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Old 06-14-2010, 02:37 PM
 
Location: Philly
10,223 posts, read 16,775,275 times
Reputation: 2972

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Quote:
Originally Posted by orrmobl View Post
Hey I got the drug info from an article on Phoenixville's Renaissance about 3 years ago. So either the local paper is lying, or you're wrong...hmm...
that's an overly simplistic read to suit your needs. I've been there, know people who live there, grew up there, and you go based on a three year old article. lets be honest, you have no idea what Bridge st is even like. "over the bridge" is on the way to nowhere. sure it's been somewhat sketchy, but it's hardly the core of phoenixville, it's over a bridge. and even that isn't all that bad.



Quote:
Originally Posted by orrmobl View Post
You can defend all you want but even Maestro, who moved to P-ville after hearing about it, moved away soon after...too sketchy for him.
honestly, uh huh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orrmobl View Post
Collegeville is way better in all ways except proximity to KOP and the cooling towers. Other than that, Collegeville has all new businesses and better class of people.
collegeville is an overpriced, poorly connected, sprawling crapfest. it got a huge shot in the arm when wyeth moved in, but that's petering out with five more years of layoffs coming. phoenixville is on the rise, in five years it will be even more like west chester and wayne. you can trash it all you want, but them's the facts. for some reason you have it out for phoenixville and are willing to lie about it, who knows why. the reality is it's a decent place to live and raise a family and there are parts of town you tell your kid not to go. taxes are relatively low and it's in the fastest growing county in the region.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:10 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
548 posts, read 2,012,307 times
Reputation: 117
Quote:
Originally Posted by orrmobl View Post
Hey I got the drug info from an article on Phoenixville's Renaissance about 3 years ago. So either the local paper is lying, or you're wrong...hmm...

That part of Bridge St was sketchy in 1995, is still sketchy today. And those sketchy people still live around there.

I looked at homes near downtown 3 years ago and the neighboring properties had Sanford and Son type yards and lots of shady characters just hanging around.

You can defend all you want but even Maestro, who moved to P-ville after hearing about it, moved away soon after...too sketchy for him.

Collegeville is way better in all ways except proximity to KOP and the cooling towers. Other than that, Collegeville has all new businesses and better class of people.

My friends ended up sending their kids to Catholic school in Collegeville because they felt the local kids were a tad rough - they would have flipped out if they had seen the Phoenixville locals.
I laughed out loud at the "Sanford and Son" comment. That's funny. And true, unfortunately. The western part of Bridge St is very junky, IMO.

I think it all depends on what you are looking for. If I was 24 years old and was looking for a nice strip of "downtown" to hit some bars, then I could deal with some of the shady-ness that still exists. (Or I would go to West Chester, I'd rather deal with the college kids than some of the riff raff in Phoenixville). But if you are past that scene and you are married with a kid, I don't know if downtown Phoenixville is what most people are looking for.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:16 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
548 posts, read 2,012,307 times
Reputation: 117
Quote:
Originally Posted by pman View Post

collegeville is an overpriced, poorly connected, sprawling crapfest. it got a huge shot in the arm when wyeth moved in, but that's petering out with five more years of layoffs coming. phoenixville is on the rise, in five years it will be even more like west chester and wayne. you can trash it all you want, but them's the facts. for some reason you have it out for phoenixville and are willing to lie about it, who knows why. the reality is it's a decent place to live and raise a family and there are parts of town you tell your kid not to go. taxes are relatively low and it's in the fastest growing county in the region.

I do agree with you about your assessment of Phoenixville's future, I do think brighter days are ahead. I just wasn't willing to see if that brighter day was in 2011 or 2050.
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Old 06-14-2010, 09:09 PM
 
1,623 posts, read 6,516,791 times
Reputation: 457
I am not anti-Phoenixville at all, I'm just a realist.

The place was a dump for years and is coming out of that period slowly but surely. It has very good schools and a promising future. I have readily admitted all of this and recommended it more than once. Heck I was even considering moving there a few years ago. I used to spend weekends there in 96 when my girlfriend lived there...of course we never went down Bridge St after the first trip over and back...it was scary in broad daylight.

Take it up with the local paper if you don't like them saying the place was strewn with needles and drugs 10+ years ago; I didn't make it up and I was surprised when I read it, but it certainly explained how crappy downtown was. Like Norristown lite.

