Can someone from NYC evaluate the "ghettoness" of Philly?

[uhohspaghettios]

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I'm having trouble believing all the people who are bashing certain Philly schools because of their location in a bad neighborhood. Are there any city people out there who agree that Philly is "really dangerous?" Bc I went to school near Harlem and worked there and it's totally fine! Are these people exaggerating???

 

[SpiritiualDuck]

Okay, I guess everything is relative. However, I wouldn't recommended strolls down Broad Street. Philly is not a safe town, North Philly is crazy, West has many concerns, and South Philly is changing.

 

[Chrissy]

Okay, I guess everything is relative. However, I wouldn't recommended strolls down Broad Street. Philly is not a safe town, North Philly is crazy, West has many concerns, and South Philly is changing.

That's deinitely an over statement i think. Personally, I feel much safer in many parts of philly than I do in NYC....the catch is many schools actually are in bad areas...i went to penn in west philly and honestly there were many stories about robberys at gun point and things. Drexel is sorta outside the city, Temple is in North philly and the area is slightly worse than penn....If you do/want to go to med school in philly I'd say jefferson is your best bet. It is in a gorgeous part of center city. On the whole, it is a safe city with many many safe and beautiful areas to live.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

Your skepticism is well founded I think. If you are fine in Harlem, you are fine in Philly. The neighborhoods aren't full of chocolate rivers and rainbows, but they are pretty safe, if you are the type of person that can handle themselves in any city.
Penn doesnt deserve the rep that it has (it used to though- when I was a freshman getting mugged was a rite of passage) mainly because it has been gentrified beyond recognition from those days.
I even prefer it to Jeff's campus, which is right downtown, but I think in a weird no-mans-land.
Temple I would admit to being afraid of slightly, but only relatively speaking. And since I just moved back from South Africa (murder capital of the world), it all seems ok to me.
But, philly is no different than new york, boston, LA, miami... Being safe is just common sense.

 

[Law2Doc]

But, philly is no different than new york, boston, LA, miami... Being safe is just common sense.

Having spent time living in many major cities, I have to say that Philly has some pretty lousy areas (North Philly, near Temple U, and the area surrounding the Zoo, in particular) that rival any large city in terms of risk of bodily danger. (The areas around Jefferson and Penn do not count -- Center City and West Philly are not where a substantial percentage of Philly's crimes are committed.)
Whereas a lot of Harlem in NYC has been rehabilitated in the last decade, a lot of the hoods in Philly have continued their rapid spiral of deterioration.
Boston doesn't deserve to be on the above list -- its bad neighborhoods really don't compare, and the crime rate is but a fraction of any of the others on your list. (the city is a college town, is smaller and overall more affluent.)
Miami, LA, NY --and let's not forget DC! -- tend to compete with eachother annually for the lead in the number of murders, rapes, robberies and other felonies. Philly is a strong contender in the next tier.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

I think in philly and boston, if you are not already involved in some illicit activities- you are equally likely to get randomly chosen off the street to be robbed, attacked, etc, and same almost anywhere.

If you are running a street gang and selling crack, then yes, you can corner the market in Cambridge.
But if you are in medical school, and the only way you're going to get tangled up in danger is sheer bad luck, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other no matter where you go. Even at Temple, you're not going to be kicking around north philly in a suit made of $100 bills in the middle of the night.

 

[W222]

UNFROZENCAVEMAN I dont think Boston is even close to bad. Cambrigde is a joke, that place is so safe you could take a nap in H-square at 3am and no one would bother you. There really are no bad areas of Beantown anymore. The combat zone (aka Theater district) used to be a scary place, now its clubs and bars; no more hookers and junkies. Matapan and Dorchester are not walks in the park but they certainly aren't places where you really have to wear a bullet proof vest anymore. Hell, the Mission Hill area is Bostons new million dollar neighborhood thanks to the influx of gays. Having grown up in Mass, Boston is a joke compared to Philly.

