Philadelphia -vs- Miami (York: to buy, movie theaters, living)

[durf]

FamousBlueRainCoat, you see why I don't consider downtown having a decent grocery store. They're on South St. which I think it borders Center City. The big fact is it not in downtown. You might as well call the whole city Center City. Downtown Philly is not a full service downtown, IMO! No grocery, no movie theater, no bookstore and no nothing but tumbleweeds blowing through the middle of downtown every night with tons of parking lots, too many to count. They're on west, central, east and north. A major disappointment! Maybe, you should move to San Diego since it has almost everything you need in a compact downtown area with no descrepancy.

[durf]

Correction on #71: no discrepancy.

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

Originally Posted by rotodome

Yeah...because there's no surface parking lots in midtown manhattan at all.... or in downtown san francisco..

And I know the first thing I associate with those places is big box suburban retail and huge supermarkets - because as we all know that's what makes a great downtown!

Haha this is so ridiculous! Genius trolling (I hope)!

There's surface parking in San Jose too - you can park in the STRIP MALL right next to their prefab City Hall.

san jose city hall - Google Maps

[rotodome]

Wow gee... And apparently here's NO other bookstores in Center City other than Borders, either!

Someone had better tell Joseph Fox, Barnes & Noble, Robins, Hibberds, etc the hard truth that their stores aren't actually "fully developed" bookstores!

Hahaha

[durf]

FamousBlueRainCoat, you should check out San Jose's downtown and see how a vibrant downtown works. You have everything there with very few surface parking lots. Camera 12 and 3 Cinemas are located on Second St. A nice Safeway store is located in the same block. You got a comedy theater(Improve). Barnes & Noble is located in San Jose St, which is only 3 blocks away. Bijan Bakery is located on Paseo De San Antonio which is only 2 blcks away. A walgreen's is located on First and Santa Clara, which is about a block away. Tons of restaurants/ nightclubs, intertainments and convience stores are located between. It's such a vibrant community with sense of community.

Note: European and African Cities don't have any surface parking lot. I thought you'd be interested in that. Dt Johannesburg and Cape Town have none, but there downtowns are still mediocre with plenty of highrises.

Philadelphia has no downtown, like you said, which is true and sad. Everything is spread out. Miami has a downtown that's nothing special, but it's better off since it has one. We can agree to disagree that Philly, to me, doesn't provide enough amenities in its center area, what you call it, for me to encourage my friends and the people I know to move there. I'll still tell them to check it out because of history and the movie "Rocky" and don't get their hopes high. If they had a choice I'd refer them to Boston, NY, Washington DC and or Miami first.

This is the last thing I'll say anything about so called Center City before I leave the forum/threads. Center City just doesn't cut for me and my group of people I associate with. It's too spread out and not really a downtown. I'm a downtown centric person and so are my collegues. A city without a nice downtown or downtown at all are not great cities. Just look at Phoenix and Dallas, you see how people don't respect them or like them. I only like cities with downtowns that are cool, not the city without one or a mediocre one. There's no untruthful or deceitful info here or trolling.

You're entitle to your opinion and I'm entitle to mine. You should take cues from your own people like Notorious Philly and other Philaphians or Philadelphians you may want to refer. Oh, one last thing before I move on, hopefully, you don't lose Barnes & Noble since it's more financially stable. Durf out!

[G Goo]

Originally Posted by durf

Philadelphia has no downtown, like you said, which is true and sad. Everything is spread out.

Day is night. Black is white. Up is down. Center City Philadelphia is "spread out". Nice work....

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by G Goo

Day is night. Black is white. Up is down. Center City Philadelphia is "spread out". Nice work troll.

Durf's also going off on the Chicago forum about how lackluster Chicago is, without a "true urban center", compared to San Jose - haha.
This guy is a pro!

[pman]

Originally Posted by durf

FamousBlueRainCoat, you see why I don't consider downtown having a decent grocery store. They're on South St. which I think it borders Center City. The big fact is it not in downtown. You might as well call the whole city Center City. Downtown Philly is not a full service downtown, IMO! No grocery, no movie theater, no bookstore and no nothing but tumbleweeds blowing through the middle of downtown every night with tons of parking lots, too many to count. They're on west, central, east and north. A major disappointment! Maybe, you should move to San Diego since it has almost everything you need in a compact downtown area with no descrepancy.

Moderator Cut center city is, at its most conservative, defined by the old borders of philadelphia which is river to river, south to vine...which includes five grocery stores (two super fresh, one whole foods, one trader joe's, and rittenhouse market) in addition to one of the best traditional markets in the country at reading terminal. you are either unfamiliar and talking out your ass or lying. tumbleweeds atnight? what crack are you smoking? center city's main growth industry is nightlife. with just under 300 restaurants and bars in the small area called center city it's hardly all parking lots.
up until now there have been two bookstores, without borders, there will be one (one large one anyway) on rittenhouse sq. the only part of your post that is correct is no first run movie theater (there are four art house theaters)...unless you cant the tiny theater on sansom. is a great downtown defined by a first run movie theater? not by anyone that has a clue. troll

[FindingZen]

Durf, it's definitely your right to have a preference against Center City. However, a downtown area which, by definition, is not only a two square mile area but also easily connected by multiple transit options would not be a sprawled-out area.

[Angus215]

Philadelphia has one of the best, and few, large city downtowns in the country. not sure why it is being compared in this thread to much smaller 2nd tier cities like Boulder, San Jose, or even Miami. the only 2 cities with a larger downtown are New York and Chicago. Chicago's downtown is mostly office buildings and the rest of the city is very spread out (not unlike LA). maybe the OP only went to market street. that's what it sounds like.