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So I just moved to Tacony from Merchantville NJ 6 months ago and WOW! This is the perfect place!
I have lived all over Camden and Burlington Counties for the past 18 years (I'm 30) and recently my last lease in NJ was up, I was tired of the politics in NJ, and I decided to move across the river permanently, Philly temporarily, until I could buy a house in Bristol in a couple years. I still work in NJ, on the Palmyra Pennsauken border, all of my friends and family are in Camden and Burlington Counties, and if I ever had to find another job I've already had 2 job offers in Camden in the past year (I'm a tractor trailer mechanic). Point is, I'm in NJ even on my days off and the Tacony-Palmyra bridge has become a lifeline.
As time carries on I have fallen in love with the Northeast. It's cheap, it's not gentrified, it's not a ghetto, it largely reminds me of Gloucester City but bigger and with more people. It seems the housing stock is rather attractive, a lot of homes come with a back yard. There is none of the parking authority nightmare that I saw the couple times I've visited a friend in South Philly. Aramingo Ave is 1 I95 exit away, the Bensalem movie theater is a couple exits up 95. The Train Station connects directly to the NJT NEC and Center City, even though I only go to CC once a year for the car show. There seems to be an active organization to legalize backyard chickens in Philly, I signed the petition and I'm crossing my finger they introduce legislation to do that. Everything is just so close and convenient. I feel like the Northeast has a lot to offer that I have yet to discover.
I started browsing homes for sale in Tacony, Wissinoming, and Holmesburg. I've heard the place is going downhill (It clearly isn't what it probably was 20 years ago), and I've also heard the influx of immigrants into the northeast is ultimately what is going to preserve the northeast. Wissinoming looks rough even though I go to the Shoprite there and it seems there are good things happening in that area. What are the chances that Tacony is going to deteriorate into something comparable to Frankford/Kensington/Hunting Park? It seems safe from Gentrification, but I truly believe Tacony has the potential to be preserved as a middle class neighborhood. I hope it does. I see the rough edges, but I can't envision a total downfall of this area.
So I just moved to Tacony from Merchantville NJ 6 months ago and WOW! This is the perfect place!
I have lived all over Camden and Burlington Counties for the past 18 years (I'm 30) and recently my last lease in NJ was up, I was tired of the politics in NJ, and I decided to move across the river permanently, Philly temporarily, until I could buy a house in Bristol in a couple years. I still work in NJ, on the Palmyra Pennsauken border, all of my friends and family are in Camden and Burlington Counties, and if I ever had to find another job I've already had 2 job offers in Camden in the past year (I'm a tractor trailer mechanic). Point is, I'm in NJ even on my days off and the Tacony-Palmyra bridge has become a lifeline.
As time carries on I have fallen in love with the Northeast. It's cheap, it's not gentrified, it's not a ghetto, it largely reminds me of Gloucester City but bigger and with more people. It seems the housing stock is rather attractive, a lot of homes come with a back yard. There is none of the parking authority nightmare that I saw the couple times I've visited a friend in South Philly. Aramingo Ave is 1 I95 exit away, the Bensalem movie theater is a couple exits up 95. The Train Station connects directly to the NJT NEC and Center City, even though I only go to CC once a year for the car show. There seems to be an active organization to legalize backyard chickens in Philly, I signed the petition and I'm crossing my finger they introduce legislation to do that. Everything is just so close and convenient. I feel like the Northeast has a lot to offer that I have yet to discover.
I started browsing homes for sale in Tacony, Wissinoming, and Holmesburg. I've heard the place is going downhill (It clearly isn't what it probably was 20 years ago), and I've also heard the influx of immigrants into the northeast is ultimately what is going to preserve the northeast. Wissinoming looks rough even though I go to the Shoprite there and it seems there are good things happening in that area. What are the chances that Tacony is going to deteriorate into something comparable to Frankford/Kensington/Hunting Park? It seems safe from Gentrification, but I truly believe Tacony has the potential to be preserved as a middle class neighborhood. I hope it does. I see the rough edges, but I can't envision a total downfall of this area.
