Philly Loves It When You Call It Big Poppa

You might remember, a while back, that none other than PW’s own Liz Spikol reported that Ell Decor has compared Philadelphia, favorably, to Madrid. “Madrid on the Delaware River,” the article said, and bully to that, even if I don’t really get how that works.

Then again, I’ve never been to Madrid. The article was actually kind of old when Liz wrote about it, but an article in today’s Daily Pennsylvanian decides to ask Penn kids is Philadelphia just like Madrid?

The shocking answer, of course, is no, and the several students interviewed just give banal answers probably accopmanied by a blank stare. Well, except for one student studying abroad in Madrid, who gave his opinion via e-mail:

“The night life and women are beyond compare,” [Cameron] Smalls said. “Even the hottest girl in Philadelphia’s best and most exclusive club doesn’t compare to any one of the 12 girls in my Mergers and Acquisitions class in Madrid.”

That makes sense, you know, because Madrid is also well known for its hot merging and acquisitions.

Screw the sixth borough. Philadelphia is the next Madrid. [The Trouble With Spikol]
Is Philadelphia ‘a new Madrid’? [DP]
Photo by martius

Filadelfia, Lo Mejor Cuidad En Todos Los Estados Unidos!

Over the past year or so, we media people have had lots of fun commenting on the fact that other media people have decided that our city is now The Sixth Borough, America’s Next Great City, The Greatest City on Earth, The World Heavyweight Champion, &c. Any true Philadelphian will tell you immediately that there’s no way that can possibly be true, but no matter, we’re running with it. (This is now a good time to bring up the old tourism slogan: “Philadelphia isn’t nearly as bad as Philadelphians say it is.”)

Anyway, we can add another Philadelphia nickname as part of the recent Philadelphia meme: Madrid USA.

Yes, PW’s own Liz Spikol got a copy of Elle Decor in the mail and noticed an article about Philadelphia that contained these choice quotes:

Today Philadelphia is percolating with a more youthful sensibility that’s both cosmopolitan and neighborly. It’s a welcome paradox: a kind of Madrid on the Delaware River.

A Madrid on the Delaware River. Before you jump for joy, get angry, or go buy a copy of Elle Decor — whatever that is — be sure to read another choice quote from the piece:

Not only does the public transportation system run smoothly and extensively…

Okay, Elle Decor, you need to pay my dentist bill. I just chipped my tooth from doubling over in laughter and hitting it on my desk.

There’s more choice quotes from the piece over at The Trouble With Spikol.

Screw the sixth borough. Philadelphia is the next Madrid. [The Trouble With Spikol]

The man who hates Philadelphia

Okay, frankly (har!), we’re all sick of the Ben Franklin hype. (I’m using the royal we here.) Okay, he invented more things in one day than I ever will in my life and he was a founding father and he had a lot of sex and blah blah blah. Great. But I’m not really sure how anyone is so excited about the fact he was born 300 years ago.

But, apparently, it’s working. (And, I’m sorry, I’m kind of sick of these stories, too. But, hey, I was here for approximately 20 years when this city was the cesspool of America, and now that we’re suddenly “hip” — allegedly, but I’m as skeptical as these guys — it’s time to soak it in.) The mag Travel Weekly recently held a roundtable of all the top editors of travel mags, and they had this discussion (thanks to all who sent this in):

Veronica Stoddart, travel editor, USA Today: Look at Philadelphia. It’s celebrating Ben Franklin’s 300th birthday, and there’s a huge marketing campaign. The campaign works because the city is really coming into its own anyway — it’s going through a renaissance. It’s right at the top of the list of domestic destinations.

Melissa Biggs Bradley, editor, Town & Country Travel: I am blown away by what’s available in that city.

Nancy Novogrod, editor in chief, Travel+Leisure: It’s definitely on the food map.

Keith Bellows, editor, National Geographic Traveler: And it’s on the art map.

Bellows: Wait a minute. No, no, no. We did a story on Philadelphia because I think it’s the next great American city. That’s where it started. It had nothing to do with any anniversary. I felt this city was ready for prime time.

