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Originally Posted by philatonian
I always thought of D.C. as very one-dimensional too. It's an industry town, a lot like an L.A. for government and politics. The one thing Philly and D.C. share is that both cities were designed with a unique purpose. But while William Penn designed Philadelphia as the model American city, D.C. was more ancillary. I don't want to crap on D.C. too much though. I wasn't born there but it definitely raised me. But when it comes to American cities, Philadelphia blends better with the likes of New York, Chicago, and Boston in that it is a very three dimensional place.
I have to admit though, I always cringe a bit when I hear "blue collar" affixed to Philadelphia. Yeah, it certainly has that demographic, but so do a lot of big American cities. I prefer to think of Philadelphia - and the fact that it's retained the economic diversity to be perceived as a "blue collar" town - as a city that hasn't yet lost its soul to brunch restaurants.
I think the only reason Philadelphia isn't held to the same esteem as Chicago or San Francisco is because we're stuck so closely between New York and D.C. I think the national mentality towards Philadelphia is going to change very soon. Comcast and whatever they have planned for the CITC is going to play a big role, but there are a lot of other things happening in tandem, namely the new rules at the convention center.
Couple all of Philadelphia's improvements with our affordability, and the capability of working any corporate job from a laptop, and there is no reason to spend $400,000 on a studio in Columbia Heights or $700,000 on one in Brooklyn. I thiome very wealthy U.S. cities are about to get a harsh slap in the face.
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The requirement that buildings in DC not exceed about 10 stories so that the Capital dome is visible from all over town means there is very little opportunity to shape a building to create inspired architecture.
on the side: did you know that about 45% of the art in the National Gallery of Art is from the Widener collection, a Philadelphia industrialist and 45% is from the Mellon collection a Pittsburg banker. So they owe just about all the art in the NGA to Pennsylvania entrepreneurship. Since DC produces nothing but just takes from other productive parts of the economy I guess this is not surprising. It's 4am and I'm having trouble getting to sleep so this came into my head, I don't know why.
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