Will Upper Darby ever be nice again?

[Tory McKenna]

Sorry for coming late to the party, but I just found this thread. To answer the question of when Upper Darby will be nice again, the answer is never. Even when I'm long dead and gone from this earth, UD will never revert to its former glory.

As for hipsters taking the late-night El from West Philly into UD, forget it. Not gonna happen, especially now that the post-Covid 69th Street Terminal -- ahem, excuse me, the 69th Transportation Center -- has become a de facto homeless and drug-addict encampment. 69th was never a safe place to begin with, and now it's even more unsafe.

Motownwave has it right: the area is declining and will probably continue to do so. Thank God I moved far away from Delco last year!

[itsamadworld]

Originally Posted by Tory McKenna

Sorry for coming late to the party, but I just found this thread. To answer the question of when Upper Darby will be nice again, the answer is never. Even when I'm long dead and gone from this earth, UD will never revert to its former glory.

As for hipsters taking the late-night El from West Philly into UD, forget it. Not gonna happen, especially now that the post-Covid 69th Street Terminal -- ahem, excuse me, the 69th Transportation Center -- has become a de facto homeless and drug-addict encampment. 69th was never a safe place to begin with, and now it's even more unsafe.

Motownwave has it right: the area is declining and will probably continue to do so. Thank God I moved far away from Delco last year!

You're wrong.

I don't know if there are any homeless encampments in Upper Darby or in Delco for that matter but I do know that everywhere close to the city limits is becoming completely unaffordable for regular people ever since the pandemic. I'm also not sure whether or not you know this but Upper Darby has no affordable housing or public housing. People will be priced out in the very near future, and the people running Upper Darby have made it very clear through their actions that they want to attract hipsters. This is probably because the most powerful members of Upper Darby's government are basically hipsters themselves.

They view Upper Darby as an entire municipality they can influence and control and run as their little experiment in a way they can't do with Philadelphia. There are few if any other places that close to the city that offer the same opportunity on such a grand scale.

I'd say it's only a matter of time until Upper Darby becomes a place that houses only the wealthy and the poor. In fact, that's probably the way a large part of Delaware County will be by 2030.

[delco1990]

Upper Darby has some of the coolest history in the entire Philadelphia area. Also, the housing stock in Drexel Hill, Lansdowne, and some of the areas in Bywood and Highland Park is absolutely gorgeous. Huge stone/brick/stucco homes with large yards, driveways, detached garages, hardwood floors and 4-5 bedrooms - where else can you find that in this area outside of the Main Line? I think a lot of UD Township's issues stem from the fact that it is a mostly suburban area lumped in with a fairly urban area. It's akin to Ridley and Chester belonging to the same township. Places like Drexel Hill and Secane and Aldan don't have a ton of bandwidth for commercial investment. Taxes are through the roof. The school district isn't great, although it's certainly not the worst suburban school district in the area.

I'm a die-hard fan of the area and a lot of others are, too. I think millennials and gen z will have a huge role in improving UD Township.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by itsamadworld

You're wrong.

I don't know if there are any homeless encampments in Upper Darby or in Delco for that matter but I do know that everywhere close to the city limits is becoming completely unaffordable for regular people ever since the pandemic. I'm also not sure whether or not you know this but Upper Darby has no affordable housing or public housing. People will be priced out in the very near future, and the people running Upper Darby have made it very clear through their actions that they want to attract hipsters. This is probably because the most powerful members of Upper Darby's government are basically hipsters themselves.

They view Upper Darby as an entire municipality they can influence and control and run as their little experiment in a way they can't do with Philadelphia. There are few if any other places that close to the city that offer the same opportunity on such a grand scale.

I'd say it's only a matter of time until Upper Darby becomes a place that houses only the wealthy and the poor. In fact, that's probably the way a large part of Delaware County will be by 2030.

I just did a Zillow search of Upper Darby listings, and save for a multi-property portfolio of rented houses priced at $1.25m, the most expensive single listing is a 6br/3ba house for $445k. After that, there are four listings between $300-400k and 14 between $200-300k. More than half of the 43 agent listings list for under $200k, with the cheapest house priced at $95k. That's still "affordable housing."

