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I live in NYC area so to help me understand better, how does Philly compare to NYC? Is it like a smaller version of it or way different?
What's different about it?
Does it have that East Coast vibe? (I came from Pacific NW, and it's way laid back there)
What's the people and the overall atmosphere like?
What's nightlife like? Are there good hip hop nightclubs with fine women? lol
All I heard about Philly is that it's underrated, affordable and has quite a few rundown, ghetto areas.
Is Camden as bad as it's portrayed?
Btw, I am Russian male, in mid 20s if that helps. Also, I have been thinking about applying for Philly PD so what's the situation with them?
have lots Philly pd close friends and I would never recommend being an officer there.. Pay is low, rookies are put in the worse areas at night shifts.. They lose heart on their jobs cause they lock up people and the liberal judges let em out the same night. Very frustrating to them
have lots Philly pd close friends and I would never recommend being an officer there.. Pay is low, rookies are put in the worse areas at night shifts.. They lose heart on their jobs cause they lock up people and the liberal judges let em out the same night. Very frustrating to them
That's no good. I think they got similar issues in NYPD though, and even though pay is better, cost of living is way higher so the actual pay is probably the same at the end, if not worse.
Last edited by OleSchoolFool; 02-19-2012 at 11:03 AM..
I know nothing about the situation of the PD here in Philly but I can comment on the other things.
Many people say Philly is a smaller version of NY, and although Philly is drastically different in a lot of ways, Center City feels like a smaller Manhattan. The rest of the city is different however, so I would say only Center City feels like New York.
New York is 3 times the size of Philadelphia, so Philly is different in that aspect. You can walk anywhere you want to go in Philadelphia unless you live in the Northeast or the Northwest.
Yes, it has an east coast vibe, second best east coast city after NY in my opinion. It is much cheaper and much easier. You do not need a car here because the public transit is pretty damn good. The atmosphere is great, very energetic at all times, Center City is always packed with people. There are quiet neighborhoods if that is your thing as well. Philadelphia is a very sports oriented city, Philadelphian's LOVE their sports. The night life is great, amazing bars and clubs each with their own feel and crowd. Some bars have a younger college crowd, some have a young professional or graduate crowd and some have an older crowd. Philadelphia also has some of the best eats on the east coast. I could name amazing eats all day long.
All in all, Philadelphia has everything New York has to offer, just on a smaller scale. Philly is also much cheaper and it's only an hour train ride away from New York. Philadelphia has ghettos, but so does New York, so does practically every city.
Most of the ghettos in Philadelphia are in North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia.
Great places to live are most of Center City (obviously, but gets really pricey) South Philadelphia, University City, Northern Liberties, Fishtown and Fairmount. Other great places to live that are farther from Center City are the Northwest and the Northeast (although they are a few minutes away from Center City on the regional rail).
Philadelphia is great, come check it out and see how you like it. It is a much cheaper alternative than New York and has everything NY has to offer.
P.S. Camden is terrible, you will never have any reason to go there except to go to the aquarium and the Susquehanna banks center. If you do go to Camden make sure you get out by nightfall lol, and make sure you NEVER leave the waterfront area.
Last edited by RightonWalnut; 02-19-2012 at 04:34 PM..
Summersm-Great post. Appreciate all the useful info. I been wanting to come and check it out, but I don't really have friends around here to go with, and it would be ... to go alone. I will check it out though eventually.
How is gentrification going? I read that Philly finally stopped losing people after decades recently so maybe it means more people are moving there cause things are getting better?
Last edited by FindingZen; 02-20-2012 at 02:49 PM..
Reason: ultimately, your description is inappropriate
Summersm-Great post. Appreciate all the useful info. I been wanting to come and check it out, but I don't really have friends around here to go with, and it would be retarded to go alone. I will check it out though eventually.
How is gentrification going? I read that Philly finally stopped losing people after decades recently so maybe it means more people are moving there cause things are getting better?
Philly is still losing people, as long as the City Council passes anti small business rules, and allows the school system to rot people will leave.
