Philadelphia's motto is "The City of Brotherly Love", which should tell you right there that the homosexual agenda is alive and well and taking its dreadul toll on what was once a beautiful Christian city.

That's why they allow alcohol on the street - to entice young children into lives of urine drinking. (Studies from the Family Reseach Council have shown that a child seeing a homosexual drink alcohol JUST ONCE are 25 times more likely to become a female impersonator)

The "best" of the children that they lure are placed with unsuspecting Christian Republicans who, wanting only the best for their Children, get them influential positions as house pages.

Once they get in the system, Nancy Pelosi (A SAN FRANCISCO LIBERAL) stops by and asks them if they wouldn't like to play a game of solitare, at which time they are instructed to start luring poor, unsuspecting middle-aged congressmen with their dreadful siren call.

That's why we don't allow alcohol on the streets here - thank God - but what would you expect from a cross-dressing drag queen?

LET'S KEEP SEATTLE CHRISTIAN!!!

wow. that was awesome.

Dan, you're making me feel better about The Lou. They just added a second line to our Metro Link. Pathetic yes, but apparently better than some cities.

Also, while St. Louis is painfully conservative in most respects, the booze flows freely. Prolly 'cause Busch (the beer family, not the war mongers) runs the whole fucking state.

You should come to Fair St. Louis next July 4. You'll see some really liberal liquor laws.

Seattle's Wigland will never be truly history as long as we hold the memory close in our hearts, Dan.

Hi Dan! Glad you found some things here to your liking. As a Midwest/Seattle transfer, it's taken me a while to adjust to Seattle's polar-opposite Sister City. There is a certain amount of blue collar charm, though... hope you got to see some of the studly eye-candy while you were here!

And, yeah, the public transportation here ROCKS. I live in the West 'burbs, and I have 2 train lines and 4 stops within a 10-minute walk of my front door. I've taken AMTRAK all the way to Boston, and plan to take it to DC or Montreal sometime soon.

Cheers!

Stop it Dan... you're making me homesick.

I grew up in North Philly ( Diamond St.) and in North Camden (York St.)across the Ben Franklyn Bridge, and though I love Philly, and I loved riding the train as a kid from Camden to downtown Philly and always will miss the tight knit neighborhoods, let's not forget that if you’re in the wrong part of town you will have a cap busted upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger. However adults can and are trusted to run open air drug markets in parts of Philly with the cops watching from their cruisers.

The streets in North Philly never get fixed; kids burn down houses for fun, and it has some of the most violent and underfunded schools in the country. The school district has been privatized and the infant mortality rates are among the worst in the country. Open air drug markets are all over the place, and parts of Philly look like Stalingrad after the Germans left.

Philly, like many other eastern US cities, is basically two cities, one violent and desperately poor, with absolutely no services, completely neglected filled with violent and corrupt cops left over from the Frank Rizzo era another with people and tourist and yuppie filled South St. and people chilling on Market st. Seattle does have its sucky parts, and the bus system is a headache, but it does not have the fucked up schools ( trust me they’re not where near as bad here) and violent and completely neglected and forgotten neighborhoods. ONE MORE TIME: THERE ARE NO GHETTOES IN SEATTLE OR ANY WHERE IN THE NORTHWEST. Inner city Philadelphia was destroyed after all the textile jobs left Philly in the early 80’s and crack came in to fill the void. When the neighborhoods get too bad, they just bull doze them and build aquariums and other crap. Philly is a city of contrasts and it has all the failures of a system, but over the years it has learned to hide it well.

...and unlike Seattle, Philly streets don't get a nice drizzle every morning to wash the pee away. Like Baltimore, it's an OLD city, with a lot of history, and poverty, and a system that's so intrenched it's just about impossible to change anything. You learn to appreciate whatever small miracles you can - like the smoking ban - YAY!

I'm also pretty amazed that Philly made PBS's Edens Lost and Found series, along with Seattle and Chicago. Made me run out and get a PA Horticultural Society membership (though I haven't done anything with it yet).

