Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
A problem in the rustbelt is that many of the old municipalities that surround the core city are in as bad or worse economic and physical shape than the core city is. The city doesn't need the added strain.
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Philadelphia can't annex anything else (and hasn't in 100+ years) because its boundaries are co-terminal with its county line, but there are struggling suburban towns in Eastern Delaware County (over West Philadelphia's border) that I personally think would benefit from annexation in today's climate.
Gentrification has moved so far west in West Philadelphia that you're seeing a lot of examples where homes inside the city line (in spite of some ongoing issues with schools, etc) are selling at a premium to homes just outside the city.
I'm thinking mostly of Lansdowne, East Lansdowne, and Yeadon in Delaware County. They're on public transit (trolley) into West Philadelphia and look and feel like West Philadelphia. They're in a struggling, high tax school system and would arguably fare better if they were in the PSD, in terms of resources.
Most of the other suburbs that directly abut Philadelphia, at least in Montgomery, Bucks, and Delaware Counties are thriving and benefit from their proximity to the city. They have transit (regional rail), good schools, reasonable taxes, etc and would never in a million years be annexed.