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It was an adjustment for us coming from the midwest (Michigan), I also lived briefly in NYC so it adapted me a bit to the east coast lifestyle. As adults (we were in our late 40s when we moved) it was initially difficult to make connections (friends) but that very quickly changed when we started doing our hobbies with other groups (my mountain biking, my wifes crossfit etc-) the area really does have a lot to offer and though I've missed the midwest every here and again I think overall I'm happier here and the proximity to so many activities is a major plus.
Because you mentioned Schuykill River Trail (SRT) I would say dont completely discount Manayunk, while I'm partial to Delaware County (Media/Swarthmore) I will say that Manayunk would be my go to area after this. Its near SRT, very bustling area for younger crowd (I'm 51 now but like to fake that I'm not lol). Also Manayunk is near Wissahickon Park which has a ton of hiking trails. Also Manayunk has train service but no subway which I think is a plus. Crime in that area seems to be at suburban levels, though next door Roxborough has had some issues these past years with teen crimes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMC2
Thanks for all the great advice, I’m excited to be moving to philly. The process can be a bit overwhelming when you don’t know a city very well, so the feedback helps a lot.
Thanks it’s very helpful knowing what the different boundaries are. Curious if you can provide feedback on the surrounding areas of fairmont, perhaps some streets to avoid? Also areas like Bella vista, queen village, and little Saigon. Whenever I read about the city it mostly just talks about center city and northern liberties. Just curious where most young professionals with families live?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl
I added to that comment after you read it; you might want to return to it. The subsequent poster who noted that keeping two cars in Manayunk will be a headache is right — and that goes for every last neighborhood within the city of Philadelphia save the Far Northeast and parts of Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy. In fact, if you decide to live in the city, I'd recommend ditching the second car.
The first neighborhood along Lancaster Avenue inside the city line, Overbrook Farms, is bosky, historic and very attractive. All that changes very abruptly once you cross 63d Street headed east.
I have a friend who lives in Queen Village in a small row home, he loves the walkability and being near Passyunk Ave (a nightlife hot spot) but he has to change his work schedule around parking (all street parking for the most part). I know Fairmount had some robberies last year and a person who was active in the community was killed in one of them. Its a great area though for the most part but for me (based on working in Philly limits) I found that any neighborhood too close to a subway brought with it teen problems (flash mobs which arent unusual in Philly, Baltimore and now even southern cities like Charlotte). But this is a cath 22. Queen Village and all the areas off Passyunk arent close to trains or that close to a subway so you have to rely on buses. I think thats why a lot of younger people did flock to Northern Liberties and Fishtown is that the subway (The L) runs right through both, and once in center city the L runs right beside the train line for commuters.
The train line here is great I will say, SEPTA is what our transit is called, its unique as that they have trains, subways, buses and trolleys (which my wife used daily from Media).
I cant really give much advice on Belle Vista and such. I do know that Northern Liberties, Fishtown and Manayunk are what I would say are the main young crowd areas, but of course (again) you have parking issues to deal with
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMC2
Thanks it’s very helpful knowing what the different boundaries are. Curious if you can provide feedback on the surrounding areas of fairmont, perhaps some streets to avoid? Also areas like Bella vista, queen village, and little Saigon. Whenever I read about the city it mostly just talks about center city and northern liberties. Just curious where most young professionals with families live?
Thanks it’s very helpful knowing what the different boundaries are. Curious if you can provide feedback on the surrounding areas of fairmont, perhaps some streets to avoid? Also areas like Bella vista, queen village, and little Saigon. Whenever I read about the city it mostly just talks about center city and northern liberties. Just curious where most young professionals with families live?
Adjacent to Fairmount on its east (other side of Eastern State Penitentiary; north of the prison-turned-historic-tourist-attraction, 19th Street is the dividing line) is Francisville. This is a lower-income neighborhood that has seen a huge influx of new construction and more affluent residents filling those new condos, townhouses and apartments. Its commercial infrastructure has yet to catch up with the changes, but it's not a bad neighborhood withal.
