Philadelphia's losing population. You know why? it's not really because people are moving out
it's because nobody's moving there. In this video I'm going to tell you the reason people
say they won't move to Philadelphia anymore the City of Brotherly Love was once a great City and
a symbol of American democracy Philadelphia is one of the most historic cities in the U.S
the Lenape Indians to Benjamin Franklin to the nation's capital to Rocky Philly has seen some
things Philly was a relocation hotspot for many decades in 1683 the city had only 600 residents
the next time they did a head count in 1731 the city had exploded to twelve thousand Philadelphia
continued to grow by at least 16 percent up until 1940 when it actually lost one percent for
the first time in its history that 1940 census was the first of many negative decades in the
2020 census they actually gained some people for the first time in 70 years but in 2021 and 2022
they were right back to losing so why doesn't anyone want to live in Philadelphia anymore
I'm going to tell you the most common reasons given get it got it good let's take a look
number 10 it's crowded yep that's right it's crowded even though it's been losing people
Philadelphia is the second largest city on the east coast and the third most populous
downtown in the country the city itself has a population of 1.6 million residents now the
whole metro area has about 6.2 million if you look at their population density they have almost 12
000 people for every square mile now that's not nearly as bad as New York City which is about 27
000 for every square mile but it's still pretty bad this was really interesting I
found this stat that 60 percent of the US population lives within a two-hour flight
of Philadelphia now like I've said many times before when you got too many people you got
more problems more people means more problems when you have a high population density you have more
crime you have more homelessness you have more poverty it's just how it works and that's why
a lot of people don't want to move there nobody wants to live in a city like that where people
are living on top of each other anymore it's different if the city is perfectly clean and
nice and a great place to be but when it's not it's really not worth it when it's overcrowded
number nine horrible traffic that's right they got some bad traffic in Philadelphia and people
know about it that's also part of the problem when you have a lot of people living on top
of each other a lot of really bad traffic scenarios Philadelphia was named the 10th
worst city in the U.S from traffic drivers in Philadelphia on average lose 75 hours of their
life a year due to traffic now it has a lot to do with population but it also has to do with
the really bad infrastructure they've made some upgrades but they are well behind the curve and
one of the problems is kind of self-imposed I guess you could say because the road waves
have been preserved for historical value it's become increasingly difficult to accommodate
the City's ever-growing population and flocking tourists to the different communities now this is
a problem with a lot of historic cities let's say they definitely need an interstate moving
through a certain area but it might go through a historic neighborhood they got to reroute it
which causes more problems I mean it's good to preserve our history but sometimes something's
got to give near where I live we have this weird block how it kind of stretches out the corner
just kind of stretches out in this weird angle it's because there's a 300 year old tree there
I don't know might be only 200 years old but I know it's over 100 years and if you own the
property it's on you can't cut it you can't do it the city takes care of that tree but you can
own the rest of the property that's when I lived in California too we do that kind of stuff here
in Oregon all the time trying to save trees many years ago I saw a comedian said you want to chop
down a tree in Oregon you got a better chance of getting the lap dance from Margaret Thatcher yeah
that's how old that joke is she died in 2013 and I think the odds are really similar to this day
number eight freezing Winters yes it gets pretty cold in Philadelphia the whole Eastern Seaboard
during the winter they have their months where it gets pretty brutal most people don't realize
that when they think about East Coast you know you're probably gonna think New York's
got it and you think about Boston there's always pictures that you never see pictures
of Philadelphia in the snow the cold season in this part of the country lasts for about
three three and a half months from December to sometime in March mid-march something like that
the average temperature is below 45 degrees that's just the average it gets much lower
the coldest month of the year is January in the average low is 27 degrees with the average high
about 40. Philadelphia on average receives about 25 inches of snow every year but it's
had some pretty rough years the winter of 19 to 20 was 78 inches now they do get big snowstorms
where they can get five inches of snow in a day easily that normally happens about once
a year but it can show up anytime from December to March I don't mind cold weather but when the
snow gets that bad I mean it gets worse in other parts of the country but it still kind of sucks
number seven poor public transit SEPTA is the regional Public Transportation Authority of
Philadelphia metropolitan area and operates the area's Subways bus routes commuter rails trolleys
and Light Rail systems now it's expansive and it's big but it's just it kind of sucks I've been on it
a few times Philadelphia city hall subway stop is the main transportation hub for the city and
it is an underground Maze of intricate walkways that connect to different public transportation
stations all in the Heart of the City and if you know it great if you don't good luck it's really
easy to get lost here now my understanding it's got a little better over the last few years but
it's pretty dangerous you're trapped underground with a bunch of weirdos and there's very little