A former Penn colleague and friend of mine owns a bar just off the Torresdale Avenue business district (the Sawtown Tavern, on Princeton Avenue one-half block east of Torresdale) and I count the head of the Tacony Community Development Corporation as a fairly close acquaintance.
I think the Tacony CDC has done a very good job keeping Torresdale Avenue reasonably attractive as a place to shop and visit, and I don't see the signs of decay that I saw in Frankford in the 1980s there, either. (However: the strip no longer has a bank IIRC, as the Citizens Bank branch on it closed. I don't consider that a positive development.)
If the neighborhood can attract those immigrants that are making their way to Mayfair right now, I think it has a fighting chance. It's one of the stronger of this city's "middle neighborhoods" IMO. The Frankford Arsenal redevelopment on its edge should help keep it strong as well.
Frankford looks like it was such a nice neighborhood. What happened? I feel like it shouldn't be so screwed up. I've had people on reddit tell me that Frankford would turn around one day, and idk, I personally don't see the same value in it that I see in Tacony, but I really don't understand how such a nice place got so bad. It's kind of sad to see.
The Torresdale Ave corridor is very nice along the Tacony Strip, the Wissinoming strip doesn't look so good. I saw that the Boston Market closed down recently at Torresdale and Cottman. How it holds up amongst this whole virus thing is yet to be seen.
I feel like there is some value to it being along the waterfront as well. There isn't a bad neighborhood along the waterfront, and it seems like there are people investing along the water and around Keystone street. With the lofts and whatnot.
Frankford looks like it was such a nice neighborhood. What happened? I feel like it shouldn't be so screwed up. I've had people on reddit tell me that Frankford would turn around one day, and idk, I personally don't see the same value in it that I see in Tacony, but I really don't understand how such a nice place got so bad. It's kind of sad to see.
The Torresdale Ave corridor is very nice along the Tacony Strip, the Wissinoming strip doesn't look so good. I saw that the Boston Market closed down recently at Torresdale and Cottman. How it holds up amongst this whole virus thing is yet to be seen.
I feel like there is some value to it being along the waterfront as well. There isn't a bad neighborhood along the waterfront, and it seems like there are people investing along the water and around Keystone street. With the lofts and whatnot.
Frankford has potential IMO. Extremely close to Center City, great housing stock from back in the day when the hospital attracted wealth, close the river and not so big that it can't turn around. It has fallen hard though and is in really rough shape. The biggest issue is that the majority of housing stock is section 8 which basically prevents any meaningful progress in the area.
It is so mindboggling how the northeast -- mayfair, oxford circle, etc -- so deteriorated from my youth some 50 years ago. it's very sad.
Well, it is a shame for sure, but it's not all that mindboggling. Post-war, people wanted to live in a suburban-type situation with parking, yards and some distance from the noise and bustle of the city-proper. Over the last three decades, especially the last decade, people realized the value of living in the core of the city - walking instead of driving, and generally being in the middle of excitement and vibrancy. One by one, neighborhoods that were elite during the turn of the century, but then fell to abandonment and neglect during the 50s-80s, rebounded back to their original glory.
The location of the NE makes it a non-starter for what most urban people are looking for these days. The aforementioned change in lifestyles pushed out the section 8 and similar mess to the ex-urbs. Thus our situation today. Frankford is a bit different in that it is SO close to the city, has water access and has amazing houses (instead of crappy airlites). It will be interesting to see how long this strain of coronavirus lasts, when we get an effective vaccine, and what that will result in regarding urban living. Maybe we'll swing in the other direction soon. I seriously doubt it, but who knows what the next 6 months will look like with this pandemic.
I think all bets are off with this covid thing going around. In a span of a few months we've gone from the longest job growth in history resulting in full employment to the worst unemployment since the great depression. Everything as we know it has changed and until this crisis is behind us, proceed with caution.
