Philadelphia ( ) is the
largest city in Pennsylvania
and the sixth-most-populous
city in the United
States
.
In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over
1.4 million, while the
metropolitan
area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's
fifth-largest. The city is the nation's fourth-largest urban area
by population and its fourth-largest consumer media market as
ranked by the
Nielsen Media
Research.
It is the county seat of Philadelphia
County
(with which it is coterminous). Popular
nicknames for Philadelphia include
Philly and
The City
of Brotherly Love, from , , Modern Greek: , "brotherly love"
from φίλος, (
philos,
love), and
αδελφός (
adelphos, brother).
A
commercial, educational, and cultural center, the city was once the
second-largest in the British Empire
(after London
), and the
social and geographical center of the original 13 American colonies.Ben Franklin took a large role in
Philadelphia's early rise to prominence. It was in this city that
many of the ideas, and subsequent actions, gave birth to the
American Revolution and
American
Independence, making Philadelphia a centerpiece of early
American history. It was the most populous city of the young United
States, and served as one of the nation's
many capitals during
the Revolutionary War and after. Following the ratification of the
U.S. Constitution, it was the temporary
national capital from 1790 to 1800 while Washington, DC
was under construction.
History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Philadelphia area was the
location of the
Lenape Indian village
Shackamaxon.
Europeans
arrived in the Delaware Valley in
the early 1600s, with the first settlements founded by the Dutch
, British
and Swedish
.
After
Sweden's first expedition to North
America embarked in late 1637, the Swedes took control of land
on the west side of the Delaware
River from just below the Schuylkill River: today's Philadelphia,
southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware
, and
Maryland
. In 1644,
New
Sweden supported the
Susquehannocks in their military defeat of
the English province of Maryland. But 11 years later, the Dutch
sent an army to the
Delaware River,
nominally taking control of the colony, though Swedish and Finnish
settlers continued to have their own militia, religion, court, and
lands.
The
English conquered the New Netherland colony in October 1663–1664,
but the situation did not really change until 1682, when the area
was included in William Penn's charter
for Pennsylvania.
In 1681, in partial repayment of a debt,
Charles II of England granted
William Penn a
charter
for what would become the
Pennsylvania colony. Despite the
royal charter, Penn bought the land from the local Lenape to be on
good terms with the Native Americans and ensure peace for his
colony.
According to legend
Penn made a treaty of friendship with Lenape chief Tammany under an elm tree at Shackamaxon, in what is now the city's Fishtown
section
. As a
Quaker, Penn had experienced
religious persecution and wanted his colony to be a place where
anyone could worship freely despite their religion, and this
extreme tolerance which led to significantly healthier
relationships with the local Native tribes than most other colonies
had, also encouraged the rapid growth of Philadelphia into
America's most important city. Penn named the city Philadelphia,
which is
Greek for brotherly love
(
philos, "love" or "friendship", and
adelphos,
"brother").Penn planned a city on the
Delaware River to serve as a port and place
for government. Hoping that Philadelphia would become more like an
English rural town instead of a city, Penn laid out roads on a
grid plan to keep houses and businesses
spread far apart, allowing them to be surrounded by gardens and
orchards. The city's inhabitants didn't follow Penn's plans and
crowded by the Delaware River and subdivided and resold their lots.
Before Penn left Philadelphia for the last time, he issued the
Charter of 1701 establishing Philadelphia as a city. The city soon
established itself as an important trading center, poor at first,
but with tolerable living conditions by the 1750s.
Benjamin Franklin, a leading citizen of
the time, helped improve city services and founded new ones, such
as the American Colonies' first hospital
.
Philadelphia's importance and central location in the colonies made
it a natural center for
America's
revolutionaries. The city hosted the
First Continental Congress before
the war; the
Second
Continental Congress, which signed the
United States
Declaration of Independence, during the war; and the
Constitutional Convention after the
war.
Several battles were
fought in and near Philadelphia as well. After the war,
Philadelphia served as the new United States' capital in the 1790s.
In 1793, the largest
yellow fever epidemic in U.S.
history killed as many as5,000 people in Philadelphia, roughly 10%
of the population.