To its northwest (Girard College separates it from Sharswood to the north) is Brewerytown. This neighborhood suffered serious disinvestment in the post-1964 riot years (the riots destroyed the commercial corridor along Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue to this neighborhood's north), but it also has seen a flood of reinvestment that has added a bunch of townhouses and multi-unit apartment and condo buildings to the north of its main commercial drag, Girard Avenue. Along that street you will now find at least one gym, a couple of coffee shops, a couple of brewpubs, a craft brewery and some good restaurants; an Aldi supermarket and a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store (you will also hear these referred to by the older term "State Store"; Pennsylvania has a state monopoly on the wholesale distribution of alcoholic beverages save beer and a monopoly on the retail sale of spirits) at the western end of the Brewerytown business district.
The only other supermarket serving this entire territory is a Whole Foods Market at 22d and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where Logan Square and Spring Garden meet.
Generally, I'd still be careful venturing north of about Thompson Street (two blocks north of Girard Avenue) at night, but the rest of this territory isn't all that dangerous.
Queen Village and Bella Vista are next-door neighbors just south of Center City; both extend from South Street to Washington Avenue, and 7th Street is their common border, with Queen Village to the east and Bella Vista extending to 11th Street on the west. Both are highly desirable neighborhoods, and buyers with kids kill to buy houses in Queen Village, whose neighborhood elementary school is considered the best in the city. Entertainment and shopping are found mainly on South Street itself, plus Bella Vista also contains the historic Italian Market outdoor food market.
The younger set has largely been priced out of Queen Village and may be on the verge of having that happen in Northern Liberties; Fishtown, to Northern Liberties' east, seems to be where they're settling now. You'll still find them, however, in Bella Vista, Hawthorne, and especially the two areas collectively known as East Passyunk (after the diagonal commercial thoroughfare that runs through both) to the south of Bella Vista and Hawthorne. Some of the more adventurous ones are populating Point Breeze, once a neighborhood you were warned away from, which lies west of Broad and south of Washington Avenue as far west as 25th Street (above which an elevated railroad viaduct runs; Grays Ferry lies to its west); Snyder Avenue forms its southern boundary. This area, however, is a flashpoint in fights over gentrification.
Graduate Hospital, to the north of Point Breeze and south of Rittenhouse Square, is fully gentrified.
Thank you, your advice has been so helpful for my wife and I. We haven’t had a chance to physically get to Philly yet but have been doing a lot of internet searches. Queen village seems to be the area in the city that feels safe and provides a neighborhood feel. We also found a really nice place in East Falls, but with all the negative things we have heard about North Philly it’s making us rethink (area is close Allegheny west and strawberry mansion). Are you familiar with east falls? Kelly drive seems very accessible to the city, but if it’s full of crime and ect may not be worth it. Once again I really appreciate your feedback!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl
Adjacent to Fairmount on its east (other side of Eastern State Penitentiary; north of the prison-turned-historic-tourist-attraction, 19th Street is the dividing line) is Francisville. This is a lower-income neighborhood that has seen a huge influx of new construction and more affluent residents filling those new condos, townhouses and apartments. Its commercial infrastructure has yet to catch up with the changes, but it's not a bad neighborhood withal.
To its northwest (Girard College separates it from Sharswood to the north) is Brewerytown. This neighborhood suffered serious disinvestment in the post-1964 riot years (the riots destroyed the commercial corridor along Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue to this neighborhood's north), but it also has seen a flood of reinvestment that has added a bunch of townhouses and multi-unit apartment and condo buildings to the north of its main commercial drag, Girard Avenue. Along that street you will now find at least one gym, a couple of coffee shops, a couple of brewpubs, a craft brewery and some good restaurants; an Aldi supermarket and a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store (you will also hear these referred to by the older term "State Store"; Pennsylvania has a state monopoly on the wholesale distribution of alcoholic beverages save beer and a monopoly on the retail sale of spirits) at the western end of the Brewerytown business district.