But just because you pour syrup on crap don't make it pancakes. You need to get a new prescription for those rose colored glasses and see the area for how it truly was and is.

Why don't you enlighten us on why you hate Collegeville so? I personally prefer Phoenixville but I would say Collegeville has a better class of people. And layoffs will hit P-ville as well as Collegeville.

My kid played flag football in a Phoenixville league last year...very nice people...but some of the parents were definitely from the wrong side of the tracks and the "scream at your kid no matter what they do" school of parenting. My kid will be playing in another league this year because of all the fighting on the field - between teams and within them! It was more like tackle without pads.

I've never heard anyone call Collegeville overpriced; in fact a few years ago it was a "best buy" in real estate because of the schools and home prices. Seems to me you are basing your opinions on...nothing...please provide some evidence of it being so horrible. I know lots of people who live there and love it and the place is becoming more and more civilized as they build up the infrastructure. Without having to wait for all the scumbags to die so it can gentrify like another nameless town. What's not to like?

West Chester and Wayne better look out, huh? Thanks for the laugh!

Better look in the mirror, Bud, the liar and hater seems to be you.

Last edited by orrmobl; 06-14-2010 at 09:22 PM..
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Old 06-21-2010, 01:44 PM
 
119 posts, read 384,098 times
Reputation: 42
Lots and lots of nonsense in this thread. I haven't looked at this website in a while but there is some seriously out of line information. I live in Phoenixville, so if you want the facts on a place actually talk to someone who lives there.

Here is the deal: Phoenixville is a great town. I am downtown frequently during the day (especially weekends) and more frequently at night. I have not once seen anyone who would even remotely approach the discription of "thug." There are lower-class looking folks but its a rare spot and most of the uglier sections of town are north of the Gay St. bridge. Even there these lesser areas are "ok."

The schools are great, so when people suggested Catholic school I'm not sure what they were getting at. The kids in the school are anything but "rough." They are predominantly middle class to upper middle class suburbanites, which is just about what you get everywhere in the burbs.

As for Collegeville being more civilized...I'm not sure how to address that point. I'm a young attorney with a wife and we plan to have children in the future. If that's not "civilized" enough for you than you may need to get your head checked. The majority of our neighbors are young working professionals and young families. One neighbor is in his late 20s, single, working and taking night classes for his MBA. The neighbor on the other side of me is in her 40s and is a full-time nurse. Next to her is a family of 5... In the civilized category I think Phoenixville and Collegeville are on par. Whatever "civilized" means anyway.

Many of the school districts listed as being "better" on this page are actually on par with the Phoenixville district. Think a little folks. Look at the houses in Schuylkill Township. You really think the school district is going to be poor?

Whatever some of you want to classify the downtown as 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 30 years ago or 100 years ago is irrelevant. In present day the downtown is great and has a slew of restaurants, bars and shops to choose from. So whatever it was in the past doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot if its nothing like that today. NO PART OF DOWNTOWN BRIDGE STREET IS SKETCHY. Unless you somehow think a Family Dollar store in need of a paint job makes an area rough there is no way to say any part of Bridge after Nudy's is sketchy. There are lower class row homes on Bridge outside of the downtown but its not dangerous by any strech of the imagination. The core is filled with very nice housing options. Take a drive down Washington St., especially on the east side of Gay, and you will know what I mean.

As for drug dealers. I'm yet to see a single one. So whatever random comments people posted on the Phoenix, a weekly paper with laughable comments posted online no matter what the subject is, they aren't living in the same town as me. Take it from someone who lives here you're not going to find a drug dealer standing on the corner like some of these comments make it out to be.

Just to give you an idea on state-wide school rankings from school digger:

Montgomery County:
14th: Lower Merion
26th: Methacton
29th: Upper Dublin
67th: Upper Merion
71st: Spring-Ford

Chester County:
6th: Tredyffrin-Easttown
16th: Great Valley
28th: Downingtown
48th: West Chester
64th: Phoenixville
90th: Owen J. Roberts

Delaware County:
13th: Radnor
31st: Rose Tree Media
51st: Marple Newtown
75th: Haverford

Here is the bottom line: All of these communities are excellent and they provide excellent schools. I'm not sure why so many people feel the need to bash communities they don't even live in based off anedoctal information at best.

