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Chicago is the better city. Philly has more run down and dirty looking areas. The northwest suburbs are great as well as south (Wilmington, DE area) but Chicago has much more to offer.
I am from Chicago.
First of all, I actually agree with you that Chicago offers more, i.e. arts and culture-wise.
Philly is OK for the arts, and in my opinion it benefits from proximity to NYC (it's literally 70 minutes by train), but I STILL agree with you there.
However.
There are giant swaths of Chicago I wouldn't want to be in. A lot of the entire south and southwest side are dangerous.
In Philly, there are some ****ty sections of North Philly and West Philly, but the amount of area these neighborhoods cover is smaller than the bad parts of Chicago. The amount of city you have to avoid in Chicago is more significant compared with the amount of city you have to avoid in Philly. Similarly, there aren't more run-down areas in Philly than there are in Chicago.
Neither city is particularly a place I'd want to be to feel safe. Philly and Chicago both have good parts and dangerous parts. I don't think it's fair to say one is strikingly more filled with dangerous, dilapidated areas than the other.
Overall, I think you're probably right Chicago is better objectively
Preferring philly is just a subjective preference.
Chicago is the better city. Philly has more run down and dirty looking areas. The northwest suburbs are great as well as south (Wilmington, DE area) but Chicago has much more to offer.
Also, this was never about suburbs.
Have you been to Philadelphia?
There are so many gorgeous neighborhoods.
Fishtown. Germantown. Strawberry mansion. Powelton village. Olde richmond. Northeast Philly. Literally all of south philadelphia. the historic district just south of center city. fairmount. spring garden. manyunk.
Also, this was never about suburbs.
Have you been to Philadelphia?
There are so many gorgeous neighborhoods.
Fishtown. Germantown. Strawberry mansion. Powelton village. Olde richmond. Northeast Philly. Literally all of south philadelphia. the historic district just south of center city. fairmount. spring garden. manyunk.
I agree. I just prefer Chicago's larger lots, homes, and more green open feel. Philadelphia can feel dark and gloomy and not as aesthetically pleasing due to the overhead power lines, garbage cans stored in front of properties, lack of purposeful vegetation, etc.
I agree. I just prefer Chicago's larger lots, homes, and more green open feel. Philadelphia can feel dark and gloomy and not as aesthetically pleasing due to the overhead power lines, garbage cans stored in front of properties, lack of purposeful vegetation, etc.
I'm a big fan of my hometown, but I've railed against the lack of tree canopy (including in an essay I wrote for PhillyMag) and the overhead utility lines outside Center City myself.
I haven't pushed the power-line issue after I heard from someone that the cost of burying those transmission lines would run $1 million per block.
The city requires residents to keep trash and recycling bins inside their property until the evening before collection day. Unless someone has a trash corral in front of their rowhouse, if you see garbage cans in front of houses here, it's collection day in that area.
Chicago has some of the most diverse suburbs in the country. The North Shore suburbs and Lake County with mansions, quaint villages, lots of lush nature right off of the Lake Michigan backdrop and 30 minutes from downtown-are gorgeous. Then you have the modern Northwest suburbs like Schamburg, Arlington Heights, Palatine- it's all the bells and whistles. You've got Westen suburbs like Downer's Grove, Naperville, La Grange with amazing downtowns and beatiful homes. Suburbs like Oak Park and Evaston, which are pretty much neighborhoods of the city. Then you have older, more blue collar South and Southwesr suburbs. You won't find a collection of suburbs as diverse in style as you will find in Chicagoland.
Yes, Chicago is certainly tops for variety--no argument there. I think what the prior poster was alluding to was the historic, rustic and bucolic nature of the greater Philadelphia region, which gives it a very unique quality compared to every other region in the US (the only region where I've come across remotely the same vibe in a major urban area is metro Boston and select parts of the DC and NYC areas, although the latter two are more intensely developed in their suburban areas).
I think it's rooted in the stronger European influences on the East Coast's historic layout and development/farming pattern, whereas metro Chicago takes on much more of a quintessential American/Midwest feel.