Bradley: Nancy agrees, Beth agrees, I agree. I mean, there’s a confluence of things going on in Philadelphia, between museums and dining.

Novogrod: Absolutely.

Torkells: We do a thing in (Budget Travel) called Trip Coach, where people write in and we help them out. No one writes in and says they want to go to Philadelphia. They want to go to New York!

Novogrod: But they may want to go to Philadelphia.

Torkells: They may. They very well may — and if they do, it’s because this room has anointed it very nicely.

[...]

Torkells: My feeling is that we all want to go to the same destinations, but some of us don’t have as much money, or if we have as much money, we just don’t want to spend it. I guess that’s why this hunt for the hot destination rings a false bell for me. I don’t want to go to the new restaurant in Philadelphia — I want to go to the Taj Mahal! (quietly) God, I’m going to be struck dead by Philadelphia.

Well, it’s working except for that one guy. He just needs a couple of jolts of Benergy right to the upper shoulder and we’ll be set.

Editor’s Note: Okay. No more Benergy jokes. I swear. In fact, no more mentioning Ben Franklin, ever. From here on out, it’s B** F*******. If I break this, somebody please shoot me.

Consumer travel editors discuss hot topics for ‘06 [Travel Weekly (reg. req.)]
Erik Torkells Is Your Daddy [Gridskipper]

Blogicized: Good news, bad news

• Will Bunch tell us all what we already unfortunately know: If Knight-Ridder is sold, bye bye Daily News. Sigh. [Attytood]

• Phillies outfielder and cop puncher Jason Michaels is reportedly being traded to the Indians for reliever Arthur Rhodes. Uhh, boo? Yay? No idea. [Beerleaguer]

• Photoblogger Brad Maule has a detailed photo essay on the South Street Bridge and its crumbling facade in 2003. [Phillyskyline]

• The Inquirer’s Inga Saffron has more commentary on Trump’s condo tower as well as a recap of Penn’s seminar on the Philly construction boom (that I forgot to go to) last night. [Changing Skyline]

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reported today that 36 cruise lines will leave from Philadelphia in 2006, and the economic impact of the cruises went up $42 million dollars. Wow. Donald Trump should build a cruise ship instead of a condo tower. [America's Hometown]

• Dueling blog posts in the race for the Democratic nom for U.S. Senate: Alan Sandals says he won last night’s debate, while Chuck Pennacchio says that nobody won the debate and chides the Sandals release for spelling his name wrong. Meanwhile, the Flash-laden website of Bob Casey — who didn’t attend, and who might be a mute — crashed my fucking computer and made me re-write this post. You’re in deep water, Mr. Casey. Deep.

Quickies: Yo Adrian!

• The National Coalition for the Homeless releases a list of the 20 meanest cities to the homeless and Philadelphia is not on the list. Take that, Sarasota! (Oh, and Chicago and New York and Las Vegas and Dallas and Houston and San Francisco and Los Angeles and Phoenix and Pittsburgh.) [KYW 1060]

• The Case of the Hit and Run Nun heats up: Police found a truck that kinda sorta matches the description of the truck that struck and killed Sister Paul Mercedes Perreca. They questioned the driver, a Northeast Philly man, but say he’s just a “person of interest,” not a suspect. If Law & Order has taught me anything, there’s about 15 more minuntes left until Briscoe and Green catch the real killer! [Inky]

• New Jersey slogan: “New Jersey: Come See For Yourself.” Eh. I don’t see that making it onto an ironic Urban Outfitters tee anytime soon. [6 ABC]

• And, KYW 3 has a slideshow of Rocky Balboa sightings. [KYW 3]

Philadelphia cutting down on the whiz wit?

Okay, I’m as confused as anyone about the whole Philly-is-cool media meme going around for the past nine months or so, but these things happen. Cities with cheap beer and real estate always get called hot every once in a while, and not all of the stories about this whole Philadelphia Renaissance are all hyperbole. So, you know, whatever.

