Once in awhile when I'm drinking at 9th and a I run over to tompkin park and take a piss. Are you happy now. NY has a piece of philly. I could go on, but believe me, ny has a piece of philly in their dna.

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Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

It appears that my attempt at noting a few things that work in New York and could work here fell on some deaf ears.
I have to admit that I am no expert on the history and political structure of New York and when I send my friend things like cards, I have to address them Brooklyn, NY it is no wonder I am a bit confused as to the status of Brooklyn.

As for Ikea, I was holding it up as an example of good corporate citizenship. Creating public space and providing free public transportation so that people would not have to drive.

The thing about the "Greenmarkets" was to show that it is good to have a large scale program that affords access to all.

As for the subway comments, it is amazing they can do such a good job having probably ten to twenty times more stations. The $7.50 daily fare seems a bargain since you can ride a great distance.

As for the line at Trader Joe's that was an attempt to show that not everything was positive.

And as for the pizza, it is something that for some reason Philadelphia can't do well. It is like almost every pizza place is using a Sysco pizza kit in Philadelphia. With a sizable Italian-American population, one would expect some decent pizza!

But inevitable, given:

--how close the two cities are to each other, to the point of sharing exurbs now
--how insecure Philadelphians are about their own city's assets
--how arrogant and insular New Yorkers are about theirs, though in some cases, it's unwittingly so

Now: Don't go overboard in correcting the guy. I would never place Red Hook and Williamsburg in the same basket that contains Westchester. Or West Chester, for that matter.

Unless you're talking about the corner of southwestern Westchester County they call Yonkers.

The same applies for the other three outer boroughs: Only Manhattan addresses get "New York" as the city name.

Addresses in Queens can use either the borough name or the name of the particular community (Long Island City, Corona, Flushing, Jamaica, Rego Park, Astoria...)

All addresses in the Bronx use "Bronx".

For Staten Island, I think you can use either the borough's current official name or its former one, Richmond.

Now, if you think that's bad, try addresses in the City of Boston, where all ZIP codes begin with either 021 or 022 citywide. Nonetheless, you use the community name instead of "Boston" once you move outside the Back Bay and South End or cross a body of water.

It didn't read like that -- it sounded like you were saying the IKEA here should have one too. Hence our responses based on geography.

Since most Philadelphians who shop the South Philly IKEA have access to the same SEPTA services, there's no percentage in IKEA running shuttles from anywhere within the city limits. From what little I know about the geography of that part of Brooklyn, I'd go so far to say that it's easier to get to the Philadelphia IKEA from Center City via mass transit than it would be to get from Manhattan to the Brooklyn one.

Not to mention that half the city probably subscribes to PhillyCarShare now, which means that Philadelphians driving to IKEA are less of a burden on the municipal infrastructure. I'd say that this beats the New York alternative, which is a taxi (land, not water).

Been there, done that.

You will note TWO distinct links in the sentence above. In classic Philadelphia fashion, an organization is started, then the founders have a falling out over some aspect of strategy or operations; the result is a breakaway organization similar or identical to the original one.

(That's even true for gay choruses. Philadelphia Voices of Pride, the city's mixed LGBT chorus, is the direct descendant of the now-defunct Spruce Street Singers, which was formed by members of the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus who did not like the way the chorus was being run at the time.)

You don't need to tell us that SEPTA's an underperformer. It doesn't underperform as badly as we think it does, though. On occasion, however, it underperforms worse than we think it does (getting everyone home from Live 8, for instance).

Not even Marra's or Tacconelli's?

But while we're on this subject, have you ever tried NYPD Pizza near me?

__________________
Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia
"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." --Gen. Colin Powell

Actually, I'm pretty sure that was a condition of getting the place opened at all. There was very strong neighborhood opposition to the opening (there are few immediate residential neighborhoods but lots of them on the other side of the highway) because of concerns that traffic would back up into the neighborhoods. In addition, lots of New Yorkers don't own cars, especially Mahnattanites, and the subway doesn't go to Red Hook, so having a carless way to get to Ikea has a lot more to do with the bottom line than "good corporate citizenship." Don't know if the park around it was built by Ikea or the city, it is nice, though. And there's really no reason that a casual visitor would know that Brooklyn doesn't have its own mayor, especially when that visitor sees the impressive "city hall" building (actuallly called Borough Hall).

However, it does produce an interesting idea for Philly -- should we be unfortunate enough to wind up with riverfront casinos -- demand they restrict parking and provide a water taxi! let 'em park in Camden!

