Neighborhood Recommends for Lesbian Couple? (Philadelphia, Belmont: middle-class, hotel, purchase)

[Muinteoir]

Originally Posted by kyb01

For starters there are 5 openly gay regular posters on this board. I'm one and the only female. I am poc. I'm a Penn alum and Penn retiree.

You can look in most of the neighborhoods around Penn, Drexel and Univ of the Sciences in Phila. That entire area of W. Phila is called University City. Try these: Spruce Hill, Clark Park, Cedar Park, or Powelton Village.

South of Center City proper: Graduate Hospital or Hawthorne.

North of Center City proper: Spring Garden, Fairmount. I live in Spring Garden, btw.

Center City: Washington Sq West( aka Jeff Land and Gayborhood), Logan Sq(maybe).

With as few posts as I have, I don't know if I count as a regular, but you can count me as #6.

OP, there have been some great suggestions already. Although much of West Philly is UCity dominated, I would highly suggest checking out areas along Baltimore avenue. It is a highly diverse neighborhood in about all regards and definitely LGBTQ inclusive. Its mature trees, parks and Victorian mansions will remind you somewhat of DC, but it has a decidedly funkier vibe than practically anything in DC. I'm not sure if you or your partner drive, but it has great access to both UCity by foot and Center City by trolley.

I will also second Germantown/Mt. Airy or Fairmount/Spring Garden as other great options. Germantown/Mt. Airy are more "up-and-coming," funkier, farther from the core and have easy access to the amazing Wissahickon Park. Fairmount/Spring Garden have already "arrived," feel a bit more urban and have access to the more polished parts of lower Fairmount Park / Art Museum. I am not as familiar with the NW grocery situation, but Fairmount has a Whole Foods and an Aldi not too far away in Brewerytown.

South Philly around East Passyunk or Graduate Hospital will give you the best access to nightlife, a variety of grocery stores, etc., but I think you might miss having lots of green and parks available coming from DC.

Good luck and welcome!

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Someone mentioned Mt. Airy already, but when I moved here in 1983, Germantown, the neighborhood I call home now, had a notable lesbian presence, and from what I can tell still does.

You won't find any LGBT watering holes in this part of Northwest Philly, nor will you in Manayunk, the adult playground on the other side of the Wissahickon Valley, next to the Schuylkill. But there is a weekly "chat 'n' chew" group that meets at Earth / Bread +Brewery on Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy on Tuesdays upstairs.

Germantown now has two happening coffee shops: the Germantown Espresso Bar, run by longtime local residents of an activist bent and located on Maplewood Mall, a small pedestrian-scale lane just south of Chelten Avenue in central Germantown, and Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books, an always-busy, dope joint owned by noted black activist-scholar Marc Lamont Hill and located right on historic Market Square, about two blocks south of Chelten on Germantown Avenue.

I'm not as familiar with Petworth or Columbia Heights as I am with U Street and Adams Morgan. Germantown may remind you of those latter two, only with more history and a funkier feel. Mt. Airy also gives off a slightly more upscale alt-culture vibe in its central business district, also located on Germantown Avenue, the main drag tying together Germantown, Mt. Airy, and tony Chestnut Hill.

(BTW, a black lesbian couple own Chestnut Hill's spice shop, which they run as a testament to their daughter. It's very well stocked and has many specialty ingredients other places don't carry. Should you move up this way, you should pay it a visit sometime.)

It makes more sense, imo, for these newbies to Phila., to live closer to where they will be working. Once they are established maybe then they can branch out to other neighborhoods futher away. Tbh, the shorter commute should help orient them to their new city. You probably know that Barbara Gittings lived in University City for years. They might be drawn to it for that fact alone.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Muinteoir

I will also second Germantown/Mt. Airy or Fairmount/Spring Garden as other great options. Germantown/Mt. Airy are more "up-and-coming," funkier, farther from the core and have easy access to the amazing Wissahickon Park. Fairmount/Spring Garden have already "arrived," feel a bit more urban and have access to the more polished parts of lower Fairmount Park / Art Museum. I am not as familiar with the NW grocery situation, but Fairmount has a Whole Foods and an Aldi not too far away in Brewerytown.

South Philly around East Passyunk or Graduate Hospital will give you the best access to nightlife, a variety of grocery stores, etc., but I think you might miss having lots of green and parks available coming from DC.

Good luck and welcome!

I can fill you in on that part.

