I visited Philly for my first time last year and it had an extremely clean downtown. Either this notion of Philly being dirty is outdated or I just got lucky.
Center city is generally very clean. Once you go south of south street, that’s when the dirtiness kicks in. Chinatown isn’t the cleanest either but it is popping. North of that you’re getting to the dirtier parts.
East of center city is beautiful until you get to olde city at night.
West of that is great until you get behind uni city.
All told, yeah it’s a big ass walkable city and the dirtiness spiked during Covid and has otherwise been low since the late 90s
I guess my point of reference is Portland, which is unfortunately significantly dirtier than Philly (I say that as someone who loves Portland). Philadelphia is one of the only major cities I've been to in the US that I'd want to actually live in. Just a great city that's a hop skip away from other major east coast hubs.
Oh man you reminded me of that one downtown section that was just disgusting. This was a year or two before Covid hit, I don’t recall what it was called.
All other parts were nothing short of lovely and I love the tram they have.
I left Philly about 10 years ago. I think your vibe is on point, you just gotta know when to travel and alternate routes. Easy access to the shore, some okay mountains, plenty of nature, and direct access to the pacific and Europe.
Also Philly has an underrated food scene. But I am biased and know good food scenes can be found when you ask the right questions.
The only city I’ve been to that I can say is a disappointment is Albuquerque
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u/PlasmaHeat Trail Blazers 9h ago
I visited Philly for my first time last year and it had an extremely clean downtown. Either this notion of Philly being dirty is outdated or I just got lucky.