The state government left Philadelphia in 1799 and the federal
government left soon after in 1800, but the city remained the young
nation's largest and a financial and cultural center.
New York City
soon surpassed Philadelphia in population, but
construction of roads, canals, and railroads helped turn Philadelphia into the United
States' first major industrial city. Throughout the 19th
century, Philadelphia had a variety of industries and businesses,
the largest being
textiles.
Major corporations in
the 19th and early 20th centuries included the Baldwin
Locomotive Works
, William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine
Building Company
, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Industry, along with the
U.S. Centennial, was celebrated in 1876
with the
Centennial
Exposition, the first official
World's Fair in the United States.
Immigrants, mostly German
and Irish
, settled in
Philadelphia and the surrounding districts. The rise in
population of the surrounding districts helped lead to the Act of Consolidation of 1854
which extended the city of Philadelphia to include all of Philadelphia
County. In the later half of the century immigrants
from Russia
, Eastern Europe and Italy
and African Americans from the southern U.S. settled in the
city.
By the 20th century, Philadelphia had become known as "corrupt and
contented," with a complacent population and entrenched
Republican political machine. The first major reform
came in 1917 when outrage over the election-year murder of a police
officer led to the shrinking of the
Philadelphia City Council from two
houses to just one. In the 1920s, the public flouting of
Prohibition laws,
mob violence, and police involvement in illegal
activities led to the appointment of
Brigadier General Smedley Butler of the
U.S. Marine Corps as director of
public safety, but political pressure prevented any long-term
success in fighting crime and corruption.
The population peaked at more than two million residents in 1950,
then began to decline.
Revitalization and gentrification of neighborhoods began in the
1960s and continues into the 21st century, with much of the
development in the Center City
and University City
areas of the city. After many of the old
manufacturers and businesses had left Philadelphia or shut down,
the city started attracting service businesses and began to more
aggressively market itself as a tourist destination.
Glass-and-granite skyscrapers were built in Center City.
Historic
areas such as Independence National Historical
Park
located in Old City and Society Hill were
resuscitated during the reformist mayoral era of the 1950s through
the 1980s and are now among the most desirable living areas of
Center City. This has slowed the city's 40-year population
decline after losing nearly one-quarter of its population.
Geography
Topography
Philadelphia is located at 40° 00′ north latitude and 75° 09′ west
longitude. According to the
United States Census Bureau, the
city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 5.29%, is
water. Bodies of water include the
Delaware and
Schuylkill Rivers, and
Cobbs,
Wissahickon, and
Pennypack Creeks.
The
lowest point is sea level, while the highest point is in Chestnut
Hill
, at approximately above sea level (near the
intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike).
Philadelphia is located on the
Fall Line
separating the
Atlantic Coastal
Plain from the
Piedmont. The rapids on the
Schuylkill River at
East Falls disappeared after the completion of
the Fairmount Dam.
The city
is the seat of its own county. The adjacent counties are Montgomery
to the north; Bucks
to the northeast; Burlington
County, New Jersey
to the east; Camden County, New Jersey
to the southeast; Gloucester
County, New Jersey
to the south; and Delaware
County
to the west.
Climate
Philadelphia falls in the northern periphery of the
humid subtropical climate zone.
Summers are typically hot and muggy, fall and spring are generally
mild, and winter is cold. Snowfall is variable, with some winters
bringing moderate snow and others bringing some snowstorms. Annual
snowfall averages 21 inches (534 mm). Precipitation is
generally spread throughout the year, with eight to eleven wet days
per month, at an average annual rate of 42 inches
(1068 mm).
January lows average 25 °F (−4 °C) and highs average
39 °F (4 °C). The lowest officially recorded temperature
was −11 °F (−24 °C) on February 9, 1934, but temperatures
below 0 °F (−18 °C) occur only a few times a decade. July
lows average 70 °F (21 °C) and highs average 86 °F
(30 °C), although heat waves accompanied by high humidity are
frequent with highs above 95 °F (35 °C) and the
heat index running as high as 110 °F
(43 °C). The highest recorded temperature was 106 °F
(41 °C) on August 7, 1918. Early fall and late winter are
generally driest, with February being the driest month, averaging
only 2.74 inches (69.8 mm) of precipitation.
