Sunday. Lazy day. We slept in, laid around, watched TV, had breakfast and laid around some more. The nice folks at the Conwell Inn allowed us to use their washer and dryer, so we did laundry for free. Later in the afternoon we hopped in the minivan and attempted to find civilization. We were all pretty hungry and were looking for something we recognized. We drove, and drove and drove. And you know what we found out? Apart from historic downtown, Philadelphia is not a pretty city. It is dirty, run-down, poorly kept. It seems like the city is one big ghetto with a few spots that are a bit nicer. It took us a long time, but we finally found an Olive Garden. It took FOREVER to get seated and even longer to get our food. But it did hit the spot and they gave us desert on the house because of the inconvenience. We came back to the room, packed up for tomorrow's journey and played a game with the kids. Exciting stuff, huh?
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October 27, 2003 10:27 PM
Joel,
As the word ghetto refers to communities occupied by minorities such as Blacks or Jews, often due to poverty, discrimination or religious oppression (Jews confined to ghettos in the Middle Ages in Europe), it seems to me you could have found a lot better word to describe Philadelphia. If you found the city to be dirty, then just say that and leave out such a loaded word as ghetto. The word ghetto has harsh racial and ethnic meanings that I doubt you intended.
October 30, 2003 10:59 PM
I'm quite sure that every city in every state has it's not so nice areas, unfortunately for you , you happened upon them in your few days visit, I think if you had a chance to see other areas, you'd change your opinion. There are some very pretty areas in Philadelphia. I may be a resident of the state but I wasn't born here, but I still know there are good places to go.
December 7, 2004 08:50 AM
Although North and West Philadelphia are run down, MOST of the city is middle class and well maintained. Try visiting Manyunk, Chestnut Hill, Fox Chase, The Far Northeast, Andorra, Roxborough...
You are obviously quick to judge a place by a quick ride...
March 7, 2006 08:42 PM
I rode the train all through Filthydelphia and drove a car all though Filthydelphia. The nice areas within the standard fare (wall-to-wall slums) are postage stamps within acres. I thought my city was disgusting...As a matter of fact, I'm moving out!...' already bought my new place in the adjacent county..but this run-down has-been southern city is heaven compared to Filthie.
January 17, 2007 01:55 PM
I have lived in a nicer section of Philadelphia (center city) for over 18 years and am looking to get out! It has never been so great but has been unacceptably bad for the last few years. You can't even walk through the best sections of town and feel safe. The crime rate is horrible. You can't even buy a normal decent home in the better sections for less than a half a million. The city wage tax amount is outrageously high. Come on now, something is very very wrong with this picture.
Perhaps our residents need to stop being stupid, or grow up, or wake up and smell the sh*t that's all around us. At this point I really don't know or care how things got this bad, it's just too stupid.
I have been a resident of Pennsylvania all of my life. I do have to say that there are many suburbs in the area that are still very nice places to live and visit.
April 5, 2009 08:19 AM
In response to Joel Thomas, Joel was accidentally spot on by calling Philadelphia a ghetto. We have huge populations of entrenched poverty in the black, latino and caucasion neighborhoods. The only place he might have been a bit harsh is if the term was applied to the lower working class caucasion communities of North and South Philly. There's really no distortion of the word; it's spot on. Philly is mostly a poorly kept ghetto. If you don't believe get on the orange and the blue SEPTA lines and ride them from end to end and tell me what you see.
Here's the fact: 50% of all residents of PA who are poor by definition of the US census live within city limits. This city is a dense block of poorly educated desperately poor people who are tragically racist, stubborn and ignorant. The city schools are a travesty and people are just plain mean.
There are bright spots. The low rent art students you'll see on busted up bikes add some levity to the doldrums. There are dozens of great restaurants you'll never find them just driving around. And there is a decent nightlife for the young turks out looking for trouble.
However there is entrenched poverty, corruption, racism, and inbreeding. Yes, inbreeding. Some sections of the city people have literally not left their block in generations. So when it's time to get married, or more likely enter into your first of many teen pregnancies, there aren't a lot of options. That's less of an issue today, but if you look around Fishtown near the El you can see some remnants of this dirty secret.
What to say about downtown Philly? If you live downtown you can live without a car and have a pretty good life, complete with nice apartment, walking to your job and have local markets, doctors and shopping near you.
The rest of the city however, not so much. You need a car here as the mass transit is plagued by loud obnoxious riders, poor sanitation due to the lack of an apathetic and clueless management and their ability to deal with the immense homeless population that lives and breeds in the train lines. A few years ago there was a TB outbreak in the downtown stops of the Market st line. The city told no one as it would be bad press. You could get TB riding SEPTA. To this day you will also have to walk through urine and human feces at some stops as the local crack addicts will stop and take a dump in the stairwells making your morning commute very uncomfortable. Check out www.Septafail.com. Driving is the better option.
Philly does have the most bike paths of any city on the east coast, which is a real blessing. However it is a mixed blessing at best as the local drivers use it as a turning lane, a passing lane, or a place to double park in front of an empty parking space because parallel parking is just too much trouble.
Let's talk about the uniquely Philly driving adaptation, the courtesy honk. Running red lights is not the exception here, it's the norm. So much so that local drivers have adapted and started to honk to warn drivers that have a green light that they are coming through and the people with the green light need to wait. If your light turns green you will see one last car blowing the counter red, but listen. Listen closely. That guy and the two people behind him will be giving you quick staccato taps on their horn to let you know if you proceed on a green light it's your fault if there's an accident. I love this town!
In summary, Philadelphia is a dirty, foul, uneducated city full of ignorant bigots and partially inbred morons countered by a patchwork of low rent artists and people with money who live downtown or in Manayunk and largely avoid the disgusting mess that is the rest of city. While there are some fantastic gastropubs and local breweries I would not tell anyone I cared about to move here. If the best thing you've got is beer, you've got a long way to go to be a great city.
Let's all pray some of that Obama money gets into the hands of our great Mayor Nutter and he can keep it out of the corrupt and inept hands of city council. Then the city has a fighting chance to put some meat on the bones this idea that it's a great American city.