Moving to Philly from San Diego CA - Please advise on neighborhoods for a couple w/a 6mo baby. (Philadelphia: to rent, condo)

[JaxMax]

Hello Philadelphians,

My wife is a licensed PA attorney and I'm a small business owner in the restaurant and food distribution industry both in NY and CA. We have a 6mo old baby boy and 2 small dogs. We're looking for a transition home to rent before we purchase to make sure we'd want to raise our kids in Philly.

Budget Rent: $0-$3500

Want: 2+ bd, either a house, condo, townhouse, brownstone, or loft. Must have a backyard or patio for our dogs. Furnished or unfurnished.

Area: Family/baby friendly, Low crime rate, and easy access to dtown/CC and Delaware state. MOST IMPORTANTLY, a town/city suited for an entreprenuer/business man to start a new small business venture (meaning not a town that has many restrictions about doing business from home). Wifey will be working in dtown. We don't want snooty, pretentious neighbors. We're a laid back, down to earth young couple who enjoy life and laughing.

We're used to living in an active city lifestyle.

We have narrowed it down to 3 areas and would like your opinion/feedback on them as well as recommendations for any other cities.

Rittenhouse Square or Washington Square?

Chestnut Hill?

Other areas you recommend?

We'd like to know the pros and cons from the people who know Philly well.

Thank you much in advance!

[frankgn87]

If you are In the city be aware of 2 factors. City wage tax at almost 4%(If you are making $200k thats $8000 a year.. and th epublic schools in th ecity are average at best. You would have to either send em to private (at a considerable cost) or try to get into a charter school. If I were you I would be looking towards the main line area just outside the city. Public schools are the best in the nation and no wage tax. If you already knew these things and still want to be in the city, look at the 3 areas you already are looking at.. Great areas..

[kidphilly]

Rittenhouse and Washington Sq are more urban per se so that may factor in as well. If you are looking at Chestnut Hill and dont want to pay wage tax you may also want to look at the Main Line and areas like Ardmore etc. or even Haddonfield in NJ. Both are roughly an equal commute and offer some similarities to Chestnut Hill whish a great area as well. Though your wife will pay city wage regardless working in the city. Also in terms of home offices and legalities,; not totally sure

To me personally RS or WS offer the best attributes of Philly living IMHO as you can basically walk to everything in the core of the city.

Best of luck on your move

[Angus215]

Rittenhouse, Washington Square, and Chestnut Hill are all great areas with their own character. I'd look at Society Hill as well. Chestnut Hill, while in the city of Philadelphia, has more of a suburban character to it but has a downtown area (Germantown Ave). the others are downtown city neighborhoods.

As others have said, there is a 4% wage tax if you live in philly (which your wife would have to pay on her income anyway if she works in philly). also, one thing that isn't great about philly for people with children is a lack of open space. Fairmount Park is huge, but not walkable from most parts of the city. Washington Square and Rittenhouse Square, while public parks, are not really large enough to count as "open space".

[templeu]

I thought that there was a posting on here about a high concentration of entrepreneurs in Cheltenhem. Does anyone else recall anything to that effect???

[Darbarian]

Just some FYI on the Wage Tax, It's 4% for residents and 3.5% for non residents who work within the city limits of Philadelphia.

[dimitri1000]

Hi. We lived in the Fitler Square/graduate hospital area while my husband and I were at Penn for training. We really liked it there - for a city neighborhood, lots of green space, very easy to walk to the newish trail by the river, also has a nice park there with a good playground (we had a 1 year old a the time). Very easy to take the 40 or 42 bus around town. If in Center City, the key is to get a place with its own parking. There are few things worse than going grocery shopping with an infant and not being able to find parking within 3 blocks of your house when you return!

I am not sure I would plan on doing school in Center City, but there is a school, I think along Lombard, that may be private. There is also a private pool in that neighborhood but the wait list may be long to get in (as in years).

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

If you are In the city be aware of 2 factors. City wage tax at almost 4%(If you are making $200k thats $8000 a year.. and th epublic schools in th ecity are average at best. You would have to either send em to private (at a considerable cost) or try to get into a charter school. If I were you I would be looking towards the main line area just outside the city. Public schools are the best in the nation and no wage tax. If you already knew these things and still want to be in the city, look at the 3 areas you already are looking at.. Great areas..

I love the Main Line, but it doesn't really offer the progressive urban lifestyle the OP seems to be looking for. I do agree, however, that barring acceptance to one of the magnets, private school is a must. The Philadelphia School, which dmitri hinted at, offers a wonderful K-8 education that is within walking distance. Its graduates mostly split between the public magnets (Masterman/Central/CAPA) and Quaker upper schools (Friend's Central, Friend's Select, Penn Charter, etc).

Going off dmitri, I think Fitler Square is a great suggestion. Hip family-oriented neighborhood that is upper class, but with very little pretension. Also very convenient to "center" Center City/the highways.

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by Angus215

Rittenhouse, Washington Square, and Chestnut Hill are all great areas with their own character. I'd look at Society Hill as well. Chestnut Hill, while in the city of Philadelphia, has more of a suburban character to it but has a downtown area (Germantown Ave). the others are downtown city neighborhoods.

As others have said, there is a 4% wage tax if you live in philly (which your wife would have to pay on her income anyway if she works in philly). also, one thing that isn't great about philly for people with children is a lack of open space. Fairmount Park is huge, but not walkable from most parts of the city. Washington Square and Rittenhouse Square, while public parks, are not really large enough to count as "open space".

But open space and access to Fairmount Park is where Chestnut Hill really shines in those three options.
It's a walkable neighborhood with shopping amenities and good transit access via multiple train lines, but there there are parks (ie: Pastorius Park) and large green spaces (ie: Watertower Recreation area) right in the small neighborhood boundaries, and then at the western edge of the neighborhood is the beautiful Wissahickon Valley section of Fairmount Park, with all it's trails and forested areas.
As far as schools go, there's an "ok" public elementary school (Jenks), but also multiple private schools (Crefeld, Waldorf, Norwood Fontbonne), and a Catholic School (Our Mother of Consolation) all within the walkable neighborhood boundaries.

[JaxMax]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

If you are In the city be aware of 2 factors. City wage tax at almost 4%(If you are making $200k thats $8000 a year.. and th epublic schools in th ecity are average at best. You would have to either send em to private (at a considerable cost) or try to get into a charter school. If I were you I would be looking towards the main line area just outside the city. Public schools are the best in the nation and no wage tax. If you already knew these things and still want to be in the city, look at the 3 areas you already are looking at.. Great areas..

Thank you for the information. We'd have to reconsider RHouse and WS. I'd have to do further research on how the wage tax will affect me since I run my business from home. We also learned that Chestnut Hill is brutal to drive out during rush hour traffic.

We're actually starting to look into the Main Line areas specifically in the Lower Merion Township. If you have any suggestions for the neighborhoods, please share. On a side note, we're also interested in an area with excellent youth sports programs/leagues as well as high schools that both have excellent academic standards and competitive athletic programs (eg. football, basketball, baseball...).

Thank you again!