Comments on: Phoenix is Not Philadelphia, and That’s Why I Live in Phoenix

By: Brian Brady

Brian Brady — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:20:44 +0000

I don’t know how I missed this! As a native of Philadelphia and a 13 year resident of Phoenix (before my current home in California), I offer this:

1- My last trip to Philly?- 2000
2- Phoenix? every 60 days

The vibrancy and open attitudes of the West pulled me from Philadelphia. Mayor Gordon’s letter is dead on when he points out the incorrect stereotypical comments levied at the NEW fifth largest city.

Think I’m unique? Ask Charles Barkley his opinion.

By: Cathleen Collins

Cathleen Collins — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:54:15 +0000

Well come on out here, Doug! My parents and little sisters were the first in our family to move here from Cleveland. My father took an early retirement from the police force to head west, away from the snow and the agitation of the “big city.” I followed suit a few years later. Eventually, my mother’s three sisters, then their grown children, then my father’s brother’s family all made the move, too. Now here is where the Collins family calls home, with new generations having been born here and starting young families of their own.

By: Doug R.

Doug R. — Mon, 21 May 2007 12:37:55 +0000

I live in the chicago area and went to school for firefighting. My family has many many ties to chicago fire department.I would never work for chicago even if it paid 100K a year. Theres one department and one city I want to work for and like to call home. Its phoenix. Ive been to phoenix many times and its a great city. Philly,cleveland,chicago are jealous of cities like phoenix and houston because they are better cities then the east coast. Phoenix just improves every year while corruption and poor government follow cities like chicago and philly.

By: Cathleen Collins

Cathleen Collins — Tue, 08 May 2007 07:36:34 +0000

As a non-native Texan and son of a Philadelphian

That’s OK, even Hank Hill is a non-native Texan

But seriously, I feel sorry for the old, 20th Century industrial cities. I’m originally from Cleveland, and when I lived there I appreciated that city more than most of my fellow Clevelanders. I didn’t know any other member of the Western Reserve Historical Society who was as young as I. I was proud of what Cleveland had once been, but didn’t see any future for me in what the city was becoming… not when year-round sunshine was beaconing!

And you’re right, Tom, it’s not just about the weather. The politics chased me away, too. Dennis Kucinich was mayor when I packed my bags to head west.

But I feel sorry for Phoenix, too, whenever its civic leaders get nostalgic and try to figure out how they can make this wonderful city more like the towns we all fled.

By: Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson — Tue, 08 May 2007 05:26:30 +0000

Cathleen: As a non-native Texan and son of a Philadelphian, I must smile at the jealousy of the east coast cities. Houston passed Philadelphia a few years ago, and is never mentioned in the national weather reports. The “ocean cities” are in a word, failing. Years of corruption and brain drain have taken these great cities to new lows. The decline will continue as folks abandon failure and move to the sunbelt. Every ten years the Congress will become more southern and the Yankees are beside themselves. They lose an electoral vote (and a congressman) and a Sunbelt state gains one. The 2010 election will probably see Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan less important to the national political scene as battleground states, and the political hacks of the unionized north are impotently watching the train wreck, without a means of stopping it.

Here in Houston, in the last boom, we had a U-Haul index of sorts which tabulated how many U-Hauls were coming to Houston vs leaving. They had to truck the empties back, because no one was outbound. It might be worth a call to UHaul in Phoenix to see if you have a similar situation, then email Philly and tell them that their congressman is Phoenix bound after the next census.