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I noticed that more on my most recent return visit earlier this year (Union Square/Washington Sq Park areas). Did not recall seeing that, or to the same extent, as this past visit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by masssachoicetts
While not as dirty as people make it out to be, large swaths of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan are dirtier than the average city. Even Staten Island. I lived in a decent part of Queens and it was filthy.
I think a lot of people visit Manhattan and get confused about why scores of trash bags sit piled in front of stores and restaurants every night. That doesn't really happen in their cities and gives the appearance that NYC is a dirty place when in retrospect there are no alleys that sit between streets like in other major cities to hide the garbage issue.
New York is very dirty, but it's not the dirtiest. I think its reputation for being dirty at the level of perception, is well granted, although it has improved slightly in the past 10 years. I find Baltimore and Philadelphia much dirtier in the Northeast alone.
For the dangerous part, that's overblown. There is how many murders a day in Chicago, Philly, and DC.. yet CNN, ABC and alike talk about the few murders that do happen in NYC. Conservative media loves to paint NYC as this apocalyptic city after watching Fox News' debate on the girl who was killed in the park last week in NYC. (Fox was on by force). People don't realize its one of the safer cities in America. Just today on ABC Nightly news they spent 5 minutes covering a kidnapping in the Bronx and it was depicted as if NYC was the purge.
Last edited by elchevere; 12-17-2019 at 07:43 PM..
St. Louis, Chicago or Baltimore are struggle the most with the perception vs. reality problem.. Philly overcame that hurdle some years ago.
Certain city-data posters swear on the grandparents grave that the second one set foot in any of those cities you are going to be mercilessly gun downed or bludgeoned over the head and robbed, when it's the farthest from the truth.
I cannot emphasize enough that one should try things out for themselves, and then make their judgments. Not take someone else's limited experiences as overlying truths for something as diverse and broad as a major city.
I'm pretty sure the majority of the country holds Chicago in a much higher regard than Philly. It's seen as a top 3 US city that is world class, huge, and diverse.
Philly is seen as a sports obsessed, Rocky obsessed, history obsessed, cheesesteak obsessed wannabe big city.
I'm pretty sure the majority of the country holds Chicago in a much higher regard than Philly. It's seen as a top 3 US city that is world class, huge, and diverse.
Philly is seen as a sports obsessed, Rocky obsessed, history obsessed, cheesesteak obsessed wannabe big city.
What "league" are you referring to here? If we're still talking about how easy or 'pleasant' it is to experience the city on foot, then I can see the rationale for NYC and Chicago being better. LA? No.
I'm pretty sure the majority of the country holds Chicago in a much higher regard than Philly. It's seen as a top 3 US city that is world class, huge, and diverse.
Those are all relative terms.
To someone living just outside Tokyo (like myself), Chicago would be considered a suburb. Someone who grew up in London wouldn't consider Chicago "world class" but just another big-ish, while a person from Toronto would consider Chicago sub-par in the diversity department.
While I don't disagree with Chicago standing over Philly in the public eye it's not because Philly is lacking anything. It stems from Chicago having more of that "x" factor in the same manner NYC & LA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj
Philly is seen as a sports obsessed, Rocky obsessed, history obsessed, cheesesteak obsessed wannabe big city.
It's not a wannabe big city... it is a big city in every sense of the word in the same way SF, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, etc.. are considered big cities by anyone with an ounce commence sense. Once a metro's reach these sizes its not so much "a does it have x?" but "how much of x does it have"
In regards to Philly's "characteristics"... you can apply demeaning cultural norms to any city so that added absolutely zero value to the conversation.
NYC is dirty but yea compared to BMORE and Philly not really. I’ve found public amenities like housing projects and parks in NYC to be surprisingly clean ever since I started going to NYC 15 years ago. I find being surprised by trash in Manhattan odd- though I’ve heard it before. Obviously I was used to trash being out front having been in Boston where there aren’t more than a few dozen alleys- but to me it’s kind of like what do you expect them to do with the trash?. That being said Boston is scores cleaner than NYC.
There's also a stench from the trash in the places that have the trash issue, especially in SoHo and Tribeca. It needs to be worked on a little bit.
As clean as Boston is, there are some parts of the Financial District that throw their trash out front, not to the degree of NYC ... but iirc, Milk and Congress Street by Post Office Square have it to some degree and its because theres nowhere to put it out back since the built scape covers the whole block.
Why do these always end in a x city vs. y city debate.
Philly is a very large city, has the same issues as virtually every other major city in the country and has a many deal of good things going for it. Media plays a massive roll in the perception of cities as well as people spreading non-truths or embellishments due to lack of personal experience.
Once those are either regulated or taken with a grain of salt, only than will presumptions will end.
Why do these always end in a x city vs. y city debate.
Well, that is literally the name of this subforum...
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Downtown Chicago and city street grid just stands out to visitors even more.
