Thoughts on Philadelphia

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Thoughts on Philadelphia

fschmidt
Administrator
I visited Philadelphia last weekend.  First I will talk about Philadelphia itself.  Philadelphia has this unique combination of attributes:

1. big city
2. cheap
3. tolerable weather
4. old neighborhoods

I can't think of any other American city that offers all of these.

I used to have more ideological concerns like low taxes and loose zoning.  I no longer really care about these.  I am more interested in practical issues, and all of the above 4 are practical.

We can compare to other cities we know.  The San Francisco are has 3 out of 4, but is far from cheap.  San Francisco has better weather, but is about 10X as expensive to buy the equivalent house in an equivalent neighborhood.  And generally the cost of living is much higher in the San Francisco area.  Dallas lacks old neighborhoods.  This is actually a disaster for anyone who doesn't want to live in a rural area.  All of modern America is a complete cesspool, so anyone who wants to live in a nice urban or suburban area will be out of luck in Dallas.

Philadelphia is far from perfect.  The average inhabitant is your typical American moron.  This is compensated for by it being a big city with plenty of immigrants, especially Koreans.  Philadelphia also has horrible street signs and mediocre roads.  But Philadelphia still seems like the best compromise I have seen.  I think this is the logical area for a Mikraite settlement.

I visited a Mennonite church there.  I attended their morning service for 2.5 hours and then an evening service for 1.5 hours.  That was finally enough for me to realize that I would get bored of attending Mennonite church regularly.  I had an opportunity to attend the other religions I looked at regularly, but not the Mennonites.  Now I feel like this may not work out.

After this I gave the whole issue of which religion to align with a lot of thought.  Orthodox Christianity has the advantages that its service is the most appealing, and that it is closest to what most of our wives are used to.  These are big advantages.  The downside is that it is too modern.  An alternative that solves this is True Orthodox Christianity.  The problem with them is that they are small.  But for a Mikraite settlement, we just need one church.  There may be one in Philadelphia.  But even if there isn't, we could simply finance a new True Orthodox church there.  Unlike the Mikraite religion, True Orthodoxy is a marketable religion, so we could market a True Orthodox church just like we market any other business.  I think this really solves the problem.  One other advantage is that True Orthodoxy seems much more intellectual than Mennonites or Islam, these videos being an example.
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Re: Thoughts on Philadelphia

Drealm
You didn't mention anything about the black question. This is important because blacks are the worst kind of Americans. I remembered hearing somewhere that a lot of blacks live there so I looked it up, 41% black. For reference Oakland is 25% black. Youtube has this video showing some neighborhood in Philadelphia. It looks mostly black. Also here is a map showing where whites and blacks live. It would be helpful for you to reference on the map where you went.
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Re: Thoughts on Philadelphia

fschmidt
Administrator
Most blacks are inside the city.  Outside the city is mostly not black.  So it is relatively simple to avoid living around a lot of blacks.
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Re: Thoughts on Philadelphia

TheodoreBlack
In reply to this post by fschmidt
Cities are centers of degeneracy and Modern culture. Though there are economic benefits of living in large population centers, the social destruction and alienation, coupled with the pure unnaturalness of the  gray skyscrapers; with its life centered around economic rather than spiritual activity, is antithetical to a healthy spirit.
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Re: Thoughts on Philadelphia

fschmidt
Administrator
Much of the philadelphia area looks like this:



More important than urban versus rural is new versus old.  Everything that is new in America is horrible.  Any old area, whether urban or rural, is generally tolerable.  Philadelphia has rural areas not too far from the city, so it offers whatever type of area one prefers.
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Re: Thoughts on Philadelphia

TheodoreBlack
What do you mean by old and new? Aesthetics? Or literal age? I can kind of see what you're getting at, but my skepticism towards the city, and I live in one now, is not with the idea itself but with many of the things associated with it. It causes distance between a person and Nature, it makes one ignorant to ones roots. It shifts the focus from the town center, historically a social and religious center with a Church, to the financial sectors of a downtown or shopping mall. One cannot see where their food is grown, or experience the freshness of occasional solitude. It also breaks down the family, and decreases self-sufficiency. The Amish detest them for a reason.

And even worse, you have the demographic danger, the expansion of the degenerates into nicer suburbs, and a Liberal political monopoly.

This is not to say I prefer some type of rural dwelling, primitivism, I think a healthy balance is needed. I think the town, or village is the best bet, within decent proximity to larger urban areas for economic reasons, but not too close to compromise autonomy.
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Re: Thoughts on Philadelphia

fschmidt
Administrator
My goal in picking a location is providing choice.  The Philadelphia area has towns nearby, so it satisfies your requirement.  We don't all have to live in exactly the same place, but living in the same area would be helpful.  Right now we are completely scattered.