Cityscape
Neighborhoods
Philadelphia's neighborhoods are divided
into large sections — North, Northeast
, Northwest,
West, South and Southwest Philadelphia — all of which
surround Center City, which corresponds largely with the city's limits
before consolidation in 1854. Each of these large areas
contains numerous smaller neighborhoods, some of whose boundaries
derive from the boroughs, townships, and other communities that
made up Philadelphia County before their absorption into the city.
Other neighborhoods are defined more by ethnicity, religion,
culture, or commercial reasons.
Architecture
Philadelphia's architectural history dates back to
Colonial times and includes a wide range of
styles. The earliest structures were constructed with
logs, but brick structures were common by 1700.
During
the 18th century, the cityscape was
dominated by Georgian
architecture, including Independence
Hall
and Christ Church
.
In the first decades of the 19th century,
Federal architecture and
Greek Revival architecture were
dominated by Philadelphia architects such as
Benjamin Latrobe,
William Strickland,
John Haviland,
John
Notman,
Thomas U. Walter, and
Samuel
Sloan.
Frank Furness
is considered Philadelphia's greatest architect of the second half
of the 19th century, but his contemporaries included John McArthur, Jr., Addison Hutton, Wilson Eyre
, the Wilson Brothers, and Horace Trumbauer. In 1871, construction
began on the Second
Empire-style Philadelphia City Hall
. Despite the construction of steel and
concrete skyscrapers in the 1910s, '20s
and '30s, the City Hall remained the tallest building in the city
until 1987 when One
Liberty Place
was constructed.
Numerous glass and granite skyscrapers were built from the late
1980s onwards.
In 2007, the Comcast
Center
surpassed One Liberty Place to become the city's
tallest building and make Philadelphia one of only four American
cities with two or more buildings over 900 feet.
For much of Philadelphia's history, the typical Philadelphia home
has been the
row house. The row house
was introduced to the United States via Philadelphia in the early
1800s and, for a time, row houses built elsewhere in the United
States were known as "Philadelphia rows". There is a variety of row
houses throughout the city from Victorian-style homes in North
Philadelphia to twin row houses in West Philadelphia. While newer
homes are scattered throughout the city, much of Philadelphia's
housing is from the early 20th century or older.
The age of the city's
homes has created numerous problems which has led to blight and
vacant lots in many parts of the city, while other neighborhoods
such as Society Hill
, which has the largest concentration of
18th-century architecture in the United States, have been
rehabilitated and gentrified.
Culture
Philadelphia is home to many
national historical sites that
relate to the founding of the United States.
Independence
National Historical Park is the center of these historical landmarks.
Independence
Hall, where the Declaration of
Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell
are the city's most famous attractions.
Other
historic sites include homes for Edgar
Allan Poe
, Betsy
Ross
, and Thaddeus
Kosciuszko
, early government buildings like the First
and Second Banks of the United
States
, Fort
Mifflin
, and the Gloria
Dei Church National Historic Site.
Philadelphia's major science museums include
the Franklin
Institute
, which contains the Benjamin
Franklin National Memorial
, the Academy of Natural Sciences
, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology
. History museums include the National
Constitution Center
, the Atwater Kent Museum of
Philadelphia
History, the National Museum of American Jewish
History
, the African American Museum
in Philadelphia, the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in
the state of Pennsylvania and The Masonic Library and Museum of
Pennsylvania and Eastern State Penitentiary
. Philadelphia is home to the United States'
first zoo
and hospital.
Arts
The city
contains many art museums such as the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts
and the Rodin Museum
, the largest collection of work by Auguste Rodin
outside of France. The city’s major art museum, the Philadelphia
Museum of Art
, is one of the largest art museums in the United
States and features the steps
made
popular by the film Rocky.
The city is home to the
Philadelphia Sketch Club, one of
the country's oldest artists' clubs; and to a profusion of art
galleries, many of which participate in the
First Friday event. The first Friday of every
month galleries in Old City are open late. Annual events include
film festivals and parades, the most famous being the
New Year's Day Mummers Parade.
