View AttachmentSometimes I think I would fit in much better in a place like Philadelphia, PA...
I've been there a few times, and just found the populace much more colorful than where I stay now.
I never lived there though.
It's one thing to visit, another thing to have to find residence, move in, and get neighbors.
I just know I need a change soon, career wise, location wise, relationship wise, something has to give soon.
Then again, often times our minds form images of places based on vague memories...and in real life it's never like that.
In your mind, you can control how people look, act and behave...but in real life you cannot.
I miss seasonal changes, when Xmas time actually had meaning, you could feel it, weather got cold, people got romantic.
And in the miserable cold and snow, folks depend on each other more.
It's like the cuddling effect.
Even criminals tend to chill out a bit, when weather becomes life or death.
Philly as it relates to the following peoples in my mind...
1. Blacks...a generic term, the further away from SE you get, the broader the definition becomes, or the more people fit or fall into that umbrella term.
When I was in Philly, I found the 'blacks' (of various colors and shades, yet of African ancestry) to just be way more cultural, than SE blacks...way more broad.
Many sound like Italians when they speak...or other ethnic groups, or just simply the NE accent.
Blacks in the North East or like whites were to me in the Pacific NW...just more culturally open to ideas and styles, more willing to explore different concepts.
At least when I was there last...I know things change...
The neighborhoods I was in were all mixed...immigrants, blacks, jews, Irish shop owners, middle eastern shop owners, everyone living in close proximity...so everyone was open. It's hard to explain...but when you live around others, you don't form odd stereotypes.
Crime is associated with all up there, and not just 'blacks' like in the SE...
When I was up there...I did not feel stereotyped, not by anyone of any color.
2. Whites, another generic embrella term...I found the white population to be very diverse also...ethnic...still speaking the accent ancesters did when they came over from Italy or Spain or England or France or Russia.
People don't realize that 'whites' are ethnic also...
It's just most from the midwest, or south, associate white with kind of a bland standard, no accent, no culture outside of pop culture, or southern colonial culture.
And true, many have shed ancestreal past identities and have become the 'American Standard'...
But in the North East, you still get to hear those with ethnic accents...and I love it...cause it's like you're in a movie or something.
Every one tends to sound like some character you heard in a movie.
3. And then everyone else from Puerto Ricans to middle easterners to Asians to mixed...
When I was up there I just found it all interesting.
It's hard to be prejudice when everyones a different shade or two from the next.
But again...it's easy for me to re-construct some ideal view of philly in my mind.
We do it all the time when we want to escape.
I'm sure if I spoke with someone who lived there...they'd give a totally different view of the place...in fact maybe I'll link a few articles about the city...one sec...
According to this
link by Michael Talor...I was dead on with the diversity aspect...but it was written in 2006, some 7 years ago.
But it still kind of reflects what I remember of the city.
But housing is the true test of a cities nature...how are people housed.
Are they seperated by color, ethnicity, income...that's the true test...
If you move there, if not rich, will you have to live in the projects, or near by?
If you're black, or person of color, can you live in a nicer place, without being harraced?
Or if you're white, or light skinned, can you live in a place dominated by Asians, and not be harraced?
Or Jewish ect...that's the true test of the nature of a city...cause of course commercial districts are always international and friendly...it's the neighborhood arraingments that really tell how a city is.
Anyhow...think I'll get on
Craigslist and see what adds are like up there...apt prices, housing, jobs ect...
