Quote:
Originally Posted by BenKatzPhillytoParis
WOW! Really cool. We really are a rowhome city.
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. . . . . we are
the row house city. Really an outlier, I guess.
Baltimore comes close, but on a significantly smaller scale obviously.
Seems to me another example of how, other than New Orleans, Philadelphia is on many different levels the most non-mainstream city in the US (in my opinion). It just defines itself physically and culturally in a completely unique way compared to most other American / colonial Anglo cities, most of which generally pretty much conform to some regional or national physical and cultural model. But Philly is pretty much it's own model and nothing else is like it.
I think that's why a lot of outside people and companies have a hard time figuring this city out, and why many don't even bother. NY, DC, Chicago, LA, SF, Seattle, and Boston are all part of a more mainstream cluster of big cosmopolitan cities, just as say, the lesser Midwestern and Southern cities cluster into a few large groups. But Philly doesn't fit into any group (nor, I suppose, do, say, Baltimore or Pittsburgh). So it makes more sense to create and market a product targeted to large clusters of similarly-minded cities than to bother with Philly (or, say, NO) where things may have to be approached a bit differently to gain traction.
Not trying to start an off-topic debate here about whether or not Philadelphia is really different. Many may disagree, and obviously none of what I wrote is based on unassailable verifiable evidence, it's just a general sense I have having been to different cities. This town is different, and it is clearly visible in the physical structure - the row houses, the narrow streets, narrow sidewalks, the hybrid inland/coastal siting, etc.
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