Speaking of which -
anyone coming down (or up) for the Off campus housing fair on Wednesday? (I'll be there
)
Went down to Penn on Sunday too to scope out some of the neighbourhoods and look at some condos that were for sale. If anyone's interested... here's my "analysis":
It seems like up to 40th street to the west is ok - between Market and Pine street. But anything beyond that... not really. Actually, between Chestnut and locust seems to be ok after 40th street - but the areas around market (especially) seem to not be so great. Spruce and pine seem to get shady after 40th too. As with much of philly, there are "pockets" - or blocks - of shady areas within this general area - although there aren't that many bad pockets up to 36th street.
As for center city - much of that between JFK blvd and spruce or pine seems to be awesome (up to 16th street - anything after that just seems waaaay too far). Again, the closer you are to chestnut you are, the better the area seems to be. Definitely more "pockets" of shady-ness in center city as compared to the areas I listed in university city though. Looks like the "Bad pockets" seem to start after 20th or 19th streets.
P.S.: philly people correct me if I'm (super-obviously) wrong on these assessments !
Don't know if that helps - but it might help people narrow down housing options