What do Philadelphians think of the new "tallest"? (Allentown: luxury, closing)

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I don't have numbers but I guarantee Newark serves a lot of people who live in Philadelphia.
Newark is the main United hub between Philadelphia and New York. I am a United only flier, so if I lived in Philadelphia I would be going to Newark for every flight minus the few that PHL offers.

Philadelphia needs a direct to Asia, that is one big missing link.

Just keep hoping that AA continues to transition flights to PHL.

You are 100% correct about Newark. Many of my family members fly out of Newark to places in Europe because it's cheaper than PHL, and easier to get to than JFK.

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by MB1562

Unless you're flying business, I feel bad for you being a United-only guy. I had to endure a 12 flight from Shanghai to San Francisco this past summer on their "new and improved" 787 slimline seats. I never thought it was possible to have severe back pain at 26, but United proved me wrong. American isn't great, but better then United.

They are both so bad. I hate American with a passion, but I'm scared of these new slimline seats. Overall, American-owned airlines are pretty bad in comparison to some international options.

[MB1562]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

They are both so bad. I hate American with a passion, but I'm scared of these new slimline seats. Overall, American-owned airlines are pretty bad in comparison to some international options.

The slimeline seats are awful. I had to unfortunate pleasure of a 13.5 and 12 hour flight in them. It was awful and never again. It's sad that I've been on domestic flights in third world countries that had far better service than anything US airlines offer.

[kyb01]

The ACC was probably also killed as result of the Great Recession. The fall of 2008 in particular was really a lot worse than a lot of the general public realizes or understands.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by cpomp

American Airlines has been transferring a lot of great routes from JFK to Philadelphia (Prague, Zurich, etc.) That is a trend that needs to continue and one that will increase the attractiveness of PHL to foreign carriers.

Kenney is useless but not harmful, if Philadelphia had a competent city council, Kenney would work with them. The biggest setback for Philadelphia is its council and all problems come back to them (taxes, poverty, crime, etc). Philadelphia is poised to take off, but it won't until fresh innovative minds take over.



Not sure Philadelphia is losing out to Atlanta and certainly not Miami, but yes Philadelphia should have its focus on being a national and international center of business. The metro area is a center for business, the epicenter should be Philadelphia, not Montgomery County.

Do you realize that there are council members that do understand what you mean and see a bigger picture? The ones that aren't local famewhores? Do you even know who they are? Nutter came from council, for instance.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Do you realize that there are council members that do understand what you mean and see a bigger picture? The ones that aren't local famewhores? Do you even know who they are? Nutter came from council, for instance.

I know, an dI have been following the current campaigning, and I wish I could have time for some meet and greet of new people with campaign bids out. But I also want to wait for the pool to thin out a bit.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I know, an dI have been following the current campaigning, and I wish I could have time for some meet and greet of new people with campaign bids out. But I also want to wait for the pool to thin out a bit.

I really wish you were here!!!

Totally OT. Haven't read it yet but apparently the NY Times has a scathing report about Hudson Yards. I will be in NY in a couple of weeks but not near there. Your thoughts although they should be brief.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by kyb01

I really wish you were here!!!

Totally OT. Haven't read it yet but apparently the NY Times has a scathing report about Hudson Yards. I will be in NY in a couple of weeks but not near there. Your thoughts although they should be brief.

OT for a post. I read the article, I do agree on a lot of aspects.

In short...
1. Impressive marvel/feat of engineering.
2. The Vessel (beehive thing) is stunning to look at and great for a picture but pretty pointless and a great show of wasted and ostentatious wealth.
3.The mall is filled with mostly high-end shopping anchored by a mediocre Neiman Marcus. The interior flow/ingress/egress of the mall is odd and confusing.
4. The site is cold, rather barren, not built to human scale, no street grid. It feels like a fancy enlarged Commerce Square on Market Street.

I am sure it will improve over time as residents and businesses move in, but its not going to be the next Rockefeller Center, its just missing key elements.

This sentence from the NY Times sums up my general feelings

"It is, at heart, a supersized suburban-style officepark, with a shopping mall and a quasi-gated
condo community targeted at the 0.1 percent."

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by cpomp

American Airlines has been transferring a lot of great routes from JFK to Philadelphia (Prague, Zurich, etc.) That is a trend that needs to continue and one that will increase the attractiveness of PHL to foreign carriers.

