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I'm a New Yorker and I've been to all 3 of those cities within the last 2 years
Been to 2 of the 3 in the past three years. While I agree there is not much of a necessity to visit there when you live in NYC, it is a nice getaway. And a nice change of atmosphere. Boston and Philly are both world class cities after all, even compared to NYC. Boston has beautiful architecture and is like a slice of Europe in the US. Philly has gorgeous colonial architecture and has a much more affordable nightlife. In fact sometimes I think it is cheaper to actually go to Philly for a night out as opposed to Manhattan lol. Washington DC has much nicer weather, typically 5 to 10F warmer than New York. Doesn't seem like much, but those 10 degrees can be very valuable during spring. When it is cold and nasty 50F in NYC, Washington can be enjoying a much milder 60F. All cities serve their purposes imo
Been to 2 of the 3 in the past three years. While I agree there is not much of a necessity to visit there when you live in NYC, it is a nice getaway. And a nice change of atmosphere. Boston and Philly are both world class cities after all, even compared to NYC. Boston has beautiful architecture and is like a slice of Europe in the US. Philly has gorgeous colonial architecture and has a much more affordable nightlife. In fact sometimes I think it is cheaper to actually go to Philly for a night out as opposed to Manhattan lol. Washington DC has much nicer weather, typically 5 to 10F warmer than New York. Doesn't seem like much, but those 10 degrees can be very valuable during spring. When it is cold and nasty 50F in NYC, Washington can be enjoying a much milder 60F. All cities serve their purposes imo
I love Philly and DC, but I actually don"t like Boston, it feels like a giant college town to me. And I thought the nightlife in Boston kind of sucked.
And yeah Philly nightlife is fun and so much cheaper, I can geta Long Island Iced Tea for 5 dollars.
The Acela is the busiest because it's in the most populated corridor, and it's the only high-speed rail in the country. Amtrak might as well not exist outside of the Northeast Corridor.
All total, I spent about 25 years living in NYC, in various stages of my life. I visited Philadelphia and Boston once each, during that time period. No when I noticed that those cities frequently. Proximity to those cities was not one of New York's selling points. Proximity to New York is a selling point for those cities.
It may not be a selling point but hasn't stopped the influx of New York plates here in the city each day. Not just in the tourist areas, but also permanently parked outside of homes and apartments throughout the many nabes in town. So many Jets and Mets jerseys around these days, with a slight increase in Giants & Yankees gear. (Those have always been around) I'm meeting more and more people from Brooklyn within the past couple of years and even my lady was born & raised in the Bronx. Trust me on this, they frequent the city of Philadelphia a lot.
I love Philly and DC, but I actually don"t like Boston, it feels like a giant college town to me. And I thought the nightlife in Boston kind of sucked.
And yeah Philly nightlife is fun and so much cheaper, I can geta Long Island Iced Tea for 5 dollars.
I think it depends what you're looking for, Boston has plenty of sports bars. If you want to go to a club Boston has some but its not the place to go clubbing.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
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Two things that go in Chicago and Philly's favor compared to the other three cities:
1. Space. Chicago and Philly both several times larger than Boston and SF, so they have lots of land to work with and spread out the cost.
2. Deindustrialization. As much as they have recovered, both Chicago and Philly experienced a major loss of population (Chicago has lost almost 1 million since their peak, and Philly 500,000) and industry during the Rust Belt era. When that occurred, land and housing prices were depressed so much so that they are just now starting to recover from it.
It also created a situation where there is no lack of housing in either city. Something that was never true to the same extent in SF or Boston (which also were far more affordable in 80s) even though they experienced similar periods of population loss.
As for NYC..it's NYC. It hasn't be a cheap place to live since the 19th century.
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