Philadelphia?

honestly not surprised

Kiss your city's tax base goodbye, kids:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100320_Police_seek_to_control_thousands_of_teens_on_South_Street.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100320_Two_attacked_in_Philadelphias_violent_playground_game.html

Two residents of Southwest Philadelphia were injured - one of them seriously - in separate, recent attacks by youth engaging in a violent game they have dubbed "Catch and Wreck," police said tonight.

Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said tonight a 12-year-old girl has been charged with aggravated assault and related offenses in connection with an attack on a 42-year-old woman Friday night, and additional arrests are expected.

In the game, a group of children between the ages of nine and 15 congregating at the Finnegan Playground at 69th Street and Grovers Avenue beat, strike and stomp adults they believe may be homeless, Walker said. He said neither victim in the two attacks was homeless.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/11/philadelphia.cop.shot.self/index.html

A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police officer who told authorities he was shot while on patrol last month has admitted he shot himself intentionally, the city's police commissioner said Tuesday.

...

Ralston reported that on April 5 he saw two African-American males arguing on a train track in West Philadelphia. He told investigators that when he stopped the two men for questioning one of them pulled out a gun and shot him in the left shoulder.

His claim sparked a search for a phantom suspect.

sometimes i dream that one day, i'll have to go back to this city. these are not pleasant dreams.

okay philly experts: never been and we only have a day to explore

starting very close to city hall, what's a good route to see as many inneresting things/neighborhoods as possible. like, what'd be a nice, diverse ~12 mile walk starting from city hall? cheap food along the way also good.

let mw get back to you on thos

haha yeah I thought about just fb msging you again

Check the Living in Philadelphia thread for some great tips. South St is fun, so are Chinatown and Old City. Gayborhood is nice if you are gay.

Walnut and Chestnut Sts is the "retail" part where you will find the things like h&m and Puma and Coach and BCBG and those types of chains, esp west of Broad St

13th St Pizza if it's past like 11 and you wanna grab a slice w some tranny hookers

I mean rough itinerary, I'd say go to Reading Terminal, walk down 13th and get a coffee at The last Drop and then go down to South, go thrifting at AIDS Thrift, grab a drink at Tattooed Mom, get cookies at Cookie Confidential (key lime will make you convulse w delight), shoot up 2nd or 3rd, maybe head up to NoLibs to the Piazza? then idk.

so uh looking at a map, looking at the area bounded by race street up north and south street down south and everything in between from front to the river is pretty uh 'downtown.' obv there are exceptions. idk, my experience in philly was limited to school and what I did with my parents - I've never lived there as a grown man, stevie d & dell are your man on the streets for that kind of stuff.

reading terminal - you probably have a lot of these in nyc but uh local farmers & other produce & other food products are found here
chinatown - pretty similar to nyc chinatown, nothing really special
italian market + southeast asian neighborhoods - this is the area down around washington ave, between 6th-12th. one of my favorite places in philly. my favorite restaurant in philly is the pho shop in the strip mall at 6th and washington, it's the first one in the row, next to 6th street (if that makes sense).

other than that, uh, the shopsy side of south street is from front to like 8th or 9th. there's society hill, which is in that general area, where all the million dollar rowhouses are. walking along the schuylkill is fun, if the weather's nice - and you could stop by the art museum too.

if you make it to the university side, you should visit the mutter museum. and marvel at how depressing drexel is.

so like, maybe take the el down to penns ladning, and make your way westward, crisscrossing north to south? that'd be 12 miles, probably.

you could also just stay home and do it all on streetview, same differnece

hmmm, yeah, if you're coming from nyc, you're really not going to find much terribly grand in philly that you can't find more exciting/interesting versions of back at home

to echo stevie d, walnut is the nicest retail-heavy st. in center city. you could start near city hall and work your way east all the way to penn's landing on the delaware river and along the way pass through the heart of center city, eventually making your way to the society hill, old city historic cobblestoney founding fathery neighborhoods...or alternatively spruce/locust/pine streets a few blocks south of walnut are less retail heavy but very pretty in parts

i would recommend going south as opposed to north and nolibs (but that's my personal prejudices at work)...if you cut down 9th st, you can walk through the italian market and pass by the southeast asian/mexican neighborhoods that dayo mentioned, and a few blocks past that you can veer onto passyunk ave. and eyeball the world-famous racist and non-racist cheesesteak places...if you continue along passyunk you'll hit a bunch of little shops, boutiques, etc. mixed with old-school south philly stuff

as for food, maybe a sandwich at di bruno bros or sarcone's deli or pizza slices from sarcone's bakery all on 9th st italian market-ish

thanks dudes, writing this all down! del I don't necessarily need philly to knock my socks off or be cooler than nyc, I just enjoy hardcore-wandering-around and seeing neighborhoods for the first time.

