Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderer34
We could've also had commuter rail going to the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos from NY & Philadelphia, but now that I realize it, all the talk about restoring and renovating commuter and intercity rail in Greater Philadelphia and PA, in general, is just fluff for politicians to get votes, and once they get elected (US Senate, PA Governor, PA General Assembly, etc.), they do absolutely nothing about mass transportation.
I'm not surprised to PA is declining along with NY, NJ, CT, MA, & IL. Those states are all high tax states and PA is supposed to be the lowest, and at one point, Philadelphia had the third most expansive rail system in America, behind only NY & Chicago, and while Chicago and NY continues to have commuter rail as a legacy of their great railroad systems, Philly's system is basically a shell o the great PRR & reading railroad that used to run all along the Delaware Valley.
Because of the lack of commuter rail lines, and the growth of Sun Belt cities like Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, San Antonio, Austin, and even Nashville and Jacksonville. I expect Philly to disappear from Top 10 American cities and metros within a decade or so, because the politicians just aren't consistent enough to keep it's largest city staying competitive!
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(Excuse the accidental politics)
I feel like your completely disregarding decades of history, we did have commuter rail to the lehigh valley, to the Poconos, it was cut back when the railroads collapsed in favor of the automobile, Septa couldn't afford to run diesel services with low ridership due to little to no state funding, and the city couldn't support itself because it lost a million people over what 30 years? Also NYC and Chicago have budgets MAGNITUDES larger then us, NYC spends 500 billion yearly? Chicago and L.A are comparable, where as Philly has 6 billion? Comparing us is unfair, those cities have states that give them all that they need, where as harrisburgh wishes we didn't exist and actively sabotages us and distracts from our problems by looking at drag queens
Corruption and lying politicians are everywhere, not just NYC, not Just philly, Weve had them in the oval office, as governor of every state, in every position of every single city, county, state, municipality, there had been and sadly will almost always be corruption in one form or the other, because they always put there next election cycle and power over everything else.
Also if I remember correctly for nearly 2 centuries the northeast boomed in population, and it still holds what 30% of the countries population? The south is booming, for now, it will stop eventually. IDK why you think lack of commuter lines up her has to do with expansion down there, Miami lost population, and several texan cities are seeing there growth slow, also, what cities do you see surpassing philly? I don't care if the city is in the top 10, NYC is the biggest city in the country, and you know what? I still don't wanna live there, the city still has problems etc. Nashville is less than 1/4th the size of Philly, Miami is stalled or shrinking, all its houses are being bought as second or third homes that will soon be underwater anyway, Atlanta is booming, good for them, there a suburb with skyscrapers. These cities will stop growing one day, they'll shrink, its a pendulum, the north boomed, now the south is booming, and as climate change gets worse, policies change etc, the populations will swing back and forth and eventually even out. Walkability is back in fashion, and a lot of southern cities lack that entirely.