Consulates Closing in Philadelphia

[wanderer34]

Hello Philadelphians!!! I'm practically alarmed about the number of consulates that have been closing in the past decade. It wasn't too long ago when the city had more consulates in the city limits. We had a Brazilian consulate, as well as a consulate from Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Canada, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Hungary, and Israel. We also had consulates from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Chile (all either closed or limited services). the only consulates left are from Italy, Panama, and Mexico.

I'm wondering what the true reasons for not having these consulates in our fair city seem to be. I keep on hearing budget shortfalls and economic reasons why consulates in Philadelphia keep on closing, but I personally feel that being too close to NYC and Washington, DC may be the main reasons why the consulates don't want to do business in Philadelphia and would rather keep all their consular services in NYC to serve Pennsylvania, Delaware, and southern New Jersey, which is the biggest bunch of bull since Philadelphia is a major city in it's own right, currently the 6th largest city in America and one of the most diverse cities in the country.

I just don't like the excuse of traveling to NYC in order to access consular services, considering that Philadelphia has consistently been improving on it's tourism and Philadelphia ranks in the Top 10 American Cities most visited by international tourists. I'm not sure whether the local and state officials have made any actions towards keeping the consulates here in Philadelphia, but whatever it is, it's not working. I would love to see the following countries come back plus many other suggestions:

Europe:
- Austria
- France (mainly involved in arts and dance...)
- Germany (one of the largest populations in America)
- Great Britain and Northern Ireland (our founding fathers)
- Greece (60 K in PA, plus significant presence in NJ and DE)
- Hungary (major presence in PA)
- Netherlands
- Poland (fifth largest population in America)
- Portugal
- Russia (large presence in the Northeast/Bucks County)
- Spain
- Ukraine (second largest population in America only to NY)

Asia:
- Cambodia
- China
- India
- Japan
- Phillipines
- Taiwan (trade office)
- Vietnam

Latin America:
- Argentina
- Brazil (continually growing in Philly and NJ)
- Colombia (huge population growth in PA)
- Dominican Republic (the population nearly quadrupled in Philadelphia and doubled in PA)
- El Salvador (growing in PA)
- Guatemala (likewise)
- Honduras (likewise)
- Uruguay
- Venezuela (has CITGO interests here plus a growing population in the Delaware Valley)

Caribbean:
- Jamaica
- Trinidad and Tobago

That's up to thirty consulates in the city. That's much more than Atlanta, which has 26, and Boston, which has 27. I honestly believe the local and state governments need to get involved with this issue because one fact that both residents and tourists have to travel to NYC just to either get new passports or find out information about visiting a country is very inconvenient and very unprofessional!