Great city
It's Philly, baby.
6th largest city in the US, 8th largest metro area.
2 hours south of NYC, 2 hours north of Washington DC. Either one is a day trip, and if you use Amtrak no driving is necessary.
Stupidly low cost of living compared to the above two cities:
SEPTA is the 5th largest transportation network in the US. Driving here is mostly optional if you're in the city proper.
Eagles (NFL), Flyers (NHL), Sixers (NBA), Phillies (MLB), Union (MLS).
Consistently ranked one of the best restaurant cities in the US. More restaurants per capita (6000 total) than NYC, DC, or Chicago.
Philly was nominated for six James Beard awards in 2019: Outstanding chef (Marc Vetri); Outstanding Restaurant (Zahav); Outstanding Restauranteur (Ellen Yin); Rising Star Chef of the Year (Jesse Ito); Best Chef, Mid Atlantic (Rich Landau); Best Chef, Mid Atlantic (Cristina Martinez)
Philly museum of art and the Barnes are world class. Philadelphia orchestra is world class. Mutter Museum, Franklin Institute, Academy of Natural Science, Rodin Museum, Penn Museum, it's endless re: arts and culture.
America was born here, get your history on at Old City and Independence Hall.
If there's a tour of any sort, it will be making a stop here.
Massive network of excellent universities, including Ivy League (UPENN)
Pennsylvania has 354 Craft Breweries, and is #1 in the country at barrels of beer produced over 3.7 million in 2018, ahead of California. Philly Beer Week (actually two weeks) is an EVENT here.
Pennsylvania has nearly as many craft distillers as it does breweries.
About an hour or so from Jersey and Delaware beaches.
About 1.5-2 hours from skiing in the pocono mountain area, to get your skiing on.
You CAN live somewhere else on the east coast, but why would you
This is awesome - Philly hasn't really been on my radar, but.. this is a great post.
How's the community aspects of living there? Also, does Philly have the stereotypical East Coast attitude or is it a bit different?
Yeah, recommending Seattle, Vancouver, Portland or any of the major west coast cities are expensive.I love Seattle, but it's funny to me how casually it is mentioned as a great city to live when it's so unaffordable. Your average house sells for >$700k, a one bedroom apartment is $2000/month, and the city is filled with homeless camps. This isn't a nice place to live unless you are making serious cash.
Someone earlier said Tacoma and I would like to second that. It's close to Seattle but reasonably priced.
not sure how I'd quantify either of your questions, honestly. Philly is an area of a lot of different neighborhoods and cultures- if you're interested in being part of a community it won't take you long to find one, if that's what you mean.
East Coast Attitude I have no idea- I'm from here so it all seems just normal to me. i regularly travel up and down the east coast from florida to boston, never had a problem relating to people.
I love Seattle, but it's funny to me how casually it is mentioned as a great city to live when it's so unaffordable. Your average house sells for >$700k, a one bedroom apartment is $2000/month, and the city is filled with homeless camps. This isn't a nice place to live unless you are making serious cash.
Someone earlier said Tacoma and I would like to second that. It's close to Seattle but reasonably priced.
Yeah, first answers good. For a point of comparison, I've noticed native SoCal folks are fairly reluctant to make new friends - and a lot of them just prefer to do stuff with their families, beginning in their late 20s.
Or the rumored Seattle Freeze, for another example.
Obviously, though, there are always opportunities to join communities and make friends that way.
As for the question about the attitudes - in general, are Philadelphians blunt? polite? Overly (im)polite? Always in a hurry? Stuff like that.
Yeah, first answers good. For a point of comparison, I've noticed native SoCal folks are fairly reluctant to make new friends - and a lot of them just prefer to do stuff with their families, beginning in their late 20s.
Eagles fans have a reputation.
Dallas is the rival NFL franchise to the Philadelphia Eagles.
There's some history there between both fanbases and things get heated when games happen.
But more importantly (and I'm not entirely sure how this happened) *philadelphia area* Dallas Fans have acquired an absolutely terrible reputation. Like, never been to Texas, not from there, but decided to bandwagon onto that team to troll and be contrarians. Which is bizarre since the Dallas Cowboys haven't been a good team in over 20 years. They rarely (if ever) make the playoffs and haven't won a championship since 1996. At least with Patriots fans it makes some sense. It also doesn't happen with Redskins or Giants fans (the two OTHER NFC-East divisional rivals) in the area. They're perfectly fine. It's just the Cowboys fans that lean hard into being assholes.
Everyone- EVERYONE- loathes those people.
So if it's the middle of Football Season and you're at the stadium in Dallas Gear, you will likely meet some unpleasant Philadelphians lol.
Nowhere near Seattle is affordable. Thanks amazon.Well, I mentioned Seattle, but I didn't mean actually in the city area. I meant just the general Seattle area which includes the surrounding cities.
