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Old 10-24-2012, 10:46 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
8,700 posts, read 14,686,635 times
Reputation: 3668

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Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Philly - old, gritty, crumbling
San Diego - new, sharp, clean

Philly - 4 seasons, winter not obnoxious like Chicago, summer not obnoxious like Dallas
San Diego - one season all year, but that one is beautiful - kids play outdoors all year, Dad can golf all year

Philly - diverse
San Diego - not so much

My point is, these two cities offer COMPLETELY different lifestyles. You and your family will have to decide what kind of people you are, in order to make the best choice.
Well that's a little drastic. I can tell you right now that Philadelphia is building more new things that San Diego is.
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Old 10-24-2012, 11:08 PM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,325 posts, read 12,995,234 times
Reputation: 6174
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Philly - old, gritty, crumbling
San Diego - new, sharp, clean

Philly - 4 seasons, winter not obnoxious like Chicago, summer not obnoxious like Dallas
San Diego - one season all year, but that one is beautiful - kids play outdoors all year, Dad can golf all year

Philly - diverse
San Diego - not so much

My point is, these two cities offer COMPLETELY different lifestyles. You and your family will have to decide what kind of people you are, in order to make the best choice.
Philly is not "crumbling." But if you want to chide Philly for being old and gritty, it's only fair to criticize San Diego for being soulless and sprawling.
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Old 10-25-2012, 12:44 AM
 
1,362 posts, read 4,314,129 times
Reputation: 399
We live in the Atlanta metro. As and when we move, we decided Boston-Washington corridor (mostly Philadelphia) over California.

Reasons:
There is no city to beat NYC (proximity to NYC). Do you enjoy walking around NYC?

Pacific beaches are c-o-l-d, read up about this, something about the currents. We were in LA in June, and it was fairly cold. Further north closer to SF was freezing. Dunno about about San Diego, but there has to be a chill factor to the water.

If you like cities - Boston-Washington corridor. If not, California might make more sense.
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Old 10-25-2012, 11:01 AM
 
Location: Johns Island
2,501 posts, read 4,432,191 times
Reputation: 3767
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeavenWood View Post
Philly is not "crumbling."
Remove your "Center City only" blinders, please. Philly is full of disintegrating rowhouses, or "missing tooth" open lots where a rowhouse used to stand but collapsed. It's what happens in cities that are 400 years old. That kind of grit is not on display in San Diego.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeavenWood View Post
But if you want to chide Philly for being old and gritty, it's only fair to criticize San Diego for being soulless and sprawling.
The opposite of "old and gritty" is "new and sharp," which is what I said.

San Diego is totally surrounded by suburbs, much like Chicago by the way, but tell me how that is a drawback to the OP who is considering living in SD?
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Old 10-25-2012, 11:08 AM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,325 posts, read 12,995,234 times
Reputation: 6174
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Remove your "Center City only" blinders, please. Philly is full of disintegrating rowhouses, or "missing tooth" open lots where a rowhouse used to stand but collapsed. It's what happens in cities that are 400 years old. That kind of grit is not on display in San Diego.
I removed my Center City only blinders and added University City/Clark Park, Manayunk/Roxborough, Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill, Northern Liberties, Fairmount, Grad Hospital, Bella Vista/Queen Village, and the Far Northeast to my assessment. The city is far from universally "crumbling." Granted, the bad parts are certainly terrible, but the good news is that they're very easy to avoid!

Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
The opposite of "old and gritty" is "new and sharp," which is what I said.
New and sharp is a clever euphemism for tacky and disgusting.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
San Diego is totally surrounded by suburbs, much like Chicago by the way, but tell me how that is a drawback to the OP who is considering living in SD?
San Diego is nothing like Chicago. SoCal cities are simply not "cities" the way Northeastern/Midwestern ones are. It's part of the changing nature of urban planning (and a change for the worse in many people's eyes).
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Old 10-25-2012, 12:26 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
8,700 posts, read 14,686,635 times
Reputation: 3668
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Remove your "Center City only" blinders, please. Philly is full of disintegrating rowhouses, or "missing tooth" open lots where a rowhouse used to stand but collapsed. It's what happens in cities that are 400 years old. That kind of grit is not on display in San Diego.
Okay. Outside of Center City...

West Philadelphia
University City
Powelton Village
Spruce Hill
Woodland Terrace
Squirrel Hill
Cedar Park
Clark Park
Garden Court
Walnut Hill (Up and Coming)
Mantua (Up and Coming)
Wynnefield
Wynnfield Heights
Overbrook (half is nice, portion is okay, portion is ghetto)
Overbrook Park
Overbrook Farms
Haddington (portions are very nice)
Cobbs Creek (portions are nice)
Fairmount Park West

South Philadelphia
Bella Vista
Queen Village
Hawthorne
Graduate Hospital
Pennsport
Passyunk Square
East Passyunk Crossing
Italian Market
Moyamensing
Whitman
Marconi Plaza
Packer Park
FDR Park
Sports Complex
Navy Yard
Newbold (up and coming)
Point Breeze (north and western sections up and coming)
Girard Estate/Wilson Park (half nice)

