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It's always seemed to me that Philadelphia and St. Louis are two cities that share a lot of interesting characteristics. They're similar in a lot of ways and it strikes me. Similarities include
-cities located on a major river (on the West Bank)
-incredibly important to the history of their region
-have a top-3 dangerous city in the nation across the river from them (East St. Louis, Camden)
-both played second fiddle to the king cities of their regions for much of history (StL to Chicago, Philly to NYC)
-plenty of rowhouses and brick
-strong historical immigration (many similar groups, such as Germans and Italians)
-shared postindustrial struggles
-largely devastated & impoverished north sides
-home to academically major (UPenn and WashU) as well as mid-tier (Temple & SLU) universities
-contain nationally significant landmarks (Independence Hall, Arch)
Both cities seem to have similar story arcs, though Philly has been around longer, is far more important, and is further along on the comeback trail. How do you take these similarities? Any others you can think of? Are they practical in decision-making for each city and should the two work to relate more?
It's always seemed to me that Philadelphia and St. Louis are two cities that share a lot of interesting characteristics. They're similar in a lot of ways and it strikes me. Similarities include
-cities located on a major river (on the West Bank)
-incredibly important to the history of their region
-have a top-3 dangerous city in the nation across the river from them (East St. Louis, Camden)
-both played second fiddle to the king cities of their regions for much of history (StL to Chicago, Philly to NYC)
-plenty of rowhouses and brick
-strong historical immigration (many similar groups, such as Germans and Italians)
-shared postindustrial struggles
-largely devastated & impoverished north sides
-home to academically major (UPenn and WashU) as well as mid-tier (Temple & SLU) universities
-contain nationally significant landmarks (Independence Hall, Arch)
Both cities seem to have similar story arcs, though Philly has been around longer, is far more important, and is further along on the comeback trail. How do you take these similarities? Any others you can think of? Are they practical in decision-making for each city and should the two work to relate more?
I see where you're coming from but don't think they're necessarily extremely similar since a lot of the characteristics you pointed out could apply to a variety of post-industrial cities in the northeast and midwest. Baltimore also fits the majority of those things.
The popular immigrant population here in St. Louis is Bosnian. We have a little Italy but it doesn't have the historical "punch" you would expect from the name.
Lots of red brick here with the baseball stadium having a testament to that.
There's a tangible criminal and social problem in St. Louis.
Where does this idea come from that St. Louis has "plenty of rowhouses"?
1 Unit, Attached
Philadelphia - 58.6%
St. Louis - 4.3%
1 Unit, Detached
Philadelphia - 8.2%
St. Louis - 42.9%
I guess many people assume St. Louis has a lot of row homes because compared to other cities in the Midwest (with Chicago possibly being the only exception), St. Louis seems to have an above average amount. Same thing when comparing St. Louis with other places in the South and West (Richmond and San Francisco being the exceptions). But even then, STL doesn't compare to Philly nor DC, Baltimore, NYC, Boston, etc.
I guess many people assume St. Louis has a lot of row homes because compared to other cities in the Midwest (with Chicago possibly being the only exception), St. Louis seems to have an above average amount. Same thing when comparing St. Louis with other places in the South and West (Richmond and San Francisco being the exceptions). But even then, STL doesn't compare to Philly nor DC, Baltimore, NYC, Boston, etc.
Most of St. Louis's row homes exist in the Soulard section, which is the oldest section of town. I would love to compare the ascendancy of Soulard time-wise, relative to the older sections of Philadelphia that similarly contain row homes.
I have walked both downtowns pretty extensively, and to me, Soulard reminds me a lot of Society Hill.
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