<p>Penn is about 2 miles from the absolute center of Philadelphia’s business district (depending on where you start – Penn covers a lot of territory). In good weather, it’s a perfectly nice walk, although people take public transportation a lot. </p>
<p>To give you a rough sense: Most of Philadelphia is on a pretty regular grid. Broad Street is the north-south street that bisects the city, and City Hall is at Broad and Market. If Broad St. were numbered, it would be 14th St. Parts of Penn’s campus start around 30th St., but the main part starts around 33rd and goes out to 40th, so about 19-26 blocks west of center. The northern edge of the Penn campus is a block south of Market St. Note that the main train station is at 30th St., between Penn and Center City.</p>
<p>Penn is served by 4 trolley lines, a subway, and numerous bus lines. It’s solidly in the public transportation grid.</p>
<p>Philadelphia is nowhere near as teeming with people as New York, but it’s a pretty big city with lots of different types of people. If you are coming from New York, London, Tokyo, or Chicago, it will seem sleepy and provincial; if you are coming from North Dakota it will seem incredibly urban.</p>
<p>One of the best things about Philadelphia is the amount and variety of cheap, great food. There are tons of places on or next to the Penn campus, including a bunch of really high-quality food trucks. There is also a lot of great higher-end food, too. Because it’s a lot easier and cheaper to open a restaurant here than in New York, lots of young chefs come here to show what they can do.</p>
<p>But . . . candidly, pizza here is not so great. It’s OK for the most part, but the best is nowhere near the best in New York. </p>