Not to many young professionals who move into Northern Liberties or Kensington want to send their children to Kensington High even if it is all new a shiny for the time being.
As the owner of a small business in Philly for 30 years, I have seen a constant grab for my wallet by City Council. I have moved my family out to the burbs, it will not take much more for my business to follow. I have set things up in my business in the City like a skeleton of the former company.
When the City gets around to adding a few more fees and raises the taxes a bit more, they will make the suburbs a better deal and I will be leaving.
Nothing against the City personally, but money goes where it is treated best.
Look around to all the nice new abandoned buildings, that were once thriving businesses, most are now along the I 78 corridor near Allentown. Where as Billy Joel once sang "and the union people crawled away" and the politicians in Allentown got voted out in favor of a friendly business climate in burbs of Allentown.
I know nothing about the situation of the PD here in Philly but I can comment on the other things.
Many people say Philly is a smaller version of NY, and although Philly is drastically different in a lot of ways, Center City feels like a smaller Manhattan. The rest of the city is different however, so I would say only Center City feels like New York.
New York is 3 times the size of Philadelphia, so Philly is different in that aspect. You can walk anywhere you want to go in Philadelphia unless you live in the Northeast or the Northwest.
Yes, it has an east coast vibe, second best east coast city after NY in my opinion. It is much cheaper and much easier. You do not need a car here because the public transit is pretty damn good. The atmosphere is great, very energetic at all times, Center City is always packed with people. There are quiet neighborhoods if that is your thing as well. Philadelphia is a very sports oriented city, Philadelphian's LOVE their sports. The night life is great, amazing bars and clubs each with their own feel and crowd. Some bars have a younger college crowd, some have a young professional or graduate crowd and some have an older crowd. Philadelphia also has some of the best eats on the east coast. I could name amazing eats all day long.
All in all, Philadelphia has everything New York has to offer, just on a smaller scale. Philly is also much cheaper and it's only an hour train ride away from New York. Philadelphia has ghettos, but so does New York, so does practically every city.
Most of the ghettos in Philadelphia are in North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia.
Great places to live are most of Center City (obviously, but gets really pricey) South Philadelphia, University City, Northern Liberties, Fishtown and Fairmount. Other great places to live that are farther from Center City are the Northwest and the Northeast (although they are a few minutes away from Center City on the regional rail).
Philadelphia is great, come check it out and see how you like it. It is a much cheaper alternative than New York and has everything NY has to offer.
P.S. Camden is terrible, you will never have any reason to go there except to go to the aquarium and the Susquehanna banks center. If you do go to Camden make sure you get out by nightfall lol, and make sure you NEVER leave the waterfront area.
New York is over 5x the size of Philly, not 3x, and it feels like it. And I personally don't think Center City feels much like Manhattan at all. Otherwise I mostly agree with this post.
Except maybe that when it comes to jobs & careers, realistically Philly does not really offer all the same options as NY on a smaller scale, unless you're really stretching. I honestly wish that it did. I would tell anyone to seriously research jobs in their field before they move. Also, the ghettos in NYC are pretty laughable compared to the ghettos in Philly, and are generally more isolated, so I wouln't pretend it's the same deal. New York is a much safer city from top to bottom. BUT there are decent areas of Philly that are quite affordable, so you shouldn't have to worry about living in any kind of ghetto if you are gainfully employed.
I'm a Philadelphian living in NY FWIW.