Fuck the beer, I want their phone numbers.

One thing is to come to Philly from Delco or the burbs to cheer on our Eagles and Phillies, quite another is to put up with the “old city� excuse while actually living in the Philly ghettoes.

Yes, Philly is old, but its no excuse for the complete neglect of the social contract. Boston is old and though it has problems, it is not the complete neglect you see in Philly and in Detroit.

Parts of Philly are not old, that’s a cute term, parts of Philly are shit holes and infernos of crack and heroin. Shot man, there is a reason why people leave. Its not like people actually like the unfriendliness and alienation of cities like Seattle, but at least here you can live in poor neighborhoods and relative safety.

Saying downtown South St. and The tourist friendly vive of downtown describes Philly, its like saying The Mall and the cool subway system describe all of DC, its an important part of it, but a small part of it. Yes, Philly has great things about it, like any place in the world, but the inner city neighborhoods don’t enjoy those great things, they still have to ride the shitty bus through German Town Avenue. There is no movie theateres, there is nothing, no housing, schools with metal detectors, police and drug dealer brutality, profiling, random shootings and crack viles on play grounds. You want to see a surreal image, of haves and have nots, just drive from one side of German Town Avenue to the other.

@Mydogben: your beer goggles must still be on this morning if you believe you can identify any facial features from that blurry photo.

It's a matter of time before some entrepreneur takes the initiative to start an Initiative to repeal WA gov't's stranglehold on the liquor laws.

I would kill to see that production of James Kirkwood's Legends, one of the most storied flops ever. (Originally, it starred Carol Channing and Mary Martin. But you knew that.) Seriously, Dan, I'll pay for your ticket to a peformance if you'll give me a full review when you get home.

You've got some good points, Seme. I work here in the North 'hood, and I've done home visits and focus groups in places that look worse than any developing world place I've been. So what are your suggestions to improve life for people here? Only 15-19% of the population has a college degree, and people here have been shit on for a long time.

Philpa = Philpy. Sorry for the typo (I knew I would fuck something up).

Hey - this Saturday in San Francisco we have former heterosexual Governor Jim McGreevy hawking his memoir ("The Gay Profit" or something like that) at the local LGBT Community Center.

I'd rather have Linda and Joan any day.

Does anyone have some rotten tomatoes I can borrow? I have a hot date at the Center this weekend.

The Washington state liquor law that drives me absolutely crazy is the one that says I can have a beer in my seat at Key Arena for a sporting event, but not for a concert. WTF?

I LOVE SEPTA!

Wow, I have lived in Philly all my life (in real working and middle class neighborhoods) and while it is not a paradise, it is not the hell hole described in some of these posts. I go out at night to the great resturants and then attend many music and theater events and then I travel home alone on those SEPTA buses and trains and I am still alive to talk about it.

Tell me Dan,

Are you really unaware that drinking alcohol in
public spaces is illegal in just about every city
in the US, including Chicago, New York, and
even Philadelphia? (see here)? Or is this just part of
your shtick to appeal to the "I am oppressed
when the city restricts my right to do whatever
I want whenever and wherever I want" crowd that
forms the core of the Stranger's readership?

That should be here.

@A-Chan: Dan's been the most vocally opposed to smoker's rights than anyone in the city. Don't know what you're talking about.

No one said All of Philly is a hell hole. I grew up in the worst neighborhoods of both Camden and Philly. I love Philly, but one can not ignore that parts of it are completely neglected and very, very dangerous. One can not ignore the high infant mortality rates and decayed schools. Just like the fine restaurants, South St. South Philly are all parts of the city, so is the Stalingrad looking streets of north Philly that you can see as you quietly ride the bus along german town avenue on the way to North east and the better parts of town. Working class and middle class neighborhoods do exist, and you can live a fine life, hell my aunt still lives there and has moved to a gentrifying neighborhood, but the neighborhoods along that street are bombed the fuck out, there are neighborhoods that have nothing, other than pawn shops and liquor stores and are just completely decayed. To say otherwise, is a damn lie.