Your name is very ironic when attached to this post.Philadelphia is affordable for a reason. It's boring as sin and the people suck
I was thinking of living in SF, but I decided to live in Palo Alto instead. I'm glad with the choice. SF and Oakland are not too far of a drive/train ride. San Jose is close by. I can more easily visit Santa Cruz. And there's lots of nice nature available to the southwest. Palo Alto itself is pretty suburban, but it has some nice attractions to go to for simple stuff after work.I'm going to say San Francisco. Amazing city that is actually getting better.
Def not the typical East Coast attitude. It's a little abrasive but in a wholesome Rocky sort of way. You should check out Philly!This is awesome - Philly hasn't really been on my radar, but.. this is a great post.
How's the community aspects of living there? Also, does Philly have the stereotypical East Coast attitude or is it a bit different?
Some of this is right but a lot is misguided. Responses in purple.Seattle. There's problems with every city and there's a flip side to almost every pro/con (it's expensive, the Mexican food mostly sucks) but these are the reasons I love it.
- Possibly the most liberal, progressive place in the US (except for the tax structure. But most shops have pride flags, LGBTQ safe place plaques, BLM posters, liberal politicians, liberal churches, every restaurant has a food safety rating on the window) Depends on how you define liberal. A lot of times its libertarianism shrouder in a 'liberal' cloak
- People are warm and friendly
- Recreational weed, great quality and options and prices It's expensive AF?
- Most shops are locally owned, very few chains They're not locally owned, they are owned by capital groups that make different 'concept' stores and restaurants. No individual can raise the capital to open a mom and pop business here anymore. On the flip side, "chain" stores that you see in most cities are acftually locally owned franchises.
- This leads to interesting store concepts like convenience stores that sell craft beer on tap and serve fresh Korean food
- Public transit that is expanding through buses and trains that even run late at night
- Small city feel (Gas Works Park gets you a panoramic view of the entire city) yet it still has everything you need ???? amazon campus is not the whole city
- Summer is dazzling and 65-85F usually. You only need A/C 5-20 days a year. Also almost no rain during summer and late summer.
- Winter is cold and wet usually but this winter has been so mild and sunny. The lowest it ever gets is the mid 20Fs. Usually 40s for winter. And there's virtually no daylight during winter.
- Bustling arts scene Steeply declining as the arts community leaves for lower cost of living areas
- Amazing Asian food (Thai especially) and seafood and food trucks
- Bustling industry with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nintendo nearby plus biotech
- A world-class hospital system through UW, Fred Hutchinson cancer center and other medical alliances
- Expansive benefits for the poor like AppleCare (state Medicaid insurance) and laws that protect the lower and middle classes (like it's illegal for medical insurance premiums for state employees to add their dependents and it be more than 3x the cost of the employee alone) There's better social support than some places, but we have the most regressive tax system in the US, and the crushing cost of living makes it awful to be poor here. Mother was a social worker in the area and there's lots of crushing poverty once you get beyond the gentrified urban core.
- Strong union state, the unions here are amazing and very protective of teachers. My husbands union meeting fought and won a good raise this year, and the meeting had all kinds of minorities and disabled people speaking out for their needs. ???? It's a right to work state. Union support is terrible, though we do have a couple strong unions (boeing workers, teachers).
- Kids here are woke af. I regularly see gender fluid school children and they have LGBTQ parent kids nights at schools.
- The city is walkable, the blocks are short. I drive maybe once a week now to pick up groceries en masse If you're in the gentrified downtown core, yeah it's fairly walkable.
- An Amazon hub, so we have a huge infrastructure to get amazon deliveries same day and grocery pick up/delivery. This just means tons of delivery cars clogging up the roads and making random stops so that people can CONSUME FASTER. Seriously who needs shit from amazon within an hour
- Pike Place is one of the oldest and best farmer/artisan markets in the USA It's a tourist trap
- The best coffee in the USA Nah
- The rain is kind of romantic and once you buy the right clothing, it's easy to get used to.
- The PERFECT juxtaposition of nature and urban. A 30 minute drive will get you to the mountains, I'm 5 min from the beach here in Ballard, where the sun sets behind the cascade mountains. Mt Rainier is one of the prettiest mountains, hiding behind the city. Olympic mountains, the cascades are the other way bud :P
- 2-3 hr drive to Portland, 2-3 hr drive to Vancouver
Great answer! I love Memphis, been here over 15 years, lived both in midtown, Cordova and the 'burbs and really enjoy it. Lots to do, lots of places to eat, great cheap entertainment, attainable housing (both apartments and houses) and good jobs available.
If you are intro drinking and hard drugs maybe.
I live 30 minutes North of Seattle, moved here in '98 and have loved it ever since. Through work I have been to and stayed in many cities in the US but I love where I live.
Something to understand about Seattle is perspective & exaggeration. Everything that everyone said so far in this thread is likely true on some level. It does rain a lot, it IS expensive, etc etc.
BUT... a lot of opinion is based on THEIR perspective, and if their perspective is overly positive or negative, it tends to be exaggerated.
So I personally do not find it terribly expensive here, but I live in a smaller town not in Seattle proper. From my perspective everything is within my means and I am not in the tech industry at all and would not consider myself well off. But if I had more money, obviously I would be more positive about it.
