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As someone who lived in Dallas (the city of, not suburbs) for 10 years after college, following college in PA (with much time spent in the Philly area), I'd rather live in Philadelphia. I actually really liked Dallas for what it was, an "easy living" city with lots of good restaurants, patio bars, mild winters, etc. But throwing the statistics out the window for a minute, Philly seems like a bigger city with more going on on nearly every level. Outside of some pockets of "Old Dallas", much if it does feel fairly "Anytown USA" with vast mid-rise office parks, shopping centers, etc.
Philly also has much nicer suburbs, and oddly may actually be cheaper than Dallas now (or, at least on par). On the downside, there are some sketchy areas that are much closer to the nicer areas. In Dallas, those are typically farther removed from the central business districts, particularly once the Ross Ave/east Henderson areas completed their gentrification about the time I left Dallas.
As I said, I liked Dallas and still have friends there, but not sure we would move back at this point. Not sure I'll ever move to Philly either, but I'd be open to it if the right career opportunity came up there.
I’d say Philadelphia for sure! I’ve lived both in Texas and in the northeast. The northeast has a lot more to offer. Can’t compare it to Texas. I feel like the only reason people move to Texas is because of the cheap housing.
Yes, all very accurate. Philadelphia has some incredibly impoverished/blighted neighborhoods; no quibbles there. But the post-apocalyptic phrasing of "vast slums" is so over-the-top. You'd think it was Calcutta the way people talk about a major city in the middle of one of the wealthiest major metro areas in the world.
And yes, Geoff is using the upper-upper-stratosphere of real estate costs in other BosWash cities as an analogue. Most Main Line neighborhoods are beginning to go in the $300-400s/ppsf (and over $500/ppsf for new construction). That's not exactly 95% of the American population's idea of "pennies on the dollar."
I’m using my Boston perspective. Sure, a bit of hyperbole but the downtrodden areas in Boston like Mattapan and Roxbury are really small compared to the high poverty rate parts of Philly. 23% poverty rate. Plus Camden over the river. It’s also a lot more visible in Center City. I’ve certainly walked many times from Suburban Station to City Hall. At night, the underground route is a homeless person gauntlet. Boston has methadone mile but it’s nowhere near the business districts or tourist areas. Sure, Baltimore is worse but DC, New York other than the Bronx, and Boston don’t have that level of edge.
I’m using my Boston perspective. Sure, a bit of hyperbole but the downtrodden areas in Boston like Mattapan and Roxbury are really small compared to the high poverty rate parts of Philly. 23% poverty rate. Plus Camden over the river. It’s also a lot more visible in Center City. I’ve certainly walked many times from Suburban Station to City Hall. At night, the underground route is a homeless person gauntlet. Boston has methadone mile but it’s nowhere near the business districts or tourist areas. Sure, Baltimore is worse but DC, New York other than the Bronx, and Boston don’t have that level of edge.
That is a real stretch to claim New York does not have the same level of edge. New York is a gritty city even with all the fake sparkle of Manhattan (I still love it though). Boston has more grit than you put out, DC is the only one that is clearly less gritty than Philadelphia.
Philly is less gentrified than the other 3 though, that I agree with, (talking city, the suburbs of all 4 regions are quite nice).
At least you sort of admitted your faux pas statement about the Main Line, a start.
I’m using my Boston perspective. Sure, a bit of hyperbole but the downtrodden areas in Boston like Mattapan and Roxbury are really small compared to the high poverty rate parts of Philly. 23% poverty rate. Plus Camden over the river. It’s also a lot more visible in Center City. I’ve certainly walked many times from Suburban Station to City Hall. At night, the underground route is a homeless person gauntlet. Boston has methadone mile but it’s nowhere near the business districts or tourist areas. Sure, Baltimore is worse but DC, New York other than the Bronx, and Boston don’t have that level of edge.
Eh, I'll have to beg to differ, here, at least as far as "greater" Center City is concerned (Philly's outer neighborhoods are a different animal).
I've run across plenty of homeless in DC (I used to work off of K Street and remember seeing a not insignificant number of people experiencing homelessness on a daily basis, particularly around the Metro--and this was 6 years ago, I can imagine it's only gotten more visible post-COVID with the decimation in the number of daily commuters downtown). I also recall several recent trips into Downtown Crossing in Boston where I've noticed an uptick in vagrancy.
I won't even touch the comment about New York; it easily has some of the most striking homelessness in the US. It's often forgotten that even as Boston and New York are home to amongst the largest proportion of wealthier residents among large cities, both cities have a poverty rate of approximately 20%. That's not terribly far off from Philadelphia's 23%. That's called economic stratification.
That's not to say that Center City is pristine; it does have pockets of "edginess" as you say, but none of the above cities are anywhere near devoid of the same.
I’d say Philadelphia for sure! I’ve lived both in Texas and in the northeast. The northeast has a lot more to offer. Can’t compare it to Texas. I feel like the only reason people move to Texas is because of the cheap housing.
As someone who lived in Dallas (the city of, not suburbs) for 10 years after college, following college in PA (with much time spent in the Philly area), I'd rather live in Philadelphia. I actually really liked Dallas for what it was, an "easy living" city with lots of good restaurants, patio bars, mild winters, etc. But throwing the statistics out the window for a minute, Philly seems like a bigger city with more going on on nearly every level. Outside of some pockets of "Old Dallas", much if it does feel fairly "Anytown USA" with vast mid-rise office parks, shopping centers, etc.
Philly also has much nicer suburbs, and oddly may actually be cheaper than Dallas now (or, at least on par). On the downside, there are some sketchy areas that are much closer to the nicer areas. In Dallas, those are typically farther removed from the central business districts, particularly once the Ross Ave/east Henderson areas completed their gentrification about the time I left Dallas.
As I said, I liked Dallas and still have friends there, but not sure we would move back at this point. Not sure I'll ever move to Philly either, but I'd be open to it if the right career opportunity came up there.
This is a great assessment and it's nice to hear it from someone who actually lived in *Dallas.* Not the suburbs. Not a quick visit Downtown or on the highways around the airport.
Philly seems bigger because it is. I think it's the 5th or 6th largest city, while Dallas cracks in around #9. Philly has long been a complete urban city in the traditional sense, something that is more recent and up and coming in Dallas. I love older, traditional urban cities yet I do find the evolution of traditionally sprawling, non-urban, sunbelt cities exciting. Things that are taken for granted in places like Philly or NYC such as walkable neighborhoods, dense development, accessible public transit, etc. are a more recent focus in places like Dallas. In that sense, I appreciate and even prefer to be in a city that is rapidly changing in real-time than one that has long been developed.
One of the prominent urban planners in the area, Patrick Kennedy, chose Dallas over places like Seattle because he felt he had a greater impact on change.
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