Quote:
Originally Posted by park123
Regarding Philly I just got the sense that huge areas of blight are adjascent to the center city, while in Chicago there's more of a physical separation between the good areas and bad areas. Tale of 2 cities thing in Chicago.
I also get the sense that urban Chicago's white collar economy is a lot larger and more diverse than in Philly. But these are just impressions.
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The only REAL area of blight adjacent to Center City Philadelphia is Callowhill, which is an old industrial part of the city that's just starting to revitalize.
Aside from that? Where do you see the blighted areas? Just for reference, Center City Philadelphia is generally described as Spring Garden Street to South Street, River to River.
Heading South from Center City, you hit the South Philly neighborhoods of Graduate Hospital/Southwest Center City, Queen Village, Bella Vista and Hawthorne. - all well established, fantastic urban neighborhoods at this point. The next ring of neighborhoods out from that are Pennsport (established), Dickinson Narrows or Dickinson Square West (gentrifying), Passyunk Square (established), Newbold (established), Point Breeze (gentrifying), Grays Ferry (just starting to gentrify). So, you gotta go at least two miles South to hit areas that haven't fully gentrified or aren't established. The rest of the neighborhoods on South from there (Marconi Plaza, Whitman, Lower Moyamensing, Packer Park, Melrose, Girard Estates, etc. are all healthy established neighborhoods.
Heading West from Center City, you hit the economic powerhouse of University City, and surrounding established or gentrified neighborhoods of Powelton Village, West Powelton, Walnut Hill, Spruce Hill, Squirrel Hill, Cedar Park and Garden Court. After that, you head into some more blighted neighborhoods of West Philly, until you get to the suburbs, or the Overbrook Park/Overbrook Farms, Wynnefield/Wynnefield Heights section of West Philly which are nice, established neighborhoods that border the Main Line.
Heading North from Center City, you hit Spring Garden (established), Fairmount (established), Francisville (gentrifying), Spring Arts (gentrifying), Poplar (gentrifying), Northern Liberties (established). The next ring of neighborhoods from there are Brewerytown (gentrifying), Sharswood (blighted but just starting to gentrify), Templetown (pretty well established at this point, but still gentrifying in some areas of the neighborhood), Yorktown (established), Ludlow (gentrifying), Olde Kensington (gentrifying), Fishtown (established). AFTER THAT is when you head into some seedy and blighted sections of North Philly. So again, a good two miles at least, past Templetown/Temple University area until you head into some really blight parts of North Philly.
So, there's at least a two mile ring around Center City until you hit any blight. So unless you're referring to Callowhill/Spring Arts area, which is literally the only area adjacent to Center City that has some blight, I'm not sure what you mean. Philly and Chicago are very similar in this regard. Chicago's obviously a larger city than Philly, but I don't see too many dissimilarities between the two at all.