Oh I actually was not posting about business, I completely forgot about that lol I do agree that the city lacks in certain business areas, but people certainly do not give it enough credit when it comes to medical research/ other forms of high tech research. It is also a great place to be for a college professor or anything else University related. There is a great need for Police Officers in the city. The entertainment atmosphere is great for anyone who wants to get into theater, music, sports or TV. Philadelphia is a great place to be for lawyers or any financial related occupation. Philadelphia is a great place for real estate agents or real estate investors/developers/city planners. Also if you are a historian or a curator or anything else museum related, it doesn't get much better than Philly. I don't think any city compares to NY business wise, I thought that was just a given. MobyJim, are you sure you live in the Philadelphia area? What are you talking about? Lol. Philadelphia is absolutely growing in population. It is insane the amount of construction going on in this city. It seems like something new is being built everyday. New rowhomes in south philly and in northern liberties are pushing the young professionals (gentrification) into point breeze, spring garden, callowhill, kensington, francisville and brewerytown. If Philadelphia is not growing in population where are the people coming from? Not to mention there are several new residential projects starting to stir around in the Center City development news. 2116 Chestnut St comes to mind, and I can name you a few others. The vacancy rates for residential is plummeting, and the real estate market is doing pretty good IMO (residential vacancy rate as low as 4% in Center City and significantly well throughout the city). The commercial vacancy rate is also really low compared to the rest of the country at 11%. That's pretty damn good (of course most of this is because of Comcast). There is a dwindling amount of office space and there are still some quality firms looking for large office space. Philadelphia is doing great right now compared to other cities. Philadelphia is predicted to add another 100,000 residents by 2020. Maybe 2030? Idk it was one of those.
As for the size of the cities, I meant the square mileage wise. Philadelphia is 142 sq miles and New York is 468 sq miles. So yeah New York is a little over 3 times larger than Philadelphia. I was referring to square miles not population because I was making a point about Philadelphia's walkability compared to New York.
Last edited by RightonWalnut; 02-19-2012 at 07:04 PM..
Yes, New York is 5 X the size of Philly ... so it's much bigger.
I was born in NYC and I prefer Philly. It has a lot to do with economics, it is so much more affordable to live here;more affordable to keep a car here, more affordable to dine out in nice restaurants, entertainment is much cheaper, etc.
We have great Museums and Art Galleries. For live theater, opera, symphony, ballet, and other cultural things we are near the top with NYC, Chicago and LA. We have good sports teams, but no we did not go the SuperBowl in several years. We also have a Chinatown. Richer folks live in Rittenhouse Square or Chestnut Hill, poorer folks live in Kensington or Feltonville.
However, Philly in my opinion has a blue collar working class vibe. Not as pretentious as NYC or Boston.
If you're a younger person and you are interested in bars, pubs, night clubs ... the places that might interest you after dark are Old City, Northern Liberties, South Street, and University City.
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I do agree that the city lacks in certain business areas, but people certainly do not give it enough credit when it comes to medical research/ other forms of high tech research. It is also a great place to be for a college professor or anything else University related. There is a great need for Police Officers in the city. The entertainment atmosphere is great for anyone who wants to get into theater, music, sports or TV. Philadelphia is a great place to be for lawyers or any financial related occupation. Philadelphia is a great place for real estate agents or real estate investors/developers/city planners. Also if you are a historian or a curator or anything else museum related, it doesn't get much better than Philly. I don't think any city compares to NY business wise, I thought that was just a given. MobyJim, are you sure you live in the Philadelphia area? What are you talking about? Lol. Philadelphia is absolutely growing in population. It is insane the amount of construction going on in this city. It seems like something new is being built everyday. New rowhomes in south philly and in northern liberties are pushing the young professionals (gentrification) into point breeze, spring garden, callowhill, kensington, francisville and brewerytown. If Philadelphia is not growing in population where are the people coming from? Not to mention there are several new residential projects starting to stir around in the Center City development news. 2116 Chestnut St comes to mind, and I can name you a few others. The vacancy rates for residential is plummeting, and the real estate market is doing pretty good IMO (residential vacancy rate as low as 4% in Center City and significantly well throughout the city). The commercial vacancy rate is also really low compared to the rest of the country at 11%. That's pretty damn good (of course most of this is because of Comcast). There is a dwindling amount of office space and there are still some quality firms looking for large office space. Philadelphia is doing great right now compared to other cities. Philadelphia is predicted to add another 100,000 residents by 2020. Maybe 2030? Idk it was one of those.
