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Boston is old but she sure knows how to look modern and clean. Have you been there recently Ace?
The difference between Boston and Philly is that in Boston those sidewalks aren't bristling and breaking apart, those roads aren't patchy and dilapidated looking, those bricks on rowhomes are study and in place and in general for buildings that are a few hundred years old they look gorgeously clean. Forget the 115 miles of Boston metro from Seabrook, NH to Barnstable, MA that has a coastline because Philly doesn't, just forget that big difference of being able to go fishing at the ocean, boating and jet skiing on the ocean, eating seafood from the ocean, seeing lighthouses on the ocean, having flood insurance because your house in on the ocean, forget it and lets look at the rest of the metro. Boston metro has no where that looks like Wilmington, or Chester, or Camden for that matter but it also has nothing like Gladwyn either. Philly has nothing like Martha's or Nantucket. It has nothing like big dig, it has no New England culture, even the sprawl is different, tiny historically preserved New England towns webbed into a big metro with Boston. I call it the spiderweb metro. Fact that Boston's downtown is on the harbor, when you look across and don't see land because you're on the shore and also that Boston has no street grid besides the "new Boston" where Charles is near the Boston Common. Perhaps its because Boston is as white collar as Philly is blue collar, despite that Philly still has a large white collar population as Boston has a large blue collar population. No, cant be. Maybe its that every few miles you run into a school that ranks in the top 200 in the world. Or how about how much narrower the sidewalks are in Philly and how its more "big city" to Boston's "collection of towns" personality? Even by the personality of the city, one is full of smoking hot women that are fashionable and the other isn't like that. Their cuisines are different, because one uses its coastal location for its local cuisine while the other has bakeries for its sandwiches everywhere. There is no street in Philly that reminded me of Boylston or Newberry. The diversity is different. The attitude of the people are different. They look a million times more different. In a way you could say Boston is the ying to DC's yang because those two actually do remind me of each other more. I could go at the differences all day, really.
Boston and Philly are as similar as two historically big cities in the same region can be. That's it.
What did you think Ace? That I just woke up one morning and decided to start "hating" Philly and loving Boston? No, perhaps its because they're different cities that barely remind me of one another besides the subtle similarities and that I prefer the way one looks, is, and forever will be to the other?
Though how does that square with NYC which still has large areas of poverty in both the city and the metro? Or the huge sprawl rather than connected small towns that characterizes much of Northern New Jersey and Long Island?
Also, I think you'll see Philly changing at a brisk pace in the next decade (which has been underway for a while). It just rounded the bend where Philadelphia finally entered a growth period and it's likely to accelerate. If you look at NYC (and Boston and DC), you'll see that NYC entered that period earlier. Many neighborhoods with a lot of good bones were quickly gentrified within NYC and Philly is now seeing that same transition. There are large parts of NYC that are now extremely coveted which have gone through some incredibly trying times and while they may seem prosperous now, they are far different from what they were in previous decades. Cities are constantly in flux and Philly has started to make that change.
Though how does that square with NYC which still has large areas of poverty in both the city and the metro? Or the huge sprawl rather than connected small towns that characterizes much of Northern New Jersey and Long Island?
Also, I think you'll see Philly changing at a brisk pace in the next decade (which has been underway for a while). It just rounded the bend where Philadelphia finally entered a growth period and it's likely to accelerate. If you look at NYC (and Boston and DC), you'll see that NYC entered that period earlier. Many neighborhoods with a lot of good bones were quickly gentrified within NYC and Philly is now seeing that same transition. There are large parts of NYC that are now extremely coveted which have gone through some incredibly trying times and while they may seem prosperous now, they are far different from what they were in previous decades. Cities are constantly in flux and Philly has started to make that change.
id say most of nyc is poverty or ghetto/dirty
nyc gentrified relatively quickly cuz its nyc, for philly its gon take twice longer at least plus philly needs to bring more jobs to them seems like and that will accelerate it
id say most of nyc is poverty or ghetto/dirty
nyc gentrified relatively quickly cuz its nyc, for philly its gon take twice longer at least plus philly needs to bring more jobs to them seems like and that will accelerate it
Well, to most people, NYC = Manhattan, so id agree with that to an extent
Its more like Philly on the whole though. People forget, Manhattan is 1.5 million. How well do the other 6.5 million live? Pretty average, but thats changing cause in Manhattan, space may be finite, but money isnt.
You know that Philly is also 3x as big as Boston right?
I dont think you will find two more similar cities in some ways than Boston and Philly. Both historic, both provincial, both demographics are similar (although Philly is more pervasive), rabid sports, food, education, dense, colonial. The only difference to me is that Boston is more upscale on the whole.
I just think you need to spend more time in and around Philadelphia. Youre equating all of Philadelphia with like, West Philly or something.
Yeah the city population and land size is another difference, thanks for mentioning.
Bruh half the things you listed are similarities any two big cities share with others. Atlanta is more educated as both the city and metro than Philly but less so than Boston. Boston's kin sisters on that are Seattle, Minneapolis, and DC as in the cities and metros above 40% educated population. If you're referring to schools there is MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University, University of Massachusetts, and Brown to Philly's University of Delaware and University of Pennsylvania. Furthermore the endowment of Harvard alone is more than the next 8 best schools combined and the acceptance rate is 5% lower than Philly's most selective school, University of Pennsylvania.
Next you talk about sports fans. What cheering? If you had your TV on last decade you would have seen the Celtics in 2 NBA finals with 1 championship, the Bruins with a Stanley cup, Red Sox with their WS title, the Patriots with 3 superbowl victories and the hyped of wedding of Tom Brady and Giselle, a Brazilian super model, Brazilians something Boston has plenty of btw so you can cross diversity besides Italians and Irish off too. Let's not forget that ESPN has a page for Boston sports and the fans, when they cheer are cheering for teams that have a track record worth cheering for IMO even though the Patriots cheated.
Speaking of diversity ok Italians and Irish are a similarity. I'll give you that but Boston's larger Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian, Hispanics and Asians population and smaller black population are a dissimilarity.
Food, I've already gone over this with you Ace. One is better for sandwiches and the other specializes in local seafood. How is this a similarity?
Colonial? Yeah you can add Savannah, Jamestown, Plymouth, Baltimore, Annapolis to that list to. This is about as similar as saying LA and Charlotte are both sunbelt. LOL
Historic? One of the cities played a role in leading up to the revolution and the Puritan legacy. After the revolution its history became more involved in politics with the Kennedy family, being the only state to NOT vote Nixon, and all the controversial projects and events that took place in Boston. The riots, NASA, Big Dig, Taxachusetts, etc. While Philly's history became more local, it started zipping into hip hop while Boston went to other genres of music.
Well, to most people, NYC = Manhattan, so id agree with that to an extent
Its more like Philly on the whole though. People forget, Manhattan is 1.5 million. How well do the other 6.5 million live? Pretty average, but thats changing cause in Manhattan, space may be finite, but money isnt.
yea, but it doesnt matter, nyc is five boroughs, people can think wat they want, but unless manhatttan separates, the outer boroughs are nyc, matta fact they are the real nyc
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