Philadelphia. Thumbs up-Thumbs down-or Ehhh? (York, Wilson: condo, crime rate, bankrupt)

[rainrock]

Curious to what the general concensus of Philadlephia is from a national perspective ?

From your point of view is Philadelphia a city on the rise, a city in decline, or a city you couldn't give two beans about.Some of the larger cities have very prestigious reputations others are horrific. Where does Philadlephia fit on the scale?


Seperate from the city poll question, expanding the subject a bit what is your perception of metro Philadelphia. If your workplace had to relocate you to metro Philadlephia what is your reaction. Ok with it,Severe depression, or I have no clue what I am about to get into?

[returnedYinzer]

Unfortunetly, I believe Philly has a negative perception across the nation. It is viewed as being a crime ridden and dangerous place(not for me though). I lived there, and thought the city was amazing. It reminds me of what a "real" city should look and feel like. I believe it is on the rise, and urban redevelopment is greatly needed. I use to work on 16th/locust st. I would love getting out of work and walking around all of Center city. I walked everywhere, and probably every st from 1st to the schools, from south st. up to the Vine st. express way. I am not going to say that Philly is peaches and cream though. I drove through a lot of Philly, and saw horrible areas. However, other areas were amazing and Fairmont park was great.

The good offsets the bad in Philly. There are really great and cool areas, but there are really bad and awful areas. You have that in many old cities across the N.E. IMO, that is much cooler then being a bland and clean sunbelt town with no character at all.

[hollygolightly]

Originally Posted by returnedYinzer

Unfortunetly, I believe Philly has a negative perception across the nation. It is viewed as being a crime ridden and dangerous place(not for me though). I lived there, and thought the city was amazing. It reminds me of what a "real" city should look and feel like. I believe it is on the rise, and urban redevelopment is greatly needed. I use to work on 16th/locust st. I would love getting out of work and walking around all of Center city. I walked everywhere, and probably every st from 1st to the schools, from south st. up to the Vine st. express way. I am not going to say that Philly is peaches and cream though. I drove through a lot of Philly, and saw horrible areas. However, other areas were amazing and Fairmont park was great.

The good offsets the bad in Philly. There are really great and cool areas, but there are really bad and awful areas. You have that in many old cities across the N.E. IMO, that is much cooler then being a bland and clean sunbelt town with no character at all.

Thumbs up, definitely. ^^This is all very true. Having lived there for several years, I have to say the Center City or "downtown" area is thriving, and of course there are the bad parts as well. This is true of any city, I believe.

[john_starks]

i believe its a great city that's trying to re-invent itself. it's been around the block way many times and has had its fair share of lean years. its a slow progress though. there seems to be a re-development rennaissance (but not as crazy as other cities). the nationwide condo boom has led philly to most downtown activity it had in the past 10 yrs. like returnedyinz said, its as real of a city as you can get. It has a true downtown that few can boast like NYC, Chicago, Boston etc.. and it still maintains its character given the proximity to NYC. that's a tall order. yeah, its dark & deserted in some spots making it very dangerous. the crime and poverty outside center city is the biggest hurdle. there are a lot of antiquated laws that need to be revamped as well (zoning, taxes etc..). that's why i'm hoping Nutter will step up and make it a great city again. hopefully sooner than later.

[CMDallas]

I didn't know, so i put that I didn't care.. sorry, most US cities are on the rise though.

[dullnboring]

I think that Philadelphia is a city that is on the rise and finding its niche, but that really has to get the crime situation under control if it wants to overcome its image problem. I would say that amongst your average person around the nation, Philadelphia has a negative reputation due to the fact that what coverage has been given in recent years has generally been towards its crime rate. For me though, since I'm very interested in urban issues, infrastructure, development and things like that, I'm very intrigued by it and see the city as having many positives and on the right track so far as redevelopment is concerned.

It's funny, but I have lived at various spots in the Northeast Corridor and have passed through Philadelphia on the train or car countless times, but have only properly visited the city once. This was around 15 years ago and I didn't leave with a very favorable opinion, but that was largely due to the fact that we got horribly lost in some of the city's worst areas and this was during the crack cocaine epidemic that swept across urban America, so the bad areas were REALLY bad. I would like to go explore the city now that I'm older and more mobile and have different interests, and plan to once it gets warmer out. I think I'd have a very different impression of the city.

[Georgia]

Philadelphia can best be described as a teeter totter since 1972.

As far as a city, in my opinion it will always be my city from the blessed Eagles, to our nations first capitol, to a city with more history than any other in America.

The issues with Philadelphia are more political than anything.
Philadelphia was a Republican city for over 100 years until the Democratic takeover of Joe Clark in 1952.

Granted, you had some rather good Democratic mayors with Frank Rizzo from 72-80 who cleaned up the streets with an iron hand, then a downfall with Wilson Goode.
Then came Rendell through the 90's who cleaned up the mess and made Philadelphia basically America's city. See the teeter totter?
Then, in 1999 Philly was blessed with John Street. During Sir Streets reign the teeter tottered, Philadelphia went down the tubes via financial and criminal. Common sense should have provided enough information about a former Black Panther, twice bankrupted, police record candidate, but hey instead of one make it two terms.

In January Philadelphia may have a chance to go on the upswing with the removal of Street and the incoming of Nutter. Heck, even today Street decided to take 111k of pay he supposedly rejected before.

Nutter has a major challenge as Rendell did after Goode but does have an uphill climb. Since the mayorship of Street, Philly has lost large amounts of business revenue and also over 110,000 in population flight. This is a hard wound to heal. Nutter will have to get tough on crime which controls the streets, he will have to work to reduce the constricting tax rates on both business and income of 6+%. And most of all, he will need to completely renew Philadelphia's reputation as the true city of brotherly love and not the current push you and shove.

Good Luck Nutter, you will need it.

[newmarlig]

Definitely on the rise with a new mayor coming into office.

[Duderino]

Philadelphia is slowly -- but surely -- making a great comeback. There is an INCREDIBLE amount of investment going on in the city right now, due in no small part to wealthy New Yorkers.

Although getting the crime rate under control is no easy feat, it is essential. Nevertheless, I don't believe is anywhere near impossible (Chicago, New York, and DC all brought their crime rates down significantly, and Nutter just named Charles H. Ramsey, former Police Chief for DC and Chicago, that for Philadelphia).

Here's a great article that National Geographic did a couple years back, which is very inspiring:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tr...10/philly.html

Go Philly!

[Tim Rankin]

Philly - big thumbs up!