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Meh--from what I've observed, educated middle class professional blacks are doing okay in Philly. Not great, okay. Most of the educated middle class blacks live in the city, spread about, amongst working class, blue collar, and other variations of black folks. This isn't a problem, necessarily--but it can make networking, and getting to know other blacks that are similar positions and fields as you are--somewhat of a challenge. In other words, while Philly has rich black history, a large black population and gives you a unique urban experience--it is mostly a blue collar city, and as a whole the black middle class are spread amongst the city center, without a real "home" so to speak. In the greater Philadelphia suburbs they are scattered in pockets(especially if they have kids and want their kids to go to good schools), and are especially difficult to network with, let alone build friendships with as a transplant. What Philly has going for it is it's art scene, history, food(but only food close to the city lol), and the large black population. I've met a number of educated, middle class black folk, that were living in areas that are mostly associated with "working class" demographics. I don't know how well you'll eat in Philly as a black man in IT, but I can tell you that unless you work for a company with a black affinity group where you can network--or you join meetup, you're going to have to really put yourself out there, go to church, and so on to meet other blacks that are like you. In terms of nightlife? LOL. Every black person I met, when I moved out here three years ago, told me that the nightlife for blacks(bars, clubs, events, etc) in the city is mediocre. Many find themselves going to DC, NYC, and other neighboring places. I too have found that the nightlife in the greater philly suburbs is lacking for blacks. This is a normal thing--I've lived in other areas that are the same. The difference, however, is that Philadelphia by large seems to a bars and pub type of city. And no matter how many blacks are present in the city--there are certain areas where many of the nice bars have very little minority presence.
The only plus I can offer is that if you are in to spoken word, arts, concerts and such, you'll find a lot of venues for that....
As a whole, I don't believe Philly blacks are doing as well as blacks in ATL and Houston. In fact, there was a list of the top cities where blacks are doing well economically, financially, etc, and Philly was not on the list. ATL, and Houston were both on the list though. ATL and Houston also are known to have pretty good social scenes for blacks as well.
I lived in the Philly area on the Jersey side for a year and this is pretty accurate. But the region does have a lot of untapped potential that I hope is soon realized.
Meh--from what I've observed, educated middle class professional blacks are doing okay in Philly. Not great, okay. Most of the educated middle class blacks live in the city, spread about, amongst working class, blue collar, and other variations of black folks. This isn't a problem, necessarily--but it can make networking, and getting to know other blacks that are similar positions and fields as you are--somewhat of a challenge. In other words, while Philly has rich black history, a large black population and gives you a unique urban experience--it is mostly a blue collar city, and as a whole the black middle class are spread amongst the city center, without a real "home" so to speak. In the greater Philadelphia suburbs they are scattered in pockets(especially if they have kids and want their kids to go to good schools), and are especially difficult to network with, let alone build friendships with as a transplant. What Philly has going for it is it's art scene, history, food(but only food close to the city lol), and the large black population. I've met a number of educated, middle class black folk, that were living in areas that are mostly associated with "working class" demographics. I don't know how well you'll eat in Philly as a black man in IT, but I can tell you that unless you work for a company with a black affinity group where you can network--or you join meetup, you're going to have to really put yourself out there, go to church, and so on to meet other blacks that are like you. In terms of nightlife? LOL. Every black person I met, when I moved out here three years ago, told me that the nightlife for blacks(bars, clubs, events, etc) in the city is mediocre. Many find themselves going to DC, NYC, and other neighboring places. I too have found that the nightlife in the greater philly suburbs is lacking for blacks. This is a normal thing--I've lived in other areas that are the same. The difference, however, is that Philadelphia by large seems to a bars and pub type of city. And no matter how many blacks are present in the city--there are certain areas where many of the nice bars have very little minority presence.
The only plus I can offer is that if you are in to spoken word, arts, concerts and such, you'll find a lot of venues for that....
As a whole, I don't believe Philly blacks are doing as well as blacks in ATL and Houston. In fact, there was a list of the top cities where blacks are doing well economically, financially, etc, and Philly was not on the list. ATL, and Houston were both on the list though. ATL and Houston also are known to have pretty good social scenes for blacks as well.
What about a suburb like Cheltenham, where it is a generally middle class suburb that is about 33% Black and has some parts of the school district area that are predominately Black? Its Black median household income is actually above state and national figures in that regard. It is also a good school district and I believe that the school enrollment is pluralistically more/predominately Black. For instance, here are recent high school demographics for Cheltenham High: Cheltenham HS - Public School
Meh--from what I've observed, educated middle class professional blacks are doing okay in Philly. Not great, okay. Most of the educated middle class blacks live in the city, spread about, amongst working class, blue collar, and other variations of black folks. This isn't a problem, necessarily--but it can make networking, and getting to know other blacks that are similar positions and fields as you are--somewhat of a challenge. In other words, while Philly has rich black history, a large black population and gives you a unique urban experience--it is mostly a blue collar city, and as a whole the black middle class are spread amongst the city center, without a real "home" so to speak. In the greater Philadelphia suburbs they are scattered in pockets(especially if they have kids and want their kids to go to good schools), and are especially difficult to network with, let alone build friendships with as a transplant. What Philly has going for it is it's art scene, history, food(but only food close to the city lol), and the large black population. I've met a number of educated, middle class black folk, that were living in areas that are mostly associated with "working class" demographics. I don't know how well you'll eat in Philly as a black man in IT, but I can tell you that unless you work for a company with a black affinity group where you can network--or you join meetup, you're going to have to really put yourself out there, go to church, and so on to meet other blacks that are like you. In terms of nightlife? LOL. Every black person I met, when I moved out here three years ago, told me that the nightlife for blacks(bars, clubs, events, etc) in the city is mediocre. Many find themselves going to DC, NYC, and other neighboring places. I too have found that the nightlife in the greater philly suburbs is lacking for blacks. This is a normal thing--I've lived in other areas that are the same. The difference, however, is that Philadelphia by large seems to a bars and pub type of city. And no matter how many blacks are present in the city--there are certain areas where many of the nice bars have very little minority presence.
The only plus I can offer is that if you are in to spoken word, arts, concerts and such, you'll find a lot of venues for that....
As a whole, I don't believe Philly blacks are doing as well as blacks in ATL and Houston. In fact, there was a list of the top cities where blacks are doing well economically, financially, etc, and Philly was not on the list. ATL, and Houston were both on the list though. ATL and Houston also are known to have pretty good social scenes for blacks as well.
The "home" of Middle Class blacks in Philly is mostly Mount Airy/Cedarbrook, parts of West Philly like Overbrook/Overbrook Farms, Wynnefield, etc. and parts of Germantown. And outside the city-as mentioned Cheltenham, Wyncote, Abington and some others.
That's pretty outdated. Check out the link I mentioned in my previous post; that study is based on up-to-date stats.
Thanks-on the unemployment metric Atlanta, Philly and DC all appear similar with Houston leading. Chicago is pretty further down.
On income Atlanta/DC are the clear leaders with Boston, NYC, LA, Philly, Detroit and Chicago all more similar to each other than to DC/Atlanta and Houston in between.
I'd actually say Philly is underrated in this regard especially considering the difference in COL between Philly and NYC, LA and Boston. Not sure about the other cities but Philly has a long history of blacks working in city Government and Police Dept/Fire and places like Septa, Peco, PGW as well as private industry.
Does this mean Houston is better for blacks due to higher income levels and lower unemployment rates than the other black metros? lol
DC still has the highest income levels for Blacks easily. It looks like Houston has the lowest Black unemployment rate among the major metros ranked in the study I linked to though.
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