If you had a budget of $650,000...where would you live? (Philadelphia: home, transfer)

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by kyb01

There are two regular posters on this board who know Ernest O. It seems that some of what he writes about is sort of fraudulent and he actually behaves like a social climber. Since I haven't seen any bylines from him in a long time maybe he's left Phila.

OT, but Philly Mag releases an opinion piece from him every month or so, they are much more subdued nowadays,like LGBT events or interviewing someone in theater... as it should be.

I think he started to endanger himself and his job for the trash he was putting out there. He also got a lot of heat for after the police showed up at his door for making threats toward the Mummers parade (but of course he played the victim card because of it).

My hope is that he stays silent or hoes back to Houston.

[cpomp]

I guess I spoke to soon about Ernest, he released a silly article today about Philadelphia dodging the amazon bullet. I didn't click, don't want to know what goes through his bitter mind.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

My life doesn’t revolve around this forum (or you). Now, if you could pay me to write City-Data posts instead of bill hours, that would be another story.

If not tonight, give me a day or two and I’ll report everything here. Just so you know, I’ll be entering a neighborhood’s (or in some cases, a municipality’s) percentage of non-Hispanic white, African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, mixed race, and “other” residents, according to most recent census survey data, into this calculator and report the “true diversity” indices.

Does that sound fair to you, Mississippi wildcat?

Dude, no one's forcing you to do anything. You brought this on yourself with your unconventional claim that there are several communities with higher levels of integration than Mt Airy. You don't have to follow up or prove anything.

We all thought you would just whip out a few community names that we could discuss and argue about, no one expected you to post spreadsheets and data analytics. Which we won't read anyway! LOL!!!

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

Dude, no one's forcing you to do anything. You brought this on yourself with your unconventional claim that there are several communities with higher levels of integration than Mt Airy. You don't have to follow up or prove anything.

We all thought you would just whip out a few community names that we could discuss and argue about, no one expected you to post spreadsheets and data analytics. Which we won't read anyway! LOL!!!

I think you misconstrued me typing with a slight smirk on the train ride home with righteous indignation.

And not to worry, I won’t bombard you with data. Just a single index number that even you can understand. I can tell you so far that University City, East Falls, East Passayunk, and Cheltenham Township beat West Mt. Airy. That’s “several” for you, and there’s probably a few more to come.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

I think you misconstrued me typing with a slight smirk on the train ride home with righteous indignation.

And not to worry, I won’t bombard you with data. Just a single index number that even you can understand. I can tell you so far that University City, East Falls, East Passayunk, and Cheltenham Township beat West Mt. Airy. That’s “several” for you, and there’s probably a few more to come.

Here are the higher-value "true diversity" figures for seven of the more diverse city neighborhoods and suburban school districts (resident population) that most here would agree are desirable.

Statistics are from the most recent five-year census survey data and subject to some margin of error. The borders for the city neighborhood stats I pulled aren't perfect, but I've tried sticking to ones that are fairly good approximations (the site is technically a "competitor," so if you want to know the source, feel free to direct message me).

W = Non-Hispanic White
H = Hispanic/Latino
B = Black/African-American
A = Asian-American
M = Mixed Race
O = Other

***
Seven City Neighborhoods

University City: 3.4
(56.4W, 05.0H, 13.7B, 20.7A, 02.4M, 01.6O)

East Falls: 3.1
(61.0W, 04.9H, 21.7B, 08.3A, 03.3M, 00.4O)

East Passayunk: 3.1
(58.6W, 19.6H, 05.9B, 15.3A, 00.4M, 00.2O)

Graduate Hospital: 3.1
(59.2W, 04.9H, 25.3B, 06.0A, 02.8M, 01.8O)

Passayunk Square: 3.0
(61.4W, 11.0H, 04.1B, 20.6A, 02.8M, 00.0O)

West Mt. Airy: 2.9
(49.7W, 02.3H, 40.4B, 02.1A, 05.3M, 00.2O)

Chestnut Hill: 2.8
(66.8W, 05.8H, 18.3B, 06.0A, 02.9M, 00.2O)

Seven Suburban School Districts
Cheltenham Township: 3.3
(51.3W, 04.3H, 33.1B, 07.2A, 03.1M, 01.0O)

Cherry Hill Township: 2.7
(70.7W, 07.0H, 06.7B, 13.1A, 02.0M, 00.5O)

Eastern Regional (NJ): 2.6
(71.1W, 03.7H, 08.0B, 15.1A, 02.0M, 00.1O)

North Penn: 2.5
(73.8W, 04.0H, 05.7B, 14.0A, 02.0M 00.5O)

Upper Merion: 2.5
(71.7W, 04.4H, 05.6B, 15.7A, 02.1M, 00.4O)

Wissahickon: 2.4
(75.9W, 03.2H, 08.2B, 10.5A, 02.0M, 00.3O)

Abington: 2.3
(76.5W, 03.5H, 12.3B, 04.8A, 02.8M, 00.2O)

[ActualUDResident]

Originally Posted by Patmcpsu

My parents are both from Delaware County (Mom is from Springfield, Dad is from Drexel Hill) and I have lots of aunts/uncles/cousins who still live there.

