Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
Philadelphia belongs in New Jersey.
It's the very reason for the state of Pennsylvania's existence, but an uninformed visitor to Philadelphia would barely know that it's the primate city of a state that stretches 300 miles to the west. Somewhat akin to the relation of NYC to the rest of New York state on a much smaller scale.
And among the very first attributes of Philadelphia that denizens cite about their city is not even integral to the city itself. Very often, the first thing a Philadelphia-area local mentions when talking about his city is its proximity to New York, followed by the Jersey shore.
I happen to think that Philadelphia is a great city on its own... but it always feels like locals want to almost immediately tout that NYC is 2 hours away or the shore is 60 miles away. It's clear that, at least subconsicously, they want to be part of Jersey.
|
This is a PA thing with many of our cities and it always makes me laugh. Harrisburg, the capital that has some great attributes, its biggest selling point has always been, "We are close to other stuff."
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan
I occasionally feel like Philadelphia would be a better fit for New Jersey, Maryland (especially since it once had a claim on the area), or Delaware. Each state is far more progressive than PA, which is more of a purple state overall. Plus, Trenton and Dover would probably support, prioritize, and recognize Philadelphia as its economic and growth engine more than Harrisburg (I'm not sure about Annapolis since they fail to do the same for Baltimore).
While I'm content with Philly being in PA, one major benefit I'd see from being part of New Jersey is transit funding. NJ actually funds NJ Transit pretty sufficiently, unlike PA with SEPTA. There's also the fact that NJ has always been part of the "North", while DE and MD fall below the Mason-Dixon Line.
|
But if Philly was in MD they could have made it a completely independent city which has hurt Baltimore in a lot of ways. We could get into the semantics of it kind of being the same thing now, as Philadelphia is both a city and a county and almost has to function in the same way. But outside of this nuance I do think the neighboring states would have naturally made the city a little more progressive overall, as because of PA's size the regions are very distinct and go out of their way to stay separated and there is an out of sight out of mind mentality.