Tourism in Philly (Philadelphia, Chester, Indiana: real estate, refrigerator, storage)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MB1562

Also, get rid of all those cheap, ugly businesses lining South Broad St. So many paved lot gas stations, cheap fast food places, and run down other businesses. Seriously, its the main north/south thoroughfare through Philadelphia and it looks incredibly ghetto till you get to the Center City border.

Like some other poster said before, do something, anything, with that abandoned lot at Broad and Washington. I hate looking at it every day.

Talk to Blatstein about it. He controls the NE corner. Will you? I'm guessing, no.

Talk to the mayorals candidates about it. Will you? I'm guessing, no.

Talk to the city council-people at large,particularly Alan Domb and Paul Steinke who are running for the first time, about it. Will you? I'm guessing, no.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

I'm all for increasing tourism to Philly.

I like the idea about developing historic Germantown as major tourist attraction.

One thing Philly does have is great museums. Unfortunately museum going nowadays gets pretty expensive. I wish there was an ALL MUSEUM PASS for something like $20 that is good for a week and can be used in the Art Museum, the Barnes, the Constitution Center, the Franklin, the Penn Museum, the Academy of Sciences, the Rosenbach, the African American, the Jewish, the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, the Swedish, the Independence Seaport, etc.

How about building some decent affordable hotels - they can be "no frills" - but clean, safe, and even attractive places where rooms rent for $50 - $80? Whenever I have out of town visitors they usually pay rates anywhere from $125 - $225 for 'average' hotels, not even fancy places.

I would like to see Philly beat Colonial Williamsburg at their own game. Hire dozens of costumed historical "interpreters" in the Old City, open Man Full Of Troubles Tavern, stage reenactments, etc.

Finally: advertize our city more!

CP, there are bed and breakfasts in UC. I'm surprised you don't see that as option for your out of town guests.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

The feds determine the metro name. Cherry Hill won't be in the name because it's a township. You have the primary & up to 2 secondary cities.

Why not have representatives from local government talk to the feds about phasing out Camden as a highlighting presence ? Camden being a city that hasnt been relevant since WW II.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Why do you think it was "planners" as such rather than capitalistic/opportunitic entreprenuers who put that stuff there?

Planners,entrepreneurs, city officials, state officials. Somebody 100 years ago should have had the common sense not to turn 5,000 acres of SW Philly into a toxic wasteland. A couple miles away you had Independence Hall,Liberty Bell,Art Museum and amazing architecture.

Why didnt someone in City Hall say hey these refineries are going to be a black eye on Philadelphia forever.Lets use that land and river for better long term success. Let Palmyra, Marcus Hook and other out of the way , non essential towns monopolize that toxic industry.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Planners,entrepreneurs, city officials, state officials. Somebody 100 years ago should have had the common sense not to turn 5,000 acres of SW Philly into a toxic wasteland. A couple miles away you had Independence Hall,Liberty Bell,Art Museum and amazing architecture.

Why didnt someone in City Hall say hey these refineries are going to be a black eye on Philadelphia forever.Lets use that land and river for better long term success. Let Palmyra, Marcus Hook and other out of the way , non essential towns monopolize that toxic industry.

They didn't have the common sense to see that because it wasn't common sense back then.

Tbh, I don't believe there were a lot of environmentalists or people with those sensibilities 100 years ago.
Certainly not in a place that was still the "work shop of the world" as Philly was back then.

Consider that many homes were using coal furnaces with all the poison that puts in the air. Just to tell you how recent that was, my grandparents still had a coal furnace in the 1950s.

I'm NOT excusing what people did decades ago, but I just don't think they saw it as bad. It was the world they lived in. Pollution was an acceptable outcome wrt making money which is all factory owners cared about.

Politically Philadelphia was a corrupt place. Probably similar to Tamany Hall in NYC with Boss Tweed. It was a Republican machine. And they probably were fine keeping businesses doing what they wanted as long as they "fed" the machine. Ironically it was Democratic reformers like Richardson Dilworth that ended Rep rule.

Some of the "waste land" is going to change because Penn has a lot of terrific plans called Pennovation in some part of SW Phila.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Why not have representatives from local government talk to the feds about phasing out Camden as a highlighting presence ? Camden being a city that hasnt been relevant since WW II.

Metro names are not involved for tourism.

The only city in the South Jersey suburbs is Camden. Boroughs don't make the metro name. Townships don't make the metro name. That's the rules. That's pretty simple.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Planners,entrepreneurs, city officials, state officials. Somebody 100 years ago should have had the common sense not to turn 5,000 acres of SW Philly into a toxic wasteland. A couple miles away you had Independence Hall,Liberty Bell,Art Museum and amazing architecture.

Why didnt someone in City Hall say hey these refineries are going to be a black eye on Philadelphia forever.Lets use that land and river for better long term success. Let Palmyra, Marcus Hook and other out of the way , non essential towns monopolize that toxic industry.

Do you think that there was an airport there 100 years ago?

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by kyb01

They didn't have the common sense to see that because it wasn't common sense back then.

Tbh, I don't believe there were a lot of environmentalists or people with those sensibilities 100 years ago.
Certainly not in a place that was still the "work shop of the world" as Philly was back then.

Consider that many homes were using coal furnaces with all the poison that puts in the air. Just to tell you how recent that was, my grandparents still had a coal furnace in the 1950s.

I'm NOT excusing what people did decades ago, but I just don't think they saw it as bad. It was the world they lived in. Pollution was an acceptable outcome wrt making money which is all factory owners cared about.

Politically Philadelphia was a corrupt place. Probably similar to Tamany Hall in NYC with Boss Tweed. It was a Republican machine. And they probably were fine keeping businesses doing what they wanted as long as they "fed" the machine. Ironically it was Democratic reformers like Richardson Dilworth that ended Rep rule.

Some of the "waste land" is going to change because Penn has a lot of terrific plans called Pennovation in some part of SW Phila.

My grandparents also heated with coal.

[asiandudeyo]

Originally Posted by kyb01

CP, there are bed and breakfasts in UC. I'm surprised you don't see that as option for your out of town guests.

Or airbnb.
When my parents came here 2 years ago, we used it.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

Metro names are not involved for tourism.

The only city in the South Jersey suburbs is Camden. Boroughs don't make the metro name. Townships don't make the metro name. That's the rules. That's pretty simple.

Camden is 8 Sq miles.Has a population of 50,000.

Fort Worth is 350 sq miles. Population of 800,000.

What is a better South Jersey comparison to the secondary city peers such as Fort Worth,Anaheim,Oakland etc?

Camden or South Jersey?