Francisville Philadelphia Safety

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Originally Posted by phillies2011

Fair points. Although I will say this. Although the area you're talking about probably hit its nadir around 25 years ago or so, meaning it has technically been improving since you came to town; most of this improvement has happened just in the past decade. In other words just because it took the 25 years you've been here for the area to improve, doesn't mean it has been actively improving over the entire period of the past quarter century. If you looked at the current pace of gentrification, rising home values, and new construction, I think francisville compares a lot better to the gradho area ten years ago than 25 years ago when u first arrives.

Basically don't be surprised if francisville is a lot closer to realizing its potential than you expect. You may live to see it after all!

It's kind of crazy to think about just how close so many very different places are too each other. Us locals, we talk about a lot of places like they're so far apart from each other but if you even just go on Google Maps or something and start from Philadelphia and work your way outward, you can see how close everything really is to everything else in comparison with really every other big city in the US. If the growth continues at this pace or even speeds up, every city or urban center close to Philadelphia could eventually be completely revitalized. Take Conshohocken for example. Sure it's near some of the further out parts of Philadelphia but it's also right near some very nice areas on the Main Line, has a waterfront, and is connected by Regional Rail to Center City, as if of course Norristown. Also, the urban centers around the city are all fairly small. Norristown is only 3.5 square miles, Chester is only about 4, Trenton is about 8, Camden is about 9, Wilmington is about 11, etc. The same reasons that crime spreads so quickly and so easily are the very reasons that revitalization/gentrification would and has already in places in and around the city.

The biggest obstacle is a lack of a much more complete subway system and the ridiculous variations in prices among the various modes of transportation. It shouldn't cost more to take the train from Clifton Heights or any of the places in or near Philadelphia than it does to take the El, bus, or trolley. That's ridiculous. That's probably the real reason SEPTA and the state don't want to expand the subway/El. They know that people would jump at the opportunity to take a roughly 2 dollar El anywhere in the city instead of taking Regional Rail for more than that. That of course means more people would take public transportation rather than drive to various areas, which of course the state does not want.

Still, I do not think there is a single place in the country with as much untapped potential as the Delaware Valley.

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Originally Posted by pman

bingo, though I'm not sure the old dog is ready for new tricks. the thing is, it's already improving, and has been for some time. it really was a high crime area, it's no longer a high crime area, I'd rate it as medium and it now goes long periods without major crimes. some people live a long time but learn little. still, maybe bryson is dying, so when it's a good neighborhood in five or so years, he'll be dead. we don't know. I do know that he has no particular knowledge about the area or current trends or even prices. the area is growing much faster than it was in the 90's which is a large part of why things are moving more quickly. in addition, francisville doesn't have a lot of cranks so projects don't take years to get approved.

Honestly, I don't get how anybody can look at situations pre-2000 and now and see the same trend. The entire area was bleeding population as people and jobs either moved to the Jersey suburbs or to Delaware or to various places outside of urban areas and those urban areas were just being hit with one thing after another. There were definitely some upswings at times but the entire area as a whole was on a downward trend.

Now, the entire area is being sought out by people and by some companies, the universities are improving and expanding and causing that revitalization to continue to move further outward, and the entire area is on an upward trend as a whole. Most importantly though is that it's because residents are moving to places and parts that were bleeding population are being repopulated while new homes and other buildings go up in vacant lots or in formerly blighted spots.

Before 2000, the newest homes in all of urban Delaware County were from around the 50s. Now there's brand new, nice homes going up in every single part of it, as well as in many parts of the city of Philadelphia and in every major urban area in the Delaware Valley. Most importantly though, every single one of those new homes is being bought eventually and plenty of it is from people who are either new to that area or new to the Delaware Valley altogether.

The whole Delaware Valley used to be contracting, for decades, and now it is expanding. Sure, some parts of it are going to get worse but that is only a small aspect of the much larger transition the entirety of the Delaware Valley is currently going through, and should continue to go through.