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Old 06-26-2018, 06:01 PM
 
Location: Wyncote,PA
53 posts, read 37,078 times
Reputation: 32

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Hello everyone,

I am soon to move to Philadelphia and i am trying to have a better understanding of the city. Even though i visited the city several times, i just stayed with my in-laws and visiting center city at times.i also drove around some neighbourhoods in between and took the train.
My understanding is that outside of Center city is very spread out , where you have your nice suburbs with main s downtown streets or more urban areas with row and twin houses.
Therefore here is my question , what are the walkable, retail,shops, entertainment, culture , mix used development , with intersting urban setting areas outside center city? (My guess is Bala Cynwyd). For example in South Florida outside downtown Miami, you have fort Lauderdale , Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Groove..etc.

Thanks
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Old 06-26-2018, 06:37 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia
273 posts, read 314,284 times
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Within the city but outside of Center City, you have several other areas to check out.

Just across the Schuylkill from Center City is University City, home to both the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University and a number of restaurants, cultural venues, and museums surrounding the two campuses.

Also within the city limits, a perennial favorite “night out” destination is Manayunk in the northwestern section of the city with its bustling Main Street. Elsewhere in the northwest is Chestnut Hill; it has a picturesque and almost “small town” feeling business district along Germantown Avenue (but again, it’s still within the city limits). Both are accessible via the Regional Rail lines that share the neighborhoods’ names.

A few other city neighborhoods which have experienced a notable renaissance in recent years are just northeast of Center City along the Market-Frankford line, Northern Liberties and Fishtown, and you’ll find a wealth of restaurants, night spots, retail, and performance venues between the two.

For destinations outside of the city, you can just look at any of the many threads where people are looking for “walkable, transit-connected suburbs”, and almost any of them would have something to offer.

My town, Media, has a busy retail and dining district along its main drag, State Street. State Street is also home to numerous festivals and events, including Wednesdays during the summer when the street is closed to traffic and restaurants line the street with tables for “Dining under the Stars”.

Many of the Main Line towns (i.e. along the Paoli Thorndale line) have bustling business districts along Lancaster Avenue with a tremendous variety and density of restaurants and shops within walking distance of the train station. I would list Ardmore and Bryn Mawr as having the most to offer in that regard.

Further out but still accessible by rail is Doylestown, another picturesque community with a vibrant downtown—and nearly everyone who visits raves about it.

Not accessible by rail but worthy of honorable mentions are West Chester, Phoenixville, and New Hope (a particularly postcard-perfect town).

I’m sure others will have additional neighborhoods and towns to recommend. I hope this helps!
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Old 06-26-2018, 09:02 PM
 
Location: Montco PA
2,214 posts, read 5,071,352 times
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https://www.classictowns.org/explore/
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Old 06-26-2018, 09:24 PM
 
382 posts, read 260,182 times
Reputation: 391
Quote:
Originally Posted by papirriqui View Post
Hello everyone,

I am soon to move to Philadelphia and i am trying to have a better understanding of the city. Even though i visited the city several times, i just stayed with my in-laws and visiting center city at times.i also drove around some neighbourhoods in between and took the train.
My understanding is that outside of Center city is very spread out , where you have your nice suburbs with main s downtown streets or more urban areas with row and twin houses.
Therefore here is my question , what are the walkable, retail,shops, entertainment, culture , mix used development , with intersting urban setting areas outside center city? (My guess is Bala Cynwyd). For example in South Florida outside downtown Miami, you have fort Lauderdale , Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Groove..etc.

Thanks
Not including city neighborhoods among others it would be Doylestown, Media, Ardmore, Phoenixville, West Chester, Ambler, and New Hope. I’m sure others have a different list but overall these are some of the good, walkable suburbs. However, these places are definitely not as urban as Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beacn etc.
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Old 06-27-2018, 05:26 AM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
14,014 posts, read 8,880,887 times
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Funny that everyone so far has left Wayne off their list of lively suburban downtowns. I would say it's certainly on par with Bryn Mawr and Ardmore on the Main Line.

Jenkintown in the northern suburbs also belongs on this list. Glenside's an odd creature: it has a well-defined town center along the lines of the ones already mentioned, but its chief entertainment draw is a theater in a shopping village that's about a 15- to 20-minute walk away from the town center.

If by "culture" you include history, then few outlying neighborhoods either within or outside the city match Germantown, where I live. Its shopping and dining choices aren't up to the level of the two neighborhoods to its north, Mt. Airy (also an outlying city neighborhood worth considering) and Chestnut Hill, but traveling among these three neighborhoods (which were once part of the same township prior to consolidation in 1854) is pretty easy, and residents of all three (well, two of them at least; Chestnut Hill residents often see no reason to head down the hill) can be found browsing the shops and visiting the historic sites of each.

That Classic Towns site posted above is definitely worth exploring. It includes some communities on the New Jersey side of the Delaware that we haven't talked much about but merit consideration, most notably Haddonfield (which is not in this collection, though neighboring Haddon Heights is), Merchantville, Collingswood and Moorestown.
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Old 06-27-2018, 07:09 AM
 
Location: East Aurora, NY
744 posts, read 769,461 times
Reputation: 880
I would add Conshohocken to the list of towns already mentioned. King of Prussia also recently built a "main street" which has quite a few amenities. In the City the most notable districts outside of center city are (IMO):


-East Passyunk avenue which has the City's best assortment of Restaurants. West Passyunk has been starting to develop as late as well.


-The Italian Market on S 9th Street


-Graduate Hospital - West South from Broad to Grays Ferry has really developed. South Street is technically in center city but Graduate hospital the neighborhood is generally considered just outside of center city.