Areas
such as South Street and Old City
have a vibrant night life. The Avenue of the Arts in
Center City contains many restaurants and theaters, such as the Kimmel
Center for the Performing Arts
, which is home to the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the
Academy
of Music
, the nation's oldest continually operating venue,
home to the Opera Company
of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia has more
public art than any
other American city. In 1872, the Fairmount Park Art Association
was created, the first private association in the United States
dedicated to integrating public art and
urban planning. In 1959, lobbying by the
Artists Equity Association helped create the
Percent for Art ordinance, the first for a U.S. city. The program, which
has funded more than 200 pieces of public art, is administered by
the Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture, the city's art
agency.
In particular, Philadelphia has more murals than any other U.S.
city, thanks in part to the 1984 creation of the Department of
Recreation's
Mural Arts Program,
which seeks to beautify neighborhoods and provide an outlet for
graffiti artists. The program has funded
more than 2,800
murals by professional, staff
and volunteer artists and educated over 20,000 underserved youth in
neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia.
Philadelphia has had a prominent role in
music. In the 1970s,
Philadelphia soul influenced the music of
that and later eras.
On July 13, 1985, Philadelphia hosted the
American end of the Live Aid concert at
John F.
Kennedy Stadium
. The city reprised this role for the Live 8 concert, bringing some 700,000 people to the
Ben Franklin
Parkway
on July 2, 2005. Philadelphia is also
home to the world-renowned Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale,
who have performed their music all over the world. Dr. Robert G.
Hamilton, founder of the choir, is a famous Philadelphian. The
Philly Pops is another famous Philadelphia music group. The city
has played a major role in the development and support of American
rock music and
rap
music. Hip-hop/Rap Artists such as
The
Roots,
DJ Jazzy
Jeff & the Fresh Prince,
Beanie
Segal,
The Goats,
Freeway,
Schooly D,
Eve and
Lisa "Left Eye"
Lopes hail from Philadelphia.
Cuisine
Pat's Steaks in South
Philadelphia.
The city
is known for its hoagies,
scrapple, soft
pretzels, water ice, Tastykake
, and is home to the cheesesteak. Its high-end
restaurants include Le
Bec-Fin
and Morimoto, run by chef Masaharu Morimoto, who rose to prominence
on the Iron Chef television
show.
Sports
Philadelphia's professional sports teams
date at least to the 1860 founding of baseball's Athletics, which later
moved to Oakland,
California
. The city is one of 13 U.S. cities to have
all four
major sports: the
Philadelphia
Eagles of the
National
Football League, the
Philadelphia Flyers of the
National Hockey League, the
Philadelphia Phillies in the
National League of
Major League Baseball, and the
Philadelphia 76ers in the
National Basketball
Association.
The city's professional teams went without a championship from
1983, when the 76ers won the
NBA
Championship, until 2008, when the Phillies won the
World Series. In 2004,
ESPN ranked Philadelphia second on its list of The
Fifteen Most Tortured Sports Cities. The failure was sometimes
attributed in jest to the "
Curse of
Billy Penn." Also, in recent years, Philadelphia sports teams
have befallen to what John Smallwood of
The Philadelphia Daily News called
the "Curse of the Inauguration," an alleged curse on all
Philadelphia sports teams for their inability to win a championship
whenever they have gone to their league's finals during a
presidential
inaugural year, dating back to the 76ers loss in the
1977 NBA Finals.
Major-sport professional sports teams that originated in
Philadelphia but ultimately moved to other cities include the
Golden State Warriors
basketball team and the
Oakland
Athletics baseball team.
Philadelphia is home to professional, semi-professional and elite
amateur teams in
cricket and other sports.
Major sporting events in the city include the
Penn Relays,
Stotesbury Cup,
Philadelphia Marathon,
Broad Street Run,
Philadelphia
International Championship bicycle
race, and the
Dad Vail
Regatta.
Philadelphia is home to the Philadelphia Big 5, a group of five
Division I college basketball programs: Big 5 are Saint
Joseph's University
, University of Pennsylvania
, La Salle University
, Temple University
, and Villanova University
. The sixth NCAA Division I school in
Philadelphia is Drexel
University
. At least one of the teams is competitive
nearly every year and at least one team has made the NCAA
tournament for the past four decades.
