Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am thinking about it more than just what they're known for. I mean, I love Philly cheesesteak, for example (if done right) and pizza sometimes, and hot dog sometimes, etc but for me personally it's more about what I have access to. Can I go out and get good X cuisine? Can I get a really, really good fine dinner? If you're going to be living in a city, I'd bet there's good chances that you aren't going to be eating philly cheesesteak every night of the week really.
Not to play the weird ratings game here, but there's only a few cities in the US that have a Michelin guide. Right now it's only NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco. Los Angeles has one but it's suspended and same with Las Vegas. Nobody else in the US has ever had a Michelin guide and that includes Boston, DC, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, or Miami. Chicago also has the #7 ranked restaurant in the world (Alinea) and for awhile it was #1 ranked in North America. Very cutting edge place for the food industry.
There's no such thing as north chicago versus south chicago. They are just geographical identities really. There are 77 "community areas" in Chicago (essentially neighborhoods). A few of the more well known ones would be Lincoln Park, Near North Side (i.e. Gold Coast - downtown and where many mansions are - including the original Playboy mansion), Hyde Park (where U of Chicago is), Loop (central business district), etc
Boston, Philly, NYC, DC all have great neighborhoods. It's pretty much the same in Chicago. The city is extremely neighborhood oriented and that's the identity.
So basically, if you do bus + train, Chicago has more ridership than both DC and Boston. For rail alone, DC has the most, followed by Chicago. For bus, Chicago has the most. Chicago's system is also physically larger than both.
Average Daily Ridership Counts:
Chicago: 730,000 for Train/Subway and 1 million for Bus. TOTAL = 1.73 million
DC: 901,000 for Train/Subway and 420,000 for Bus. TOTAL = 1.32 million
Boston: 530,000 for Train/Subway and 375,000 for Bus. TOTAL = 900,000
Personally I like all three and I like DC's actual cars the most.
Agree that Chicago and SF are the 2/3 food cities in the US (pick your poison, for me I say Chicago followed very closely by SF but really you cant complain about either)
I do disagree with your earlier assertion that Boston and DC are better food cities than Philly. Philly has made huges strides lately from high to low end. DC is importing Philly restaurants at the momemtn and they are some of the most discussed in the city right now.
On PT also dont forget that Philly daily PT ridership is about 1.1/2 million per day. I put Philly 5th though on PT with NYC/Chicago/DC/Boston ahead - Boston ever so slightly
99999999. Boston. It sucks. I hate Boston, it 's weather, it's sports fans, and racist residents. Boston is probably my most hated city after Cairo 2000 BC. I mean Boston is a uppity more boring version of Philly. Philly is Hip Hop (more interesting, up to date, hip, cultural, up and coming, booming, and out there.). Boston is Opera (Nice, uppity, boring, racist, and rich) I mean, I don't ever hear icons saying "I be out in Boston!"
I never would have guessed that you liked Dallas. What attracts you to it?
And as for the Boston comment I feel the same about Atlanta for a white person, lots of racism there towards whites.
I never would have guessed that you liked Dallas. What attracts you to it?
And as for the Boston comment I feel the same about Atlanta for a white person, lots of racism there towards whites.
Dallas is a nice city to me. The homes, the food, the women, and the culture. It's also a booming city with lots to look forward too. If I ever became rich, I'd buy me a nice Dallas mansion. Also as a white man myself, I haven't experienced racism in Atlanta. And Id live in Atlanta for the same reasons I said about Dallas. Unlike Boston. Atlanta is more trendy than Boston and more affordable attracting young professionals like myself to move there. Boston is expensive. And no you don't get wht you pay for. You get 40% of what you pay for and the other 60% you're paying for is BOSTON. That's right, the name BOSTON. Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Parts of NYC, Miami, Parts of LA, and Dallas are the true cities where "You get what you pay for." is true. If you have a lot of money, you live in the nice parts of those cities, if you don't, you live in the not so nice parts of those cities. If you're middle class, you live in the decent parts of those cities. Boston on the other hand is a scam.
Notice how D.C. and Atlanta always gets called out for 'racism towards white people', yet notice how they are the cities with the highest populations of middle class blacks? Maybe people are just mad blacks actually have just as much opportunity in those cities to live a successful life as other races. I don't know...it seems like it's only on this forum too....
Philly is not on the same level as San Fran or Chicago. More accurate list IMO is like this:
NYC, Chicago/LA, San Francisco, DC/Boston, Philly/Miami
You'd be very surprised by the emergence of the food scene in Philadelphia. It is truly amazing. I can't speak of the food scene in San Fran since I have not been there yet, but I know personally that the food scene in Philly is better than in Boston and DC right now. When I was in LA i didn't really enjoy the food much, granted that was in '08, and I have YET to have a good meal in NYC except in one random Pizza place near NYU. Food in Philly never ceases to amaze me.
SO? I live in Philly and I happen to love Philly... would live here even if I could have it any other way. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would still live in Philly in a highrise in Rittenhouse Square. Some people prefer Philly even over Cali... and with snobbish comments like that, it's not hard to see why.
I could just as easily say, everyone who voted for LA lives in LA, everyone who voted for SF, lives in SF, everyone who voted for Houston, lives in Houston, etc. etc etc... why do I know that to be fact? Because this is City-Data, and that's how it is. A bunch of homers, pretending not to be homers.
Never been to Chicago and haven't heard much about the neighborhoods there aside from North vs South. Personally all of NYC's neighborhoods look too similar. Same is sort of true for what I saw of Philadelphia,
Depends. In Philadelphia, a lot of South Philadelphia is going to look similar. Center City though, is going to have some varying neighborhoods. While Washington Square West, Rittenhouse Square and Filter Square will look similar, they will look different than Penn Center and Logan Square, which look different from Chinatown, and Market East, and Old City, and Society Hill, and Franklintown and Callowhill. UCity looks very DC-esk, but with some taller buildings. The areas surrounding UCity like Spruce Hill and Clark Park and Poweltown Village are very different from the rest of the city and have Victorian architecture and street cars, etc. etc. A lot of West Philly is very different. Lower North Philly is a mixed bag. Fairmount and Spring Garden may look similar to a lot of South Philly, but Northern Liberties is almost entirely new construction, so will look different. Areas like the Oak Lanes and far West Philly along the City Avenue corridor will be very suburban in appearance. The Northwest is a mix between urban like Germantown which looks like the rest of the city, and Manayunk, which you could mistake for San Francisco, with Chestnut Hill, which looks like a historic suburb on the Main Line, and East Falls and Mt. Airy, which really have no match in the city, to Roxborough which looks like a neighborhood in the Northeast section of the city. The Northeast, looks like a section of Atlanta. Mostly car oriented, except for the lower sections that border North Philadelphia, and drastically different from the rest of the city. So, it really depends where you go, but I think Philly neighborhoods offer some drastic differences.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
