Why is Philly not considered cool like Chicago/NYC? (luxury, casinos)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If DC, Detroit and Baltimore aren’t large cities, Boston isn’t either
If all you got from my prior comment was a nitpicked lexical error, then you too are apart of the problem.
I can already see where this is heading though, so i'll see myself out before the "America isn't racist anymore, slavery happened 100 years ago; get over it" crowd appears.
If all you got from my prior comment was a nitpicked lexical error, then you too are apart of the problem.
But you are kind of erasing the fact Detroit and Baltimore suffer much much worse reputations than Philly.
To be fair Baltimore legitimately has sky high crime rates, Detroit is by far the blackest major city and get torn to shreads despite having similar scale issues to many other inner cities.
And for some reason pretty black cities like Atlanta and DC pretty much escape national level demonization despite high crime (~equal to Philly)
While racial demographics play a role in how cities are perceived (or at least perceived racial demographics) I think Philly’s PR machine also is somewhat to blame.
But there isn’t a signifucantly AA city that gets glowing reviews despite reality like White Pittsburgh, Minneapolis or Portland do.
Philadelphia does have the highest black percentage out of all 'massive cities' DC, Baltimore, Memphis, Detroit, and New Orleans are not large cities.
Nobody is overstating anything, I've lived here my entire life. Do you honestly think the majority of white people in Dauphin or Indiana county cares about abolitionist, neo soul, hip-hop, or any of the other black cultural/entertainment advances, lol. Hell, not too many in Bucks Co. and South Philadelphia care. You can deny it all you want, but when white people say "Philly is a sh*thole, it 9 times out of 10 carries racial undertones, especially when those same people live in a dinky 90% white town in west-jablip. Philadelphia and Baltimore, the two majority black cities, are the 'punching bags". You can also add in Newark. What do all 3 have in common....
As a white person, when I say Philly is a sh*thole, it means that it is really by far the grittiest, dirty, big city that I have been to. I saw the below video from Kensington Street, and could not believe my eyes:
As a white person, when I say Philly is a sh*thole, it means that it is really by far the grittiest, dirty, big city that I have been to. I saw the below video from Kensington Street, and could not believe my eyes:
New York and Chicago, getting back to the title of this, just have it so much more together.
Whats cool about Philadelphia is that whenever it decides to actually get its stuff together and start to become a city of its size, the electrified commuter rail and subway network… alongside the Speedline… will really just make its growth seamless.
Its like playing sim city and already having a unified top tier transit system and good bones.
As a white person, when I say Philly is a sh*thole, it means that it is really by far the grittiest, dirty, big city that I have been to. I saw the below video from Kensington Street, and could not believe my eyes:
New York and Chicago, getting back to the title of this, just have it so much more together.
Well, TBH, let's not act as though Chicago has a stellar reputation. More "put together" than Philadelphia? Aesthetically, sure. But Chicago has a very violent and troubled undercurrent that is impossible to ignore, no matter how gleaming and manicured it presents itself.
New York is a very different animal. It, too, has a dark undercurrent that is routinely ignored and deliberately displaced from the city. So many of its issues are routinely "swept under the rug" as a matter of practice to appease its wealthy residents and massive corporate sector.
All this to say: you may see Philadelphia's problems in more "raw" fashion, but at least they're not hidden like in other cities. You'd be remiss to think that cities like Chicago and New York have things "together" in many respects. The term "smoke and mirrors" comes to mind.
Well, TBH, let's not act as though Chicago has a stellar reputation. More "put together" than Philadelphia? Aesthetically, sure. But Chicago has a very violent and troubled undercurrent that is impossible to ignore, no matter how gleaming and manicured it presents itself.
New York is a very different animal. It, too, has a dark undercurrent that is routinely ignored and deliberately displaced from the city. So many of its issues are routinely "swept under the rug" as a matter of practice to appease its wealthy residents and massive corporate sector.
All this to say: you may see Philadelphia's problems in more "raw" fashion, but at least they're not hidden like in other cities. You'd be remiss to think that cities like Chicago and New York have things "together" in many respects. The term "smoke and mirrors" comes to mind.
No one, including myself, is acting like there are not undercurrents of problems in both NYC and Chicago. These are older larger cities with a host of problems they must deal with. But Philadelphia is unable to even pretend to hide its ills, and has so much potential, history, and character. My visits to Philly were underwhelming, and I am a generally positive person that looks for positive things. I was shown all the best the city has to offer when there; but the grittiness and the unkept filth were such a turnoff. PBS says the garbage in the streets was a major factor in clogging sewers and making the flooding there worse during Ida.
The scene from Kensington Ave. above is so disturbing, like the Zombie apololypse. Only perhaps LA and SF can possibly have something equivalent. If we could pour so much money into Afganistan over 20 years, we should try to help those in need like those in the video.
Last edited by Justabystander; 09-13-2021 at 10:41 AM..
As a white person, when I say Philly is a sh*thole, it means that it is really by far the grittiest, dirty, big city that I have been to. I saw the below video from Kensington Street, and could not believe my eyes:
Yikes. 90% of these people should be in mental hospitals, insane asylums or rehab. The fact we continue to tolerate this filth is horrific.
Agreed.
But services these people need cost money, and many Americans would consider them "socialism."
Mental hospitals/asylums were closed down en masse decades ago. So, what we see in the video above is the result of that shortsightedness. Amazing that there's always money for wars and for nation-building overseas, but there's never money to help our own people and to maintain our own country.
As a white person, when I say Philly is a sh*thole, it means that it is really by far the grittiest, dirty, big city that I have been to. I saw the below video from Kensington Street, and could not believe my eyes:
New York and Chicago, getting back to the title of this, just have it so much more together.
While Philly has some dirty gritty streets even it's tourist attractions I still thoroughly enjoyed Philly. And even though I saw a good amount of junkies in the city centre it's nothing like Kensington street.
And even though Chicago is a lot cleaner than Philly, I felt safer in Philly than the last time I visited Chicago. And that was with me and my wife walking from Old City to our hotel in Rittenhouse Square at 9:00 pm.
While Philly has some dirty gritty streets even it's tourist attractions I still thoroughly enjoyed Philly. And even though I saw a good amount of junkies in the city centre it's nothing like Kensington street.
And even though Chicago is a lot cleaner than Philly, I felt safer in Philly than the last time I visited Chicago. And that was with me and my wife walking from Old City to our hotel in Rittenhouse Square at 9:00 pm.
When I've been in Philly, I don't think I was ever on Kensington Street. But I didn't see any more addicts in Center City than I have in any other major city.
I agree that Chicago might be cleaner, but for some reason I'd rather live in Philly than in Chicago.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