Well, it is a shame for sure, but it's not all that mindboggling. Post-war, people wanted to live in a suburban-type situation with parking, yards and some distance from the noise and bustle of the city-proper. Over the last three decades, especially the last decade, people realized the value of living in the core of the city - walking instead of driving, and generally being in the middle of excitement and vibrancy. One by one, neighborhoods that were elite during the turn of the century, but then fell to abandonment and neglect during the 50s-80s, rebounded back to their original glory.
The location of the NE makes it a non-starter for what most urban people are looking for these days. The aforementioned change in lifestyles pushed out the section 8 and similar mess to the ex-urbs. Thus our situation today. Frankford is a bit different in that it is SO close to the city, has water access and has amazing houses (instead of crappy airlites). It will be interesting to see how long this strain of coronavirus lasts, when we get an effective vaccine, and what that will result in regarding urban living. Maybe we'll swing in the other direction soon. I seriously doubt it, but who knows what the next 6 months will look like with this pandemic.
I suppose you may be right, even though there IS a case to be made for the Chinese moving into Mayfair and above and sort of doing their own revitalization of sorts. From my perspective, myself and 99% of my friends and family have never seen any sort of value in Center City. The money, for me, is in industrial parks, scattered around the suburbs, and Bad neighborhoods like Camden where industrial companies can get easy zoning. It's just that Bristol and Bensalem are $1000+ to rent anywhere, whereas you can get very cheap rent in the Northeast, with the added convenience of how quick and easy it is to get to NJ and Bucks county suburbs, and everything you could ever want is so close and convenient.
I feel like Tacony has amazing houses as well. Mayfair has beautiful looking blocks and rows of airlites, but Tacony has an impressive housing stock in comparison. I don't know, I've never actually lived in a city until 6 months ago, so the whole "7-11 is only 3 blocks away" is totally new to me. Maybe I'll get sick of it. But every time I drive around town, I see these beautiful single family or dual homes with nice little backyards and I think "I can get that for less than 120k"
I lived there for a couple years, and I liked it. Definitely real carcentric though. In addition to the Citizen's Bank that closed, it looks like the 24 hour Wawa at Torresdale and Levick has become a laundromat, which I don't really understand in a neighborhood where there's no apartment buildings.
I suppose you may be right, even though there IS a case to be made for the Chinese moving into Mayfair and above and sort of doing their own revitalization of sorts. From my perspective, myself and 99% of my friends and family have never seen any sort of value in Center City. The money, for me, is in industrial parks, scattered around the suburbs, and Bad neighborhoods like Camden where industrial companies can get easy zoning. It's just that Bristol and Bensalem are $1000+ to rent anywhere, whereas you can get very cheap rent in the Northeast, with the added convenience of how quick and easy it is to get to NJ and Bucks county suburbs, and everything you could ever want is so close and convenient.
I feel like Tacony has amazing houses as well. Mayfair has beautiful looking blocks and rows of airlites, but Tacony has an impressive housing stock in comparison. I don't know, I've never actually lived in a city until 6 months ago, so the whole "7-11 is only 3 blocks away" is totally new to me. Maybe I'll get sick of it. But every time I drive around town, I see these beautiful single family or dual homes with nice little backyards and I think "I can get that for less than 120k"
Cool, Bud. I would love it if we got some manufacturing back to our county and our region. Best of luck. I am truly rooting for you and that scenario.
bacon, so go ahead and buy. put your money where your mouth is, and come back in three years and let the forum know where you stand. my view, however, is there's no future in the northeast. but good luck.
Well I'm not planning on putting my money anywhere right now. 6 months ago the plan was "live in Philly for a year or 2 and then buy a house in Croydon". I know little to nothing about the city's history, just what I've seen since I moved here in December. I just think it's a shame such a beautiful area would devolve into such a bad place. But I guess I'm gonna stick with my original plan of Croydon.
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