None of the three Northwest Philly neighborhoods to the east of the Wissahickon Valley are "food deserts," not even Germantown, the poorest of the three. But if you're looking for organic and natural foods, your choices are either Weavers Way Co-op (two locations: West Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. The Chestnut Hill store is right on Germantown Avenue while the Mt. Airy one is in a smaller neighborhood business district closer to Lincoln Drive) or The Fresh Market in Chestnut Hill. All of the regular supermarkets (two Acmes, one in Chestnut Hill, the other in Mt. Airy, and a Fresh Grocer on one side of Germantown and an IGA affiliate on the other) carry a selection of organic foods, however.

There are two no-frills, limited-selection, deep-discount grocers here as well. Both are Save-a-Lot stores, which I consider inferior to Aldi. One is on Germantown's west side, the other on the East Germantown/East Mt. Airy border.

A fellow I know up this way is going to open an organic grocer in Central Germantown later this year. Aldi also plans to build a new store near the southern end of Mt. Airy, but its future neighbors are raising a stink about parking and the building's unexciting architecture.

I'll second Muinteoir on the relative advantages of choosing East Passyunk or Graduate Hospital. I would choose the former over the latter, though, because there's a sizable visible LGBT presence in East Passyunk. There's even a monthly networking mixer in that neighborhood called QOTA (Q****s on the Avenue) held in local restaurants and watering holes.

Lack of street greenery is a problem affecting much of the city. (My monthly Phillymag column last August dealt with this subject.) The Northwest is probably the boskiest part of the city if that matters to you, with University City (Market Street south to Springfield Avenue, the Schuylkill to about 49th St) and Center City both coming in a close second.

[JacksonPanther]

I guess people think I'm a troll, or maybe Philly has changed dramatically in the last 30 years...

Not one person has reflected on diversity, even though OP in their first sentence said they were people of color and that diversity is important to them.

South Philly, graduate hospital, passyunk, are these places diverse?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I guess people think I'm a troll, or maybe Philly has changed dramatically in the last 30 years...

Not one person has reflected on diversity, even though OP in their first sentence said they were people of color and that diversity is important to them.

South Philly, graduate hospital, passyunk, are these places diverse?

East Passyunk has gotten a lot more diverse over the last decade or so. Much of the increase is due to immigrants from abroad settling there - there are sizable Mexican and Southeast Asian populations there as well as a Burmese community. The LGBT population has soared, hence QOTA. There's an African-American presence in the neighborhood too, though not as large as in Point Breeze on the other side of Broad Street.

Graduate Hospital has pretty much gentrified. And this was where the black bourgeoisie lived before about 1970.

In terms of black/white mix, the two Northwest Philly neighborhoods mentioned here score highest. Especially Mount Airy. In terms of socioeconomic diversity, there's not a neighborhood in the city that outdoes Germantown, though Wash West does fairly well here too.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I guess people think I'm a troll, or maybe Philly has changed dramatically in the last 30 years...

Not one person has reflected on diversity, even though OP in their first sentence said they were people of color and that diversity is important to them.

South Philly, graduate hospital, passyunk, are these places diverse?

Three gay people, two of whom are black, responded. How about letting us decide what might work for them?

Passyunk is a neighborhood IN S. Philly, btw.

[Muinteoir]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I guess people think I'm a troll, or maybe Philly has changed dramatically in the last 30 years...

Not one person has reflected on diversity, even though OP in their first sentence said they were people of color and that diversity is important to them.

South Philly, graduate hospital, passyunk, are these places diverse?

Reread the thread. There were reflections on diversity. Yes these are diverse neighborhoods, particularly East Passsyunk. There is a good mix of black, Latino, white and Asian there.

If you’re assuming we will assume you’re trolling, perhaps you are...?

[Philly Joe]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I guess people think I'm a troll, or maybe Philly has changed dramatically in the last 30 years...

Not one person has reflected on diversity, even though OP in their first sentence said they were people of color and that diversity is important to them.

South Philly, graduate hospital, passyunk, are these places diverse?

Diversity?


By my observations people always want to be with their own. For example, you have a gay woman asking what areas in Philly are gay so she can move there. That's not diversity.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Graduate Hospital has pretty much gentrified. And this was where the black bourgeoisie lived before about 1970.

Would love to hear more about this!

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by Muinteoir

Reread the thread. There were reflections on diversity. Yes these are diverse neighborhoods, particularly East Passsyunk. There is a good mix of black, Latino, white and Asian there.

If you’re assuming we will assume you’re trolling, perhaps you are...?

I don't think I am, but I also know the way I think may be different from internet norms. Which is why I asked "don't just talk about neighborhoods where they should go, talk about neighborhoods where they absolutely shouldn't go." Some would consider that trollish, but I don't.