Philly? Phooey! (Philly's the past. Phoenix is the future.)

The Arizona Republic ^ | Jul. 10, 2003

[presidio9]

W.C. Fields said it best: Better there than dead - but not by much.

There's a reason a half-million people have left Philadelphia over the last 50 years.

They don't want to be there.

This is not some new phenomenon. W.C. Fields would pick Philly only if the alternative was internment.

[dljordan]

Don't forget lots and lots of MEXICANS.

[presidio9]

I remember how you feel. My heart goes out to you.

[vrwinger]

"Philly people are fat." A real original thought, there.

To show how devoid his arguemnt is, he picks on scrapple and "soft" pretzels as "Philly cusine" to trash. Easy targets.

Plus, Curt Schilling has made it clear he'd love to return to Philly. Pheonix can have Barkley.

[presidio9]

Except that we don't have "Jack in the Crack" back East.

[Jimmy Valentine]

On the other hand Philadelphia has major crime and street thugs. And that's only who is running the City government. On the street it's "feets don't fail me now"!

Still....there is nothing like a real Philly Cheese Steak. A little tough on the heart valves though.

Regards,

[speedy]

Schilling and Barkley both still have homes in the Philly area. The Chuckster can still occasionally be spotted gorging pizza at Valley Forge area eateries with his friends from the Flyers (he loves hockey).

[dogbrain]

cheese steak.
scrapple.
pork roll.

And my favorite, the deep-fried, bacon-wrapped, double-cheese pastrami sandwich, w/mushroom gravy fries.

....and a diet Coke.

[discostu]

You got that wrong, we've got LOTS of beaches... just no ocean to go with it.

[Stentor]

I have no idea what you are talking about here.

He means that a lot of the guys selling pretzels at intersections have hands that would make the typical third world slum dwellers hands look like they had been surgically prepped.

[Stentor]

"Philly people are fat."

The tourists around Independence Hall today were not exactly suffering from anorexia. If we had any sun, they would have blotted it out.

[Range Rover]

As messed as Philly is, Strombolis, Hoagies, and Pat's Steaks with an order of cheese fries trump anything Phoenix can put up against it. A stone's throw from 9th and Passyunk, you'll find some outstanding Italian eats.

FYI, they still stack the pretzels on the street and pepper them with diesel exhaust near the Zoo. Only the locals know where to get the fresh ones. Let the tourista eat the thawed ones (and give them Gouldens Spicy brown so they can BROADCAST that they're outa-towners).

Philadelphia has a red-headed stepchild complex but it's issues are with New York and not Phoenix....Camden is in Jersey, anyway - not Philly's fault (on the other hand, WEST Philadelphia is no paradise). At least if you keep driving , you end up down the shore.....sheesh!

[Tallguy]

You ain't truly "lived" until you've eaten a fresh Philly soft pretzel -- especially the ones warmed in the exhaust of a revving SEPTA bus! Oh, and don't forget the specially aged mustard! Newbies just gotta get past the initial gross-out.

[Tribune7]

Philadelphians visit New York and marvel how clean it is.

That's true. And I always found New Yorkers to be friendly too. :-)

[Tribune7]

Oh yeah. One more note. Sorry about the near-thing with Sandra Day O'Connor.

[Tribune7]

You ain't truly "lived" until you've eaten a fresh Philly soft pretzel

You never really had the full soft pretzel experience until you watched the Herb Dennenberg expose of the pretzel street venders.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"Oh yeah. One more note. Sorry about the near-thing with Sandra Day O'Connor."

Indeed. Perhaps Phoenix can do better with smashing her like a bug against a Buick Roadmaster's windshield flying down the highway at 75 MPH.

[Antoninus]

This article is dumb regionalism and nothing more. Try comparing metro area populations and see what you come up with. I think the Philly-metro area (Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Camden, Burlington Counties) is the third or fourth largest in the entire country, comprising 5 or 6 million people. Most of the people who leave Philly, live in the burbs. The Phoenix metro area can't touch those numbers.

As for the city of Philadelphia proper, it is losing people for a few very obvious reasons: taxes, crime, taxes, horrible schools, taxes, bad business climate, taxes, horrible legal environment, taxes, taxes and more taxes. Fifty plus years of solid democrat rule will do that to a city. Ironic that the center of the foundation of the American Republic is now one of the most heavily taxed cities in the nation.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Between Phoenix Philadelphia, I would pick neither.

I prefer 85 in summers with no humidity, and 75 in winter, with no snow. LOL!

I like picking fresh Oranges and Avocados off my trees in the *summer*, and *winter*, lol, Of course that's just me, and that's why I live in California.....Hehehe..Sorry to rub it in.......

[Antoninus]

I like picking fresh Oranges and Avocados off my trees in the *summer*, and *winter*, lol, Of course that's just me, and that's why I live in California.....Hehehe..Sorry to rub it in.......

Don't worry, we don't envy you... We don't have mudslides and quakes here in the Delaware Valley.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Delaware Valley.

Delaware Valley? Uh er, OK......You have fun there.

Yikes....