Any comrades from Philly?

[RadioRaheem84]

Looking to speak to some comrades from the Philadelphia area. Thanks!

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Yo not from Philly but I follow those Iggle's and those Phil's.

Great win yesterday.

[F9]

Iverson left nba:crying::(

[cenv]

Just moved out here a few months ago :)

Not liking the cold Pennsylvania weather though! :(

[graymouser]

I'm on the Jersey side of the river, but I could be in Philly in 20 min from my apartment.

[Fawkes]

brooklyn. that's not helpful, now is it?

[RadioRaheem84]

I am moving out to Philly for grad school. Just wondering about the city. I haven't even visited yet!

[Ele'ill]

I moved from Philly about seven months ago. What would you like to know?

A-space http://the-aspace.org/
Woodenshoe books http://www.woodenshoebooks.com/
LAVA http://www.lavazone.org/

http://www.phillyimc.org/

http://phillysds.wordpress.com/

[timbaly]

I am moving out to Philly for grad school. Just wondering about the city. I haven't even visited yet!


I've lived there on and off for the past few years but I'm back home in NY now.

What do you want to know about it?

The food is pretty great overall and the local specialties like Roast Pork, Cheesesteaks and even Scrapple are the best you'll find in the USA. Herrs chips are popular and they're arguably the best brand I know. Tastykakes is very popular for snack cakes, but I wouldn't say their exceptional. They used to have an old fashioned multi-story factory with broken production (because of the separate floors) but I believe they closed that facility a year or two ago. They were one of the biggest industrial job sources in the city. The public transit is good in a decent part of the city but much of the city relies on buses because of spotty subway and subway-trolley service. It's a great place for biking and has an extensive bike lane network as long as you're in the central sections of the city. Even if you go out to the more working class outskirts its still fairly bikeable but very hilly in certain areas. There are far too many hipsters and a lot of areas are being gentrified at a ridiculous pace. Many areas of the city are impoverished beyond belief and there are often more abandoned lots and abandoned buildings than there are houses with residents in them.

[Mälli]

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID20585/images/PAZKWEST.JPG

Comrades in Philly?

[graymouser]

Politically Philadelphia is something of a difficult city. It used to be a largely CPUSA town but after 2000 had a strong anarchist presence. This has decreased but not gone away, with institutions like the A-Space, Wooden Shoe and LAVA. The anti-war movement used to be stronger but it has gotten grayer and smaller even with efforts to change that. Otherwise movement activity is pretty much a question of brief flare-ups before things die back down. You would think Mumia would be a pretty big cause here but it's like pulling teeth to get people to come out, and 2/3rds of the people at our marches for him are from New York City.

There are a number of left groups in Philly: the ISO, Socialist Action, PSL, Workers World, Solidarity, Workers Power. A lot of them are trying one way or another to reach out to students at Temple. Penn and Drexel do not have much radical movement to speak of. Where are you going to school?

[RadioRaheem84]

Great responses! Sorry I haven't kept up with it.

I will be attending Penn in the fall of '11, so I will be in the University City area.

I've researched all over the Penn website and could not find a single socialist, much less progressive group on campus, except for maybe the Penn for Palestine Student Group. I am thinking about starting one up myself.

Some things I would like to know about Penn:

1.) How good is public transportation? Considering the job I am transferring up there, I may need to commute about a mile from campus.

2.) What's the University City area like? Is it super expensive?

3.) You guys already answered many of my q's about leftist groups in the area and I am thrilled that there are a lot! So apparently there is an active network of leftists in the area?

http://phillysds.wordpress.com/upenn/

SWEET!

Also, how would you guys describe Philly? Is it a mini-NY?

[Ele'ill]

SWEET!

Also, how would you guys describe Philly? Is it a mini-NY?

It's different than NY- I've heard it described as being a bit grittier- people park in the middle of the road, sidewalks, upside down in alleyways (yikes I actually saw this once)- there is a lot of hostility without the New York charm.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Watch out for flying crack rocks ;)
I know a person who knows the person on which The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was based on. That's my claim to fame.

[graymouser]

Great responses! Sorry I haven't kept up with it.

I will be attending Penn in the fall of '11, so I will be in the University City area.

I've researched all over the Penn website and could not find a single socialist, much less progressive group on campus, except for maybe the Penn for Palestine Student Group. I am thinking about starting one up myself.
The ISO had some grad students at Penn a few years back, at the same time I was briefly in the group. To be honest, we got maybe 3 people in the ISO from Penn, and I know at least 2 of them were the children of Penn staff who were going there for drastically reduced prices. It is a ruling class school, literally these are the future rulers of the world unless we have something to say about it.


Some things I would like to know about Penn:

1.) How good is public transportation? Considering the job I am transferring up there, I may need to commute about a mile from campus.
It depends on what direction you're going, honestly - there is usable mass transit in center city that does go out to university city, but if you're going too far out of the way I am not sure.


2.) What's the University City area like? Is it super expensive?
There's a bumper sticker you'll see a bit of. It says "This is West Philly. University City is a Marketing Scheme." Anyway, Penn is moving west from 40th street into the more residential areas outside. There are some far left institutions a bit further west - I've spent a lot of time at the A-Space and in the Calvary Church basement, both on the 4700 block of Baltimore Ave. Things aren't too expensive, and there is great Ethiopian food in the area. Dunno too much about real living costs.


3.) You guys already answered many of my q's about leftist groups in the area and I am thrilled that there are a lot! So apparently there is an active network of leftists in the area?

http://phillysds.wordpress.com/upenn/

SWEET!
SDS is pretty nebulous and self-contained; they don't really go out and do much that's been visible to me over the years. I remember some at one of the anti-war protests a few years back but close to nothing since.


Also, how would you guys describe Philly? Is it a mini-NY?
In no way. Philly is definitely its own city. Part of the thing is, it's actually geographically quite a large city and the neighborhoods can be sort of isolated amongst each other (except center city where a lot of the gentrification starts from). Culturally it's distinctly its own place. People are fanatical about sports teams, particularly the Eagles, although the Phillies have won people over by actually winning a championship. Cheesesteaks are mostly for tourists, unless you're at a ball game or something. Pretzels are awesome, the water conditions make better pretzels in Philly than in New York, but the tradeoff is that bagels are not as good. I'm not that up on the music scene but it doesn't seem to be too bad at all from the times I've been to some of the smaller venues.

Good luck with getting to Philly, maybe I'll run into you once you're in the area.

[Pawn Power]

pm sent.