Philly
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If you do not have a family and are not familiar with Philadelphia, my suggestion would be to live in the school dorm the first year. As you get acclimated to Philadelphia, you can decide what areas will be best suited for you to live in. In addition to the dorms, many of the students rent apartments on 9th street between Cherry Street and Race Streets. These apts are located across the parking lot from school.
TUSPM is located in Center City (which is the downtown area of Philadelphia). To be exact, it is located in the Chinatown section of Center City. If you have specific things that you are looking for, let me know and perhaps, I can suggest some places for you to look at. I currently live in the NW part of Philadelphia called Chestnut Hill area.
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There are no names for those apartments. Each of those apartment buildings along 9th street between Cherry Street and Race Streets are individually owned. Most of those apartments are 2 bedrooms with washer / dryer and central AC. There are one or two that are 3 - 4 bedrooms and some do not have central AC or washer / dryer. These apartments are a bit small for those not used to living in major metropolitan area. Since I am from NYC originally, those apartments were fine for me. One way to see if an apartment is available or not is to walk along 9th street and see if there are any signs posted. Another way is to talk to some of the upper classmen and see if they know of anyone living there will be moving out. Lastly, if I have the opportunity to get down to Chinatown, I can swing by and ask some of the owners if they have any upcoming vacancies. I had gotten to know some of the owners when I lived there.
There are also a lot of apartments available in Center City. You should able to get around Center City by foot very easily. Even though, a lot of the apartments may be on the pricier side, there are a few gems that can be found at a discounted price if you look hard enough.
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i've been lookin' @ rentals in philly for a while. you can find reasonable rentals on craigslist.com an upenn's off-campus housing list. i have a list of management companies too. i can post later if you like.
3 areas really stand out for their price (675-850/1 br & 750-1000/2 br) and close proximity to subway and trolley routes (15-30 min commute): temple main campus, university city, and south philly
however, i've received mixed opinions on the quality and safety of the temple area and south philly. i'm leaning towards university city @ the moment. does anyone have insight on these 3 neighborhoods???
3 areas really stand out for their price (675-850/1 br & 750-1000/2 br) and close proximity to subway and trolley routes (15-30 min commute): temple main campus, university city, and south philly
however, i've received mixed opinions on the quality and safety of the temple area and south philly. i'm leaning towards university city @ the moment. does anyone have insight on these 3 neighborhoods???
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Craigslist and UPenn's off campus housing list are good resources to look at.
I would avoid the Temple main campus area. As for south philly, it really depends on where in south philly are you talking about. There are some parts of south philly that have really been developed and are pretty nice to live in. However, those parts of South Philly will have rents comparable to Center City prices. In general, the sections of South Philly that are closer to Center City are better than the ones further away from Center City. For University City, it will also depends on where you are looking at. If you live within the confines of the Penn campus and to some degree of Drexel's campus, it might be okay. If you live in the areas surrounding Penn or Drexel's campus, it will get more sketchy. The areas of University City that are decent to live at will have similiar prices as Center City prices.
Besides the SEPTA subway, there are two other train systems that service Center City. One is the SEPTA Regional Rail trains that runs into the suburbs and other parts of Philadelphia. Think of the Regional Rail trains as commuter rail to the suburbs. The other train system is the PATCO train lines which services areas of New Jersey near the Philadelphia area.
If you are willing to commute by public transportation, I would recommend neighborhoods such as Manayunk (which is about 20 minutes train ride on the Regional Rail train to Center City or by bus). There are some areas of East Falls (which is accessible by bus and Regional Rail) that might be okay as well. There are some areas of Northeast Philly that might be okay as well. For Northeast, I would focus on the upper Northeast Philly. These are the areas that the subway DOES NOT go to. I am referring to the areas of the Northeast Philly that can be reached by Regional Rail trains (such as Torresdale stop and Cornwall Heights stop on the R7 Regional Train line). Another nice area that you might want to consider include Chestnut Hill area, which is accessible by both bus and Regional Rail (30 minutes train ride). Roxborough, which is only accessible by bus, is a decent area as well. Roxborough is a blue collar family oriented area.
I noticed that you really avoided the Center City area. I would recommend you to look around in Center City area itself. Center City is a pretty big area that extends from Olde City to Art Musuem area (east to west). I would recommend staying south of Vine Street and north of South Street. There are some decent areas surrounding South Street but I would not venture too far south of that area. The only area north of Vine Street that I would recommend would be the Art Museum area.
I hope that this helps.
I went to Temple Undergrad and lived around the campus area. The surrounding few blocks is mainly students and you won't really have too much of a problem in my opinion. Most blocks have been bought up by one or a few people who rent to students. However, the further you expand from here, the more 'residential' it is though the campus housing region has been spreading each year due to more people wanting to live at Temple rather than commute. I'm living (and know of a few Temple Med there too) in north broad region. There is pretty good housing east and west of broad around spring garden/vine area and then moving closer towards the city (the further north you go, the more scary it may seem and less options). My one friend lives in the old Super-Soaker warehouse at like 12th/Vine (check on google maps in relation to TUSPM for an idea). It looks like a old brick building but the apartments inside (he's got a 3br) are really nice.There are a few of these types right in that area. My other friend lives (where I will be living too) at 15th/Mt Vernon. Its a street of brownstones all rehabbed into 2-3 apartments per ranging from lofts/studios to 3br. That area is more up and coming with the city expanding outwards. I think the best option to finding something is just wondering around the city, checking the areas out, and seeing the signs posted 'for rent.' You may live somewhere initially that might seem scary to you depending on where you're coming from, but its really not that bad IMO.
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dpmgrad -
Specifically, is the subway safe in Philly?
I'm not bringing my car, but hopefully I'll be on campus. How handy is a bike?
Thanks 🙂
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In my opinion, the Philly subway is relatively safe. This goes for the Philly Regional Rail and Buses. Since I grew up riding subways in NYC, I have no problems with riding the subway in Philly. However, I had classmates that felt that the subways were unsafe and would only take Regional Rail, bus, or cab rides. These classmates are not from the major city settings and are not used to riding public transportation. I guess that they like the Regional Rail or bus more because they may have felt more safe since there is a train conductor that goes through the train collecting tickets for the train ride frequently or presence of a bus driver. There is a train conductor for the subways but they only stay in the middle of the train and is responsible for opening and closing the train doors. I also said they are relatively safe. One would need to exercise common sense to avoid any potential problems on the subway.
You need to keep in mind that the Philly subways, Regional Rail, and certain buses do not run 24 hours, unlike NYC. The subways are replaced by a night owl bus service during late night.
For classmates that live in center city and did not want to walk, found a bike very handy. Plus, if you enjoy biking, you would enjoy biking in Fairmount Park.