In February 2008, Philadelphia beat several other cities in
competition for the 16th
Major
League Soccer franchise.
The Philadelphia Union will enter the league
in 2010 calling Union Field at Chester
their home (a soccer-specific stadium) in Chester,
Pennsylvania
.
| Club |
League |
Sport |
Venue |
Established |
Championships |
|
Philadelphia Phillies |
MLB |
Baseball |
Citizens Bank Park |
1883 |
1980, 2008 |
|
Philadelphia 76ers |
NBA |
Basketball |
Wachovia Center |
1963 |
1966-67, 1982-83 |
|
Philadelphia Eagles |
NFL |
American Football |
Lincoln Financial Field |
1933 |
1948, 1949, 1960 |
|
Philadelphia Flyers |
NHL |
Ice Hockey |
Wachovia Center |
1967 |
1973–74, 1974–75 |
|
Philadelphia Union |
MLS |
Soccer |
Union Field at Chester
(in Chester,
PA) |
2010 |
none |
|
Philadelphia
Independence |
WPS |
Women's Soccer |
Union Field at Chester
(in Chester,
PA) |
2010 |
none |
|
Philadelphia Wings |
NLL |
Arena Lacrosse |
Wachovia Center |
1987 |
1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001 |
|
Philadelphia KiXX |
NISL |
Arena Soccer |
Liacouras Center |
1996 |
2001-02, 2006-07 |
Economy
Philadelphia's economic sectors include manufacturing, oil
refining, food processing, health care and biotechnology, tourism
and financial services.
According to a study prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers
, Philadelphia and its surrounding region had
the fourth highest GDP among American cities, with a total GDP of
$312 billion in 2005. Only New York City ($1,133 billion), Los Angeles
($693 billion), and Chicago
($460 billion) had higher total economic output
levels among American cities. Philadelphia ranked
below Tokyo
($1,191
billion), Paris
($460
billion), London ($452
billion), Osaka-Kobe ($391 billion),
Mexico
City
($315 billion), and above Washington,
D.C.
($299 billion) and Boston
($290
billion).
The city
is home to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange
and several Fortune
500 companies, including cable
television and internet provider Comcast, insurance
companies Colonial Penn, CIGNA and Lincoln
Financial Group, energy company Sunoco,
food services company Aramark and Crown Holdings Incorporated,
chemical makers Rohm and Haas
Company and FMC Corporation,
pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline, Boeing helicopters
division, and automotive parts retailer Pep
Boys. Early in the 20th Century, it was also home to the
pioneering
brass era automobile company
Biddle.
The federal government has several facilities in Philadelphia.
The city
served as the capital city of the United States, before the construction of Washington,
D.C. Today, the East Coast operations of the
United States Mint are based near
the historic district, and the
Federal
Reserve Bank's Philadelphia division is based there as well.
Philadelphia is also home to the
U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the
U.S.
Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit.
With the
historic presence of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the large
ridership at 30th
Street Station
, Amtrak maintains a
significant presence in the city. These jobs include
customer service representatives and ticket processing and other
behind-the-scenes personnel, in addition to the normal functions of
the railroad.
Baltimore Avenue towards Center
City.
The city
is a national center of law because of the University of Pennsylvania
Law School, Drexel University Earle Mack School of
Law
, Temple
University Beasley School of Law
, Rutgers
University School of Law - Camden, Villanova
University School of Law
, and Widener University School of
Law. Additionally, the headquarters of the
American Law Institute is located in
the city.
Philadelphia is an important center for medicine, a distinction
that it has held since the colonial period.
The city is home to
the first hospital in the British North American colonies, Pennsylvania
Hospital, and the first medical school in what is now the
United States, at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). Penn, the city's largest private
employer, also runs a large teaching hospital and extensive medical
system.
There are also major hospitals affiliated
with Temple
University School of Medicine, Drexel University College
of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University
, and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic
Medicine
. Philadelphia also has three distinguished
children's hospitals: Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia
, the nation's first pediatric hospital (located
adjacent to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania), St.
Christopher's Hospital, and the Shriners' Hospital.
