Chester County native now living in Los Angeles, hating it, wanting to move back to PA (rant!)

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Swarthmore/Nether Providence wont go down because of Chester. Swarthmore/NP design and architecture make it distinguishable and protected from decline. Aston is anybodys guess. You can not compare Aston to the Main Line. Aston is a pre 60's burb built mainly of 1200 sq ft bungalows and ranchers. Its an extension of Chichester who has seen better days. To make matters worse Aston is in the same school district as Parkside which has also seen much better days, they found someone from Parkside burning alive on the Chester/parkside border on Halloween night. Police suspect a robbery gone horribly wrong, and the guy ended up dying.

I will say the northern part of Aston towards Middletown Township is newer and the houses better built on much larger lots.

Right, I forgot Aston was a part of the same district. That tends to make things easier to go downhill.

Originally Posted by rainrock

There isnt much gentrification happening in the suburbs around Chester/Wilmington/Camden though.There are no success stories like Graduate Hospital or No.Liberties in the burbs.

The middle class and upper middle class simply head for higher ground leaving behind former stable working class towns. Chesters dysfunction has infected former pleasant towns like Chichester,Parkside. I have a friend who works in police enforcement in one of the delco towns and he keeps telling me the wave is getting closer and closer. The West Philly/Darby creep has gotten into parts of Ridley Township. The older once safe working class towns between Wilmington/Newarks/New Castle have seen their crime rates soar in the past decade.

Actually, there are places being moved to within the inner-ring of Delaware County. Places like Lansdowne and Ridley Park, for starters. Certain places are going down for awhile, namely all of Southeast Delco school district and most of William Penn minus Lansdowne, as well as of course Chester-Upland. Sure Upper Darby is going to get worse before it ever gets better but the district won't go down because there is money in parts of Drexel Hill to keep the district afloat.

It's a completely different situation from Philadelphia. You can't compare the two. There's no Center City in Delco. If it were anywhere, it would of course be Chester. Chester unfortunately though doesn't even remotely govern itself like a city. Even Upper Darby is more of a city than Chester at this point given the fact that it has an actual downtown.

Instead, the only way for the inner-ring to be gentrified is for Philadelphia's gentrification to be pushed all the way west and southwest into the areas above and below Baltimore Ave.

Also, one thing that people don't seem to know who don't live there is that those things have always been there. Clifton Heights has always been violent, just in the form of assaults before.. ditto for Upper Darby. When I was growing up in UD township there were a few drug houses in my neighborhood, and I moved out almost a decade ago now. No doubt places have gotten worse and will continue to but things need to be kept in context. Most of the worst parts of Delco have been that way for decades. William-Penn and Southeast Delco districts, for example, as well as of course Chester-Upland. Not all of the inner-ring is working class. Have you seen some of the homes in Ridley? Also, it's Southwest Philly that the worst parts of Delco not named Chester border. If Ridley ever does go down, it'll be because it's near the expanding West/SW Philly on one side and Chester on the other.

If I had to give a prediction for the next borough to be going down in a major way it would be Clifton Heights and South Drexel Hill, which have been been declining over this past decade. Then the rest of the 19018 zip code will fall with Clifton. Darby Township has already started to go down, thanks to the fact that it not only borders some not so nice areas but is in the same SD as them. The city is expanding. It's what happens when population growth and gentrification occur and people get pushed out to areas they can actually afford. We're just not used to it, even though the inner-ring really is literally an extension of the city.

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

By the way, Avalon08... I know it doesn't mean much coming from somebody who hasn't left the area to live anywhere else yet but it doesn't sound to me like you didn't "make it". Sounds like you didn't want to live the rest of your life in a superficial place with no real community or true diversity.

I admit that I think about Cali a bit at times but when I think about it, I think about the great weather, fun lifestyle, hot women, and things it has to offer and not even remotely about it ever being my home. It's not my kind of place. No matter where I go in life, I want to raise my kids in Delco someday.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by couldntthinkofaclevername

By the way, Avalon08... I know it doesn't mean much coming from somebody who hasn't left the area to live anywhere else yet but it doesn't sound to me like you didn't "make it". Sounds like you didn't want to live the rest of your life in a superficial place with no real community or true diversity.

I admit that I think about Cali a bit at times but when I think about it, I think about the great weather, fun lifestyle, hot women, and things it has to offer and not even remotely about it ever being my home. It's not my kind of place. No matter where I go in life, I want to raise my kids in Delco someday.

I Know NorCal and SoCal have very different cultures, but I felt the same way when I visited the Bay Area this summer. Great for a vacation, but something just seemed "off" to me.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by Avalon08

After two years, I asked to be relocated back to Philly. I moved to -- wait for it -- Willistown Township! The first thing I noticed on my drive to work was all the beautiful green open space and horse farms. After having lived for two years in a sea of humanity, housing and freeways, this openness came as such a pleasant surprise. CA is certainly a beautiful state, but so is PA, in a totally different way, and I appreciated it more when I came back.

