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I'm not terribly familiar with Canadian public transit, but Boston and SF are much closer in scale/access to Philadelphia than a city like New York -- particularly when looking at heavy rail, trolley and commuter rail alone. Interestingly, Philly's heavy rail stations (SEPTA and PATCO) also are third in accessibility by foot behind LA and NY, which is very important for access:
Overall, In terms of American cities, Philly's system is #5 out of 316 -- which clearly puts it into the upper echelon of transit systems. Again, not saying there isn't room for improvement, but your assessment deserves more context.
Youre missing the point though. Not sure why everyone thinks public transit is only heavy rail when its discuss on this site.
When I, or Walkscore rates public transit, we are talking about... everything. Hours of operation, the amount of bus routes, the amount of subway stations, regional rail, how long you have to wait for a bus/train, overnight service, accessibility, headways between bus/trains, population within certain distance from a major subway/bus stop, etc.
Everything is taken into consideration. Not just "this citys subway vs that citys subway system".
So when you you at the overall picture, this is why public transit in cities like Boston, Toronto are ranked higher than Philadelphia for a reason.
According to the link I posted earlier, achieving a 70 or better is considered excellent overall public transportation. Philadelphia was rated in the 60-something and did not meet the 70 or higher mark.
Also, there are many U.S. cities with higher murder and crime rates than Philadelphia: Washington D.C., Miami and Atlanta being among those with higher rates. So, if Philadelphia is third world, than D.C., is.
According to the link I posted earlier, achieving a 70 or better is considered excellent overall public transportation. Philadelphia was rated in the 60-something and did not meet the 70 or higher mark.
I understand what you're saying -- yes, based on overall score, Philadelphia does not meet the higher mark, but you also have to keep in mind that "excellent" and "good" are terms that are an attempt to add a qualitative aspect to these rankings. However, you shouldn't take them too literally as though there's a dramatic step down from a 70 to a 67. It's much more nuanced than that.
Philly is not a great city. Philly reps seem desperate to convince us that they are. It's cheap for a reason...
Gotta love the ignorance coming from a small town full of geeks. Boston hurling insults at an uber-urban city like Philadelphia, unbelievable .
Ive explained this countless times. The reason Philadlephia is cheaper in comparison to NYC-Bos-DC..
Geography- Philadlephia is landlocked.Surrounded 360 degrees by gorgeous livable nature. Lots of choices where to live where to work etc etc..
NYC + Boston are coastal cities meaning 1/2 of their land area is in the Atlantic Ocean. Real estate and COL rises substantially .Systematically Prices soar.Housing soars,office space,paychecks,the price of milk, a bottle of beer. They all soar.
Then you have to add the economic/business anomalies of Manhattan and DC which skew statistics even further.
Philadelphia is doing fine. From an urban standpoint its #3 in the USA behind Manhattan and Chicago.
As far as Toronto vs Philly? Toronto is the 19 year old Lindsay Lohan . Fresh faced, looks great at the surface but is there really anything there? Can you can compare Toronto to a classic USA city with 400 years of history and infrastructure like Philadelphia has ? Of course not.
water, humidity etc play in - generally this type of roll/bread is not as common outside the broader Philly/NJ/NYC area from my experience. They do taste different but that does not make a city better by any means.
Toronto and Philly are two great North American cities. Both with their pluses and minuses. I have limited experience with Toronto, liked it but didn't love it (Montreal is my Fav Canadian city but would probably put Toronto among my top 10 US/Canadian cities based on my experience.
Philly does have tremendous universities, cultural attractions, food, history etc. It also has many issues (crime, poor public school system, blight, lack of ability to generate new businesses at a proper rate etc.)
I am not sure the vitriol here on both sides to be honest
Dont see this as a pissing match...
I have no vitriol against Philly whatsoever. I know Afonega's modus operandi.. He isn't even from Toronto and yet this isn't the first and won't be the last thread involving Toronto where he'll come in and try and turn something that is a strength of Toronto - harmony of its very diverse people into a weakness which is that it doesn't have a strong enough 'identity' - he'll try to personify places as a much as possible and then bring in comparisons to other cities that aren't in the thread to further 'chip' away at Toronto and make it a T.O vs the world thread. This from a person who hasn't been to TIFF, hasn't been to one of the cities' many festivals, knows very few Torontonians, isn't familiar with its architecture and isn't familiar with its theatre scene which is the third largest in the English speaking world as examples.
Gotta love the ignorance coming from a small town full of geeks. Boston hurling insults at a uber-urban city like Philadelphia, unbelievable .
Ive explained this countless times. The reason Philadlephia is cheaper in comparison to NYC-Bos-DC..
Geography- Philadlephia is landlocked.Surrounded 360 degrees by gorgeous livable nature. Lots of choices where to live where to work etc etc..
NYC + Boston are coastal cities meaning 1/2 of their land area is in the Atlantic Ocean. Real estate and COL rises substancially .Systematically Prices soar.Housing soars,office space,paychecks,the price of milk, a bottle of beer. They all soar.
Then you have to add the economic/business anomalies of Manhattan and DC which skew statistics even further.
Philadelphia is doing fine. From an urban standpoint its #3 in the USA behind Manhattan and Chicago.
As far as Toronto vs Philly? Toronto is the 19 year old Lindsay Lohan . Fresh faced, looks great at the surface but is there really anything there? Can you can compare Toronto to a classic USA city with 400 years of history and infrastructure like Philadelphia has ? Of course not.
Exactly. Philadelphia is certainly not cheap. Is it cheaper than coastal cities? Of Course, because Philadelphia is not a coastal city, however it is certainly more expensive than anything in the Midwest or South with the only exceptions being Chicago and Miami which are similar in affordability to Philly. NYC is NYC, it is expensive for a reason. Boston is a coastal city, so naturally property values will be higher. Washington DC is the capital of the United States, it is way more landlocked than Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. also has a strict height limit which helps to raise property values because you cannot build tall to relieve the demand.. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle are all coastal cities again, which is why they're expensive.
I mean I know people are stupid but it's amazing just how many stupid people there are in this country.
Also, it would be funny to watch any of these guys talking this s**t to someone in Philly. They're teeth would be laying on the street.
I understand what you're saying -- yes, based on overall score, Philadelphia does not meet the higher mark, but you also have to keep in mind that "excellent" and "good" are terms that are an attempt to add a qualitative aspect to these rankings. However, you shouldn't take them too literally as though there's a dramatic step down from a 70 to a 67. It's much more nuanced than that.
There isn't a major difference between 67 and 70, but at the end of the day Philadelphia just doesn't have better overall public transit than the cities mentioned before. That's the point being made.
In addition, the gap is expected to widen as Toronto, Washington and SF all have major public transportation projects underway while Philly is just standing there watching.
Opportunity happens because Canada is easy to get in and that is a plus for Canada.They have access to a wider international talent pool that is helping Canada catch up to the US which is ridiculously too strict.
I'm not sure Canada is easy to get in. They have pretty strict guidelines and do not have extended family based petitions like the U.S. does. I do think they have a better pool of people to select from, for some reason the less desirable do not want to go to Canada as much.
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