The only other supermarket serving this entire territory is a Whole Foods Market at 22d and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where Logan Square and Spring Garden meet.
Generally, I'd still be careful venturing north of about Thompson Street (two blocks north of Girard Avenue) at night, but the rest of this territory isn't all that dangerous.
Queen Village and Bella Vista are next-door neighbors just south of Center City; both extend from South Street to Washington Avenue, and 7th Street is their common border, with Queen Village to the east and Bella Vista extending to 11th Street on the west. Both are highly desirable neighborhoods, and buyers with kids kill to buy houses in Queen Village, whose neighborhood elementary school is considered the best in the city. Entertainment and shopping are found mainly on South Street itself, plus Bella Vista also contains the historic Italian Market outdoor food market.
The younger set has largely been priced out of Queen Village and may be on the verge of having that happen in Northern Liberties; Fishtown, to Northern Liberties' east, seems to be where they're settling now. You'll still find them, however, in Bella Vista, Hawthorne, and especially the two areas collectively known as East Passyunk (after the diagonal commercial thoroughfare that runs through both) to the south of Bella Vista and Hawthorne. Some of the more adventurous ones are populating Point Breeze, once a neighborhood you were warned away from, which lies west of Broad and south of Washington Avenue as far west as 25th Street (above which an elevated railroad viaduct runs; Grays Ferry lies to its west); Snyder Avenue forms its southern boundary. This area, however, is a flashpoint in fights over gentrification.
Graduate Hospital, to the north of Point Breeze and south of Rittenhouse Square, is fully gentrified.
Thank you, your advice has been so helpful for my wife and I. We haven’t had a chance to physically get to Philly yet but have been doing a lot of internet searches. Queen village seems to be the area in the city that feels safe and provides a neighborhood feel. We also found a really nice place in East Falls, but with all the negative things we have heard about North Philly it’s making us rethink (area is close Allegheny west and strawberry mansion). Are you familiar with east falls? Kelly drive seems very accessible to the city, but if it’s full of crime and ect may not be worth it. Once again I really appreciate your feedback!
East Falls is located where North and Northwest Philadelphia meet, but it's really considered a world unto itself. If I had to tie it into one of the grand divisions of the city, however, it would be Northwest, not North, Philadelphia.
A freeway separates the bulk of the neighborhood from Allegheny West, and Strawberry Mansion lies to Allegheny West's south. It also shares a border with Germantown along Wissahickon Avenue, and to an extent northern East Falls and Germantown's west edge (I'll save the vagaries of local geography for later) blur together. (East Falls' independent "hypervocal" newspaper, The Local, covers both the Falls and Germantown; you'll find me listed on its masthead with the title "Germantown Editor," a role I have yet to completely fulfill.)
Crime really isn't a serious issue in the Falls. The part of the neighborhood closer to the river consists mainly of well-kept rowhouses, including some Tudor rowhouses along Midvale Avenue and adjacent streets on either side of it that are absolutely gorgeous and not that expensive. As you approach Henry Avenue, the rowhouses give way to twins and freestanding single-family homes, which pretty much take over completely between Henry and Wissahickon avenues. One of those freestanding homes on Henry Avenue, a Colonial built in the 1920s about a block or two north of Midvale, has a state historical marker in front of it because it was the home of local legend John B. "Jack" Kelly, who was famed for his oarsmanship (East River Drive, along which the rowing clubs are located, was renamed for him) and also for being the father of the woman we later knew as Princess Grace after she married Prince Rainier of Monaco.
The neighborhood is also popular with local pols: both former U.S. Senator Arlen Spector and former Mayor and Governor Ed Rendell call it home (called in the late Sen. Spector's case).
So does my landlord, who lives in a huge ca. 1900 Colonial cater-corner from the back entrance to William Penn Charter School, one of the city's oldest (founded 1689) and most prestigious private schools.