-Fairmount Ave in the fairmount Neighborhood


-North 2nd Street in Northern Liberties


- Frankford Ave in Fishtown especially around Frankford and Girard but there are other pockets as well including under the El on Front Street


-University City - Doesn't really have one main street but has a good amount of amenities sprinkled all over. The biggest concentrations is near 40th and Walnut and along Baltimore Ave. Drexel has been adding a lot recently north of Market and around 34th and Chestnut.


-Main Street in Manyunk


-Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown. Chestnut hill is the star and has a very nice developed downtown. Mt. Airy has a decent selection of bars/restaurants. Germantown clearly used to be great but the downtown mostly caters to low income residents now. I have read (on here I believe) that the area around the intersection of Germantown and Chelten was the second biggest shopping district in the region in the area outside of center city. That is clearly no longer the case.


-I also enjoy N 5th Street in Olney. It is a pretty low income area but the district is very vibrant and very diverse.
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Old 07-04-2018, 03:04 PM
 
Location: Wyncote,PA
53 posts, read 37,078 times
Reputation: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by briantroutman View Post
Within the city but outside of Center City, you have several other areas to check out.

Just across the Schuylkill from Center City is University City, home to both the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University and a number of restaurants, cultural venues, and museums surrounding the two campuses.

Also within the city limits, a perennial favorite “night out” destination is Manayunk in the northwestern section of the city with its bustling Main Street. Elsewhere in the northwest is Chestnut Hill; it has a picturesque and almost “small town” feeling business district along Germantown Avenue (but again, it’s still within the city limits). Both are accessible via the Regional Rail lines that share the neighborhoods’ names.

A few other city neighborhoods which have experienced a notable renaissance in recent years are just northeast of Center City along the Market-Frankford line, Northern Liberties and Fishtown, and you’ll find a wealth of restaurants, night spots, retail, and performance venues between the two.

For destinations outside of the city, you can just look at any of the many threads where people are looking for “walkable, transit-connected suburbs”, and almost any of them would have something to offer.

My town, Media, has a busy retail and dining district along its main drag, State Street. State Street is also home to numerous festivals and events, including Wednesdays during the summer when the street is closed to traffic and restaurants line the street with tables for “Dining under the Stars”.

Many of the Main Line towns (i.e. along the Paoli Thorndale line) have bustling business districts along Lancaster Avenue with a tremendous variety and density of restaurants and shops within walking distance of the train station. I would list Ardmore and Bryn Mawr as having the most to offer in that regard.

Further out but still accessible by rail is Doylestown, another picturesque community with a vibrant downtown—and nearly everyone who visits raves about it.

Not accessible by rail but worthy of honorable mentions are West Chester, Phoenixville, and New Hope (a particularly postcard-perfect town).

I’m sure others will have additional neighborhoods and towns to recommend. I hope this helps!

Thanks Bryan, I think the town in your list that fits best with my description is University City, I saw some renders and projects soon to be done in this area and looks great. Also, I really like the college town feeling, good choice!.
I like Chestnut Hill too, but it has a little town feeling which I like as well. but I wonder about where the modern, mixed used buildings, big retail, high density urban feeling (and at some extend curtain wall ), areas are outside Center City.
I heard good things about Media and Ardmore, I will explore them next time , thanks for your helpful post.
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Old 07-04-2018, 03:10 PM
 
Location: Wyncote,PA
53 posts, read 37,078 times
Reputation: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by BPP1999 View Post
thanks so much for this useful link!
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Old 07-04-2018, 03:45 PM
 
Location: Wyncote,PA
53 posts, read 37,078 times
Reputation: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl View Post
Funny that everyone so far has left Wayne off their list of lively suburban downtowns. I would say it's certainly on par with Bryn Mawr and Ardmore on the Main Line.

Jenkintown in the northern suburbs also belongs on this list. Glenside's an odd creature: it has a well-defined town center along the lines of the ones already mentioned, but its chief entertainment draw is a theater in a shopping village that's about a 15- to 20-minute walk away from the town center.

If by "culture" you include history, then few outlying neighborhoods either within or outside the city match Germantown, where I live. Its shopping and dining choices aren't up to the level of the two neighborhoods to its north, Mt. Airy (also an outlying city neighborhood worth considering) and Chestnut Hill, but traveling among these three neighborhoods (which were once part of the same township prior to consolidation in 1854) is pretty easy, and residents of all three (well, two of them at least; Chestnut Hill residents often see no reason to head down the hill) can be found browsing the shops and visiting the historic sites of each.

That Classic Towns site posted above is definitely worth exploring. It includes some communities on the New Jersey side of the Delaware that we haven't talked much about but merit consideration, most notably Haddonfield (which is not in this collection, though neighboring Haddon Heights is), Merchantville, Collingswood and Moorestown.
Jenkintown is in my top list to places to live, my father in law lives there and its a mix of retail stores, small downtown,, a lot of green areas, train station at 30 min from Center City, close to the mall and Turnpike . Its next to Glenside too, especially Kenswik Village is nice and walkable. I consider also Mt Airy as a place to live but high taxes and twin homes discourage me.
thanks for your post!

Last edited by papirriqui; 07-04-2018 at 04:22 PM..
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Old 07-04-2018, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Wyncote,PA
53 posts, read 37,078 times
Reputation: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by mphilly View Post
Not including city neighborhoods among others it would be Doylestown, Media, Ardmore, Phoenixville, West Chester, Ambler, and New Hope. I’m sure others have a different list but overall these are some of the good, walkable suburbs. However, these places are definitely not as urban as Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beacn etc.
Yeah , for sure those places are less urban, the city is just different , still very charming places., thanks for your post!

Last edited by papirriqui; 07-04-2018 at 04:22 PM..
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