police presence down there in the last few years they've tried to really slow down the
homeless from basically camping out in there but it's been a problem for a long time it's
also known for being unreliable and inconvenient the buses and the trolleys are late all the time
number six it's got a High Cost of Living Philadelphia like all major cities has a
really high cost of living the problem is when you got a High Cost of Living you usually have a
really nice city to live in Philadelphia ain't pulling their weight in that category they're
charging you like it's a much better place to live Philadelphia is considered the fifth most
expensive city in the U.S with the cost of living that's about 11 percent higher than the national
average like we already know housing prices change all the time if you look at the median
home price here it's actually below the national average but they've got a lot of really run down
neighborhoods and a lot of horrible homes for sale so I think it's kind of deceiving but if you want
something decent it's going to be a little too expensive now is it the most expensive city in
the United States no it's a little lower than the most expensive cities but it also sucks a lot more
number five it's dirty that's right Philadelphia is a dirty City in 2020 Forbes named Philadelphia
as the dirtiest city in America you had all the landfills the heat humidity during the
summer the place stinks on top of being dirty in 2022 they launched this neighborhood cleanup
program which should start showing some results I mean they got no place else to
go but up right but the streets always seem to be covered in trash and there's graffiti on the
buildings and the sidewalks they also aren't really big on recycling either only about 25
percent of philadelphians recycle their trash where the national average is about 40 percent
so it's dirty expensive and it's crowded hmm can't wait to go back speaking of that last
time I did this video was about five years ago and back then it'd been about two years
since I'd been in Philadelphia and one of my biggest complaints was lack of good pizza I've
been back since then and I went looking for pizza yeah they still lack really good pizza
number four high crimes yes Philadelphia has some serious crime it's right across
the river from Camden New Jersey so you know you gotta have some high crime you don't want
them showing you up do you Philadelphia has the great nickname of Philadelphia and in
case you don't understand that that's a slang reference for the city's High murder rate the
total crime rate in Philadelphia is 71 above the national average the violent
crime rate is 144 above the national average every year about 500 people for every 100
000 will be the victim of some form of violent crime in Philadelphia that's almost the same odds
as passing the postal exam if you graduated from a Philadelphia High School you want to
go a step further and just look at really bad neighborhoods that got a lot of weirdness going
on that are crimes search YouTube for Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia oh yeah it's eye-opening
number three the parking parking in Philadelphia is legendarily bad finding a parking spot period
is like finding a needle in Haystack it's really really difficult and if you do find parking it's
going to be expensive I don't know how much the city makes off their parking enforcement
but these guys are everywhere it's so bad they actually made a TV show called Parking Wars the
series original Focus was on the employees of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and their
daily work like ticketing booting and towing vehicles and the conflicts they get into with
people pretty much how people despise them went on for Seven Seasons residents here with street
parking usually pay for monthly parking in a lot or something like that instead
of trying to find a parking space the parking authority can be a real pain though and they
definitely won't be cutting you any slack many places have like two hour parking so
you'll eventually get a ticket if you move here and don't pay for a parking spot in some lot
number two too many taxes yeah Philadelphia is kind of heavy on the taxes you got your typical
State and obviously federal taxes but then Philadelphia's got their own if a city wage
tax which goes on salaries you know hourly wage commissions and any other kind of compensation you
could try and get all of Philadelphia residents owe the city wage tax regardless of where they
work Philadelphia also has a property tax which is the third highest in the country when you add all
those things together Philadelphia ends up being one of the highest tax cities in the United States
all right before we get to number one if you got time there's some videos
suggested at the end of this video it really helps out the channel if you
watch one of those so if you got time please do all right on to number one
and number one it's not for families a recent study showed that Philadelphia is one of the
worst cities in the country to raise a family this is based on four factors safety score which we've
already talked about housing affordability which is expensive like we talked about educational
quality which we really didn't talk about but I'll tell you this area Vibes gives them an F
now I'm sure you could find some private schools or the occasional public school that is doing
good but overall their score is an F the last category they look at is Is it child friendly
Philadelphia is not just over all the schools the crime how dirty the city is and believe it
or not where you have to park plays a big part of being a parent nothing like having
to drive around for 20 minutes only to find a parking place four blocks away from your home
in a bad neighborhood you got three kids and one's in a stroller try and get that together
all right so those are the reasons people won't move to Philadelphia hope you got
some information out of it hope you enjoyed it everybody have a great day be nice to each other