NOW on to Philly. I currently go to school here at Jeff and Center City is REALLY safe. I have walked home very late at night and never had any problems. Homeless people will ask for money from time to time but no threatening situations. The closest I came was getting pushed by some 16 y/o tough-guy at 2pm in the afternoon and then I just told him to f-off. There are rougher sections of the city, especially by the Temple Med campus and some areas of UPenn; BUT overall it is a really safe city. The weirdest thing about Philly is the racial tension that I had never seen before. I never saw Black Panthers and Militant muslims until I came to Philly. Its a little weird but even the black community sees them as whackos.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

That's what I'm saying (I live in cambridge now, and I used to live in philly). It's not unsafe. I'm saying crime is equally likely to come to you, as a med student in either place, even if one city's ghettos far outdo another's.

Crime statistics from cities often have a lot to do with what you're doing yourself. Random attacks in both places (where you would be likely to frequent as a medical student) are rare events, occurring with such infrequency, there probably isnt a difference between the two.
Looking at what goes on in the real ghettos of each place won't do you much good in evaluating the city for what will be your living purposes there in graduate school.

 

[W222]

UNFROZENCAVEMAN Sorry to jump down your throat. I apologize for the misunderstanding. I agree with you, if you are looking for trouble it tends to find you.

By the way, love your avatar. One of my favorite SNL skits. Phil Hartman left us too early.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

hah. unfrozencaveman has been a huge hit on SDN... this is what one night googling how badly I was going to do on my MCATs while watching SNL reruns gets me.

Plus everyone thinks I'm a dude, which is funny.

 

[BlinkyCat]

UNFROZENCAVEMAN I dont think Boston is even close to bad. Cambrigde is a joke, that place is so safe you could take a nap in H-square at 3am and no one would bother you. There really are no bad areas of Beantown anymore. The combat zone (aka Theater district) used to be a scary place, now its clubs and bars; no more hookers and junkies. Matapan and Dorchester are not walks in the park but they certainly aren't places where you really have to wear a bullet proof vest anymore. Hell, the Mission Hill area is Bostons new million dollar neighborhood thanks to the influx of gays. Having grown up in Mass, Boston is a joke compared to Philly.

NOW on to Philly. I currently go to school here at Jeff and Center City is REALLY safe. I have walked home very late at night and never had any problems. Homeless people will ask for money from time to time but no threatening situations. The closest I came was getting pushed by some 16 y/o tough-guy at 2pm in the afternoon and then I just told him to f-off. There are rougher sections of the city, especially by the Temple Med campus and some areas of UPenn; BUT overall it is a really safe city. The weirdest thing about Philly is the racial tension that I had never seen before. I never saw Black Panthers and Militant muslims until I came to Philly. Its a little weird but even the black community sees them as whackos.

Philly is not that bad 🙂 I walk around at 4 am in the morning roaming the campus. Nothing ever happened to me except for homeless people asking for money, but alot of them are pretty nice. Then again, the UPENN campus area is pretty safe. There are security people everywhere. Although I have friends who had experiences where they were mugged, held at gun point, and some kid got stabbed. It has never happened to me though...I think you just have to practice common sense like living in any large cities.....🙂

 

[acidhouse303]