Kenney is useless but not harmful, if Philadelphia had a competent city council, Kenney would work with them. The biggest setback for Philadelphia is its council and all problems come back to them (taxes, poverty, crime, etc). Philadelphia is poised to take off, but it won't until fresh innovative minds take over.

The only problem that I have with PHL is that many of the flights to and from PHL are very expensive compared to EWR and JFK, and one of the reasons why fares are like that in EWR and JFK is because there’s more international carriers (Alitalia, Iberia, TAP Air Portugal, Singapore) providing lower costs, therefore domestic carrier have to either provide lower rates or more affordable rates that they can provide. It’s called supply and demand. It’s nice that PHL is providing service to Asia but I save more money flying to and from EWR than PHL and that’s a shame because PHL is supposed to be home.

Originally Posted by cpomp

Not sure Philadelphia is losing out to Atlanta and certainly not Miami, but yes Philadelphia should have its focus on being a national and international center of business. The metro area is a center for business, the epicenter should be Philadelphia, not Montgomery County.

Maybe not in the present, but nowadays, Atlanta and Miami’s metro areas are close towards surpassing our CSA and Houston isn’t far behind us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combin...tistical_areas. Houston is bigger than Philly when it comes to its city limits, but even though it’s metro area is slightly smaller, Houston’s CSA has high growth. Ditto for Atlanta and Miami. The Philadelphia CSA is growing, just not on a quicker pace.

Plus seeing how a city like Atlanta changed from being a regional city and state capital in a matter of two decades is very remarkable and the envious at the same time and Miami has turned from a beach town into a even more cosmopolitan metropolis starting in the 1980s. I’m not completely sure whether Philadelphia can keep up, especially considering the Sunbelt is growing at an alarming rate!

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by wanderer34

Maybe not in the present, but nowadays, Atlanta and Miami’s metro areas are close towards surpassing our CSA and Houston isn’t far behind us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combin...tistical_areas. Houston is bigger than Philly when it comes to its city limits, but even though it’s metro area is slightly smaller, Houston’s CSA has high growth. Ditto for Atlanta and Miami. The Philadelphia CSA is growing, just not on a quicker pace.

Plus seeing how a city like Atlanta changed from being a regional city and state capital in a matter of two decades is very remarkable and the envious at the same time and Miami has turned from a beach town into a even more cosmopolitan metropolis starting in the 1980s. I’m not completely sure whether Philadelphia can keep up, especially considering the Sunbelt is growing at an alarming rate!

I disagree with just about all of this.

First, population, especially when comparing major metros of over 5 million people has very little to do with the significance or economic importance of a region.

Second, as you mentioned, Philadelphia is one of the smaller metros (land wise) and that cannot change as its bordered by NYC to the North and Baltimore/DC to the South. The Philadelphia area is also one of the oldest and most developed metros in the nation, an expensive metro to develop in, and there are a ton of zoning ordinances, protected land ordinances, NIMBYS and many other factors that for better or worse make development a much longer process than say Houston which is a developers paradise AKA a hell hole.
Also, the sun belt is the current hot spot due to cheap land, inexpensive costs to build, low overhead for corporations, etc. That does not mean cities to the North will languish, they are just not growing at that current pace. The Philadelphia area has not stopped growing in 300 years and will likely not stop, just very slowly in 2019.

Third, the Philadelphia metro area has one of the largest and most powerful economies in the nation AND it is among the smallest in land area. I find that feat to be more impressive than say Phoenix which is over 5 times the land area but 1/5 of the economy. And Phoenix just surpassed Philadelphia in population, but again that a skewed stat due to the gigantic size of Phoenix, and it has zero correlation to the desirability/ economic performance of Philadelphia vs. Phoenix.

Fourth, the Philadelphia area economy is larger than Atlanta and much larger than Miami, so I am not sure what exactly you are trying to get at here?

Yes we all know that Philadelphia has its problems (like any other city), but you can't sit there and claim that the Philadelphia area is not a major economic player, and it will continue to be a major economic player.

I am a huge tough love poster here for Philadelphia and I am quick to call out its issues, but you seem to be really digging and leaving logic out of this. The Philadelphia area is still a much larger more impressive metro pretty across the board compared to Miami and Atlanta... smaller than Houston, but I don't think any city should strive to be like Houston...