Same with the weather. Yes, it rains a lot in the winter. If you don't mind the grey skies and showers, it is fine and it is part of the life you live. But if you hate the rain, and you crave daily blue skies and sun, then from your perspective it probably feels like it rains every god damned day. On a side note, rain here comes in waves...other places I lived, storms roll in, it rains, they roll out, rinse repeat. Here a storm rolls in, and lives here for a week, or two, with steady to off and on rain and perm grey skies. But then you can have a week of sunny that people forget about as soon as the rain comes back for 2 more weeks. Personally, I can handle the weather, and I enjoy it, even at it's worst it is MAYBE 2 months of constant, 2-3 months of often, and the rest is awesome.
To end this long ass post... I love this area, but it is not for everyone, and that is ok, to each their own.
I do not think there is a BEST place to live. The best place is where YOU find your peace and love to be there. And that could be ANYWHERE.
Good luck ;)
I love Seattle, but it's funny to me how casually it is mentioned as a great city to live when it's so unaffordable. Your average house sells for >$700k, a one bedroom apartment is $2000/month, and the city is filled with homeless camps. This isn't a nice place to live unless you are making serious cash.
Someone earlier said Tacoma and I would like to second that. It's close to Seattle but reasonably priced.
Palo Alto is nice. Right next to Stanford with excellent shopping areas.I was thinking of living in SF, but I decided to live in Palo Alto instead. I'm glad with the choice. SF and Oakland are not too far of a drive/train ride. San Jose is close by. I can more easily visit Santa Cruz. And there's lots of nice nature available to the southwest. Palo Alto itself is pretty suburban, but it has some nice attractions to go to for simple stuff after work.
I love Seattle, but it's funny to me how casually it is mentioned as a great city to live when it's so unaffordable. Your average house sells for >$700k, a one bedroom apartment is $2000/month, and the city is filled with homeless camps. This isn't a nice place to live unless you are making serious cash.
Someone earlier said Tacoma and I would like to second that. It's close to Seattle but reasonably priced.
$2000 for a one bedroom is nothing when you compare that to the astronomical prices in LA, NYC, and SF.
I wouldn't live in Seattle, but I love Bellevue and Redmond.
I'm pointing out that you can not see most of the city from gasworks. You need to get out more.I don't live in amazon campus. There's more to the city than amazon. It's walkable where I'm at
I'm not sure how it's a crock of shit. There's quantifiably a very low amount of light in Seattle. "according to the NOAA, Seattle has clear skies just 28% of the time from November to February, the lowest rate of any city in the U.S. "lmao at "no daylight" during the winter. Such a crock of shit. The days are short but there have been several sunny days here this winter, and the light gray sky is still daylight. People that whine about Seattle weather have probably never lived somewhere with an actual nuisance of a winter.
yeah I'll take your word for it.pike place isn't a tourist trap. Locals actually grocery shop at the market. Please. Plenty of people who work downtown eat lunch at pike place.
I literally just busted out laughing. SF is a visit city but the cost of living is insane there and the homeless/drug problems are NOT getting better lol...I'm going to say San Francisco. Amazing city that is actually getting better.
You can see most of Seattle proper from gas works (downtown, Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, university district, mt Rainier, the sound, etc) and coming from my hometown Houston, Seattle is small, which is why I said you can see most of it. I get that there's Tacoma and Bellevue, but I'm talking king countyI'm pointing out that you can not see most of the city from gasworks. You need to get out more.
I'm not sure how it's a crock of shit. There's quantifiably a very low amount of light in Seattle. "according to the NOAA, Seattle has clear skies just 28% of the time from November to February, the lowest rate of any city in the U.S. " https://smartasset.com/mortgage/cities-least-depressing-winters https://www.king5.com/article/news/...ttle/281-f2f5e2b5-3d34-455d-aa5a-54e0855fdeb0 https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2017/11/low-solar-radiation-is-that-why-you-are.html It's not just about cloudy days, it's also the low amount of solar radiation we get due to geography.
Thought about Palo Alto when I was working in Stanford but I don't know how you can deal with the people there. So full of shit and are pretty secretly racistI was thinking of living in SF, but I decided to live in Palo Alto instead. I'm glad with the choice. SF and Oakland are not too far of a drive/train ride. San Jose is close by. I can more easily visit Santa Cruz. And there's lots of nice nature available to the southwest. Palo Alto itself is pretty suburban, but it has some nice attractions to go to for simple stuff after work.
Beautiful women is a weird "plus" for Philly. Give the 4 regions of the US, the East coast would definitely be by far the least cited in that regard vs the South, Midwest, and West. Good luck though. Theres beautiful women everywhere to be fair.Your name is very ironic when attached to this post.
I'm moving to Philly in March and I'm stoked. It's an amazing city with great food, events/activities, and beautiful women. It's close to other cities and it has decent public transport. Also it's cheap!
Oh Interesting, which ones are you thinking when you say that?Many of these suggestions I would never want to live in as a woman, just sayin.