Ugliest parts of the city/Camden - where? (Philadelphia, Erie: apartments, condo)

[Joe84323]

I was reading a New York thread of this kid from Kansas who was visiting New York to see the ghetto areas, and they were recommending areas for him to go.

I was wondering, where are the very worst, most decrepit areas of Phila? Specific blocks where the rowhomes have nothing but a boarded up facade?

Maybe it's possible to link google streetview to the areas.

For example, I'm not talking about busy drug corners like Kensington and Somerset - more like areas in West Philly which are creepy, dilapidated, dark. Completely bombed out.

Where can you go for blocks without seeing an occupied rowhome? Please link to google streetview if possible

[frankgn87]

why

[bryson662001]

I once went north on N 13th St trying to avoid bad rush hour traffic and at it's northern end, between York and Glenwood, well north of Temple there were many empty shells and houses missing all together replaced by empty lots or whole empty blocks and it was summer time and most of the area was overgrown with untrimmed trees and weeds. It wasn't particularly ugly but it was very quiet, devoid of people and kind of spooky since it's only a block from crowded Broad St. South of York they were building new housing and I guess it will continue to move north until some day the place I am talking about will be all redeveloped.

[bryson662001]

I think the ugliest parts of Philly are the oil refineries in the SW towards the airport and the auto parts/scrap yards on Passyunk/Enterprise Av. north of the auto mall.

[Clark Park]

How about Strawberry Mansion? Abandoned, dilapidated houses, garbage strewn lots, etc.

Of course Kensington has a well deserved reputation for being dodgy.

One place I find scary in West Philly is Mount Moriah Cemetery. To think Betsy Ross was once buried there. Kissessing at 62nd St.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

I think the ugliest parts of Philly are the oil refineries in the SW towards the airport and the auto parts/scrap yards on Passyunk/Enterprise Av. north of the auto mall.

I always hated that one of the major routes from the airport takes visitors past these refineries. This is not the best welcome to Philly...

[FrankInPhilly]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I always hated that one of the major routes from the airport takes visitors past these refineries. This is not the best welcome to Philly...

Didn't one of the recent (Rendell, maybe?) Philly mayors require cabs to take I95 instead of the Platt Bridge/291 route because the latter was so ... unaesthetic? Ironically, one of the best murals in the city - Welcome to Philadelphia - is on a tank in the Sunoco refinery, more or less across from the auto scrap yard. You could easily miss it when you're coming off the Platt and focusing on traffic, activity at the scrap yard, and/or taking in the view of Center City.

[Clark Park]

Frank, I love that mural. I used to pass it every day because a year ago I was working in Wilmington and living in West Philly.

The Sunoco oil refinery is not ugly in my opinion. It is an industrial landscape that I actually find interesting, reminds of the the great works by early twentieth century American "Precisionist" painters like Charles Demuth and Peter Blume.

Back in 2004 my uncle came to live with me after he lost his condo in Miami Beach and he had never lived in Philly. We were driving around and he remarked that he didn't like all the rowhouses; it somehow looked so working class and banal to him. To me there is a kind of beauty in the brick row homes, I find it charming that this is a city of homeowners and it's a place where people sometimes sit on their front stoop.

[otters21]

I think the along Kensington Ave. between Girard and Erie Aves. under the Market-Frankford El is very creepy looking with ugly 3 story buildings with shuttered store fronts on the lower floor and abandoned apartments on the upper two stories. It has been that way since the 1980s and have since gotten worse.

[bryson662001]

Originally Posted by otters21

I think the along Kensington Ave. between Girard and Erie Aves. under the Market-Frankford El is very creepy looking with ugly 3 story buildings with shuttered store fronts on the lower floor and abandoned apartments on the upper two stories. It has been that way since the 1980s and have since gotten worse.

On the other hand if you are lonely and looking for a "date", Kensington is still the neighborhood to go to.