Population of Pennsylvania's three superregions (2010) (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: buy, quality of life, live in)

[CK78]

Originally Posted by Mr Yuk

I guess there is some truth to that...not really sure NJ even has its own identity....North Jersey is just an extension of New York City, and South Jersey the same but with Philly. Even with the Jersey shore....the northern Jersey shore is mainly New Yorkers, and Philly people at the south Jersey shore.

But in the process, it seems NYC-NJ-Philly has more in common with each other than NYC has with the rest of NY state and Philly has with the rest of PA.

Nail on the head!!!! I was going to post something almost exactly the same. Someone once said, (not famous, just someone I was talking to about this exact issue) that, "N.J. is just a suburb for N.Y. and Philly."

And living 10 minutes outside Northeast Philly, having gone to college at one of the Big 5 Universities in Philly and being 30 min. from Center City Philadelphia my entire life I can say that this is the most accurate portrait.

90% of Atlantic City's and Southern Jersey's shore points business come from Philly folks. Who do you think owns most of the shore homes/summer homes? Philly people. Where do you think a lot of South Jersey people work? Where do you think a good percentage of South Jersey people are originally from? Know how many south jersey people I went to college with? A lot. Know how many go to Drexel, St. Joe's, Villanova, La Salle, Drexel, Penn and outlying colleges? A lot.

The area is DOMINATED by the city of Philadelphia. Most people now in the suburbs were originally born in Philly. This goes for South Jersey and Philly suburbs. Most people down the shore at any given time are from the Philadelphia area, all root for Philly teams. In a very, very real sense South Jersey is an extension of Philadelphia. It is a Philadelphia suburb as is the surrounding counties of Philadelphia. Everyone considers them selves Philadelphians. They all relate to Rocky, the culture, the sports teams and a lot of their families were originally from Philly proper.

[Mr Yuk]

Maybe the divide between Philly and other parts of PA is just the difference between urban and small town/rural culture more than it is Philly having more in common with other states....which would be the same anywhere....its not like Los Angeles has much in common with some rural hamlet in the hills of California.

[mancat100]

South Jersey is part of Philadelphia in the same way that the sphincter is part of the body. It's definitely there, but best to keep it covered up and not talk about it too much.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by mancat100

South Jersey is part of Philadelphia in the same way that the sphincter is part of the body. It's definitely there, but best to keep it covered up and not talk about it too much.

Ouch! Aren't there some nice parts of South Jersey (i.e. Collingswood, Mt. Holly, Cherry Hill, Berlin, Palmyra, etc.)?

[mancat100]

Yes. There are some nice areas. It's more fun not acknowledge them, and just lob insults. Overall, PA burbs are nicer than Jersey burbs.

[donbuy]

Originally Posted by mancat100

Yes. There are some nice areas. It's more fun not acknowledge them, and just lob insults. Overall, PA burbs are nicer than Jersey burbs.

As someone whose familiarity is limited to a few trips through the area and to see the Liberty Bell with my familiy, I think it is safe to say that the Philadelphia (PA, NJ) region itself appears very gritty, industrial, old and somewhat unpleasant with some rather old run down ring cities/suburbs on both sides of the state border. The NJ side does not appear any worse than the PA side. This is of course my opinion as a mere visitor to your region - great cheese steaks on South St though.

[mancat100]

The views from the highways are indeed gritty. Get off the highways and especially away from the river areas and things get very nice very quickly.

[pman]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

It would be foolish to suggest Philly has more in common culturally with cities like Pittsburgh and Erie than to New York City.

I've never been to Erie but Pittsburgh and Philly do have their similarities.

Originally Posted by donbuy

As someone whose familiarity is limited to a few trips through the area and to see the Liberty Bell with my familiy, I think it is safe to say that the Philadelphia (PA, NJ) region itself appears very gritty, industrial, old and somewhat unpleasant with some rather old run down ring cities/suburbs on both sides of the state border. The NJ side does not appear any worse than the PA side. This is of course my opinion as a mere visitor to your region - great cheese steaks on South St though.

it's safe to say that many suburbs are not gritty industrial areas. on the whole, PA burbs are nicer, but that's not to say there are no nice suburbs in nj. perhaps the run down areas are the old river towns?

[escilade18]

Originally Posted by Mr Yuk

I've always thought that southeastern PA has more in common with NJ than it does the rest of PA. And the rest of PA has more in common with upstate NY than it does SE PA.

Would you mind expanding on that, I personally see it more as NJ taking after SEPA which has a different feeling from the rest of the state from being on the BOS-WASH corridor. I do see where you are coming from though, NY and PA are both states which contain more industrial cities in the west with larger more cosmopolitan cities in the southeast. That is just my take on it though, feel free to correct me if I am wrong

[donbuy]

Originally Posted by mancat100

The views from the highways are indeed gritty. Get off the highways and especially away from the river areas and things get very nice very quickly.

We were off the highway plenty near Valley Forge and King of Prussia along with the City of Philadelphia itself. Much, much more dirty and rough looking than Chicago or Toronto fer sure.