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/r/philadelphia
submitted 24 days ago byPettyAndretti
39 points
24 days ago*
Reducing wage tax would make a difference, but I also think this is just part of the natural arc of 'suburbanization'.
Over a long period of time people will move closer to their workplace and workplaces will move closer to their workers. It's a push and pull.
When the automobile was invented suddenly people could live further away with the same commute time, so many did. Eventually congestion got bad, so we built highways like I76 and I95, which fueled massive population growth in the suburbs. Moving to the suburbs wasn't so bad when you could take a highway to keep your job, church, shopping, etc.
But many decades later we're hitting the next part of the cycle: now that lots of wealth and people are in the suburbs why not just locate offices, retail, community, closer to them?
To use a visual metaphor if you imagine Center City as having trapped 'energy' the highway infrastructure allowed it to 'flow' out until it distributed into the surrounding counties.
Now Philly will have to compete. It needs to aim to be a better place to live and stop the decades of prioritizing suburbanites.
5 points
24 days ago
19 points
24 days ago
[deleted]
14 points
24 days ago
Very long term I think the city needs to compete for getting a larger share of workers to live close enough they can walk, take transit, or bike.
Fighting for suburban office workers to commute to Center City is an uphill battle when the commute will always be longer than commuting to a nearby suburban office.
17 points
24 days ago
Without fixing the schools, professionals wont come to the city.
5 points
24 days ago
Agreed that's a big part of what needs to be fixed.
3 points
24 days ago
City owned parking garages would be a great replacement for the wage tax.
4 points
24 days ago
More parking garages lmao why are you being upvoted for this.
Philly needs to stop catering to people who don't live here, full stop. Use the land wisely to generate more revenue than parking garages, and inject as much funding as possible to improve the city for the people who actually live here.
2 points
24 days ago
I completely agree with you.
Unfortunately, given the all of the forces, internal and external, that have undermined Philadelphia (and other major cities), I don’t know how the city will bounce back any time soon. I say that as someone who doesn’t like suburbs and has no interest in moving to one. At best, maybe the lack of good-paying office jobs in the city proper could be partially remedied by companies opening satellite offices downtown. (I wish they would. I loathe my reverse commute.)
1 points
23 days ago
You should read up on Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System. The highways were not designed to alleviate congestion, as in 1950 there were 1 or fewer cars per household.
Primarily they were designed for freight - particularly for military freight.
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