Why does the website "visitphilly.com" have such a small list of suburbs? (Philadelphia: movers, live in)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

This is a very good assessment. I think I am one of those people.
I also have no idea that Chester and West Chester are two different entity. I thought Upper Darby is in North East Philly and I just learned from the website you linked, that Ardmore is not Philly.

Oh my, you've been thinking that Ardmore is part of the city?! Ardmore is part of the Main Line that some posters go on about.

If you look at the Septa Regional Rail schedule for Paoli/Thorndale that will essentially list all of towns in the traditional part of the Main Line. Some people consider the "Overbrook" stop the start of the Main Line although Overbrook is still within the city limits. The rest of the stops are suburban.

Upper Darby is a postal zip code and a township. It's entirely a suburb. If you were to travel on the EL, westbound, to the end of the line to 69th St Terminal, you will be in Upper Darby.

And Chester, West Chester are miles apart in different counties. Chester, used to be an industrial hub the way Phila. was. It's in Delaware Co. West Chester is in Chester Co. and is its county seat. I'm sure this is still very confusing to you.

[pcity]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

1. I do not need to go there since some of them are bedroom communities with nothing to offer - not even mall to visit. Plus to be honest, I am confused with the definition of suburbs in PA.
For example, is Lansdale a suburb of Philadelphia or a small town? According to the map, Doylestown is a suburb. So Lansdale too, yes?

Both are suburbs and would be considered towns as well. I wouldn't call either a "small town" because "small town" implies that the town is part of a rural area.

2. I am not used to see so much boonies / undeveloped areas in between. Like for example, if I take train to work in the burb from Suburban st, I will see the city, and then the dilapidated North Philly, and then there are boonies here and there as I passed different stations (I assume diff. areas and burbs). There is no continuity of development. So in a way, it is kinda give invisible boundaries not to cross - I hope I am being clear.

I don't really get this. Why would a suburban area be a boundary that cannot be crossed? If you're taking the train to Lansdale, you go through some suburbs and arrive at Lansdale at some point.

I am not sure about the better planning. From my perspective, there are alot of undeveloped areas in SEPA. By undeveloped areaa, I mean congregating trees that look untouched by human, where it is enough for deer to live there. This is especially difficult for me to explore because I do not know what lay on the other sides. Having several trees are doable, but having an area in which wild animals live is another.

OK, now I REALLY don't get this. Deer and other "wild animals" in the suburbs aren't going to hurt you.

And since you know I am all about retail, I do not see retailers in alot of these areas. And I am not talking about clothing necessarily. But national eateries and what not. Like Chipotle and Maggiano's.

The towns highlighted on the site in the first post generally have a number of independent boutiques and restaurants.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

Sorry LOL! It is not my attention to confuse the two!
Yes. Lansdale/ Doylestown line. Although I sometime explore and took the Media / Elwyn line, as welll as other lines.



I see the architectural difference. Although to be honest, some buildings look old, unattractive and well....dirty (maybe due to its age). And this is something I am not used to.
I do not mind old buildings that are well kept and clean. But alot of them here just look old and dirty. Some old buildings I love is in Chestnut Hill and Roberts Ave. of Glenside. Those are nice to be looked at.
I am not sure about the better planning. From my perspective, there are alot of undeveloped areas in SEPA. By undeveloped areaa, I mean congregating trees that look untouched by human, where it is enough for deer to live there. This is especially difficult for me to explore because I do not know what lay on the other sides. Having several trees are doable, but having an area in which wild animals live is another.
And since you know I am all about retail, I do not see retailers in alot of these areas. And I am not talking about clothing necessarily. But national eateries and what not. Like Chipotle and Maggiano's.
If anything, Miami is better planned since if you look down before you are landing in the airplane, the streets are grid-line and numbered. Make it easier to navigate. Well of course partially because Miami is flat. But it is not an excuse since San Fransisco suburbs in my opinion are well planned.

We gotta get you out of this southern mentality of homogeous living and planning.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by asiandudeyo

Sorry LOL! It is not my attention to confuse the two!
Yes. Lansdale/ Doylestown line. Although I sometime explore and took the Media / Elwyn line, as welll as other lines.



