> No one has any trouble understanding the diminished
> but still considerable power New York has in its
> region. Philadelphians on the other hand, accustomed
> to comparing their city unfavorably to the very close
> Big Apple and the tony burbs (which the foolish or
> pollyannish believe to be problem free), don't
> understand how important the City of Brotherly Love
> still is to the region - despite endless noise to the
> contrary.
Having lived in the Philly area (both city and 'burbs) for over 30 years, I think it is a much better (and cheaper) place to live than the Big Apple (though if you want to get to the top in some fields, like journalism and publishing, that's the only place to be, I suppose).
The legendary self-deprecation of Philadelphians is by now mostly an in-joke, I think; we know how much better we have it than those folks up the NJ Turnpike!
> People living inside and outside of these cities have
> a hate / love / hate / fear / love relationship with
> these old ladies. Of course, New York, much more than
> DC, seems to be the imperial capital overwhelming us
> with its grandeur and glittering cosmopolitanism. And
> Philly, no matter how dirty it can get at times, has,
> as Brit film maker Terry Gilliam once put it, an
> "almost European aura of decaying greatness" which,
> along with the seemingly 100 million important bits of
> history that happened in town and a certain tense easy
> goingness (a paradox but true) along with other
> overlooked strengths, prevents people from giving up
> entirely.
European visitors often remark that Philly seems more "European" than most other US cities; I'll take their word for it. I like the phrase "tense easy goingness" -- in recent years, at least, some of the racial tension and general bad vibes which reached a peak with the late Mayor Rizzo and the notorious "bombing of West Philly" during Goode's administration have abated.
The tension between the suburbanites and the city folk is still, unfortunately, going strong, however. Having lived in both places, I am always amazed by the contempt for the city which is felt in the suburbs -- many suburbanites are extravagantly proud of never having set foot in the city all their lives, and when I used to drive my sons (who grew up mostly in the city) and their native-suburbanite friends into town, I was amused by the palpable feeling of tension the suburban kids felt when they saw the neighborhoods with dirty streets and graffiti-decorated buildings we drove through. And of course, city residents tend to have a reciprocal resentment of the suburbanites, who are quite happy to make a very good living in town, but flee in terror to their sterile bedroom towns at 5:00 -- unless, of course, they are brave enough to venture back into town for some culture or dinner at a decent restaurant.
Somewhat funny story: when I went to see the Canadian film "The Barbarian Invasions" (I think that was the title), there was a scene in which the dying hero's poseur friends were discussing the fact that there were moments in history when a large number of geniuses met in a specific place. One person mentioned Philadelphia in 1776, and another said, "But in 2000, they voted for Bush." You could hear everyone in the theater muttering under their breaths, "Oh, no, we didn't!"
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A gentleman haranguing on the perfection of our law, and that it was equally open to the poor and the rich, was answered by another, 'So is the London Tavern.' -- "Tom Paine's Jests..." (1794); also attr. to John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) by Hazlitt