Drexel Hill, of course, is pricier: only three of the 27 current listings list for $199k (the lowest-priced houses in Drexel Hill). Prices rise from $200k to $679,972 for a 5br/5ba house.

In any case, this proves your statement that "everywhere close to the city limits is becoming completely unaffordable" incorrect.

[wanderer34]

Except for West Chester, Doylestown, and a lot of smaller boroughs, if it's thirty minutes away from Philly or in Philly, nothing will be nice according to some of the posters here!!! And the last two mayors suck BIG TIME!!!

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by motownewave

I walked down 69th Street the other day and was saddened at all the empty stores, litter, etc. And Millbourne right behind 69th Street Station is perhaps the most depressing village anywhere in Greater Philly. Drexel Hill, Westbrook Park, Clifton Heights, Aldan, Lansdowne, East Lansdowne, and Yeadon (all of which overlap with Upper Darby somehow) all were really nice at one time (I believe at least two of these were once made up of "country estates", alas no more) but now the charm any of them once had is overshadowed by the drugs, muggings, graffiti, eyesore buildings, etc. It infuriates me that these once-pristine neighborhoods are now among the most economically depressed, out of date, hopeless villages anywhere in the vast, vast Philly metropolis. Drexel Hill is the only part of Upper Darby Township that still has any charm whatsoever, and even then, the "nicest" part of it (the area surrounding Pilgrim Gardens Shopping Center) of course is somehow in the Haverford School District. That's probably for the best though, because I've never been a student there but have heard Upper Darby High School has really gone down the crapper - basically it's a haven for bullies who grow up to be thugs - and I really, really hate to stereotype anyone but the folks surrounding Barclay Square, 69th St, etc set the tone for the school more than the folks from Drexel Hill, if you get my drift (I have to censor what I'm really saying to keep this thread from getting shut down). And to add insult to injury, guess who just got a brand new high school building? WEST PHILADELPHIA, yet I'm sure it wasn't built to hold the future sons/daughters of today's University City hipsters.

This may sound like coded language, but who are the "future sons/daughters of today's UC hipsters"? Also, the reason why 69th Street looks the way it does is because the last two years was the pandemic. The entire city/area was shut down!!! In another couple of years, and if the dollar can come back to it's former strength, I'm hoping 69th St comes back to normal, but right now, it's going through a slump and the "commander in chief" is sleepwalking in office as we speak!

While I'm no West Philly fan, it has it's charm. Millbourne is the most dense community in PA. It's definitely not the biggest, but the most dense (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbourne,_Pennsylvania). Leave Millbourne alone!

Originally Posted by Tory McKenna

Sorry for coming late to the party, but I just found this thread. To answer the question of when Upper Darby will be nice again, the answer is never. Even when I'm long dead and gone from this earth, UD will never revert to its former glory.

As for hipsters taking the late-night El from West Philly into UD, forget it. Not gonna happen, especially now that the post-Covid 69th Street Terminal -- ahem, excuse me, the 69th Transportation Center -- has become a de facto homeless and drug-addict encampment. 69th was never a safe place to begin with, and now it's even more unsafe.

Motownwave has it right: the area is declining and will probably continue to do so. Thank God I moved far away from Delco last year!

Originally Posted by Pilot1

When was Upper Darby ever "nice"?

Originally Posted by kyb01

It's not dangerous. It just looks terrible.

Originally Posted by cpomp

I wouldn't say dangerous, but its definitely sketchier and on the ghetto side.

Originally Posted by elliotgb

Sadly, as the suburbs changed, so did 69th Street with business closings and having to take your life in your hands if you ventured there at night. Upper Darby became Upper Dumpy.

Originally Posted by cpomp

Greenville DE is going downhill quickly, the next upper darby if you ask me.

Originally Posted by kyb01

I lived near Barclay Sq for a long time. I left 20 years ago. It was dying then.