Essentially, the boundaries of Mt. Airy are:

--Cresheim Valley Rd./Ivy Hill Rd. on the north
--Lincoln Dr./Washington Lane on the south
--Cheltenham Ave. on the east
--Wissahickon Creek on the west

Germantown Ave. divides Mt. Airy into east and west.

The southern border is a bit fuzzy (see What is Germantown?), and some may argue that the section east of Stenton Ave. is not part of Mt. Airy. Mt. Airy USA considers it part of its 'hood.

__________________
"If these walls could talk, I'd listen to the floor."--Rev. Horton Heat

I think most would argue that, including those who live in West Oak Lane (Stenton to Cheltenham, Ivy Hill to Broad). I'm not sure why that's on their map - their service area as a CDC is defined as ending at Stenton in their entry at the Phila Association of CDCs.

This great list of neighborhood names and boundaries concurs: http://www.phila.gov/phils/Docs/otherinfo/placname.htm .

Not suggesting that West Oak Lane topics should be unwelcome here, btw. Heck, I think we should grab Andorra before the East Falls/Manayunk/Roxborough crowd does! ;-)

__________________
Thomas Taylor

Who's running in 2008? Check the Southeastern PA Candidates List

I see, we give you guys a forum and you get all greedy on us...

__________________
--

www.lawmummy.com
www.taxgirl.com

We've had this discussion before, but many years ago when I lived in West Oak Lane proper (around Ogontz Ave. and 69th Ave.) we considered (as did it's residents) the area up around Temple Stadium East Mt. Airy. It pretty much consisted of streets that were part of the Mt. Airy/Germantown Grid. West Oak Lane is part of the grid that goes down into Olney and eventually North Philly. Having said that, most publications and studies have it lumped in with West Oak Lane.

Nah...those folks can keep Andorra. I don't want Lawmummy suing us over it. ;-)

I put a disclaimer on the boundaries of Mt. Airy because of this very sort of thing. The Philadelphia site is a good reference, but it's too vague in some spots, and inaccurate or no longer accurate in others. For example, for West Oak Lane, the site says the area goes towards Ivy Hill. You could take that a few different ways. And West Oak Lane's CDC area doesn't go west of Wyncote.

It's a nice enough area...we'll take it.

__________________
"If these walls could talk, I'd listen to the floor."--Rev. Horton Heat

I'm a Temple University senior and I'm working on a semester-long project where I'll be covering Mt. Airy.

I am from Roxborough and have a lot to learn about your area, but I'm interested in learning more about these new cookie cutter, sided houses that are tarnishing the charm of your area.

Also, are there any other concerns or problems that you face in your community? I want to shed light on them with through my journalism class.

Thanks for listening!

I don't know much about the history of those cookie-cutter houses on Lincoln Drive. I suspect that they're between 5 and 10 years old, maybe newer. I should do some surfing to see if there's anything about them online (building permits, zoning changes, etc.).

As far as real problems in the area, thomast might know better than me...the only real problem we seem to have is Lincoln Drive being used as a raceway. People drive way too fast on it, and I've probably seen a half-dozen accidents on the stretch between Emlen and Wissahickon since September, though I don't know if speeding and/or careless driving were actually factors.

__________________
"If these walls could talk, I'd listen to the floor."--Rev. Horton Heat

Thanks so much. I actually ran into a Mt. Airy resident while getting my hair cut in Manayunk yesterday. She has lived there for about four years and she said that driving is the thing that makes her most uneasy there.

She mentioned the speeding and also said that W. Mt. Airy had some of the highest car insurance rates in the country. I'm going to look into that a little more.

And please, feel free to get back to me with any other concerns. The idea is that my project can shed some light on problems that would usually be ignored.

On another note, I'm house hunting because I graduate in May and I LOVED Mt. Airy. This project is especially close to me because I'm doing research about a community that I could potentially belong to one day, too. :lol:

Odd... when my wife + I moved from S. Philly to WMA, we got a pretty nice cut in our car insurance rates.

That doesn't mean they're not high compared to the rest of the country. When I moved here (to Rox, which supposedly has low rates for Philly) mine basically doubled, and I've compared notes with quite a few people who went through the same experience if they moved here from another region of the country.