Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbarossa
Most people outside the USA/Canada have probably never heard of Philadelphia, except from maybe Elton John's 1975 song. I never even knew Leeds was a city in the UK until I read that above article. I faintly heard of it in the past and just assumed it was a neighborhood in London.
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I disagree with a lot of what's being said here.
First of all, Nutter's trip. This is a trade trip, not a trip to share policies/best practices. He is going because there are already specific trading relationships that mayors typically cultivate. Philadelphia already participates in the Impacts Network which brings together 11 US cities and 13 European cities to exchange best practices (including, to name a few, Chicago, Houston, New York, Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam). These are essentially the city equivalent of cabinet-level meetings for nations. They are thematically oriented and involve the deputy mayors of each city.
Second, true, Philadelphia is not London. In the developed world, really only New York, Tokyo, and Paris are in the same league in terms of economic importance, international character, and cultural significance. For these cities only to meet with each other would be repetitive and myopic. Therefore, the Impacts Network brings together a number that is more constructive. You can find the European list under 'cities' and the US list under 'IMPACTS Networks'.
http://impacts.org/ If you peruse the list, there are some very important cities. But I would remind you that Philadelphia's metropolitan economy is still above average for the cities included (above, for example, cities like Rome, Vienna, Amsterdam, Berlin etc.).
Third, ya...blind cheerleading doesn't make sense. But I think a lot of you are really underestimating Philly's reputation. I've lived abroad for 6 of the last 10 years, including in London, Paris, Rome, and Kinshasa, DRC. Of the hundreds of people I've told where I'm from, there has never been someone who hadn't heard of Philly. The people who typically had the least familiarity with US geography were in Congo, but even there, they tended to have heard of 5 or 6 US cities, including NY and LA, and a few others including Chicago and Philly. And in Europe, it is really regarded as a major city of international significance. I would just say, ya—Philly is not London or NY—but they are part of an exceedingly small group. If you're willing to accept that more than 4 cities in the world constitute major economic and cultural nodes, Philly is certainly among the most important.
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