In the
city's northern section are Albert Einstein Hospital, and in the
northeast section, Fox Chase Cancer Center
. Together, health care is the largest
sector of employment in the city. Several medical professional
associations are headquartered in Philadelphia.
With Philadelphia's importance as a medical research center, the
region supports the
pharmaceutical industry.
GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Wyeth,
Merck, GE
Healthcare, Johnson and Johnson
and Siemens
Medical Solutions are just some of the large pharmaceutical
companies with operations in the region. The city is also home
to the nation's first school of pharmacy, the Philadelphia College
of Pharmacy, now called the University of the Sciences in
Philadelphia
.
Tourism is a major industry in Philadelphia, which was the
11th-most-visited city in the United States in 2008. It welcomed
710,000 visitors from foreign countries in 2008, up 29% from the
previous year.
Shopping
Shopping
options in Center City include The Gallery at Market East
, The Shops at Liberty Place, Jewelers' Row, South
Street
, and a variety of standalone independent
retailers. Rittenhouse Row, a
four block section of
Walnut Street, has higher-end
clothing
chain stores as well as
hipster-inspired clothing stores. The
parallel streets of Sansom and Chestnut in this area have some high
end boutiques and clothing retailers. Old City has some emerging
boutiques from local, as well as international merchandisers.
The
Reading
Terminal Market
includes dozens of take-out restaurants, specialty
food vendors, and small grocery store
operators, a few of which are operated by Amish farmers from nearby
Lancaster County
.
Philadelphia also has a few eclectic
neighborhood shopping districts, usually consisting of a few blocks
along a major neighborhood thoroughfare, such as in Manayunk
or Chestnut
Hill. The Italian Market
in South Philadelphia offers groceries, meats,
cheeses and housewares, historically from Italy, but now from many
nationalities. Two famed cheesesteak restaurants, Geno's
and Pat's
, are located nearby.
There are
several large shopping malls and strip malls in the region,
including Franklin
Mills
in Northeast Philadelphia, and many in the suburbs, most notably the King of
Prussia Mall
in King of Prussia
, Pennsylvania, 19 miles from the heart of the city.
The King
of Prussia Mall is the largest shopping mall on the US East Coast and the largest
in the country in terms of leasable retail space.
Media
The Inquirer Building on North Broad
Street.
Philadelphia's two major
daily newspapers
are
The Philadelphia
Inquirer and the
Philadelphia Daily News, both
of which are owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C.
The
Philadelphia Inquirer, founded in 1829, is the third-oldest
surviving daily newspaper in the United States.
The Bulletin, another
newspaper that operates in Philadelphia, traces its history back to
The Philadelphia
Bulletin that went defunct in 1982.
The Bulletin
is locally owned by The Bulletin, Inc.
The first
experimental radio license was issued in
Philadelphia in August, 1912 to St. Joseph's
College. The first commercial radio stations appeared
in 1922: first WIP, then owned by Gimbel's department store, on March 17, followed the same year by WFIL
, WOO, WCAU
and
WDAS. The highest-rated stations in Philadelphia
include soft rock WBEB
, KYW Newsradio
, and urban
adult contemporary WDAS-FM.
Philadelphia is served by three major
public radio stations,
WHYY-FM (NPR),
WRTI (jazz,
classical), and
WXPN-FM (adult alternative
music), as well as several smaller stations.
In the
1930s, the experimental station W3XE
, owned by
Philco, became the first television station in Philadelphia; it
became NBC's first affiliate in 1939, and later
became KYW-TV (CBS). WCAU-TV
, WPVI-TV
, WHYY-TV
, WPHL-TV
, and WTXF-TV
had all been founded by the 1970s. In 1952
WFIL (now WPVI), premiered the television show
Bandstand,
which later became the nationally broadcast
American Bandstand hosted by
Dick Clark.
Today, as in many
large metropolitan areas, each of the commercial networks has an
affiliate, and call letters have been replaced by corporate IDs:
CBS3, 6ABC, NBC10, FOX29, Telefutura28, Telemundo62, Univision65,
plus My PHL 17 and CW Philly
57
. The region is served also by public broadcasting stations WYBE-TV
(Philadelphia), WHYY-TV (Wilmington, Delaware and
Philadelphia), WLVT-TV
(Lehigh Valley), and New Jersey Network
. In September 2007, Philadelphia approved a
public access cable channel.