I've spent a decent amount of time in SE PA on business. I love how you can head West on US-30 and in the blink of an eye, you are in some place like E. Berlin, surrounded by corn fields and feeling a million miles away from the "BOS-WASH" vibe. Sure we have aspects of that sort of thing here, but our E. Berlin / fill in other rural town equivalent is filled with dilapidated buildings and illegal aliens. In other words, there is no comparison.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Swarthmore/Nether Providence wont go down because of Chester. Swarthmore/NP design and architecture make it distinguishable and protected from decline. Aston is anybodys guess. You can not compare Aston to the Main Line. Aston is a pre 60's burb built mainly of 1200 sq ft bungalows and ranchers. Its an extension of Chichester who has seen better days. To make matters worse Aston is in the same school district as Parkside which has also seen much better days, they found someone from Parkside burning alive on the Chester/parkside border on Halloween night. Police suspect a robbery gone horribly wrong, and the guy ended up dying.

I will say the northern part of Aston towards Middletown Township is newer and the houses better built on much larger lots.

I lived in aston for many years before moving to Media, and that is not the true of a statement. Aston, brookhaven, and parkside all make up penn delco school district. Parkside worries me, because that small town is being eaten up by chester, and will go downhill in the coming years. Brookhaven is entirely a pre 1960s, post world war 2 town, small houses, small lots, cheap looking strip malls. I feel that brookhaven will be ok, and remain strictly, working/middle class. However, aston is much different than the other two towns. First off, aston is over twice as large as those 2 towns combined, and aston has a great mix of housing stock. There are some sections with small post WW2 homes, then you have 70s-80s split level and colonial style, then you have 2000s 4000-5000 square ft homes. Also aston borders middletown, garnet valley, and boothwyn, and the town is anchored by Neumann university, and a strong business base. Astons biggest problem is the potential for Penn Delco to be an iffy school district in the future because of parkside and brookhaven.

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I lived in aston for many years before moving to Media, and that is not the true of a statement. Aston, brookhaven, and parkside all make up penn delco school district. Parkside worries me, because that small town is being eaten up by chester, and will go downhill in the coming years. Brookhaven is entirely a pre 1960s, post world war 2 town, small houses, small lots, cheap looking strip malls. I feel that brookhaven will be ok, and remain strictly, working/middle class. However, aston is much different than the other two towns. First off, aston is over twice as large as those 2 towns combined, and aston has a great mix of housing stock. There are some sections with small post WW2 homes, then you have 70s-80s split level and colonial style, then you have 2000s 4000-5000 square ft homes. Also aston borders middletown, garnet valley, and boothwyn, and the town is anchored by Neumann university, and a strong business base. Astons biggest problem is the potential for Penn Delco to be an iffy school district in the future because of parkside and brookhaven.

Agreed, plus they have that movie studio there now too. I wonder if Parkside and Brookhaven fully go down, will Aston cut themselves in half and have the top half join one of the surrounding districts or will they try to hold up the rest of the district the way the nicer parts of UD township hold theirs up?

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by couldntthinkofaclevername

Agreed, plus they have that movie studio there now too. I wonder if Parkside and Brookhaven fully go down, will Aston cut themselves in half and have the top half join one of the surrounding districts or will they try to hold up the rest of the district the way the nicer parts of UD township hold theirs up?

That is a really tough decision that the school district is going to possibly have to look into over the next 20 years or so. I feel that Aston is going one way, while the other two towns are going the other way. Penn Delco is really a school district to watch, because it could either stay a solid district like it is now, or there could be some big problems and decisions that will need to made in order to keep it solid.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by cpomp

That is a really tough decision that the school district is going to possibly have to look into over the next 20 years or so. I feel that Aston is going one way, while the other two towns are going the other way. Penn Delco is really a school district to watch, because it could either stay a solid district like it is now, or there could be some big problems and decisions that will need to made in order to keep it solid.

The only difference I see between Aston(5.7 sq. mi) and Brookhaven( 1.7 sq mi)is that Aston has had some room to grow. Aston also has the benefit of some spatial seperation from Upland,Chester Township,Chester. Brookhaven should knock down their shopping centers right now and turn it into wilderness. There is no shopping at all in Chester and Brookhaven seems to be the go to place.

[OptimusPrime69]

gurrrrrrrrl, u is GOT to be out of yo mind.

I would do just about ANYTHING (short of sacrificing human flesh) to get OUT of chester county..... Living in Malvern is beyomd boring!!

Can we trade places please?
U can HAVE my place in Malvern. I live in nice community right off sugartown rd. . and I will stay in ur place in LA.

I would love love LOVE to be in LA.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by rainrock

The only difference I see between Aston(5.7 sq. mi) and Brookhaven( 1.7 sq mi)is that Aston has had some room to grow. Aston also has the benefit of some spatial seperation from Upland,Chester Township,Chester. Brookhaven should knock down their shopping centers right now and turn it into wilderness. There is no shopping at all in Chester and Brookhaven seems to be the go to place.

I very much agree that brookhaven is the place to go for chester residents, especially where the save a lot it. That shopping center is very seedy. Though aston is a much older town than brookhaven, the housing stock is much newer, and it just has a more suburban feel, brookhaven makes me feel uncomfortable, its not a go to town. Aston has actually seen a decent population increase because of all the new housing by Neumann.