Re: tree canopy. Chicago has the edge on tree canopy.
Philly does have a fair number of neighborhoods with canopy (parts of Fishtown, Fairmount/spring garden, a lot of nw philly and parts of west philly) but it could be better.
The overall topography in the city is less boring, though. So that's a consideration in my opinion.
Re: tree canopy. Chicago has the edge on tree canopy.
Philly does have a fair number of neighborhoods with canopy (parts of Fishtown, Fairmount/spring garden, a lot of nw philly and parts of west philly) but it could be better.
The overall topography in the city is less boring, though. So that's a consideration in my opinion.
Fair points. There's no doubt that Philly has a dearth of trees overall and continues to be a work-in-progress, but the fascinating thing is that where there are trees, it tends to feel like you're in an arboretum given the narrowness of the streets, and the lusher/more temperate mid-Atlantic climate.
Chicago has some of the most diverse suburbs in the country. The North Shore suburbs and Lake County with mansions, quaint villages, lots of lush nature right off of the Lake Michigan backdrop and 30 minutes from downtown-are gorgeous. Then you have the modern Northwest suburbs like Schamburg, Arlington Heights, Palatine- it's all the bells and whistles. You've got Westen suburbs like Downer's Grove, Naperville, La Grange with amazing downtowns and beatiful homes. Suburbs like Oak Park and Evaston, which are pretty much neighborhoods of the city. Then you have older, more blue collar South and Southwesr suburbs. You won't find a collection of suburbs as diverse in style as you will find in Chicagoland.
I think I agree with the person who said topography makes a difference.
Chicago may be the birthplace of one of the most distinctive styles of American domestic architecture, the "Prairie style" of Frank Lloyd Wright, but the entire region is flat as a pancake, with the grid (punctuated by the occasional diagonal street, railroad line or freeway) stretching on endlessly.
Here, the terrain and the streets vary. We're blessed with many railroad suburbs with strong downtowns - including one of our suburban county seats, whose main street has a trolley line running down its middle (something not found anywhere else in the country - the South Shore Line is an interurban with commuter-rail-style equipment). The roads bend, curve, twist, rise and fall, and the tree cover in most of our suburbs is lush indeed. Housing ranges from the same sorts of rowhouses one finds in much of the city to sprawling multi-acre estates.
I think I agree with the person who said topography makes a difference.
Chicago may be the birthplace of one of the most distinctive styles of American domestic architecture, the "Prairie style" of Frank Lloyd Wright, but the entire region is flat as a pancake, with the grid (punctuated by the occasional diagonal street, railroad line or freeway) stretching on endlessly.
Here, the terrain and the streets vary. We're blessed with many railroad suburbs with strong downtowns - including one of our suburban county seats, whose main street has a trolley line running down its middle (something not found anywhere else in the country - the South Shore Line is an interurban with commuter-rail-style equipment). The roads bend, curve, twist, rise and fall, and the tree cover in most of our suburbs is lush indeed. Housing ranges from the same sorts of rowhouses one finds in much of the city to sprawling multi-acre estates.
Agree. Philly has great topography and suburbs. I was just pointing out that even with lack of topography, the Chicagoland suburbs still have such a variety of housing styles and sceneries (from urban suburbs, to traditional suburbs with great downtowns, to suburbs on the lake with tons of greenery) that it helps counteract that lack of topography.
Chicago has some of the most diverse suburbs in the country. The North Shore suburbs and Lake County with mansions, quaint villages, lots of lush nature right off of the Lake Michigan backdrop and 30 minutes from downtown-are gorgeous. Then you have the modern Northwest suburbs like Schamburg, Arlington Heights, Palatine- it's all the bells and whistles. You've got Westen suburbs like Downer's Grove, Naperville, La Grange with amazing downtowns and beatiful homes. Suburbs like Oak Park and Evaston, which are pretty much neighborhoods of the city. Then you have older, more blue collar South and Southwesr suburbs. You won't find a collection of suburbs as diverse in style as you will find in Chicagoland.
I think Philadelphia and Chicago have among the best and most varied suburbs in the nation.
They also share a lot of similarities.
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