Their loss. Who cares.

Little patience please, BB.

All cities go through cycles, no one can argue that from 1950 to the mid 90's Philadelphia justly earned it's reputation as an aging, dying, underachieving city. The city lost 1 million residents, 1 million jobs and if you walked the streets of center city in 1985 it was like hell on earth.

New York,Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore etc. all went through the same thing. Manhattan and Chicago have made dramatic turnarounds, Detroit and Cleveland haven't been as lucky. The direction that Center City and University City are headed certainly gives hope that in a decade or so Philadlephia will have a much much more positive image throughout the country.

St Louis, Philly, Atlanta, Chi-Town, LA, Baltimore, DC, Boston, and Brooklyn are the places of the future. Notice how Philly features on that list.

Philly will be here 500 years from now, like it was 400 years ago. Maybe very much bigger and better. But right now, I'm going to continue chruning out ways to make things better. You may think I'm lecturing you or being a pessimist, but compared to the those 17 year olds in Cali, wouldn't you rather have BensalemBallard ?

Churn away, BB. I only ask that you learn of what you talk, before you talk.

__________________
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

As someone who is roughly in Center City's target market - mid 20's, well educated, etc - I think that Philly has a lot to do. I would personally hate to have more "theme-based restaurants", as Philadelphia has such a fantastic selection of non-chain restaurants. BYOBs are way better, and they ultimately are a lot more attractive. Theme restaurants are for people that don't have access to real options. Philadelphia has some great bars and brewpubs (though I do hope more brewpubs and breweries come...apparently our water is uniquely good for brewing beer), some great places like DiBruno Brothers. The Ritz theaters are great for art house movies, and the Bridge isn't that far to go for normal movies, though I certainly wouldn't complain if another theater came in. As for music venues, Philadelphia not only has a great symphony, a pretty good opera company, and the Curtis Institute, but it is also an excellent place for indie, rock, and pop shows - I've been going to more than a concert a month here, and it would be more if I had more time. There already are places that feature local bands - the Khyber and The World Live Cafe are just two places to go for that. Between the Barnes and the PMA, we have one of the best post-impressionist/modernist art collections in the world. Now, we could talk about ways to better integrate the museum area into center city, like a pedestrian mall and a trolley, but we have some pretty outstanding cultural opportunities. There are several playhouses - hopefully the number will increase, but it is already second only to top theater cities like New York and Chicago.

However, one thing that could be improved about the city is a bit more promotion and exposure to information. One way to do that is to go and add and improve to Philadelphia's entry on wikitravel.org - http://wikitravel.org/en/Philadelphia is the URL. I've been trying to add to it as I find out about more things, but I'm sure that the denizens of this blog could do wonders if everyone put in a few minutes of their time, writing there what they write here.

there is another brewpub coming. I believe I posted it under food and drink. don't rmemebr the name though.

__________________
"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

I find that to be the case with most people from the West Coast. They're used to their suburban lifestyle in newer cities and bigger highways and decent weather. That's what they seem to care about. Many of them could care less about culture, museums, history, etc. and the other things where we have them beat. There really isn't much that we can do to change their mind since their mindset is 180 from ours.

The thing I can't stand about many West Coasters, however, is that they are so adamant in their belief that LA, San Fran, Seattle, etc. is SO MUCH better than Philadelphia that they spare nothing in boasting about how lucky they are to live there and how pitiful anyone stuck in Philadelphia is. It is as if insulting someone else's town is not seen as rude over there. Somehow I don't think my going there and saying "LA is nothing more than a bunch of highways and suburbs with no culture" would sit as well with them.

By the way, I find that same annoying attitude in many palces down south, especailly Atlanta where the people there think Atlanta is God's gift to mankind and stop at nothing in poitning out how much "better" Atlanta is and how comapratively pitiful Philadelphia is (many of them actually make the mistaken assumption that Atlanta is bigger than Philadelphia). What ever happened to "southern hospitality"??? I don't go over there and say that their city is about as urban as South Jersey and compalining about how they have one of the highest murder rates in the country.

Anyone ever been to the country club super high-end shopping area in Kansas City? If not, imagine Sagemore in Marlton like 3 times bigger and in a city. It feels to engineered and constructed, not natural at *all*. Cities should NOT try to emulate the mall. The mall is boring. There is no font big enough to express my hatred for, say, the deptford mall. Cities should be cities. Yar.

Btw, yeah, philly does have a lot to do. I love it. Monday night I went to a warehouse show in south philly. That was a *lot* of fun. The only thing I wish Philly had were more 24 hour places.

cc:

I find it amusing that you have problems with people in those cities tooting their own horn.

Quite frankly, I wish we had more of them here. And, I'm not talking about the just more bars, restaurants, etc. sort of prattle that happens so often here.

Let the LA and Atlanta people prattle on. They won't convince me. San Francisco and Seattle, (with all the SF flaws), I will listen to.

__________________
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

More sun=More ignorance.

The fact is this:

When people brag about their city, they're proud and happy(NYC, Boston, SF, Seattle, Philly, Chi-Town and most of the Midwest is like this)


When people put down other cities (like the places you mentioned), they are not proud, but unsure of their "greatness". It's like bullies, they know they are the true losers, but they put others down to feel better.