While he made a good point or 2, most I largely disagree with. Is Philadelphia really viewed a city & region in destitute? The economy is strong (on par with other large cities/regions), its a wealthier region than Dallas, Atlanta, etc.,
Yes, the city has a lot of problem, but it's not as if other major cities aren't dealing with the same problems (just less severe). Also tired of the constant comparisons to New York, maybe that has something to do with the skewed views...
I feel like if Philadelphia were located anywhere else, people would not make the same comments. See Q&A below.
JIM CRAMER COMES HOME
And he’s not happy about some of the issues holding Philadelphia back
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...comes-home-the-cnbc-host-sounds-off.html
On what is holding Philadelphia back economically
JC: I think that the infrastructure, it seems like it’s seen better days. I think that people think that taxes are just too high. I think that there are a lot of people who still don’t seem to get it. One of the things that was just really horrible is when Amazon didn’t choose Philadelphia. That would have been just such a great thing. The city doesn’t seem to be good at making a case that you should put your headquarters there, despite the fact that the colleges are great, the suburban schools are great, the inner city schools … Listen, I live in Brooklyn and we all decided our schools were going to be good, our public schools, and we do fundraisers for them. But we’re lucky because we’ve got this nice mixture of people who have really good jobs and people who deserve really good jobs but haven’t been able to find them.
I just think that there isn’t enough money around in Philadelphia.
Obviously, the colleges are fantastic. But the main businesses are service. There’s no manufacturing, and that went away a long time ago. But they never cleaned up the aging factories. The city needs to get its act together, clear big stretches of land, clean it up and then offer it to Prologis. Even if it’s just warehouse. It’s just got to be less dangerous.
The city deserves better and doesn’t get it. I can’t believe the city can’t woo some of these great companies to come to Philadelphia. But you know, the tax base isn’t there. It’s really just sad. When you go to Lincoln Financial Field and you walk around the luxury box area and you look at the different nameplates, there’s just no big companies. When you go to Giants Stadium, it’s all corporate.
I just don’t understand. You’ve got the Comcast building in that area and you go west. Think about all the great hospitals you have and all the great services. I have to blame the government and the infrastructure. Because I just can’t think of a better place to have to build a company. It is such a remarkable town. It’s just so painful to see that. And all these things cut in favor of the executive class not knowing how fantastic Philadelphia is.
On why people are hesitant to come to Philadelphia
JC: I think people are intimidated by it. I was looking to buy some land near Temple University – not far from where my mom was from. My mom was from Broad and Lindley. So, then I went to look at her house. My wife does real estate and she said, look, the house just doesn’t have the infrastructure. It’s just too hard to rebuild. And I said, God, it was such a great area. I always think that if you could put like 50 people together, you could go rebuild parts of Philadelphia like the La Salle area. My mom was from Olney, she went to Germantown High, and I would love to have the capital to help rebuild those fabulous areas. And, you know, keep everybody who lives there and then bring in new people. But it’s just not happening. Temple University has done a great job, and I’m sure there are people in town who think that Temple University is an interloper that’s taking people’s homes. And that’s a shame and that’s got to be helped, too. You can’t kick people out of their homes, but you do want to make their homes better for them.
When I went to see my mom’s place, I took my wife there and I said, look, could we do it? Do you think we could do it? And then she reminded me of when I wanted to do over my dad’s place when he died. He had this beautiful place at 3rd and Arch, and it was too expensive. I was afraid of the unions and how much it would cost me. I felt like I had to be down there all the time. And the next-door neighbor bought it and really made it into a great place. I wanted to develop it, but I was over my head, over my head in Philadelphia. I find a lot of people feel they’re over their heads. You’re worried. Did I do the right thing with the unions? Did I not do the right thing? And look, I’m not anti-union. I’m a member of two different unions. I’m just baffled by how to do things in Philadelphia. And I’ve got to say I’ve done enough projects in my life that for me to say I’m baffled means that it is baffling, and it’s nobody’s fault. It’s kind of like the supply chain problem out in California – it’s really hard to figure out who’s at fault. But I know when I wanted to redo this property in Philadelphia, I said there’s just too many question marks versus doing stuff I do in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is much easier than Philadelphia.
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