Last edited by Jfoldno7; 06-21-2010 at 01:57 PM.. Reason: spelling
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Old 06-21-2010, 02:22 PM
 
Location: Montco PA
2,214 posts, read 5,078,129 times
Reputation: 1856
Quote:
Originally Posted by pman View Post

collegeville is an overpriced, poorly connected, sprawling crapfest. it got a huge shot in the arm when wyeth moved in, but that's petering out with five more years of layoffs coming. phoenixville is on the rise, in five years it will be even more like west chester and wayne. you can trash it all you want, but them's the facts. for some reason you have it out for phoenixville and are willing to lie about it, who knows why. the reality is it's a decent place to live and raise a family and there are parts of town you tell your kid not to go. taxes are relatively low and it's in the fastest growing county in the region.
I don't understand why you hate Collegeville, either. It's certainly not overpriced and is no way more poorly connected to KOP and Philadelphia than P-Ville, unless you think that the drive along 23 through VF Park is a good connection. P-Ville is surrounded by as much sprawl as C-Ville. Where P-Ville totally beats C-Ville is the downtown. Collegeville really doesn't have a downtown to speak of. Of course, there are no shady parts in Collegeville, whereas Phoenixville has tons of shady parts and plenty of shady characters walking around. So, there's your tradeoff. People who work at Wyeth/Pfizer live in both places and I think you are greatly overstating the Wyeth/Pfizer influence on C-Ville. You seem to forget that thousands and thousands of people from C-Ville commute east of 422 to jobs in KOP, south on 29 to jobs in Malvern, and east on Germantown and Ridge Pikes to Norristown, Conshohocken, Plymouth Meeting, and Blue Bell.
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Old 06-21-2010, 03:05 PM
 
Location: SouthEastern PeeAye
889 posts, read 2,567,975 times
Reputation: 407
Quote:
Originally Posted by lititzman2003 View Post
If you're considering Phoenixville stay south of Route 23. There a few nice developments along Route 113.
Just a note to qualify this. Everything south of Rt 23 falls into the 'cul-de-sac' development category. That means you need a car to go anywhere, even down the street for milk, beer, bread or a rental movie. Almost all of the roads in that area have no sidewalks. And kids would never bike ride on them. Way too narrow.

In the town proper, north of Rt 23, this is different. Sidewalks, wide streets, easy to walk to and from grocery stores, delis, pizza places, and the downtown.
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Old 06-21-2010, 03:58 PM
 
1,623 posts, read 6,516,791 times
Reputation: 457
Oh I'm sorry. Phoenixville is great and problem free. It's where everyone wants to live! So sayeth the guy who plunked down money to live there. I live next to the "rich" section of Phoenixville. Those people send their kids to Catholic school. Think the locals are too rough. Take it for what it's worth...
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Old 06-21-2010, 04:15 PM
 
119 posts, read 384,098 times
Reputation: 42
Funny, I don't recall saying it was problem free. No community is. I used to live in Lower Merion, the place is outstanding, but problem free? No. Before that I lived in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country in North Jersey. The schools were great, the community was safe and the place still had tons of flaws. My point is that you told a guy asking if he should move here with his young family that if he moved to Owen J Roberts, West Chester, etc. that his neighbors would be infinitely better, that the schools would be better and the kids would be better. I disagree on all three points, and on one I actually showed you why you're wrong. On the other two I can offer only my experience, from actually living in the town, as opposed to forming my opinion from what others have told me.

You know a few people who don't like the schools, fair enough. But don't pretend that living in Owen J Roberts or West Chester is far superior, which is what you wrote in your original post.

Things like your vague "civilized" comment are based off of nothing and do nothing to tell prospective buyers what a town is like. If you wanted to be more specific, go for it. I love both Collegeville and Phoenixville, so I don't get your hostility based off some vague concept of civility toward one over the other. Truth is both are great places to live and raise a family and each has a different feel.
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Old 06-21-2010, 08:14 PM
 
1,623 posts, read 6,516,791 times
Reputation: 457
I'm sorry I didn't see any point "proved" so to speak. Wait until you have kids, you will be moving somewhere else, guaranteed.

Everyone justifies where they live for lots of reasons. I would choose Collegeville and West Chester over Phoenixville for the reasons I've mentioned ad nauseum.

Maestro used to live there and he knows exactly what I'm talking about.

I think Phoenixville is up and coming for sure but it's not quite there yet, and not on par with other areas mentioned.
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