I see the architectural difference. Although to be honest, some buildings look old, unattractive and well....dirty (maybe due to its age). And this is something I am not used to.
I do not mind old buildings that are well kept and clean. But alot of them here just look old and dirty. Some old buildings I love is in Chestnut Hill and Roberts Ave. of Glenside. Those are nice to be looked at.
I am not sure about the better planning. From my perspective, there are alot of undeveloped areas in SEPA. By undeveloped areaa, I mean congregating trees that look untouched by human, where it is enough for deer to live there. This is especially difficult for me to explore because I do not know what lay on the other sides. Having several trees are doable, but having an area in which wild animals live is another.
And since you know I am all about retail, I do not see retailers in alot of these areas. And I am not talking about clothing necessarily. But national eateries and what not. Like Chipotle and Maggiano's.
If anything, Miami is better planned since if you look down before you are landing in the airplane, the streets are grid-line and numbered. Make it easier to navigate. Well of course partially because Miami is flat. But it is not an excuse since San Fransisco suburbs in my opinion are well planned.

Maybe the difference is that many of us want to keep sprawl contained hence how it's so different than Miami wrt development. And, yes, I've been to Miami so I do understand what you are talking about.

San Francisco was leveled by an earthquake and burned to the ground in 1903. And rebuilt. So re-planning happened more readily. Just like Chicago was destroyed in 1871 by fire. So how that city was rebuilt reflects it. Philadelphia has never had a physical catastrophe on the scale of those place. What is left now reflects that as well. If you have some interest in what the city was like during its industrial era look at the workshopoftheworld website. You will get an understanding of what used to be in the city, how some of those places/factories looked and what's left. Many of the old buildings are the ones we are trying repurpose, via gentrification.

[ElijahAstin]

I think all reasonably safe areas--urban, suburban, exurban, and rural--are worth checking out at least once, if only en route to somewhere else.

[LibraGirl123]

Originally Posted by pcity

Are there walkable towns worth visiting that have been left off the site?

The page is clearly focused on walkable "towns" with some history and isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of suburbs. Other suburbs can be found elsewhere on the site, like King of Prussia under "Shopping" for instance.

The "Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia" website features most of those on VisitPhilly...and, in addition, includes some towns in New Jersey:

Explore - Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia

[motownewave]

Something else very irritating is when people refer to Ridley Creek State Park (which is kind of in the middle of the triangle of Media, Newtown Square, and West Chester) as "Ridley Park", which could create confusion with the borough by that name, which ironically is quite far from Ridley Creek State Park but is near Tinicum Wildlife Refuge. Thus, a lot of wise locals in Delaware County (locals call it Delco) omit "state" but say "Ridley CREEK Park" to avoid confusion.

What's also irritating is that people mix up Ridley Park with Ridley Township, even though the two (while neighbors and in the same school district) are totally different. It may be very confusing to people though that there is no actual "Ridley" that goes by that name alone - rather, Ridley Township has several parts, each with different zip codes: Folsom, Holmes, Woodlyn, and Secane (the last of which I believe overlaps with the humongous Upper Darby Township... I know Primos is in Upper Darby but uses a Clifton Heights zip code, and "Primos-Secane" is an address used by the census... please correct me if any of this is wrong).

I do forgive "asiandudeyo" for his admitted confusion because (correct me if I'm wrong) he is from another country and is an ESL speaker. And I do understand why someone from Asia (per his username) no matter what country, or from any country anywhere other than the USA, would be very interested in "Philadelphia" but not its neighbors - except for those that might be famous or otherwise appealing to international travelers.

[pcity]

I've never heard anyone refer to Ridley Creek State Park as Ridley Park. It was always just called "Ridley Creek".

[motownewave]

Originally Posted by pcity

I've never heard anyone refer to Ridley Creek State Park as Ridley Park. It was always just called "Ridley Creek".

Really? Not for me.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by motownewave

Really? Not for me.

I am from Media and my parents still live in Upper Providence and I have never head anyone refer to the Ridley Creek State Park and "Ridley Park" either.