Hi all--
I've been living in West Philadelphia this past year and am planning on moving to Center City. Right now, my budget looks like it can afford a few areas: South of South/Graduate Hospital and Bella Vista/Queens Village and around 13th and Pine or so.
Please weigh in on these locations! I would love any feedback you can offer. Here are some of my considerations:
1- I'm a grad student at Penn and will be needing to go to campus at least 4x per week, so an easy commute would be great (ie: walking from SoSo)
2 - I also have a car and need some parking
3 - Safety...I'll be coming home alone late at night occasionally.

Thanks!

ak

Would you be commuting by car to campus? And what is your rent range that you are looking for?

From any of those neighborhoods, you can walk to Lombard and catch the 40 bus to Penn. 13th & Pine would give you the added ability to walk easily to 13th & Market and catch a Green Line trolley to Penn. You'll be as safe as you can be in Philadelphia in any of those areas, though 13th & Pine gets a bit sketchier than BV or QV late at night. Because of the concentrated nightlife on South Street there are more cops in Queen Village than in Bella Vista, but then again, they're pretty much all on South Street.

P.S. Lose the car. For real. Unless you're driving out of town every weekend, joining PhillyCarShare will save you lots of money and parking headaches.

I think we should get a group of residents from each of these neighborhoods and let them duke it out.

Last group standing has the best neighborhood.

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Whatever happened to respecting people for their opinions because they are wealthier than you are? - Weblo_Village

i commute to penn every day from QV by septa, it's kind of a pain but i get a lot of exercise. in my experience the bus #40 is horribly unreliable, especially eastbound in the evenings. i've waited 25 minutes for it on several occasions.

i usually walk (or take the bus if i'm running late) about a mile and a half up to market to catch the subway, then walk a few blocks to penn campus. the total commute is about 40-45 mins depending on how quickly a train shows up.

occasionally, i walk all the way home from penn. this takes about an hour but i do get to see a lot of the neighborhoods in between close up. the graduate hospital area looks pretty decent to me, if a bit lacking in trees. if you want to go for cheaper rent and shorter commute you might want to try looking in the gray's ferry area as well.

In Colorado, there used to be an annual battle with rotten tomatoes between Colorado folks and Texans.

Maybe we need the same sort of battle on the streets of the 9th Street Market for supremacy of upper South Philadelphia.

We know that some in Belle Vista think that you Queenies and Wash Westers are snotty wanking wusses. That's about as snarky as it gets.

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

Good-

Physically this is closest, walk to work without too much trouble...

Depending on what kind of car, you can do street parking, (I believe SOSO is permit parking) I don't know of any garages around there.

Safety could be an issue, but the area is up and coming...

Better- I had a friend looking at SOSO vs. Queen Village, QV was her choice because there are more little resaurants, 2 big grocery stores on South at 10th-11th, also Italian Market, several parks around etc.

Getting to U-Penn is a longer walk, might make sense to buy a $20 beat up bicycle and you'll get back and forth in no time.

Probably the best bet if you're able to afford putting the car in a garage for a couple hundred a month.

Commuting is easy -
Trolleys from 13th & Market go right to Penn, as was said above.

You can also catch any of the westbound busses on Walnut - 9, 21, 42, to get out near 30th Street Station. Some rush hour Route 12 busses go through University City.

Hal

Hal

How is the commute from Pennsport to Penn? I was considering moving there?

How is the commute from Pennsport to Penn? I was considering moving there?