But never in a million years did I think I’d see this: Philadelphia has gotten fitter. A lot fitter.

Last year, Philly was No. 2 on the annual Men’s Health promotional attempt-to-sell-magazines America’s Fattest/Fittest Cities list. (Philly was No. 2 on the fattest, obviously.) This year, we’re No. 23 on the fattest list. I don’t know if it was Rocky VI (or, for that matter, Salvador Dali) inspiring people to run up the Art Museum steps or people having to walk up several flights of stairs to their new condo, but I suppose we’re not (quite as) fat anymore.

Wait: Cool and not as fat? Be still my heart.

Philly Gets Fitter on Annual List [AP via NBC 10]

Philadelphia is the New Lancaster

Last Wednesday in USA Today there was an article about how hip, young urban twentysomethings are leaving the city for rural areas.

It’s a trend story, which means it has to be taken with a grain of salt. They usually make big assumptions and use a small number of people to represent the whole. There’s nothing wrong with that — it’s journalism, after all, not science — but you just have to approach it knowing what you’re getting. (As a writer, I’ve always tried to avoid expanding my small interviews into taking on a larger issue, with varied success.) I came upon this story from Slate’s Jack Shafer, who wrote about it in his “Bogus Trendspotting” feature.

The weird thing was, the bogus trendspotting in this one wasn’t just the usual making-large-claims-out-of-small-data fallacy. No, those rural areas people are moving into? They’re cities like Philadelphia:

Young, single people usually love the excitement of big cities, from the vibrant nightlife to the noisiness and frenzied pace of urban existence. They love it so much they’re willing to pay a stiff price for cramped quarters and communal living.

For some, the price is getting too steep. The draw of the bright lights and big cities is dimming now that housing costs have hit exorbitant heights. Some who grew up fantasizing about life in the “big city” are settling in less glamorous cities and even suburbs. [...]

Philadelphia, sometimes the butt of jokes for its lack of cachet compared with nearby New York, is being marketed by some former residents of the Big Apple as the “next borough.” It is attracting small numbers of artsy young people from expensive neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

They also mention the movetophilly.com people, making it, essentially, a rehash of the Jessica Pressler article from over the summer. But this one’s quite fantastic: People are moving out of cities and into Philadelphia! Whoo! Start milking the cows, people, them city slickers are comin’ into town!

More of the young and hip fight urban urge [USA Today]
Driving a Stake Into Bogus Trends [Slate]

Abridged Daily News columnists

Two sentences or less. Reading ‘em so you don’t have to.

Jill Porter: Holy shit, Department of Human Services is doing a good job! This story ought to lead the paper — and it does.

Rotan Lee: There was this court decision, oh, in the 1970’s, perhaps you’ve heard of it? Roe v. Wade, it’s called, and I know it’s rather obscure, but it deals with this procedure called “abortion.”

Philly: STILL so hot right now!

I guess they figured, “Hey, the sixth borough had a strike. Why not us?”

As a good third grader would say: “Copycats.”

Threatened Strike By Transit Workers Worries New York [Washington Post]

Philadelphia is the New New Amsterdam

An article on CNNMoney.com today comes up with a new one: “Philadelphia is the new Williamsburg.”

For those confused, they’re talking about Williamsburg, the section of New York City, not Williamsburg, Virginia. According to the article, “‘Philadelphia is the new Williamsburg’ has become the hot, hip saying around artistic circles.”

Far be it from me to doubt the article. (After all, it does say that 11,000 more people moved from NYC to Philly last year than vice versa.) But — and correct me here if I’m wrong — how is that a hot, hip saying? What even is a hot, hip saying? Like a catchphrase? That’s not a catchphrase! If there’s anything I’m good at, it’s running catchphrases into the ground, and I’ve only heard “Philadelphia is the new Williamsburg” a few times.

Either way, hip hip hooray! Another “Philly is hot” article! I think writing one of those is a requirement for being a journalist now.

Take this home market…and love it [CNNMoney.com]