I am from NYC originally. born n raised in midtown manhattan which then, was nothing like the midtown it is now. prior to rudy & the fun police, the place was a shiethole with garbage all over the place and trashy peep shows and even sketchier people. but, i rather take that than the B&T crew or tourists who crowd up the freakin street. i love manhattan dont get me wrong and theres no place i rather live. but, even if a neighbourhood is "bad" by your standards theres ways to handle yourself and things you can do to be cautious and street smart. i have been to boston and philly and many other major cities in the US. I got into med schools in boston and philly and i have to say, the cities are not bad at all. ok, boston is pretty clean and some parts of philly are a little more shady than others especially north philly where temple is. but most med schools are in the areas that have a lot of trauma. good hospitals, great diversity of patient population. dont let that scare you. just be smart, dont walk home alone late at night obviously drunk or otherwise disoriented and other such things and dont walk around like a spoiled rich brat or imma have to rob you myself. ha jk. anyway you will not have a problem. i have lived in a lot of really "scary" places and i've always been fine. i've taught at one of the worst schools in teh bronx (#1 on bloomberg's dirty dozen list) where the kids brought guns to school and had to walk through metal detectors and i was fine and actually met a lot of interesting people i still keep in touch with. so dont be worried, go to the school you love in the place you willg et teh best education. dont let this worry you. also most crimes are caused by people who know you in some capacity, you are much less likely to be struck down by some total stranger, they dont want the attention. as far as philly scohols go, drexel and penn are in better areas and temple and jefferson are in worse areas. in my opinion, baltimore is a little worse than north philly. (JHU area) my brother lived on charles st and it was a mess. as far as harlem goes, harlem is nothing to worry about these days- i dont know if you have been there recently but theyre puttin up lux bldgs n raisin the rent. i dunno where the rent controlled kids are gonna go! its really sad. anyway, dont worry about "ghetto" ness. dont let it scare you. you can learn alot from it. sorry for the ramble.

 

[Law2Doc]

That's what I'm saying (I live in cambridge now, and I used to live in philly). It's not unsafe. I'm saying crime is equally likely to come to you, as a med student in either place, even if one city's ghettos far outdo another's.

I disagree. You can walk around Tufts Med or Harvard Med or the hospitals associated with these late at night and very rarely will you get mugged. It's really not a dangerous city, by big city standards. But I wouldn't recommend making a habit of that outside of Temple (although you certainly would be fine at Jeff or Penn) -- it IS unsafe, and you have a far greater, NOT EQUAL, chance of crime coming to you. There are places in some cities that are worse than places in others. There are common sense things you can do to try and protect yourself but don't delude yourself into thinking that North Philly is comparable to anyplace you'd need to go in Boston.

 

[C.P. Jones]

So where is Drexel exactly. People keep telling me "You're applying to Drexel, that's in such a bad area"

But when looking at the website (and also mentioned in an above post) it seems to be just outside the city. Are these people just confusing the undergrad school and assuming that the med school is in the same place? Is Drexel's area actually nice?

thx

 

[unfrozencaveman]

I mentioned in my original post that I thought Temple was a bit of a different story.

 

[BlinkyCat]

So where is Drexel exactly. People keep telling me "You're applying to Drexel, that's in such a bad area"

But when looking at the website (and also mentioned in an above post) it seems to be just outside the city. Are these people just confusing the undergrad school and assuming that the med school is in the same place? Is Drexel's area actually nice?

thx

Drexel is like right next to penn. BUT, for some reason, it's scarier going there because they don't seem to have an abundance of police guarding every street.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

The *undergrad* campus is next to Penn- in west philly. I think the medical school campus on the outskirts of town, in a pretty nice suburban-ish area.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

For all you U Penners!

I've heard Rittenhouse and Graduate Hospital are great places to live that are safe. Doth mine ears decieve me? I've never beeeen, but I intend to pursue residence in these areas--would I be safer just living in Sansom?

 

[tigress]

Okay I don't have the patience to read all the replies (I worked 14 hours today!). But I went to college in Midtown Manhattan and now I live in Philadelphia. I felt safe in both places. Also in Washington Heights, I never felt really safe at night alone, but during the day it's fine. And the area around Penn is fairly safe now because the university has gone to great lengths to police it. Outside the campus can be a little sketchy at night (I know a guy who was mugged just outside campus about a year ago). Drexel is in a suburban location; I"ve never been very late at night, but it's plenty comfortable during the day and evening. Jefferson is in a nice area. I have no clue about Temple except for what I hear (that the area sucks).

But look. I live in a really nice suburb in one of the richest areas of the country (the Main Line; we live in one of the few apartment buildings 😛), and there have been a whole string of muggings here recently. Obviously some places are more dangerous than others, but you just have to be smart and not go around by yourself at night and stay out of sketchy situations. I wouldn't chose a med school based on how safe I perceived the environment to be, probably.

