<p>Schuylkill Expressway.</p>
<p>Pronounced SKOO-kle. It isn’t as bad as represented, but it isn’t much of a selling point, either. There are only a few entrances with horrendously short merging ramps, unfortunately including the one nearest Penn, which is also a left-hand entrance. That one IS scary, and requires a certain get-outta-my-way-mutha atty-tood to negotiate smoothly. </p>
<p>The Expressway also pinches down to two lanes at many points, which is a lot fewer lanes than it needs to have to keep traffic running well. </p>
<p>Interestingly, there are many, many more accidents on I-95, which is a much more modern, wider highway, with very few entrances/exits in the city (LOTS of politics when it was being build), and loooog merging lanes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am not gonna own a car (not a big deal like in LA, right?), so it’s probably not an issue for me. But do you mean you’d enter into the fastest lane if you use that entrance?</p>
<p>I thought someone said there’s no merging lane and I was actually trying to picture how that works. But now that you used “short merging ramps”, I know what you are talking about because we have bunch of those like 15 miles east of Los Angeles on the I-10.</p>
<p>We also have the Pasadena freeway. Years ago, it was just a surface street. So if you are northeast of downtown and want to to get on the freeway, you wait at one of those stop signs just like you do on any surface street except the lane few feet in front of you is a freeway (there’s no merging lane). No big deal if you have a powerful car with rapid acceleration.</p>
<p>Hah…I’m not sure people from outside the northeast can appreciate the anti-road building sentiments in the region.</p>
<p>JHS, how long did it take to build “The Blue Route”? 20 years? 30 years? That may be the most environmentally friendly interstate highway in the country.</p>
<p>The Blue Route? Well, I remember riding horses at age 13 down the dirt base in 1968… And it wasn’t finished until the late '90s.</p>
<p>interesteddadd,</p>
<p>Why are they anti-road buidling in the northeast? Because they love mass transit? But then, outside Boston, NYC, DC, & Philly (I was told Philly’s is adequate), where else has good mass transit? I grew up in Hong Kong and I read that it has the best or most efficient mass transit in the world (I am not well-travelled but I wasn’t surprised by what I read). That’s probably why I never get used to Los Angeles.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because much of the region dates back 200 years or more, people like it the way it is, and roads are viewed as synonymous with development. Large swaths of the northeast have very high hurdles for development: 1 acre zoning for housing, green space, etc. Imagine how different greater Los Angeles would be with 1 acre lot sizes.</p>
<p>Politically, the organizing structure has always been the town or neighborhood district. There is significant power at the town or neighborhood or borough level, which provides the political clout to stop projects like road development.</p>
<p>It is just a totally different mindset than is found anywhere in the sunbelt.</p>
<p>In most of the Sunbelt, the highways came first, and the people followed. There was lots of public land, strong eminent domain laws, low real estate values (then), and few political jurisdictions. </p>
<p>Building highways through Philadelphia and its suburbs meant disrupting and destroying neighborhoods (in the city) that had existed continuously since the 17th Century. People always love development in someone else’s neighborhood, but they don’t want a freeway entrance at the end of their block – and neighborhoods often have real political power here. The track record on highway construction in the city is horrendous, too – 676 was a disaster that has created a development barrier in the northeast quadrant of Center City, and a blue-ribbon panel just recommended building a roof over I-95 as the only way to cope with its effect on waterfront redevelopment. The Blue Route (which completed Philly’s equivalent of a beltway-type ring-road) runs through some of the most affluent suburbs in the country – ones that were fully settled long before the road was planned. Imagine building a new superhighway through the middle of Bronxville and Scarsdale. (You want to see political power . . . ?)</p>
<p>Mayfair is not a nice area. I have no idea why JHS would say that</p>
<p>Sounds like some sort of self-proclaimed expert.</p>
<p>I decided to book hotels/flights for a trip to Philly and Atlanta next month; I’ll try to see which one I’d want to relocate to next year. I was looking forward to my trip to Philly until yesterday when I ran into an old acquaintance. Apparently, he spent 2 years in Philly before moving to LA half year ago. I asked him about Philly and his description was pretty negative–basically just kinda ghetto-ish. So I just did some research online and just found the following:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/livingcities/philadelphia.htm[/url]”>http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/livingcities/philadelphia.htm</a></p>
<p>So based on this report, it looks like Philly had actually been slipping. I guess the revitalization I heard about applies to only center city. If you are familiar with Philly, feel free to comment more.</p>
<p>JHS,</p>
<p>I reread your posts and looks like your detailed summary and the article I just referred to complement each other nicely. Just want to say I’ve been impressed. :)</p>
<p>No doubt, the Philadelphia area has its problems, as the Brookings Report notes. To some degree, those problems are tied to the state. Pennsylvania has an older demographic. It’s losing younger residents and maintaining a large senior population. This affects industry and job growth and the state is aware of it. They continually look for incentives to keep new graduates (especially in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) in Pennsylvania. </p>
<p>And, of course, since our governor, Ed Rendell, is a former mayor of Philadelphia (and the best one in recent years), he’s got an eye on keeping this region on the upswing.</p>
<p>Also, Philadelphia suffers a bit from comparisons to New York City. The good side of New York being only two hours away is that it’s easy to travel there, do business there, even commute there. The bad side is that Philadelphia can’t be New York - no other city can - and in the abrupt comparisons, we fall short. (I lived in New York for 20 years and Boston for 6 - in the 1980’s, before the big boom, Boston was considered the poor man’s New York, in a similar way</p>
<p>But Center City (downtown Philadelphia) is thriving and many of the new initiatives are plans with a decade-long development cycle. Several arts venues have acquired and built new performance spaces in the last 3-4 years - the Kimmel Center and Wilma Theater, among many, and the ballet , most recently.</p>
<p>And you might find this recent article from the Philadelphia Inquirer interesting. <a href=“http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20070831_New_towers_to_rise_on_30th_St_.html[/url]”>New towers to rise on 30th St.;
<p>It’s about a real estate project by the University of Pennsylvania and a private developer to develop a 14 acre area that will connect the Penn campus and West Philly to Center City. The project includes residential (condos and rentals), academic, retail and commercial space along with some park land along the river. </p>
<p>These kinds of projects are springing up all over - one of the largest municipal parking garages was just sold to a big developer- which is making Philadelphia not just a more vital city but easier to live in.</p>
<p>When you visit and you head to neighborhoods like North Liberties, Olde City and South Street, I think you will see a ton of young people just like you. Philly’s a pretty friendly place. You should just ask the typical 25-30 on the street what they think of the city. That’s the best feedback.</p>
<p>hazelb,</p>
<p>Thanks for injecting some positives; this is what I need!! 
I also just talked to a friend who just moved from Bakersfield, CA to Philly (got a teaching job there) few weeks ago and it’s been a positive experience for him.</p>