Rock stations
WMMR and
WYSP
have traditionally been intense rivals. Since 2005, WMMR has played
more music after a shift in WYSP's programming from rock (including
controversial
shock jock Howard Stern) to a
Free
FM format. WYSP has since returned to the classic rock format
it shed in 1995. WYSP also broadcasts all
Philadelphia Eagles games. WMMR's
The Preston and Steve
Show has been the area's top-rated morning show since
Howard Stern left for
Sirius Radio. In November 2008, WYSP launched a
competing show hosted by Philadelphia native
Danny Bonaduce. Both stations host regular
live music and other events in throughout the region.
Four
urban stations (WUSL
("Power 99"), WPHI
("100.3 The
Beat"), WDAS and WRNB)
are popular choices on the FM dial. WNUW
is the city's
Adult Contemporary
station. The station had been home of "
Smooth Jazz" WJJZ after the format was dropped
from the 106.1 frequency (now
WISX) but the
format was dropped once again due to poor ratings.
Innovation
Philadelphia is home to many "first-in-America" institutions,
including:
Demographics
As of the 2005-2007
American
Community Survey conducted by the
U.S. Census
Bureau,
White Americans made up
42.7% of Philadelphia's population; of which 39.4% were
non-Hispanic
whites.
Blacks or
African
Americans made up 43.8% of Philadelphia's population; of which
43.0% were non-Hispanic blacks.
American Indian made up
0.2% of the city's population.
Asian
Americans made up 5.4% of the city's population.
Pacific Islander Americans made up
less than 0.1% of the city's population. Individuals from some
other race made up 6.2% of the city's population; of which 0.4%
were non-Hispanic. Individuals from
two or more races made up 1.6% of the
city's population; of which 1.2% were non-Hispanic. In addition,
Hispanics and Latinos
made up 10.3% of Philadelphia's population.
As of the
census of 2000, there were
1,517,550 people, 590,071 households, and 352,272 families residing
in the city. The
population
density was 11,233.6/square mile (4,337.3/km²). There were
661,958 housing units at an average density of 4,900.1/sq mi
(1,891.9/km²). As of the 2004 Census estimations, there were
1,463,281 people, 658,799 housing units, and the racial makeup of
the city was 45.0%
White, 43.2%
African American,
5.5%
Asian, 0.3%
Native American, 0.1%
Pacific Islander, 5.8% from
other races, and 2.2%
from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 8.5% of the
population. The top 5 largest ancestries include
Irish (13.6%),
Italian (9.2%),
German (8.1%),
Polish (4.3%), and
English (2.9%).
Of the 590,071 households, 27.6% have children under the age of 18
living with them, 32.1% were
married
couples living together, 22.3% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 40.3% were non-families. 33.8% of all
households were made up of individuals and 11.9% had someone living
alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size
was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.22.
In the city, the population was spread out with 25.3% under the age
of 18, 11.1% from 18 to 25, 29.3% from 25 to 45, 20.3% from 45 to
65, and 14.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
34 years. For every 100 females there were 86.8 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,746, and the
median income for a family was $37,036. Males had a median income
of $34,199 versus $28,477 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$16,509. About 18.4% of families and 22.9% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 31.3%
of those under age 18 and 16.9% of those age 65 or over.
As of 2008 more than 500,000 immigrants call the Philadelphia
metropolitan area home. More than one-fifth of these immigrants
have arrived since 2000, resulting in an increase of 113,000
immigrants between the years 2000 and 2006. This is nearly the same
amount of
immigrants that arrived
during the decade of the 1990s, of which today comprise 10.9% of
the city's population. As reported by the Brookings Institution,
the Philadelphia area is poised to re-emerge as a destination for
immigrants, a longtime characteristic of the region that stalled in
the mid-20th century.
Philadelphia has the second largest
Irish,
Italian,
and
Jamaican populations and the
fourth largest
African American
population in the nation. Philadelphia also has the fourth largest
population of
Polish residents. In
recent years, the
Hispanic and
Asian American populations have significantly
increased. Hispanics have settled throughout the city, especially
around
El Centro de Oro.