There is a racial tension throughout Delco that's undeniable. Its eastern border is against west-Philly and its southernmost portion *is* Chester. Because of this, all the "white" school districts are paranoid about "outsiders sneaking their kids into our schools". If you look at the Media/Swarthmore/Wallingford proximity to Chester, the contrast between race and education is so vivid you can draw a line through it.

That racial tension doesn't exist on the Main Line, but that's primarily because racial diversity doesn't exist. I'm not saying that's an acceptable solution, but it's more of an ignorant bliss.

In short, Delco could use its diversity to turn it into a special little melting pot. But they don't.

*For the record, I live in a school district in Chester County that's 81% white, 13% asian and 1% black, so I'm just as guilty as the Main Liners.

**I'm always nervous writing about racial stuff on the internet, but just to be clear, my message is pro-diversity.

EDIT: It also doesn't help that my old high school principal became the superintendent at Upper Darby School District, only to get fired for being too progressive about race: http://www.philly.com/philly/educati...dent_flap.html

That article is a complete joke, and he was fired because he has no clue how to run a large school district. He was trying to treat it like it was any suburban district when it's basically urban. He put his focus on trying to force kids from areas where the drug TRADE is prevalent to feel sorry for addicts who buy there. Rather than focusing on problems they actually have to deal with. The guy he replaced should have never been replaced.

The whole point of pushing that narrative was to flip the school board blue. That school they refer to isn't even all that far. It's a former Catholic school building in 19018. It's nowhere near Glenolden. It's named for a former Clifton Heights police chief, for Christ's sake.

This was never about civil rights or equality. Do you know the real purpose of building a middle school at Clifton Field? To get all of the people out who come from the places they scapegoat for DHMS changing. Period. It's as segregated a plan as you can get. All of those ideas are beyond stupid and are being pushed by people who aren't from anywhere in the district.

I actually grew up in the racial tensions you mentioned. That died out with my generation in the late 2000s. The entire eastern half of UD has been diverse since the '90s, and large swaths of surrounding areas are becoming very diverse. I also didn't know any racists from those working class communities. I've known people who are bitter over the changes but when they say changes, they're referring to Section 8 and an abundance of rentals. We all know who the real racists in the county are. It's obvious in threads like this.

There's no stigma about Delco except from people who don't actually know the county. In short, you're wrong.

Also, the idea that the western and northern parts of the county are more tolerant or accepting is beyond hilarious. Myself and other working class people I know are seen as a novelty there, and we're white. The only reason any of those communities you all love so much in the central, northern, and western part of the county have become more diverse is because working class people from the places you cluelessly badmouth moved there and made it more welcoming. Period.

This dude is another clueless classist outsider talking about places he clearly doesn't know.


As for Ernest, at least he's actually from the city. A lot of what he says is very much pushing the envelope but it is also a justified view point. Who is anybody not from the city to say otherwise?

[MarketStEl]

ActualUDResident: Two things:

One, reviving truly dead threads like this one with one of your fusillades is really counterproductive - everyone in the discussion has moved on, so who's going to respond, really (except me, it appears)?

Two, that chip on your shoulder is weighing you down. People may misunderstand UD, but yours is most assuredly not the only way to interpret the place or what goes on there. We tend to discount the value of diversity, both racial and socioeconomic, when push comes to shove, so I at least appreciate your efforts to educate those who speak of the township as though it were the fourth circle of Hell (Chester's the seventh), but understand that there are others out there who see the same things you do and nonetheless react differently to them.

Originally Posted by PHL10

people throw around Mt. Airy a lot even when it doesn't fit but man, does the OPs priorities ever scream "Mt. Airy!".

OP, you can get a really nice house well under your budget there. You might consider doing that which may allow you to afford a moderately priced private school.

I would say something on that last paragraph, but will wait until the sentiment comes up in a still-living thread.

BTW, I'm one of those two people who kyb01 mentioned upthread as knowing Ernest Owens. He's a colleague of mine at PhillyMag. I should note, however, that he is one of several high-profile freelance contributors to the magazine - most of the others are former full-time members of the editorial staff. I am a full-time member of the editorial staff - the first African-American full-time staffer in the mag's history. (It was founded by the Chamber of Commerce in 1909 and took its current form under the ownership of the current company chairman's father in 1965; I was hired in November of 2015. Three others, not including Owens, have followed me; one of those, a former intern and research editor (=fact-checker), left the mag in the fall of 2017.)

[DXBtoFL]

OP's disappeared a long time ago but all of you boosting Mount Airy conveniently ignore she's looking for public schools.

That rules out Mount Airy. Just because there's a nice mixture of black and white and some gay families doesn't mean diddly squat if the public schools are bad, which they are.

[bluewin888]

Where is mount airy ??

[bluewin888]

As of the 2010 Census,[7] Mount Airy had 27,035 residents, 11,934 households, and 6,636 families. 62.5% of residents were Black or African-American, 31.7% White/Caucasian, and 5.8% were from other races or from 2 or more races.


Haha