Q: if we were to wander to penn, what are the neighborhoods west of campus like? Are any parts of center city are particularly unwalkable? What are the safety boundaries for a clueless tourist and a white girl? I know philly's not quite NYC in that sense but I don't actually know the extent?

that's cool, you will definitely enjoy yourself then

no, center city is pretty much all very walkable

for the most part center city is completely safe within reason imo. the super rugged parts of the city are mostly in parts of west philly, north philly. for instance, if you go to nolibs there are a bunch of nice pubs and stuff on n. 2nd and n. 3rd btwn. girard and spring garden, but a couple of blocks outside of those boundaries can get very hairy quickly, especially at night. there are parts of s. philly that can get iffy below federal or so, esp. at night. w. philly, i don't spend a great deal of time there, but i'd say roughly btwn spruce, baltimore west to maybe 50th is pretty ok (the trees, houses get really pretty around there, too). further north can be just fine, also, and there is cool stuff around there, but i would also factor in what time of day it is, etc.

if we were to wander to penn, what are the neighborhoods west of campus like?

cedar park area, very pretty (see above-- tons of trees, lushness, big gorgeous houses) plus there is ethiopian, other good eats in the vicinity

So I have map in hand: city hall-> Penn's landing (via market?) -> back west down spruce or pine then down 9th, see markets cool stuff etc. possibly down passyunk tho the girl has already vetoed cheesesteaks :( -> is there a good street to eventually head west down if we want to see penn? And from there would cedar park or fairmount park be a better endpoint?

is there a good street to eventually head west down if we want to see penn?

they recently re-opened the south st. bridge, so i guess south st. is an option. market st. is very pedestrian friendly as well, as far as crossing over the schuylkill goes.

as you can see from a map, those parts of the city are mostly laid out in a grid, with numbered streets running north-south, so you can easily dart around wherever you want to and then cut over to market or south when you get near the river.

And from there would cedar park or fairmount park be a better endpoint?

the EAST side of fairmount park, near the art museum, could be nice, doable. it's definitely closer to city hall fwiw

cedar park is just a pretty neighborhood with houses and some small businesses nearby...

Is there an easy way to get from Penn to the east park? Seems very freeway-y

the only reasonable way on foot is to go back across the river via market, and then cut up a numbered st, i guess 22nd or 21st, and then you'll run into vine st/kelly dr. and see the big hubub of the parkland, museums, etc...it looks very freeway-y on the map but it's totally walkable. as you get closer to it, it will make sense.

great. thanks again for the help! I feel like this session + looking at the map for 15 minutes has given me decent orientation. usually I'm not this gabbneb about my trips and just wander around cities randomly and read about where I was the day after, but w/ only a day I gotta be efficient.

sure, good luck and have fun!

haha I've never actually eaten at geno's or pats. my favorite is tony lukes and jim's.

pretty bummed I won't get any, maybe I can sneak one while she's not looking

give me your address I'll send you one

http://www.jimssteaks.com/Shipping.html

mmmm carbon footprint

went to reading market - I like it, less bougie than the ny/sf versions. had amish pastries.
walked to penn's landing - historic stuff is pretty but sorta desolate?
walked down south street - cute, stores like this seem like they wouldn't survive in ny (also sorta desolate for a saturday?)
down 9th saw italian market (super rad)
eventually went to the touristy cheesesteak places, I think we went to the non-racist one. convinced her to split one with me, it was okay (I'm sure much better exist)
walked around south philly for a while, eventually started heading back up, went to rittenhouse square area then to u penn campus
not really into the campus, too fratty and car-y. wharton is exactly as awful looking as it should look, I guess.
I liked the drexel bleakness better, it at least felt like it fit the area.
walked back across, then along the schuylkill until we got to the museum area (favorite part of the day/city)
walked down franklin parkway, had dinner at some middle eastern place on walnut
in apple store killing time til trip back

I like philly! I prob would have attempted to walk to nolibs but the girl was tired and cold and not having any. I feel like I have a decent sense of direction in center city, even successfully gave someone directions (haha okay it was just to broad street.)

that sounds like a really fun day! yeah the franklin parkway is super pretty and nice

Hah I was in Philly all day today. Thanks for calling me, asshole.

iatee called you an asshole?! why

I didn't call him an asshole but cmon, he was probably being an asshole

kevin bacon's dad was the robert moses of philadelphia????

(I am still temporarily obsessed with the city)

kevin bacon went to my high school

were you friends?

wait e tell me more! What do you love abt Philly so much? I mean, I am totes in <3 w/ it and prefer it over NYC but everyone just thinks I'm fronting when I say that.

lol I don't think I've ever seen a movie with him in it. I get him, kevin costner and kevin spacey confused all the time

haha I probably don't like it more than nyc cause nyc has queens and brooklyn and the only decent transit system in america. also I have only been in philadelphia for a day. also when I was leaving philly at like 8:30 the CVS on market was closed and I couldn't buy a snack, whereas the CVS next to my house is open 24/7. pretty key.

but center city had a super cool vibe at night, loved the narrow streets, really charming. more pleasantly walkable than manhattan cause you don't have (as many) cars going 80 mph or wide avenues.

sorta felt more european and more american than nyc at the same time

there is a certain % chance the girl might pick philly for grad school which would involve me visiting like...a lot. possibly moving. probably not moving.

http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Philadelphia-School-District-announces-its-dissolution-.html

so this story kind of breaks my heart

philadelphia to children: drop dead.

can't wait to move back to the ol' irredeemable hellhole this summer.

pretty much. depresses me that there's an abundance of private schools in philly, and I'm pretty sure the schools out in districts like neshaminy aren't feeling the burn so much

maybe it's just living poor out in the ritzy burbs but the southeastern pa upper-middle-class fuck you i got mine vibe has never hit me harder than this year.

i have pics I'm not supposed to share but mini Philly fap was great - missed stevieD tho sadface

Can anyone recommend a place to stay a night?

the Alexander Inn, if you don't mind staying in the gayborhood.