 

[BlinkyCat]

For all you U Penners!

I've heard Rittenhouse and Graduate Hospital are great places to live that are safe. Doth mine ears decieve me? I've never beeeen, but I intend to pursue residence in these areas--would I be safer just living in Sansom?

Sansom place seems to be a good place to live, but it's very expensive. Although very convenient because all you have to do is cut across the street and walk a little bit and you'll reach all the important med school buildings. Consequently, Sansom seems to be the place where I find quite a few med students like to live. I don't know about the other ones...

 

[hnbui]

Here's some statistics.....


New Orleans has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 459 which is a higher crime rate than the national average

Los Angeles has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 283, which is a higher crime rate than the national average

Washington, D.C., has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 478, which is a significantly higher crime rate than the national average

Miami has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 370, which is a higher crime rate than the national average

Manhattan has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 191, which is a higher crime rate than the national average

Philadelphia has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 343, which is a higher crime rate than the national average

Atlanta has a Relocation Crime Lab Index of 569, which is a higher crime rate than the national average

[The Relocation Crime Lab Index gives the city's crime rate relative to the average of nearly 500 total cities nationwide. A value of 100 means that the city is exactly average. A value of 200 means that the city has twice the crime rate as the average city. A value of 50 means that the city has half the crime rate of the average city. Please note that the number of crimes reported has been adjusted to yield a rate per 100,000. (THE RELOCATION CRIME LAB™ is derived by The Homebuyer's Fair from data reported for 2003 by various government, regional and local sources.)]

 

[rugirlie]

Sansom place seems to be a good place to live, but it's very expensive. Although very convenient because all you have to do is cut across the street and walk a little bit and you'll reach all the important med school buildings. Consequently, Sansom seems to be the place where I find quite a few med students like to live. I don't know about the other ones...

I'll be living in The Ambassador which I know def some Penn students live in but I think a good bunch live in 2400 chestnut which is like close to the border of center city and university city because its got a shuttle that goes right to penn.... Theres also like some people who live in west philly cuz its cheaper and you got some rittenhouse square area dwellers but thast on the pricey side... anyhow, this is just the skinny i got during preview... hope this helps

 

[gujuDoc]

hah. unfrozencaveman has been a huge hit on SDN... this is what one night googling how badly I was going to do on my MCATs while watching SNL reruns gets me.

Plus everyone thinks I'm a dude, which is funny.

Are you saying you're female???????????????????????????????????????????????????

I woulda never guessed.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

Are you saying you're female???????????????????????????????????????????????????

I woulda never guessed.

Funny, huh?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'll be living in The Ambassador which I know def some Penn students live in but I think a good bunch live in 2400 chestnut which is like close to the border of center city and university city because its got a shuttle that goes right to penn.... Theres also like some people who live in west philly cuz its cheaper and you got some rittenhouse square area dwellers but thast on the pricey side... anyhow, this is just the skinny i got during preview... hope this helps

Mr. Adventure wonders whether the ladies dig Rittenhouse more...

 

[gujuDoc]

Funny, huh?

😀

Seriously, I thought you were a guy the whole time. I think it was because of the avatar.

 

[tigress]

So where is Drexel exactly. People keep telling me "You're applying to Drexel, that's in such a bad area"

But when looking at the website (and also mentioned in an above post) it seems to be just outside the city. Are these people just confusing the undergrad school and assuming that the med school is in the same place? Is Drexel's area actually nice?

thx

I didn't see this post last night. Drexel is in East Falls, on Queen Lane. That's the med school campus. The main hospital, Hahnemann, is in Center City. Anyway, the med school campus is really nice, and the area immediately surrounding it is cute and suburban. More than a few blocks away gets to be more run-down suburban, but it's still not a dangerous area. This is still technically part of the city of Philadelphia, but it's outside the actual city area and more suburban. Most first and second year students live in apartments right around the campus. I don't know what the third and fourth year students do. Other students live in Center City or elsewhere, including other suburbs (Drexel is a school where you are MUCH better off with a car).