There are a few very good restaurants clustered around the neighborhood's central commercial intersection, Ridge and Midvale avenues, and some other great places to dine and (especially) drink scattered about the neighborhood; one local institution I'd recommend to you highly is Billy Murphy's Irish Saloon, at Conrad Street and Indian Queen Lane, once the city reopens.
The closest supermarket to the neighborhood is a ginormous ShopRite located in Bakers Centre, a shopping center on Fox Street between the Roosevelt Expressway and Hunting Park Avenue. (It gets its name because it was built on the site of the old Tasty Baking Company (Tastykake, another Philadelphia icon) plant.) Southwest Germantowners also go there.
Thanks so much! You mention not venturing north of Thompson st at night, would that mean that brewerytown is not a safe area?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl
Adjacent to Fairmount on its east (other side of Eastern State Penitentiary; north of the prison-turned-historic-tourist-attraction, 19th Street is the dividing line) is Francisville. This is a lower-income neighborhood that has seen a huge influx of new construction and more affluent residents filling those new condos, townhouses and apartments. Its commercial infrastructure has yet to catch up with the changes, but it's not a bad neighborhood withal.
To its northwest (Girard College separates it from Sharswood to the north) is Brewerytown. This neighborhood suffered serious disinvestment in the post-1964 riot years (the riots destroyed the commercial corridor along Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue to this neighborhood's north), but it also has seen a flood of reinvestment that has added a bunch of townhouses and multi-unit apartment and condo buildings to the north of its main commercial drag, Girard Avenue. Along that street you will now find at least one gym, a couple of coffee shops, a couple of brewpubs, a craft brewery and some good restaurants; an Aldi supermarket and a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store (you will also hear these referred to by the older term "State Store"; Pennsylvania has a state monopoly on the wholesale distribution of alcoholic beverages save beer and a monopoly on the retail sale of spirits) at the western end of the Brewerytown business district.
The only other supermarket serving this entire territory is a Whole Foods Market at 22d and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where Logan Square and Spring Garden meet.
Generally, I'd still be careful venturing north of about Thompson Street (two blocks north of Girard Avenue) at night, but the rest of this territory isn't all that dangerous.
Queen Village and Bella Vista are next-door neighbors just south of Center City; both extend from South Street to Washington Avenue, and 7th Street is their common border, with Queen Village to the east and Bella Vista extending to 11th Street on the west. Both are highly desirable neighborhoods, and buyers with kids kill to buy houses in Queen Village, whose neighborhood elementary school is considered the best in the city. Entertainment and shopping are found mainly on South Street itself, plus Bella Vista also contains the historic Italian Market outdoor food market.
The younger set has largely been priced out of Queen Village and may be on the verge of having that happen in Northern Liberties; Fishtown, to Northern Liberties' east, seems to be where they're settling now. You'll still find them, however, in Bella Vista, Hawthorne, and especially the two areas collectively known as East Passyunk (after the diagonal commercial thoroughfare that runs through both) to the south of Bella Vista and Hawthorne. Some of the more adventurous ones are populating Point Breeze, once a neighborhood you were warned away from, which lies west of Broad and south of Washington Avenue as far west as 25th Street (above which an elevated railroad viaduct runs; Grays Ferry lies to its west); Snyder Avenue forms its southern boundary. This area, however, is a flashpoint in fights over gentrification.
Graduate Hospital, to the north of Point Breeze and south of Rittenhouse Square, is fully gentrified.
Thanks so much! You mention not venturing north of Thompson st at night, would that mean that brewerytown is not a safe area?
Brewerytown is certainly not the best. It's a Point Breeze type situation IMO. Vastly overvalued and still extremely rough around the edges with limited QOL adds like entertainment venues. For some reason those two neighborhoods have been touted as the next best thing for a solid decade, but they never seem to live up to that title. Meanwhile other neighborhoods continue to advance quickly and run circles around them. I'm hoping they both get there one day soon...
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