yeah, that's us -

I'm afraid I don't know anything about the area under baltimore. I've never been more than two blocks below it - my conception was always that it was a bad neighborhood, but thinking back I realize I have no evidence, at all, to substansiate that. I just put it in the category of "Bad Area and/or too far from Drexel Universtiy" when apartment hunting. It could be paradise, or a hell hole. Or according to Quantem Theory, both at the same time until you go check it out...so go check it out, amigo. Or are you still in NY?

- Trey out

__________________
I may be a doctor.

trey,

we came to town last weekend and did a whirlwind tour around the whole city, but didn't really get much of a feel for any particular area, just because we were trying to get the full picture.

basically, we saw a bunch of places all over town.

we did go back to this place because it was our favorite place, but we really didn't have enough time to get a clear enough overview. so, i thought the best thing to do was to try to get a feel from people who live there, y'know?

For a variety of reasons, including the massive Naval Homes condo development, Joey0's neighborhood is an area a lot of people are speculating on as "the next big thing" or the current "big thing" in real estate in Philly these days. I wish they could decide what theya want to call it, though. :lol: Everyone seems to uniformly despise the "Graduate Hospital" desgnation the realtors have chosen. Actually there is a whole thread on this blog that goes for pages about what to call it.

Anyhow, yes "Grad Hospital" or whatever is closer walking distance to Center City but UCity has great public transpo in the form of trolleys and has the advantage of lots and lots of trees and green space. There are tons of expectations for SoWeBO or GH or whatever and I think they are well grounded but I think it is fair to say currently, right now GH is a still noticeably a rougher around the edges than UC, especially the farther south of South St. you go.

mmo,
From what I briefly heard from you this weekend (I was the younger one eating breakfast with my parents at the B & B on Sunday morning), it seemed like you thought University City was a good place. I would go with that instinct. You also mentioned that you liked the idea of having the Penn Alexander School so close. University City has improved exponentially in the past 5 years, and only seems to be getting better. Yes, you will find that some areas turn sour really quick...but honestly, there are few reasons to ever venture out in those parts. I'm sure coming from NY, you have high expectations, but University City is one of those great urban neighborhoods where diversity, left-leaning ideals, and community are cherished.

Its never easy to house-hunt from a distance, but if you post questions about specific questions or blocks, we may be able to help you out.

__________________
- George -

http://www.barackobama.com

Grad Hospital is a fun neighborhood and has more lively bars and a greater quantity of restaurants--though not necessarily any better than our best. And proximity to Center City. Three things that turned me off to Grad Hospital neighborhood: 1) expense--even now you get much more house for the money here than in Grad Hospital, at least from what I've seen, 2) parking--not great here but really tough there and--I know some will disagree--but 3) safety. Our friends who live in fairly expensive places in Grad Hospital have drug dealing consistently right outside of their windows. The dealers don't mess with them, but still it's an ongoing part of their day, and occasionally gunshots at night. While I've had some sketchy experiences in UCity, The Wire-style open air drug market isn't something I've seen. I doubt that right now Grad Hospital has the kind of neighborhood feel or continuity of neighborhood activities/traditions that UCity has, but about that I could be wrong.

mmo-
If you have any questions about a specific address in Cedar Park, PM me. Trey's comments are pretty typical for a lot of students who live in the area for a short while and get to know the walk between their partment and campus but are to busy with school to get to know the neighborhood in a wider sense. I'm not picking on Trey because he sound slike a nice guy, jus tpointing out that there is a long-standing sore spot between students and neighborhood residents on this point.

A month or so back a Penn undergad was raped walking home from a frat party by someone she vaguely recognized from the party. The Penn student paper ran an article about some students "not feeling safe" off of campus, though clearly both the victim and perp were Penn students. It set off a minor firestorm of discussion in the neighborhood generally and spawned a thread here on the blog, as a matter of fact. since you ar contemplating the neighborhood not as a student, I would look to the opinions of non-student residents more, myself, even if you take for example, my own comments, with a grain of salt because like I said - we all like to promote our own neighborhood.

also, look at the murder map:

http://www.realcities.com/multimedia...oot/index.html

Note the 2 bad zones that are close it UCity. Just be aware.

Yeah this map is good info. Of course some of the info the map is based on is a little dated but yes if you look at the part of Cedar Park you were specifically asking about you will see that it is very quiet but that as you head farther in SW Philly beyond 52nd, things change kind of dramatically. Everyone checking out new neighborhoods should look at this map but remember that it doesn't show changes over time.

There is actually a pdf that shows really detailed info about the improvements and increasing values in UCity over time. Its really pretty amazing to watch changes over time in the neighborhood over the last 15 to 20 years mapped out like they are in this pdf.

http://cml.upenn.edu/project_areas/uc_indicators.htm

Yeah UC is ghetto fabolous. It's mad weird. I get heckled WAY MORE by the Penn police than the gangstas who live in the projects. YEAH it's sooo true.

My apartment is on a "fringe neighborhood" about two blocks from that Kaffa place everybody here hypes so much about. Anyways when I get my skate on arounf the neighborhood the neighborhood people pretty much ignore me
but as soon as a set my size Etnies skateshoes nearer the campus, the bacon is all up in my steez. Fo sho.

Oh yeah by the way Kaffa is whack. The food is weird. Why can't people just eat regular food and play regular music? But the juice is good though, I'm hyped on that.
Anyways, yeah the place is ghetto fabolous and that's the way I likes it.