "I would never move to DC" even though their murder rate is higher than here and their rate of violent crime in general is 50% higher than here. People visit Baltimore and make it out alive without crapping their pants and the murder rate is twice what it is here.

People, NYers specifically, don't visit here - and when they do they usually wind up staying so there aren't many people left up there to have an informed discussion about it. That and, the NY Times likes to pretend that the second biggest city on the east coast doesn't exist or, at least, that it's a lot further than 100 miles away.

When I was working the BikePhilly table at the 5 boro bike tour people were either from central/southern NJ or PA and said, "oh sweet. I'll be there" or they were from NY or CT and said "oh, Philly. How far is that from here, like 3 hours?" We were standing underneath the Verazzano in Staten Island.

It's 60 miles from the Outerbridge to Woodhaven Rd. in Northeast Philly.

[welder]

The Pittsburgh of today's population is declining as I type this. Its half the size as it was when my old man was born. Compared to Chicago and NYC, Philly it is basically a black and white city. Of course there are asians and other races there. In fact from what I remember, alot of the laundramats where owned and operated by the asians. That was my experience there. I'm living in NYC right now. I'm sorry to tell u that Philly doesnt feel like NYC to me. I NEVER felt the energy of NYC in Philly. Not even close. Im just telling u my experience there. As I posted before, I'm not knocking Philly. And I dont care if Philly is only 100 miles from NYC. 20 miles west of NYC there's a big difference. Alot of NY'ers who are living in Philly now might disagree with me. I think of Philly, I think of a big Pittsburgh, sorry. Did I say 13th and wolf? My bad, I did mean 10th. I noticed u listed some rent prices. 900 to 1000 was the going rate for a 1 bedroom around south philly when I was there. I looked at studios for $600. Rocky wouldnt have lived in them! LOL Them streets in Philly can change on a dime too! A good rent might be on a horrible street. The diversity thing? I went to Philly on June 17th of this yr. My ex wife wanted to grab a few things from that Wal Mart over by the pier. I even made a comment to her about how white and black Philly was. When u come from NYC or Chicago the difference is huge. Now, a Pittsburgher would probably think Philly is diverse. These of course are just my opinons. The main reason I left Philly and went back to Chicago, I felt like Philly was just an expensive version of Pittsburgh. That is the honest to God truth. Believe me or not. Im glad I didnt knock Gino's or Pat's! LOL

[*Sweetkisses*]

Originally Posted by welder

The Pittsburgh of today's population is declining as I type this. Its half the size as it was when my old man was born. Compared to Chicago and NYC, Philly it is basically a black and white city. Of course there are asians and other races there. In fact from what I remember, alot of the laundramats where owned and operated by the asians. That was my experience there. I'm living in NYC right now. I'm sorry to tell u that Philly doesnt feel like NYC to me. I NEVER felt the energy of NYC in Philly. Not even close. Im just telling u my experience there. As I posted before, I'm not knocking Philly. And I dont care if Philly is only 100 miles from NYC. 20 miles west of NYC there's a big difference. Alot of NY'ers who are living in Philly now might disagree with me. I think of Philly, I think of a big Pittsburgh, sorry. Did I say 13th and wolf? My bad, I did mean 10th. I noticed u listed some rent prices. 900 to 1000 was the going rate for a 1 bedroom around south philly when I was there. I looked at studios for $600. Rocky wouldnt have lived in them! LOL Them streets in Philly can change on a dime too! A good rent might be on a horrible street. The diversity thing? I went to Philly on June 17th of this yr. My ex wife wanted to grab a few things from that Wal Mart over by the pier. I even made a comment to her about how white and black Philly was. When u come from NYC or Chicago the difference is huge. Now, a Pittsburgher would probably think Philly is diverse. These of course are just my opinons. The main reason I left Philly and went back to Chicago, I felt like Philly was just an expensive version of Pittsburgh. That is the honest to God truth. Believe me or not. Im glad I didnt knock Gino's or Pat's! LOL

Philly doesnt feel like NY and neither does Chicago. NYC is eons above any city in this country in energy, diversity and everything else. Philly/Boston/Miami/Seattle is closer to feeling like Chicago than Chicago is close to feeling like NYC.

[welder]

Your right Chicago dont feel like NYC. But Chicago to me, has way more of a international world city feel to it, compared to philly. And way more diverse too.