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I don't get this Philly being close to the beach theme. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Jersey Shore a good 60 miles away. It close but not close enough to count as an amenity of Philadelphia. He'll Houston is closer to Galveston and I still wouldn't consider it a prototypical coastal city.
Two things:
1. The discussion is comparing Philly and Chicago, an East coast city vs. A Midwestern city. That's where the whole close to the ocean theme is coming from. It makes sense in the context of this thread. When you look at a map and note where Chicago is compared to Philly, it makes perfect sense.
2. And consider not just city limits, but Metro area. Philly is literally right on the NJ border, so the Philly Metro extends well into New Jersey. Here is a map of the CSA:
That area of South Jersey that's not officially considered part of the Philly CSA by the US Census is still very much part of the greater Philly area. They get Philly TV news channels, Philly sports fans, NJT commuter train to Philly, etc. And many towns and cities in that area consist of mostly Summer beach homes of Philadelphians. And those that don't own homes there do like to take advantage of the area multiple times every Summer.
I lived in South Jersey for 6 years, and still continue to visit family and friends there frequently.
Last edited by That_One_Guy; 02-19-2017 at 07:27 PM..
Reason: spelling
I lived in South Jersey for 6 years, and still continue to visit family and friends there frequently.
Very good contextual point. The Philadelphia region definitely has a longstanding cultural and commercial connection the Southern New Jersey coast, which is widely understood by locals.
I don't get this Philly being close to the beach theme. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Jersey Shore a good 60 miles away. It close but not close enough to count as an amenity of Philadelphia. He'll Houston is closer to Galveston and I still wouldn't consider it a prototypical coastal city.
Philadelphia can 100% claim the ocean as an amenity. You can get to all of the South Jersey beaches from Center City in 1 to 1.5 hours. The beach is certainly close enough to make a day trip or weekend trip out of it. The New Jersey and Delaware MSA counties are practically abutting the ocean. There are two counties in Philadelphia's CSA (Atlantic and Cape May) in New Jersey which are oceanfront counties. A lot of people in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburban counties own beach houses in South Jersey.
1. The discussion is comparing Philly and Chicago, an East coast city vs. A Midwestern city. That's where the whole close to the ocean theme is coming from. It makes sense in the context of this thread. When you look at a map and note where Chicago is compared to Philly, it makes perfect sense.
2. And consider not just city limits, but Metro area. Philly is literally right on the NJ border, so the Philly Metro extends well into New Jersey. Here is a map of the CSA:
That area of South Jersey that's not officially considered part of the Philly CSA by the US Census is still very much part of the greater Philly area. They get Philly TV news channels, Philly sports fans, NJT commuter train to Philly, etc. And many towns and cities in that area consist of mostly Summer beach homes of Philadelphians. And those that don't own homes there do like to take advantage of the area multiple times every Summer.
I lived in South Jersey for 6 years, and still continue to visit family and friends there frequently.
I want to make a correction to my earlier post, but it's too late to edit it.
So I was wrong about Philly CSA. The map that I posted is actually of Philly MSA. Philly CSA does actually include the rest of South Jersey: Atlantic and Cape May counties, which includes the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City.
Delaware River is a huge freshwater river mixed use including industrialand port .Big city feel and lot of room here for Philadelphia to grow and improve in the future. Underutilized for residential and recreational use.
The Schuylkill River is a freshwater river that flows into the Delaware River and eventual Delaware Bay. Begins about 100 miles NW of Philly. Awesome recreational activities including the biggest high school and collegiate regattas in the country.
Using CSA stats is a pretty far reach but I'll buy it.
Philadelphia is just not a coastal city in the sense of other coastal cities where the city center is near the coast. Some may argue that Chicago is not truly a coastal city but the beaches are accessible in the city. On a summer day in Chicago I can go to the beach after work, not happening in Philly unless you live on the Jersey Shore.
Using CSA stats is a pretty far reach but I'll buy it.
Philadelphia is just not a coastal city in the sense of other coastal cities where the city center is near the coast. Some may argue that Chicago is not truly a coastal city but the beaches are accessible in the city. On a summer day in Chicago I can go to the beach after work, not happening in Philly unless you live on the Jersey Shore.
It's not that far of a reach IMO if you look at the MSA map and see how close to the shore the MSA alone goes, it gets really close. It falls just short of the actual Shore.
I agree with your other point though. It's not as accessible as other cities like Chicago. Philly does have those river waterfronts, but you don't wanna go swimming in those. You've gotta have the whole day off if you wanna go to the beach from Philly, and it's something that generally needs to be planned too. Not like Chicago where you can just decide one moment that you want to go over to the lake.
The Delaware river is a tidal estuary for Philly. Philly is located at sea level. All of these pics are from along the Delaware river on the city proper of Philly or directly adjacent to the city proper. Phlly is a coastal city, it is just not a coast (as in directly on the coast) city.
Northeast Philly river beach
Looking from Palmyra, NJ on the Jersey side
Between Petty island and port Richmond from the Northeast
From Tinicum island, PA right across PHI international airport
Have you seen the weather in Chicago this winter? Way warmer than Philly, and no snow since Christmas. Sixtys most of the rest of the week and into next week. Although admittedly this is an unusual year, when east coasters boast about their winter weather, it is almost laughable, since the nor'easters are worse and more frequent than anything in Chicago. You say Chicago is a better city, but love the weather in Philly, which is silly to me.
Are you high? Like honestly. Is this a for real exclamation? Here is the average monthly temperatures for each city:
Philadelphia is NOTICEABLY warmer than Chicago. Chicago is also MUCH windier, and feels even colder because of the lake effect.
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One thing that Philly is closer to as far as east coast cities is Camden, Trenton, and Chester, some of the worst areas of the country that I have visited. While Chicago might have Gary, Philly to me, with endless row houses and urban ugliness, is far less appealing with South Jersey. I would throw Mid-Atlantic Baltimore in that mix as far as urban grit. A location near NYC and Washington can't erase the city's shortcomings, and as construction in Chicago continues to far outpace Philadelphia's, so too will the disparity between the cities grow.
Hilarious that you would focus on the bad only. Chicago has just as many rundown and ugly areas in it's city and region that Philadelphia has.
Is Trenton a part of the Philadelphia area? Mercer County, New Jersey is a part of the New York CSA. If we're going to count Trenton for Philadelphia, than we get to count all of Mercer County, which includes Princeton.
The city of Philadelphia has plenty of very beautiful areas. It's not even close to endless urban ugliness, and a lot of rowhome neighborhoods are very beautiful. Would you call any of these neighborhoods, parks or college campuses ugly? I think they're beautiful:
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