They’re both good! I grew up in Chicago and while I enjoyed Taste of Chicago and the Air and Water Show, there’s a different vibe to Montreal’s festivals. Also what Montreal’s done with making outdoor dining (known as terrasses there) a part of their culture along with transforming their streets to be far less car oriented are things Chicago hasn’t done as much that we should do here in Philly.

US cities should just copy everything Montreal is doing. Especially what they do with summer festivals! Close off the entire parkway to car traffic for free festivals all summer.

KJ believes that anything good would cause gentrification, especially anything that might be remotely associated with “hipster” white people.

Yeah if you have a regular commute to the burbs, that’s one thing. But if you need a car occasionally, just leave it at home and take transit to CC instead. Then you don’t have to look for parking as much either.

I’m sure there will be changes. That being said, I stick with my statement that almost all kids with good grades get into a magnet school. I hear it was extremely rare for a student who met all the qualification criteria not get into a magnet high school if they applied to five. There should be a way to prevent that scenario from occurring. And yes, there are at least five “good” magnet high schools. Even beyond the 5-6 schools that are widely regarded as being the “best”, the school district is very accommodating to kids who want to be challenged further regardless of what school they attend and pays for them to take classes at local universities which end up being better than AP classes in some ways since they’re actual college classes.

I don’t judge any parent’s decision to do what they feel is best for their kid but at the same time, I think it’s unfortunate when people (not saying you) do so with a lack of accurate understanding of the Philly public schools. It’s unfair to characterize all Philly public schools as dangerous and offering a poor quality of education. Yes, this is true of many schools in the district. But not all. Almost all kids who live in CC or an adjacent neighborhood and get As and Bs with a clean behavioral and attendance record will get into a magnet middle school and magnet high school which will set them up to go to a highly ranked university. If that’s what you and you kid want of course. That’s not the life track for everyone but for those who want it, the Philly public schools will not get in the way of that (depending on what neighborhood you live in).

Of course, I wish every kid in Philly had access to the same educational experience as those who attend Meredith, Greenfield, Masterman, Central, etc. but to be fair, no big city has really figured this out.

It depends on where you live. Many of the public schools in Center City and adjacent neighborhoods are just fine, especially for grades K-5. Charters might be helpful for families living in neighborhoods further outside of CC if there hasn’t been a critical mass of families choosing to invest and engage in their neighborhood school. There are families (mine included) for whom school isn’t the primary factor for choosing where to live. Some of us actually enjoy being in a place where we don’t need a car, can teach our kids independence by taking septa on their own, can walk to the local park to meet friends, etc. I would not give those up simply for the possibility that my kid might get a better education and more life and career opportunities as a result of going to a suburban school.

There are also a ton of free and easily accessible programs and resources available to Philly public school kids that suburban kids don’t get access to. Even just naming the programs I’ve heard about recently in the past week: someone just told me about a free rowing camp on the Schuylkill exclusively for public school kids in the city. Or a free two week orchestra camp primarily for Philly district public school kids at the Mann Center run by the Philadelphia Orchestra. There are countless other examples.

People say the same about assault weapons. They should still be banned.

We started taking SEPTA to school because my oldest son started going to a magnet middle school. Our commute is Passyunk Sq to Girard Estates. For the first half of the year, either my wife or I went with him (on SEPTA) to school in the morning and picked him up in the afternoon. In the 2nd half of the year, we got him a phone and started letting him go on his own a few days a week.

My younger son got into the same school this year and now they go together. They have lots of classmates who take SEPTA on their own, so there's usually a sizable number of kids who go together, especially after school. Feel free to DM me if you have specific questions!

A lot of people here do try to make things better and to be honest, that’s one of the best things about Philly. Much of that is because the actual city government is incompetent. We need stronger leadership in city hall so they start doing their jobs.

I complain about Philly because I’ve lived in a lot of other cities and know it could be better. Every place has its pros and cons. I wouldn’t be here if there weren’t a lot of good reasons to raise my family here.

Yup I’d totally live in a 3 bedroom condo with my wife and kids if there were more available and weren’t all “luxury” condos that are outrageously expensive.

I have a 10 and 12 year old. I’m annoyed the fields at local parks are often locked up but I guess it could be worse. The best part of raising kids in the city is their ability to experience true independence at an earlier age. They can walk and take SEPTA to go places on their own without a parent having to be their chauffeur. My kids take a bus and subway to school.

And speaking of schools, they’re really not completely terrible. Like anywhere, if you live in a poor neighborhood, it’s likely the kids aren’t going to get a great education. But if you live in Center City or adjacent neighborhoods like Passyunk Sq, Fairmount, NoLibs, Fishtown… the public schools are just fine. The parents who tend to complain the most (largely white, upper middle class) are the ones who have the least to worry about. My kids are getting a great experience in the public school and I have no concern about them being held back from future opportunities because of it.

Replace the asphalt street surface with cobblestone or Belgian block. 1) To slow cars, e-bikes, etc and 2) it looks nice!

When they’re at the farmers market at Headhouse, they sell kielbasa that still needs to be cooked.

If you don’t have a phone, forget about it. To be honest, this would be hard in many cities to expect to be able to use public transit without a phone and having done prior research on route options.

But in situations where I didn’t have a phone or data access, I relied on system maps and real time service update boards—which transit systems in other countries do a much better job with.

The blocks that don’t require permits are the ones least likely to have available spots. You could also get day passes to have on hand to give your visitors.

Here are some orgs I donate to regularly that I recommend based on my research that also align with what you’re looking for.

Mighty Writers: https://mightywriters.org/

YEAH: https://yeahphilly.org/

Neighborhood Bike Works: https://neighborhoodbikeworks.org/

Field Teen Center at Parkway Library (you can donate to the library and direct the funds to the field teen center at parkway): https://libwww.freelibrary.org/locations/departments/field-teen-center

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia: https://bicyclecoalition.org/

Feet First Philly: https://feetfirstphilly.org/

East Coast Greenway: https://www.greenway.org/