Posted on 01/31/2008 9:39:40 AM PST by MotleyGirl70
Edited on 02/01/2008 2:28:16 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
There is that.
Funny story: My friend worked at a very hip bar downtown. When I asked him how it was, he said, “It’s the only bar in the city where a half dozen Brazilian models can walk in and nobody raises an eyebrow. They have to start making-out to even get a glance.”
No no no...it’s hoagie. We put red gravy on our spaghetti. We drink warter and eat warter ice, in between cheesesteaks. We have a sub at Penn’s Landing that is a floating museum.
I live in South Philly, near the stadiums. Excellent neighborhood, we even have a golf course nearby. (Not Pebble Beach, mind you....). Yeah, the sports fans are annoyingly vicious, I deal with the baseball fans on a nightly basis in the summer, but I like it here. We’ll see how I feel in a few years.....
When the elderly Jews and Italians decided to put their houses on the market (due to retirement to Florida or death), unscrupulous realtors came in to give zero-money-down mortgages to folks who were, for the most part, working class immigrants from the Carribean moving down from Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy. What you see now is happening all over the country as folks who took on mortgages more than they could afford (with the interest-only teaser) are now forced to default.
It's the density. More people run the corporate challenge road race here than live in some counties elsewhere.
Crystal meth culture and Mexican gang violence are a lethal combination in Central Valley cities these days. Plus Stockton and Modesto usually get all the polluted air from the Bay Area and they suffer from hugely overbuilt housing developments that were marketed to illegals.
BTW: Are most folks in South Philly still missing half their teeth? Maybe I'm thinking about Kensington instead.
No, it’s pride in the city and pride in their knowledge of the city.
Go down to Times Sqaure sometime and watch the workfare guys in the jumpsuits who sweep up. They’ve become unofficial greeters for tourists — they answer all questions regarding subways and directions around the city with great pride.
That’s ok, we non-Southern Californians just get a little touchy about the subject.
I'm up for this argument, having been a long time resident of both North and South Jersey.
Both Newark and Camden are seeing some resurgence and rebuilding, but both are a mess. Camden has a great waterfront now with the Battleship New Jersey, Aquarium, new apartments, Tweeter Entertainment Center. Otherwise Camden has nothing.
North vs. South Jersey is not a simple matter. South Jersey has super affluent Moorestown, named the best town in the country. Also Haddonfield, and towns like Voorhees, Cherry Hill have some great neighborhoods. South Jersey retains the Garden State with farms, long gone from North Jersey. SJ is loaded with good restaurants now, esp Italian restaurants, and lots of commercial development.
SJ is flatter, less developed, less congested, more affordable, less crime than NorthJ. It is not even remotely a blue collar hell.
And to list Philly as hell or to even try comparing it to Newark is way off. Philly is a huge cultural economic area with great waterfront, Center City, South Philly etc areas, world class museums, restaurants, theatre, shopping, national historical sites, etc.
North Jersey has more money, hills, NYC, but it also has more crime, more bad cities (a long list vs one in S Jersey) and has become ridiculously expensive.
I like them both and miss North Jersey, at least the one of my youth, but NJ taxes are killing me.
No, that’s Kensington. South Philly is merely full of plump, hairy Italians wearing wife-beater shirts. And those are the women. But we have most of our teeth.
Leave the gun, take the cannolis.
I think one of the biggest population migrations came out of the Rust Belt when the American steel industry went belly up. There are ‘Steeler’ bars in just about every NFL city...alot of relocated Yunzers out there too.
All in blue states, except one.
Hmmmmm????
BTW: I think that the so-called "Italian Market" should be bulldozed. I've seen cleaner market stalls in Guatemala (no, I am NOT kidding!).
Reading Terminal Market is great, but it needs a Salumeria. Di Bruno's made the right choice in opening up that location near Rittenhouse.
You'd have to be on the outside looking in to understand..............
Do you have any Guidos in Philly. I know most of them reside in L.I., NY but some must migrate to other cities on the East Coast.
A sad fact about NJ is that everything from Trenton north has NYC (where dey has it all in the words of Joey Ramone) as its anchor, while everything from Bordentown on south is oriented toward Filthadelphia. Franklin was right when he said the Garden state is a keg tapped at two end.
A sad fact about NJ is that everything from Trenton north has NYC (where dey has it all in the words of Joey Ramone) as its anchor, while everything from Bordentown on south is oriented toward Filthadelphia. Franklin was right when he said the Garden state is a keg tapped at two ends.
Former LI Guido here. Yes, there are Guidos in Philly, although most seemed to have moved to South Jersey, where they sit in "hoagie" shops bragging about their old Iroc RZ. ;-)
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