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Well no, that's actually not why. At one time it would've been somewhat valid. A more contemporary stereotype might be a lakeview dudebro, for instance.
New York pedestrians are less aggressive than I thought. As a visitor, I find myself consistently the first to jaywalk and generally faster than most despite being from a mid-sized West Coast city.
I spent two days in Philadelphia earlier this week, and the city didn't seem as dirty as so many people proclaim it is. And no, I didn't just spend time in Center City either; I drove through Northeast, North and West Philadelphia too. In fact, the only areas of the city that I didn't spend any time in were Northwest and Southwest Philadelphia.
Northeast Philadelphia seemed to be more car-focused than the rest of the city, and high-maintenance urbanists would surely complain that the main commercial drag on Frankford Avenue looks "tacky," but nonetheless, it was built on a grid, walkable, and had plenty of vitality and pedestrian traffic. In fact, Northeast Philadelphia is proof that pedestrians and cars can coexist without punishing one or the other.
North Philadelphia was the most blighted area of the city that I saw, and ironically, the areas near Fairmount Park looked to be the worst of all, with lots of dilapidated houses, seedy-looking restaurants and convenience stores, and one huge abandoned factory or warehouse that I saw. Roosevelt Boulevard wasn't very grand either. In fact, it's a much bigger psychological barrier than I-95 is. At least pedestrians can walk over or under I-95.
West Philadelphia seems to be gentrifying. The University City area is like a college town in the middle of a large city. West of there, property maintenance seems to gradually decrease the farther away from the universities you go, though it never deteriorates into outright blight. Regardless of property maintenance, West Philadelphia seems to be much more architecturally significant than North or Northeast Philadelphia.
In terms of architectural significance, I'd say that Center City (including Old City) has the most, with South and West Philadelphia both being a step above North Philadelphia, which itself is a step above Northeast Philadelphia. I can't judge Northwest or Southwest Philadelphia, though, because I still haven't been to either of those parts of the city.
Outside of the city, the Pennsylvania suburbs are generally more interesting and appealing than the New Jersey suburbs, and there seems to be an inverse relationship between wealth and proximity to the Delaware River.
There's a clear and continuous corridor of wealth north and west of the city along and near U.S. 30, U.S. 202 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, generally from Coatesville in the west to Willow Grove in the east, and centered on King of Prussia. In fact, it turns out that Chester County is the richest county in Pennsylvania by median household income, and one of the 25 richest in the United States.
As for the suburbs closer to the river, the more estuarine the river, the worse the suburbs near it. More simply put, the suburbs in "Lower Bucks" are more desirable than the suburbs in "Lower Delaware." Everything near the river in Delaware County from Darby to Marcus Hook seemed pretty dumpy to me. Conversely, everything near the river in Bucks County from Yardley to Bensalem seemed intact by comparison, even if unspectacular.
Anyway, that's just my take on Philadelphia after a couple of days there.
Wait a sec....You said that "North Philly" is a step above "Northeast?" If so, I have to ask., Where in the heck was you, when you visited that section of town?"
Wait a sec....You said that "North Philly" is a step above "Northeast?" If so, I have to ask., Where in the heck was you, when you visited that section of town?"
I was talking about the architecture, not the condition of the built environment. North Philadelphia was the most blighted area of the city that I saw, but it still had more interesting architecture than Northeast Philadelphia. Northeast Philadelphia was far less blighted than North Philadelphia, but architecturally it didn't seem to be anything special, at least compared to the rest of the city.
NYC is pretty accurately stereotyped I'd say, lol.
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