"We have a great future behind us... " a Philadelphia Travel Page by billus

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<font size="-3">been there done that next stop: DC
<i>30th Street Station looking east</i>

<font color="blue">June 2002: New Philadelphia Zoo Balloon Project ==>
Tourist trap: Philly Reichstag; Must see: Visitors Center</font color></font size>

<A HREF="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/.1/1/comments/?place=1&s=m&id=205809">Philadelphia</A> has an inferiority complex. Halfway between New York City and Washington DC, Philadelphia dropped to fifth place in the US census in 1980. Now behind New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, and maybe even Phoenix, Arizona in the population count, it seems everyone had been through Philly, if not to it! Talkin turkey, it was a mess in Philly for generations, starting after WW2 when everyone left. Tumbleweeds and wind-blown garbage scuttling down Broad Street are my fondest memories from the Philly of my youth. Holes in the ground are dug and left hollow for decades. Our most recent excavation for the shelved Disney Quest project is the latest in this fine municipal tradition. Long may it endure!

Sometime in the nineties, while and probably because I moved away, *they* got their act together! Put it down to the political savvy of former NYC resident and Mayor Ed Rendell. Cleaned the streets, got federal funding from a collegial democratic administration (Clinton). They put up 1000's of new hotel rooms, built a convention center, cleaned the streets.

Philly was lifted amid a rising tide of general national prosperity. And now its actually livable! They swept the dust off the art museum, brought in the Van Gogh portrait echibition, and started the new Phila Orchestra Hall. Plans were made and the foundations poured for a new Constitutional Center and Liberty Bell complex. Improved and new train stations on the subway/underground lines are under construction. But don't take MY word for it...Go to USA lol