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Originally Posted by steveatx
SEPTA: It was pretty easy to get around, but there should be more subways and subway/surface lines, and less dependence on the bus. Lines going under South Street and maybe 5th and 21st or so would be awesome. Some gripes: Why is the area around the 46th Street el station so run down? It has great access to CC. And why doesn't the el make any CC stops west of City Hall?
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EC generally answered that question, but he left out some relevant details:
Of the three rapid transit subways built before World War I (Boston and New York, in that order, being the other two), Philadelphia's was unique in being built and paid for
entirely by the holder of the operating franchise -- the chronically undercapitalized Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company.
Working with the City Councils' (prior to 1951, Philadelphia had a bicameral municipal legislature) requirement that the new Market Street elevated line run underground between the rivers, the PRTCo had originally designed a four-track subway tunnel running the length of Market Street in Center City. The outer tracks -- the streetcar subway -- were to have functioned as "local" service, and the inner tracks for the El were "express" tracks. Provision was made for possible conversion of the outer tracks to heavy rapid transit at some future date (note the absence of support columns between the El and trolley tracks just west of 19th Street station; this is a provision for a scissors crossover). Had the tunnel been built as proposed, the local stops east of City Hall would have been trolley stops only too, with an "express" station at 8th Street and another at the east end of the tunnel at 2d.
But the four-track tunnel proved costlier than the PRTCo could afford, so as work progressed east from the Schuylkill in 1905-06, the PRT decided to terminate the outer tracks in a loop around City Hall and under the El tracks on its east side. (The El also originally ran around City Hall; the tunnel that follows the alignment of Market Street right through it and its courtyard was built in 1915 along with the eventual City Hall station of the Broad Street Subway.) The tunnel east from City Hall then became local, with the same closely spaced stops the trolleys make west of it.
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What was disappointing is that I felt that a lot of people there don't appreciate the fact that they live in a vibrant, interesting city and choose to trash it. I was so sad to see so many people just throw their wrappers on the ground-- even people who were right next to trash cans!
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The slovenliness of the natives appalls me too. But I am fond of saying a variant of the famous marketing slogan EC gave you:
"This city is a helluva lot nicer than the natives crack it down to be." I think one reason they think so badly of it is that they don't travel beyond it enough.
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I love parks and squares where you can just hang out, listen to music and watch people doing whatever they are doing. No place like Rittenhouse has been built for a very long time.
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You would no doubt appreciate Robert Downey Sr.'s (yes, that Robert Downey's father) love letter to the park, the 2005 documentary film
Rittenhouse Square.
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Wawa: I'm in love. Who wouldn't love a place where you can make your own milkshake and adjust the thickness, order a sandwich on a touchscreen, take money out of an ATM for free and purchase twin packs of pre-boiled hard-boiled eggs?
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"They do it just a little bit better." (Change the pronoun from the third to the first person and you have the company's ad jingle and slogan when I moved here in 1983.)
If the information I got from that cashier is correct, there will still be at least one Wawa in Center City -- Jefferson students and residents of the northeast part of Wash West will be lucky. However, I also have heard nothing about the 11th and Arch store closing, but note that its interior has not been updated to the current corporate standard while 912-16 Walnut has. I do consider that a relevant indicator of each store's fate.
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Originally Posted by KByrd
[...]And when we read
things like Boston now having the largest Apple store in the country,
it really hurts. It makes us feel inferior and ask the question over and over,
"What's wrong with us?" We're a much larger city than Boston. We have
great universities and colleges here. We have an intellectual community here
who would FLOCK to a big Apple store. Why is Apple ignoring Phila. Why???
I think I know one of the reasons why, but that's another thread.
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Don't get me started, Karen: Last night after rehearsal, I noted that Boston's Gay Pride parade is much, much larger than Philadelphia's anemic affair (though part of the reason for that lies with the local parade's [dis]organizers, who seem to reserve most of their efforts for the festival that ends it) and that the Boston Gay Men's Chorus was as large when I sang with it in its debut concert in 1982 as the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus was when I finally joined it at the start of its 25th season in 2005.
I think that the character of Philadelphian insularity -- which is a different creature from Boston's -- has something to do with this, and I always recommend that newcomers to this city read E. Digby Baltzell's classic study
Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia for a window into the souls of both cities via their upper crusts -- who did shape each city's culture and politics, for better and for worse.
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Originally Posted by steveatx
Hey, thanks for the offer EC 
The problem is getting that job. I have more than enough saved up to make the move itself, but I want to have a good cushion so I can spend a little while finding a job once I get there. It seems that unless you are in those fields you mentioned, if you have an out of state address when seeking employment you will be looked over. |
If this is any comfort, the City of Philadelphia recently dropped the longstanding requirement that anyone seeking employment with the city reside in it for one year before they can be hired. That has now changed to a requirement to move into the city within six months of hire. I suspect that the city bureaucrats doing the hiring will probably still cast a cold eye on your address now, but at least you can get your foot in the door.
Good luck, and welcome to Philadelphia!