Philadelphia

[nicky g]

Is Philadelphia a nice city to live in? My (American) wife seems to think it's pretty sketchy, but someone on the B&M forum mentioned in passing that it was mostly very safe, more so than most other big US cities. I ask because we will more than likely move over to the states at some point in the next few years and for variuous location-related reasons (AC [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) it would be a good option for us. Is it expensive in property terms?

[scrub]

I've never lived in Philly, but I went to school in central Jersey and now live in California.

If proximity to poker is a big deal for you, LA and LV are much better choices with much nicer weather. The poker in the Bay Area is probably not as good, but everything else is much better.

New Haven, CT is an underrated small city about the same distance from Foxwoods as Philly is from AC.

South Jersey and Philly manage to suck in the summer and in the winter, which leaves about 5 decent weeks per year.

scrub

[nicky g]

Thanks for the info. AC isn't really the reason; it has more to do with being between NY and DC, between which most of our family and friends are split (of course we could live on one or the other, but I don't want to live in NY and she doesn;t want to live in DC). It would definitely be on the East Coast.

All purely hypothetical for some years to come.

[junkmail3]

Philly is great. Safe. Fun. I live in South Philly. 15 blocks south of center city (city hall) and 15 blocks north of the sports stadiums. The subway is right down the street from my apartment (the subway sucks, only two lines NS and EW, it's awful, and they're losing funding ... )

We're close to the Italian Market where we get all of our produce for very little, (10 limes for $1 etc), close to Pat's cheesstakes, Mmmm.

My wife takes the subway to work. She works in West Philly, 'the bad part of town', but she's never scared or anything. She walks around over there. She wouldn't walk around at night in that area, but she often runs to the pizza place a few blocks from our apartment (at night) and feels quite safe.

I live across the street from a go-go bar that's patronized by some pretty shady clientel, have been solicited by a prostitute while standing on the sidewalk in front of my place, see drug deals on the corner, and get ripped off at the Korean grocery store down the street, but have never felt scared/cautious/out of place.

My wife used to live in North Philly (another bad part) when she went to school (at Temple). That was a pretty shady part, but still I was never scared or felt threatened. She would always come home late from the library (1 - 2 in the morning), walk down all sorts of streets, and nothing ever happened.

Wonderful commute to AC. 50 min on the AC expressway, it's so great.

Property is average. If you get a place that's not in center city I would say it's pretty reasonable. You can get great deals on something that's not in great shape and fix it up. There are a lot of properties like this.

I don't think I really gave a good overview. Philly is great. Pretty safe, lots of fun, lots to do, with an awful subway system.

[turnipmonster]

aren't city taxes very high in philly? I heard that a lot of people moved out of the city because the city tax was unreal.

[junkmail3]

[ QUOTE ]
aren't city taxes very high in philly? I heard that a lot of people moved out of the city because the city tax was unreal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, they are.

[Tyler Durden]

Isn't Philly known for short men? Not that I care, b/c I'm a straight male, just wondering if it's true.

[sfer]

In my experience people seem to overstate the danger element in mid to large American cities.

Also, Philadelphia seems to be having a serious urban renewal thing going on right now like a lot of other cities.