I disagree, I and my kids have Russian friends that were born in Russia and they are not cliquey at all. A Russian couple from NY bought my home and helped me out a great deal, they were very proffessional and friendly.. I am still friends with them, my kids have developed a long lasting friendship with 3 russian friends since they were very young.
I dont know how you can say that....Philly needs to be more mixed with diffrent Ethnics all over.
- maybe all this is because my Heritage is Russian.. Ive got that russian look.

Wahhhh

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I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake

- On the lookout for black people and immigrants

I have zero issues with the Russians...know a bunch of em and have even dated a coulpe (Russian girls are fine...mmmm)

I'd like to personally thank them for improving the women of the NE and for Studio 98...the NE's late night hang out.

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"

"Ultimately, higher energy prices cannot overcome the realities created by the car-oriented declustered environment in which we now live and work. As Paul Larrousse, director of the National Transit Institute, admits, the option for effective transit use has faded as the nation, and its jobs, have "spread out."

Then there is the little, often neglected fact about what most people like. In California, according to a 2002 Public Policy Institute Survey, well over 80 percent of adults prefer a single-family house. Most surveys find that what people want is privacy, space and, if they can get it, a walkable community closer to work.

In most cases, they will give up walkability for privacy, and even give up shorter commutes for privacy, space and good schools. Most people do not see dense urban living as a preferable option, no matter how much hip theorists, architects and planners think they should. Devotees of urban density, as planner William Fulton has suggested, live "a niche life" attractive to no more than 15 percent of the population."

I excerpted that from an article quoted in another thread.

It's really very simple and it's all part of the larger national trend. Decline in some cases and just change in others goes back a couple of decades in the NE. What some neighborhoods have been experiencing in the last few years really started quietly about 20 years ago. Many of my family and friends left the NE that long ago, before the outward signs of change. Think back to the late eighties and nineties. Housing prices in the NE were low or dropping, because demand was down. Why was it down overall? Because making it in America means leaving for bigger, better and more "suburban" areas. After many years of this trend many neighborhoods began to fill up with the poor as the market trend made it profitable for rentals and the dreaded section 8. I'm not making excuses for the bad behavior of some of the new residents or saying that the city government couldn't be more effective, but I am saying there would still be change. Those of you "fighting" for your neighborhoods feel like an invading force is taking over and pushing the middle class out. That really couldn't happen if the middle class preferred to stay put. Money rules so if there was a high demand among the middle class to stay, prices would reflect that. The "invading" force is really just filling the void as those who "make it" leave.

Just for your information, I've been a "member" of this forum since 09-19-2004. Which was 3 months before I moved. Thanks!

Jealousy, LMAO, what it won't do to people!! LMAO! And, may I add, the attitudes of some of you here are just another reason why we left Philly. Too much ignorance.

And, to those who have PM'd me agreeing about what I've been saying, but are afraid to say so out here in the forum, you are welcome! NP! I suggest you speak your mind too and not "worry about what they will think" no matter how long and how often you've been posting here.

I left the city (not by choice really, but technically I still did)...I regretted it. Maybe if I'd wanted to move out I would have grown to like it, but I hated it. Never felt so damn trapped in my life, as a non-driver.

One thing I like about NE Philly...lots of Russian Jews here. FOR ONCE I meet people who can spell and say my last name RIGHT! After a lifetime almost of having to spell it out and sound it out and they STILL got it wrong, finally people get it RIGHT!

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History of the Jews of South Philly~~ http://www.nmajh.org/exhibitions/stillhome/

Whoops ! Sorry.

Only 3 months ? At that point, you must have known you were moving away.

WOW! Finally someone who makes sense! Yes, I did LOVE it there when I was growing up as I said in my very first post about the area in another thread. But, of course everyone overlooked that comment and pounced on the other stuff I said instead and has been doing so ever since.

Anyway, I loved living where I did and growing up there. My friends and I had a blast back when I was a teen. No area was better than "our" area. And we'd stand up and fight for it/defend it until the end. BUT, there comes a time when you must realize what IS happening to the area and also see the changes that have been slowly taking place there (not good ones). Then you need to make the right decisions for yourself and, most of all, your children about whether or not it is still safe and worth living there. For us it wasn't. Our area had been declining FAST for many years. And so we left.

Why is that so wrong? Why keep jumping on me because I said I moved and that Philly is becoming a pit? I am just making an observation and opinion. But, because I have done so everyone here is now on my case. May I also remind you that I am NOT the only who has said that they have moved or are moving. I don't get it.

Actually, no we didn't. We had been planning on/hoping to leaving for years. However, the thing that finally pushed us to do it when we did was the fact that my husband was laid off in October. So, we just said to ourselves, it's now or never and so we just up and left.