North Philadelphia
Franklintown
Fairmount
Spring Garden
Brewerytown (mostly nice)
Northern Liberties
Fishtown
Yorktown
Poplar
East Oak Lane
West Oak Lane
Stenton
West Poplar (up and coming)
Olde Kensington (up and coming)
Callowhill (up and coming)
Spring Arts (up and coming)
Sharswood (southern portions up and coming)
North Central (portions up and coming)
Templetown (up and coming...campus is very nice)
Kensington (portions still nice, other portions up and coming)
Port Richmond (mostly still nice)
Logan (portions still nice)
Ogontz (portions still nice)
Fern Rock (portions still nice)
Olney (portions still nice)
Temple Hospital
LaSalle campus

Northwest Philadelphia
Manayunk
Chestnut Hill
Roxborough
East Falls
Wissahickon
West Mt. Airy
East Mt. Airy
Germantown (portions of it still nice, some of it is okay, some of it is being gentrified)

Southwest Philadelphia
Elmwood (half of it is nice)
Eastwick (Mostly nice)

Northeast Philadelphia
Fox Chase
Burholme
Somerton
Bustleton
Forest Hills
Holmesburg
Torresdale
Rhawnhurst
Bridesburg
The rest of the far Northeast (etc. etc.)
Lawncrest (portions still nice)
Mayfair (mostly still nice)
Tacony (mostly still nice)


You are so wrong my friend. I hate this idea that everything outside of Center City in Philadelphia is ghetto. That is really an idea brought about by people who have NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.

Also, there is this assumption that just because there are black people living in a neighborhood that it is automatically "ghetto." There are a ton of middle class African American neighborhoods in Philadelphia that are very nice like Yorktown, Wynnefield, Overbrook, East and West Oak Lane, portions of Olney, portions of Eastwick, portions of Cobbs Creak and Haddington, etc. etc.
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Old 10-25-2012, 12:38 PM
 
Location: Johns Island
2,501 posts, read 4,432,191 times
Reputation: 3767
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeavenWood View Post
I removed my Center City only blinders and added University City/Clark Park, Manayunk/Roxborough, Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill, Northern Liberties, Fairmount, Grad Hospital, Bella Vista/Queen Village, and the Far Northeast to my assessment. The city is far from universally "crumbling." Granted, the bad parts are certainly terrible, but the good news is that they're very easy to avoid!
I'm no longer sure what you're arguing against. I hope you're not saying that Philly isn't gritty. Philly shares that quality with Baltimore and even Boston. Cities that are hundreds of years old, with streets and sewers and infrastructure that is hundreds of years old, tend to share that quality.

If you're taking offense to me saying that Philly is "crumbling," and then listing a set of neighborhoods that in your view are not crumbing, then you're being disingenuous. If large swatches of the city have missing-tooth rowhouses, or houses with collapsed bricks in a pile, but you pretend they don't exist by staying only in the well-to-do areas, that doesn't make my statement incorrect.

If in your mind Philly is only made up of the currently "hot" neighborhoods, and all the rest are to be ignored, then I can't have a conversation with you.
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Old 10-25-2012, 01:03 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
8,700 posts, read 14,686,635 times
Reputation: 3668
[quote=JacksonPanther;26663431
San Diego is totally surrounded by suburbs, much like Chicago by the way, but tell me how that is a drawback to the OP who is considering living in SD?[/quote]

San Diego is a soulless sprawling suburban agglomeration... not a city.

Downtown San Diego
san diego - Google Maps

Center City Philadelphia
philadelphia - Google Maps

Downtown San Diego
san diego - Google Maps

Center City Philadelphia
philadelphia - Google Maps

Typical San Diego neighborhood
san diego - Google Maps
san diego - Google Maps
san diego - Google Maps
san diego - Google Maps
san diego - Google Maps

Typical Philadelphia neighborhood
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps
philadelphia - Google Maps

....and you guys in SoCal pay some of the highest Real Estate prices in the country for that garbage... why?
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Old 10-25-2012, 06:14 PM
 
Location: South Jersey
7,780 posts, read 21,869,902 times
Reputation: 2355
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post

If in your mind Philly is only made up of the currently "hot" neighborhoods, and all the rest are to be ignored, then I can't have a conversation with you.

Thats his problem in a nutshell. bingo. Hey summer, a newbie has you pegged inna day! lol

oh and you will see he loves the term 'soulless' even though he hasn't a clue what that is. (does anyone know what that is? no, its opinion)Every place but Philly is soul less to him lol.
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Old 10-25-2012, 07:07 PM
 
Location: West Cedar Park, Philadelphia
1,225 posts, read 2,565,963 times
Reputation: 693
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Remove your "Center City only" blinders, please. Philly is full of disintegrating rowhouses, or "missing tooth" open lots where a rowhouse used to stand but collapsed. It's what happens in cities that are 400 years old. That kind of grit is not on display in San Diego.


The opposite of "old and gritty" is "new and sharp," which is what I said.

San Diego is totally surrounded by suburbs, much like Chicago by the way, but tell me how that is a drawback to the OP who is considering living in SD?
What happens to San Diego when its 400 years old then?

I guess cities start crumbling around the 300-400 year mark? That's a shame, but I guess it explains why we built so many new ones over the last century. Maybe one day we'll discover how to build cities that last longer, you know, so we don't have to keep moving out of them every few hundred years.

Also, nobody here is denying Philadelphia is falling apart in places, but thats because of neglect, not some sort of innate property cities acquire at the 300 year mark. For goodness sake, I mean look at European cities! The parts of the city that are kept up, which is way more than just Center City, are very nice. Honestly, if you don't like the city you'll find lots of reasons why not, but not everyone will agree with you. Saying Philadelphia is "too gritty" is more your opinion than anything else.
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