Dodging Brooklyn

Philadelphia Shows Some Brotherly Love to New York

TALK ABOUT GOOD NEWS, bad news. Today's New York Times ledes its SundayStyles section with a lengthy piece on artsy Gotham expats heading to Philadelphia because they're being priced out of Brooklyn. There's lots of glowing commentary about such attractions as the lower cost of living, the resurgent cultural and music scenes, the city's grand livability, the progressive plan to make Philly all-wireless, and effective anti-blight initiatives; even Yuengling gets name-checked.

But these points of praise are viewed through a decidedly Manhattan prism, as if the City of Brotherly Love's considerable charms were nonexistent until New Yorkers showed up to notice them:

Philadelphians occasionally refer to their city -- somewhat deprecatingly -- as the "sixth borough" of New York, and with almost 8,000 commuters making the 75-minute train ride between the cities each weekday, the label seems not far off the mark. ... Fifteen or 20 years ago, the idea of Philadelphia as a place to go for quality life would have been laughable to many people, even to Philadelphians. Sandwiched between New York and Washington, Philadelphia was a flyover city - trainover really - a place where a mayor had ordered the bombing of a neighborhood and where Eagles fans reveled in booing their own team, its chief popular exports cheese steaks and "Rocky." While Philadelphia's rich cultural history, like its art museum, its symphony orchestra and its Colonial architecture, gave the city establishment credentials, it did not produce much of an avant-garde.

Even the headline, "Philadelphia Story: The Next Borough," has a condescending quality to it. And has any true Philadelphian ever called this city New York's "sixth borough"?

Then again, maybe it's progress of a sort. For years we've existed with a Veterans Stadium-sized chip on our shoulders, pissed to the max that our neighbors up the Jersey Turnpike got all the attention even though we had almost everything they did, except the high prices. "Why don't they notice us?" we'd wail to ourselves, awash in the kind of ruinous self-loathing that causes us to care more about the Eagles' wide receiver corps than the rampant corruption infesting City Hall.

Well, guess what, Philadelphia? They're noticing. And they're liking what they see.

In other words, it's time, finally, to stop hating ourselves. It's time to grow up and treat ourselves with dignity and respect. That means  demanding that our city and state governments start working of us and not for themselves. It means realizing that not only is it okay that we're not New York or Washington, it's better. It means placing our sporting teams' ineptitude in their proper perspective. It means taking pride in what we have, not envying other cities for what we don't.

And if takes the New York Times looking at us somewhat down its nose, however admiringly, for us to wake up to this, well, so be it.

Comments

[Tom G]

Sshhh...Let's keep the advantages of Philly a secret OK? The last thing I want is for it to turn into NYC (a great place to visit, but I could never live there).

[Bill]

TD,

I could not agree with you more...as the great philosopher Tug McGraw once said, "All through baseball history, Philadelphia has had to take a backseat to New York City...well, New York City, we're number one." Or something like that.

Philadelphia is my favorite city. Of course I grew up here and live her, but I find it very real and manageable, unlike other cities I've been to.

[Tom Goodman]

As is usually the custom with newspaper articles, the opening portion of this piece is shamefully misleading. NO ONE could have found the apartment mentioned on Rittenhouse Sq. for $800 a month including all utilities unless it was an unsual sublet involving uncommon circumstances, a special deal or something else out of the ordinary. How do I know this? My step-daughter just rented an apartment between 18th and 19th on Pine after doing extensive research and inspection and I can assure anyone the "spacious one bedroom apartments" in that area are not going for anything close to the $800 figure PLUS utilties.

[gr]

i'll have some thoughts on this once i return the east coast. no time to read the story now.

[Thomas D]

I was happy to read the article in the NYTimes about New Yorkers moving to Philadelphia, but a few items were misleading and simply wrong.

Pressler leads by going to see what "a real Philly apartment looks like" -- it's a "spacious" one bedroom apartment that supposed to be $800 in a brownstone "on" Rittenhouse Square. The problem is that there are no brownstones directly on Rittenhouse Square. And if there were, the $800 bucks rent would not reflect the prices of what you're going to get for that there. The rest of the article, the focus is on the not-so-close-to-Rhittenhouse Square neighborhood of Fishtown, which is apt.

Then there is the "sixth borough" of New York." I've never, not once, heard anyone call Philadelphia -- and I've heard called nearly everything -- but the "sixth borough" of New York"?

There is no source for this quote because no one here says such nonesense.

Thanks for the props, but get the facts straight.

[L. Singley]

I'm sick to death of people writing that Philadelphians hate themselves. My family's been in Philly for many, many generations--trust me, we've always loved the City, have lots of self-confidence, i.e., we don't have a need to blow our own horn to feel worthy (New York?), are not braggy-showy, and have never, ever, heard the term "6th borough of New York." What on earth has NYC to do with Philadelphia; they should be so lucky!

Could it perhaps be that the folks who think of Philadelphians as self-denigrating are from further afield?

L.S.