Philly can and does take good ideas from NYC -- it's just that usually there is a reason -- good or bad -- that it isn't or hasn't yet been implemented. It's not like no one here has been there (although in the case of the previous city administration, I might believe that). There's nothing wrong with comparing them, but ideas aren't one size fits all for cities. Things that work in Manhattan don't always translate to Brooklyn, for that matter. And NYC, for example, has nothing so good as PhillyCarShare.

As for pizza, it's definitely not uniformly as good as NYC in this city, but I reccommend Dolce Carini, on Chestnut St. Will also be about 50% cheaper per slice.

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be aware that what the GOP says does not mean what it reads and what We perceive as to what THEY say is or isn't, is not what THEY mean. You dig....Great! (ms. e)

Philly gets much less clean air, which is about as important as

anyone thing for the overall health of people. Our percentage of clean air drops every year to less then 8 percent now in Philly . While the best and brightest live in optimism , have outdoor cafes with many more days of fresh air in Boston and NY and Chicago, every person who sits and goes anywhere in Phily has to think that this bad air from 35 power plants will slowly kill their health faster or family .Why does NYC get more clean air then Philly? lol
We are so in denial for one
two wind dispersion
three Ny is closer the coasts and get much better wind dispersion

Now whats the price of lost health

No, its just that you are searching for idealism in a city of 1.5 million, whereas NYC businesses must be creative to attract the over 20 million consumers near them.
OK
Its not good corporate citizenship, its their way to ensure that people get to ikea. If they didn't provide the boat, a certain percentage wouldn't come. In a city with 20 million consumers nearby even a 1% difference in people showing up could be the difference between success or failure. They are getting 18,000 visitors a weekend at the redhook ikea-not quite philadelphia numbers. And Ikea has already grown tired of their "corporate citizenship", as they are already trying to target non-ikea shoppers who use the shuttle for transportation.
http://animalnewyork.com/news/2008/0...-with-nonb.php
And we must fall on your deaf ears because you are not listening. WE HAVE THEM. Of course you are going to whine that they are not as big, but we don't have as many people to feed. If 14 farmers markets a week, plus Reading Terminal is good enough for you, then you must do more eating than recommended.
http://www.farmtocity.org/FarmersMarkets.asp
Once again. More people-more stops. You can't seem to distinguish the difference between the largest city in america vs. the sixth largest. This comment reminds me of someone on phillyblog who insisted that the subway stops should be built closer to the stadiums. I guess the the current stop that is feet away from the property line is just too hard since they have to walk through the stadium's parking lot.
So, you are so impressed with the farmer's markets that you chose to go to trader joe's for food. So typical. Pretty much sums it up right there. Ever since the farmer's market opened by my house I haven't had to take a step into wholefoods. Yet many more people just think that its there for them to look and buy a taco or a coffee. Such brilliance.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

I do know quite a few South Jersey people use the Ikea in South Philly, however, I doubt it's NEARLY enough to justify having a tram/ferry from Jersey

Why did we go to Trader Joe's?
Quite simply because they didn't have soy milk at the Greenmarket.

As for the Greenmarkets, the offerings I saw in there were more diverse than here.

As for Reading Terminal, the two open all week produce kiosks are just the same sort of stuff you'll find in the supermarket. Not really impressive or local.

Uh, oh, now you've done it. Cue HG coming in to defend Iovine's!

I love RTM but totally agree with the assessment of the produce offerings.

Have you been to the Headhouse Square market on Sundays? I think you will see more of what you are talking about, on a smaller scale.

I think Philly could support a big central farmer's market myself, it would have to be close to a transit point, like Union Square and Borough Hall. The new city administration seems more supportive of the farmer's markets and to understand their appeal (see the new beginnings of a farmer's market at City Hall (on the plaza).

Philly has lots of very small farmer's markets, which are great, but don't have the impact of one large one...although the surrounding regions (Jersey and Pennsylvania) certainly have more than enough small farms to supply one.

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be aware that what the GOP says does not mean what it reads and what We perceive as to what THEY say is or isn't, is not what THEY mean. You dig....Great! (ms. e)

No, people are contesting the specific things you said. Here in Philly, we also have:
-unlimited day passes on our transit system
-farmers markets
-Ikea
-pedestrian plazas

Now, IMO the Philly-raisers go overboard in their defenses and over-criticize New York, which is an awesome city. But we have seen far too many of this "comparison" type of thread, and your point were especially poorly thought out.

You didn't know Brooklyn was in New York City???