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| Wednesday, April 06, 2005 |
| An Ode to My City |
I live reasonably near a city. Some call this city Philadelphia. I hate it. I wish I didn't. I wish I considered it a place where I could go out for happy hour and on weekends to have a really great time. I have a few friends or aquaintences who live in Philly who love it. Some just are city-people in general. Some specifically are enamoured with Philadelphia and would never want to live anywhere else.
I used to work on Wissahickon Ave near where it meets Lincoln Drive. Every morning I dreaded that commute into work. Every evening I wondered if my car was still going to be there when I went to the parking lot. Thank God there was a convenience store within a 1 mile radius or I would not have eaten. I did not know how to get anywhere else besides my office, and that was OK with me...although it frustrated my boss to no end.
First of all, to get from the suburbs to Philadelphia means driving on some of the most god-awful roads in America: Rt. 309, the Blue Route, 76. Anyone who has driven on these roads will have to agree with me there. The public transportation (SEPTA) is inefficient and overpriced. I'm not saying any of this without having personal experience with it, either. In Austin you could take a bus anywhere in the city for 50 cents. And on really hot days when there was a high ozone warning, it was FREE. To go on the train from where I lived to where I worked cost at least $8. A monthly "trailpass" was $163. I didn't spend that much a month on gasoline, so I chose to drive.
I have done some fun things in Philadephia. The Reading Terminal Market is a really cool place. Independence Hall is worth seeing. But I wish I could go on a "Philly Lovers" tour of the city. I'm sure there have to be amazing things to see, right? I mean it's got so much history. It used to be our nation's capital for goodness sake. But I feel safer in Times Square than I do in Center City.
Any Philly lovers out there with a list of places I should go? I really do want to appreciate the nearest metropolis. |
posted by LoRi~fLoWer
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