Why is Philadelphia a great place to live? (Clark: crime, neighborhood)

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Moderator Cut

Originally Posted by skihikeclimb

Its not a great place to live. Filled with thugs and violence.

Lol now we have the Canadian wannabes coming out of the woodwork from the city vs city forum where they try to compare their cities that have never had our problems to our cities as if they're so much more civilized than us. What's next, exactly?

[skihikeclimb]

Originally Posted by couldntthinkofaclevername

Lol now we have the Canadian wannabes coming out of the woodwork from the city vs city forum where they try to compare their cities that have never had our problems to our cities as if they're so much more civilized than us. What's next, exactly?

Its true though, the people of Philadelphia need to get control of their city. The city is full of thugs and criminals...Not exactly a great place to visit.

[*Sweetkisses*]

Originally Posted by skihikeclimb

Its true though, the people of Philadelphia need to get control of their city. The city is full of thugs and criminals...Not exactly a great place to visit.

Well what are you doing posting in a Philadelphia forum?

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by skihikeclimb

Its true though, the people of Philadelphia need to get control of their city. The city is full of thugs and criminals...Not exactly a great place to visit.

If you find the predominant parts of Center City, University City, Manayunk, Fairmount, et al, unpleasant, much less even remotely dangerous, I genuinely pity your fragile, skittish constitution. Philly has its problems, and parts of the city are definitely very rough around the edges. But the city as a whole is definitely moving in the right direction, and offers world-class cultural, nightlife, and restaurant scenes. More importantly, it has character, and that's more than you can say about much of Canadia (Montreal being a notable exception).

[tarp]

Canadian cities are much more pleasant than most U.S. cities. However places like San Francisco, Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and Boston are safe/clean/nice in the central business areas. Philadelphia unfortunately has a lot of urban problems bleeding through into Center City, more so than the other cities. Just try hanging around 8th and Market for a while, or cross over to the other side of Vine Street. Part of it is because of how compact center city is, and how close the blighted areas are.

As for character, Montreal is not the only Canadian city with character. Ever been to Hamilton? What about Halifax? Even Toronto has a lot of character especially in neighbourhoods like the Beaches and Kensington Market.

Philly as a city has a lot of problems, let's face it. I like the city but it has way too many ghettos. I do not feel safe letting my wife and kids go out in the evening in Philadelphia.

[Pine to Vine]

Philly-bound - You've gotten some solid advice. In answer to you question, Philly is a great city to me because outside my front door, I have access to performing arts, museums, some of the country's most significant historical sites, charming neighborhoods to stroll round, great restaurants, shopping, and all the conveniences I need to live my life - all without having to get into a car.

I have a couple of suggestions if you are looking for recommendations for suburbs. For PA, open a new thread in the Philadelphia forum and fill in the information on this form: //www.city-data.com/forum/5458608-post1.html. If you want to get good info on the Jersey suburbs, there is another forum for that: //www.city-data.com/forum/new-j...-philadelphia/.

It sounds as if you know the city pretty well, so have a good understanding of what the city offers. Since you are new to CD, we however, you may not realize that Philly, like every city on this site, has posters who like to lurk about looking for reasons to trash these cities with half-truths. You see posts from 1 or 2 such folks here. I suggest you take their "advice" with a grain of salt. Rather than encouraging such posters by engaging with them, most of us just ignore them and they go away looking for attention elsewhere.

Best of luck on your job interview. Hopefully you will land the job and enjoy Philly as much as we have.

[FindingZen]

Hello. Looks like it's been an exciting weekend here on the Philadelphia forum.

Now that the trolling issue has been resolved, here's a reminder that the best way to have such issues resolved is to:

1)Use the Report Post feature at the top right of each post and/or;
2)Direct Message a moderator with your concerns.


This will mitigate the effect on the affected thread, including time spent cleaning it up on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by tarp

Canadian cities are much more pleasant than most U.S. cities. However places like San Francisco, Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and Boston are safe/clean/nice in the central business areas. Philadelphia unfortunately has a lot of urban problems bleeding through into Center City, more so than the other cities. Just try hanging around 8th and Market for a while, or cross over to the other side of Vine Street. Part of it is because of how compact center city is, and how close the blighted areas are.

As for character, Montreal is not the only Canadian city with character. Ever been to Hamilton? What about Halifax? Even Toronto has a lot of character especially in neighbourhoods like the Beaches and Kensington Market.

Philly as a city has a lot of problems, let's face it. I like the city but it has way too many ghettos. I do not feel safe letting my wife and kids go out in the evening in Philadelphia.

Toronto does have some interesting neighborhoods, but it overall suffers from a very sterile, uninspired feel. It's clean and pleasant, but rather bland.

Like I said before, Philly definitely has its problems, but the city is only getting better by the day. Center City is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was 10 years ago. Assuming your wife has some basic street smarts/common sense, she and your children would be perfectly fine in Center City West after nightfall. I dated a girl from Fitler Square (which is very posh/sheltered as far as Philly neighborhoods go) and she and her sisters have been walking around that part of town without incident since their pre-teens. The ghettos never bothered them (or me) because we know where they are and how to avoid them.

I regularly walk home from Center City bars to my University City apartment--sometimes in groups, sometimes alone. I don't conceal carry and I'm hardly physically intimidating, but I've never felt the slightest iota unsafe, because I know where I'm going and what I'm doing. I grew up in the suburbs, and I will openly admit that I would have been much more squeamish as a youngster. But having lived primarily in cities for the past five years, I've acquired enough urban experience to know how to stay safely out of trouble.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by skihikeclimb

Its true though, the people of Philadelphia need to get control of their city. The city is full of thugs and criminals...Not exactly a great place to visit.

37 million people in 2011 alone disagree with you. Perhaps you shouldn't write about that which you don't understand.

[Philly-bound]

Originally Posted by jm02

It sounds as if you know the city pretty well, so have a good understanding of what the city offers. Since you are new to CD, we however, you may not realize that Philly, like every city on this site, has posters who like to lurk about looking for reasons to trash these cities with half-truths. You see posts from 1 or 2 such folks here. I suggest you take their "advice" with a grain of salt. Rather than encouraging such posters by engaging with them, most of us just ignore them and they go away looking for attention elsewhere.

Best of luck on your job interview. Hopefully you will land the job and enjoy Philly as much as we have.

Thanks. I appreciate it, and all of the other responses.