The hospital, Hahnemann, is in a typical city area. It's only about 2 blocks from City Hall, actually. There are many nice areas around there and some not as nice as well, but it's a busy area and not dangerous.

Hope this helps 🙂

 

[tigress]

😀

Seriously, I thought you were a guy the whole time. I think it was because of the avatar.

and because you're not "unfrozencaveWOMAN" 😛

 

[Bfriccia1]

I'm having trouble believing all the people who are bashing certain Philly schools because of their location in a bad neighborhood. Are there any city people out there who agree that Philly is "really dangerous?" Bc I went to school near Harlem and worked there and it's totally fine! Are these people exaggerating???

Ive lived outside manhattan my whole life and recently Ive taken a couple trips to philadelphia. I would say that philly is definitely more shady than any place I have ever been in manhattan including harlem. Whereas in manhattan, the city is busy at all times of the day, in philly there are a lot of quiet areas with desolate buildings which made me extremely uncomfortable at night. There are also a lot more homeless people in philadelphia, and I got bothered for change all the time (whereas in ny it seems to be much less of a problem in ny). While walking across the city at night, I ended up in some deserted areas with packs of kids hanging out in the street staring me down...it definitely made me nervous. Bottom line is, know where the good areas are and stick to them at night...don't just wander aimlessly throughout the city like I did at night.

 

[mshheaddoc]

I have walked in Center City late at night by myself. Through dark alleys (I have never said I'm smart) for various reasons. Yes its scary being alone in the city, but ghetto? If you are in the center city area which is where most of the schools are you are fine. Obviously we all know about Temple. Just be careful and be smart.

Newsflash: Cities are dangerous, the world is dangerous. Don't be stupid about it and you should be fine. You can post all the stats you want about crime in various cities. They are all slanted because alot of crime happens in particular areas. There was just a 25 yo woman raped at a subway station at 630am the other day. Yes it happens to the best of us and it will probably happen to you at one point or another. But knowing how to handle yourself and take necessary precautions is always good. Oh AND IF YOU ARE IN PHILLY and want to see the ghetto, I can give you the list of neighborhoods where those crime stats are actually from because yes, there are a few very dangerous areas.

I'm a 26 y/o female and I have been threatened with an assault rifle before. Guess what, it wasn't even in philadelphia. It was in an affluent suburb of Philadelphia in New Jersey. I go to school in the FBI's "touted" most dangerous city in the nation - I'm on campus EVERY day for 11 hours a day. Do I feel threatened? No. Its all relative. If you are worried about being in the ghetto, don't go to that med school. 👍

Sorry I just get sick of people ragging on the cities about crime rates. lets throw out statistics without seeing what they actually mean or for what specific areas its for! See for yourself about the school and violence. If its not for you or worth the risk, then find a nice cushiony place for the sheltered life. But fair warning, most schools are in cities. 👍

Everytime I go to NYC I feel threatened. Guess why? Because I don't know the area like I do Philly. Its all relative kids.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

and because you're not "unfrozencaveWOMAN" 😛

I tried and ran out of space, and it was too late to get creative.

 

[gujuDoc]

I tried and ran out of space, and it was too late to get creative.

😛

 

[Law2Doc]

Mr. Adventure wonders whether the ladies dig Rittenhouse more...

Well, Oprah lived in The Rittenhouse while shooting her show in Philly one summer, and ladies certainly seem to dig Oprah...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Well, Oprah lived in The Rittenhouse while shooting her show in Philly one summer, and ladies certainly seem to dig Oprah...

According to Mr. Adventure's Playa Hater's Code of Ethics, playing the sensitive guy role (vis-a-vis digging Oprah) is a sure-fire way to jack fools of otherwise guaranteed trim at college bars. 😛

Watch out U Penn Pre Med kiddies!

The Post Bac Playa Hater is coming 😀