Hi all,

I'm moving to Philly soon from the West Coast, looking at moving into a place on Gaskill (between Lombard & South St.) between 3rd and 4th, just south of Society Hill. My map says the neighborhood is called South Street.

My wife is there now, but I haven't seen this neighborhood. Does anyone know the areaw well, and if so can you please tell me a little about it?

Thanks,
Mike

I would say that's actually in Society Hill, albeit the southern edge. Just to the north are the very nice & tony neighborhoods of one of the city's wealthiest sections - 18th- and early 19th-century mansions alongside newer (but tastefully done, for the most part) infill.

Immediately (and I mean immediately) to your south is South St. itself, party central in Philadelphia on weekends and holidays. It is bright, garish, a bit lewd, but a lot of fun. Hopefully you have a high tolerance for noise & crowds.

South of South is the neighborhood of Queen Village, similar to Society Hill though perhaps not quite as exclusive - a little more middle class (but still expensive).

Lots of good restaurants within easy walking distance, Independence Mall, Old City also very walkable - and Washington Square West, a more eclectic, slightly more Bohemian neighborhood, is perhaps 10 minutes to the northwest.

All in all a very good location, with the one caveat that South St. itself can be a bit much sometimes.

^^^ Thanks. Hopefully, being a half block off South Street we'll avoid some of the noise?

We're the young & hip type (or at least I like to think of myself that way), so music venues & cool restaurants are good. My drinking days are behind me though, so bars and drunk people I can do without.

Any advice on parking? We've one car to deal with.

The more I read about it, the more it sounds like Berkeley and San Francisco -- in other words, home away from home! I like it.

I would imagine parking will be pretty tight. Gaskill is quite a small street - not even sure if parking is allowed on it. The blocks around it will be tough to park on except during very off hours.If you can afford it, you may want to look into a monthly space in a nearby garage (there's one at 3rd & South I know about, another at 11th & South, which is farther away but could be cheaper). You shouldn't need the car daily, so perhaps you could ditch it in a garage & avoid parking headaches.

Or you could get rid of the car altogether & use Philly CarShare:
http://www.phillycarshare.org/

That plus transit (your neck of the woods has several convenient bus lines that run through it & the subway is about 6 blocks to the North) ought to be enough, esp. if you don't have a kid.

You'll probably see more than your fair share of drunks, but I imagine it's manageable. If you like the area but decide you're too close to South St. for comfort, look to move to somewhere in Queen Village or Bella Vista (the neighborhood immediately to QV's west, approx. 5th-12th Sts. south of South).

One more thing about Gaskill. At 5th & Gaskill there is one of my favorite little quirky Philly things: the Leaning Tower of Pisa bollard. I mentioned it in a thread somewhere a while back, but I don't have time to look for it. Anyway, it's a fun little touch of hominess in the big city. If you go to 5th & Gaskill you'll see it - I think it's still there - and see why I call it that.

Actually, I don't know why I said you shouldn't need the car daily. How do I know that? I just meant that, living in that neighborhood, you can do a lot of things without a car.

South Street can be great for people watching, eating, and drinking.

However, Gaskill street is way to close to the action to avoid the drunks, their noise, and their using your steps as a bathroom.

If you can tolerate the peeing and the late night noise than you should be fine.

My guess is that you need to be about 2-3 blocks off of South Street to avoid the drunks and South Street traffic.

Have you considered anyother locations a few more blocks South of South? You could probably get a better deal, still be only a few blocks from South Street, be closer to the Italian Market (and alot of the Italian, Mexican, and Vietnamese restaurants) and live in more of a neighborhood?

-UC

^^^ I'm trying to get within one mile of the federal courthouse at 6th & Market. I need to walk to and from work every day, so if I go much further south, I'm adding to my hike.

Mind you, I don't mind walking that much, but being a transplant from Nor. Cal., I'm going to be freezing my butt off in the winter! I'll trade that for the drunks I guess. Maybe a BB gun...

These are Philly drunks we are talking about..... :twisted:

Also, QV and BV are both less than 1 mile from 6th and Market.

Basically 6th and Washington is one mile from 6th and Market and Washington is the cutoff for BV.

-UC

Don't know if you've seen it yet, but this is a nice site for South Street. Includes some historic images:

http://www.south-street.com/index.php