Philadelphia
March 31st, 2010 at 12:44 pm ETI’m on the train back from Philadelphia after a very short business trip (3 hours 10 minutes on the ground). I must say that based on what I’ve experienced in the dozen or so times I’ve visited it over the years, I love love love Philadelphia and am sure I could easily live there. The entire central core of the city seems more vibrant every time I visit, the arts scene is obviously great, there’s a friendliness toward and respect for tourists and flaneurs that you don’t see in Washington or New York — and you don’t seem to have to pay that inconvenience tax that we’ve got in New York, where everything is unnecessarily complicated and schleppy and you get home at the end of the day covered with a thin film of grease. It’s kind of like New York, but after an attitudectomy, and shrunken by 40%.
The parochialism would grate eventually (as it did when I lived in Atlanta, Washington, and for that matter San Francisco), but then in Philadelphia you’re so close to so many other interesting places, including New York, that I don’t think it would matter as much.
Coming later today: bonus pic of me on a park bench with Ben Franklin.
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Rich Mintz blogs on online fundraising and social media, American history and culture, bicycling and urbanism, food, technology, and other topics. Professionally, he's an expert in fundraising, constituency development, and social media for nonprofits, cultural organizations, cause-related marketers, and corporations. He is based in New York, where he serves as Vice President, Strategy, for 
