PHILADELPHIA: HIGH RISE BOOM CITY
Everyone: I decided to add my comments and views on this topic about Philadelphia-I spend time in Philadelphia on occasion-I am there now posting this and I see what is happening in the very lively Center City-their term for Downtown-area. Since the construction of the Liberty Towers in the 80s the Philadelphia skyline has undergone quite a bit of change with construction of new skyscrapers and a booming Center City area. I go and do work at times for the National Railroad Historical Society and we are at 17th and Arch Streets-just in the next block S is the Comcast Tower under construction. The Cira Center is over the N end of 30th Street Station-Amtrak's main rail station in Philly. Yes-there was a unwritten agreement about the William Penn Statue atop the City Hall Tower that nothing would be taller that was broken starting in the 80s-everyone might find it interesting to know that the WP statue faces NE-everything built taller is mainly BEHIND him-so his "view" is unobstructed. City Hall in Philadelphia is the largest one in the USA and worth a look at in itself. When you look at the skyline with a good view of Center City from the NE direction-like I have now-you can see how much things have changed since the 80s.
As MT mentioned-there is another side to Philadelphia-one that is poor and in some cases plain dangerous. There are poor neighborhoods such as the north central area - a part of this is called the BADLANDS - that is literally controlled in some ways by the illegal drug trade. Some neighborhoods because of a high crime rate have become outright dangerous because of the availabiility of illegal guns as an example. I will disagree with MT-there are many good sections of Philly-I am in one now in the Greater Northeast called Burholme-but the crime rate in some areas of the city has the potential of taking the entire city down with it-unless something drastic is done. Philly has the highest percentage of poor people in a US big city-25 percent-with the very maligned NJ city of Camden next door and another maligned poor small city-Chester just a little ways down the Delaware River. One thing that has not stopped unfortunately is white-flight - and even black flight-away from it-it is no Detroit-style abandonment but the population is stagnant or declining. One problem is the somewhat regressive taxation-the city income tax is over 4.5 percent-by far higher than all areas surrounding it. I attended a hearing for a potential fare increase on the local transit system yesterday-SEPTA-and the biggest problem facing Philadelphia is the US vs. THEM DIVISIVE MENTALITY that many have-especially many poor city residents against Center City and the surrounding suburbs. For any Philadelphia problems to be solved the people must work together to solve problems - just think UNITED WE STAND and divided...you can draw your own conclusions. Opinions and observations by LI MIKE
