Category rankings

Philadelphia ranks 2nd for “Affordable Housing + Transportation”

 
This may come as a surprise to some, but not to me.

Through my US travels, I’ve always thought of Philadelphia as a very affordable place to live for what it has to offer its residents. Please bear in mind that I’m comparing Philadelphia to our local competition: Boston, New York, and Washington DC (although, DC was the only other city to rank better in this study; who knew).

I’m not going to compare Philadelphia to cities like Indianapolis or Cincinnati. They’re great cities, but very different from the Northeastern US and both have completely different locations/offerings. My reasoning, I’m trying to do an apples-to-apples comparison; not apples-to-oranges (as the saying goes).

All of The Big 4 cities offer similar things such as large historical metropolises, dense populations, thriving downtowns and/or central cores, convenient locations, and similar climates. Plus, they all have easy access to mountains, rivers, lakes, beaches, the Atlantic Ocean, and each other. Hence, they are easy to compare and contrast in a general sense.

When you look at these 4 cities side-by-side, Philadelphia has a lot to offer at an affordable price. This is a great article that talks in further detail about why Philly ranked 2nd.

Check it out when you have time.

Philadelphia ranked “#1 US City for Green Schools”

Huh?

This seems like a random survey, but we’ll take the positive news for our public school system. With all of the negative news out there about failing public schools and heated arguments on union contracts, it’s good to hear that strides are being made in other areas; especially here in Philadelphia.

For me, it’s kind of ironic that I’m writing about this post today after just watching the movie “Waiting For Superman.” If you have not seen this movie yet, you need to give it a watch; whether you like documentaries or not. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of documentaries (i.e. “Supersize Me,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” etc.), so my standards for a decent documentary are relatively high. “Waiting For Superman” was very well done.

The story focuses on why US public education has not made any progress in test scores since the mid-1950s, and more specifically why urban areas are performing the worst. No matter which side of the fence you sit on, it’s an eye opener to say the least; especially when you see the facts on how the US currently stacks up against developing countries around the world.

Now that Philadelphia has gained some recognition for its public school system, the next step is to start getting positive press on improving student performance.

One thing at a time…

Philadelphia has been ranked “#1 US City for Culture”

 
For Philadelphians, sometimes there’s nothing better than beating out cities like New York, Washington DC, and Boston when it comes to measuring what a city has to offer; especially in a category like “culture.”

So how did Travel + Leisure measure culture? Some of the categories that pushed Philly to the top of their list were “Historical Sites/Monuments” (we have lots of these), “Sports-Crazed” (no explanation needed), and “Street Food” (just go to University City on a Wednesday at lunchtime). Unless you really stop to think about it, or go on vacation to visit another major city for a few days, it’s hard to see all that Philadelphia has to offer during our daily routines. One major reason, Philadelphia has a large population of locals (call us “provincial”) and we have been known to take our city for granted.

But if you take off your blinders for a day, it’s really not that hard to see why our culture is being recognized. Philly is a big city, but not too big. It has tons of stuff to do, but not too much that you feel overwhelmed. It has unbelievable food options in every neighborhood and surrounding suburb, but you can try almost everything for a reasonable price.

As a loyal Philadelphian, it’s nice to see that our city has been recognized for all that it has to offer; its culture.