Philadelphia is home to the third largest Puerto Rican population
in the United States. In recent years many
Mexican immigrants have come to areas
around the Italian Market. There are an estimated 10,000 Mexicans
living in South Philadelphia. Mexicans and Guatemalans also have
settled in small communities in North Philadelphia, mainly in the
Kensington neighborhood. Colombian immigrants have also come to the
Olney neighborhood.
The Asian
population was once concentrated in the city's thriving Chinatown
, but now Korean
Americans have come to Olney
, and Vietnamese
have forged bazaars next to the Italian
Market in South
Philadelphia. Concentrations of
Cambodian American neighborhoods can be
found in North and South Philadelphia.
Indians
and Arabs have come to Northeast
Philadelphia along with Russian and Ukrainian immigrants.
This
large influx of Asians has given Philadelphia one of the largest
populations of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Chinese, Indonesians and
Koreans in United
States. The Philadelphia region also has the fourth
largest population of Indian Americans.
The West Indian
population is concentrated in Cedar
Park
. Germans,
Greeks,
Chinese,
Japanese,
English,
Pakistanis,
Iranians, and
also immigrants from the former
Yugoslavia along with other ethnic groups can be
found throughout the city.
Government
City Hall illuminated with projected
lights for the 2005 winter holidays.
From a governmental perspective, Philadelphia County is a
legal nullity, as all county functions were
assumed by the city in 1952, which has been coterminous with the
county since 1854.
Philadelphia’s 1952 Home Rule Charter was written by the City
Charter Commission, which was created by the Pennsylvania General
Assembly in an Act of April 21, 1949, and a city ordinance of June
15, 1949. The existing City Council received a proposed draft on
February 14, 1951, and the electors approved it in an election held
April 17, 1951. The first elections under the new Home Rule Charter
were held in November, 1951, and the newly elected officials took
office in January, 1952.
The city uses the "strong-mayor" version of the
mayor-council form of government, which is
headed by one
mayor, in whom executive
authority is vested. Elected "
at-large,"
the mayor is limited to two consecutive four-year terms under the
city's
home rule charter, but can run for
the position again after an intervening term. The current city
mayor, having taken office in January 2008, is
Michael Nutter, replacing
John F. Street who served two terms from 1999
to the end of 2007. Nutter, as all Philadelphia mayors have been
since 1952, is a member of the
Democratic Party, which tends
to dominate local politics so thoroughly that the Democratic
primary for mayor is often more noticeable than the general mayoral
election. The legislative branch, the
Philadelphia City Council,
consists of ten council members representing individual districts
and seven members elected at large. The current council president
is
Anna C. Verna.
The Philadelphia County
Court of Common Pleas
(First Judicial District) is the felony-level
trial court of general jurisdiction for
Philadelphia. It is funded and operated largely by city resources
and employees. The Philadelphia Municipal Court handles matters of
limited jurisdiction as well as landlord-tenant disputes, appeals
from traffic court, preliminary hearings for felony-level offenses,
and misdemeanor criminal trials.
Traffic
Court is a court of special jurisdiction that hears violations
of traffic laws.
Pennsylvania's three
appellate
courts also have sittings in Philadelphia.
The Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania
, the court of last resort in the state, regularly
hears arguments in Philadelphia City Hall. Also, the
Superior Court of
Pennsylvania and the
Commonwealth Court of
Pennsylvania sit in Philadelphia several times a year. Judges
for these courts are elected at large. Each court has a
prothonotary's office in Philadelphia as
well.
The
Philadelphia
Historical Commission was created in 1955 to preserve the
cultural, social, political, economic and architectural history of
the city. The commission maintains the
Philadelphia Register
of Historic Places, adding historic buildings, structures,
sites, objects and districts as it sees fit.
The
Philadelphia Housing
Authority is the largest landlord in the entire Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Established in 1937, it is the nation’s
fourth-largest housing authority, housing approximately 84,000
people and employing 1,250. In 2006, its budget was $313
million.
The
United States Postal
Service operates post offices in Philadelphia.
The main
Philadelphia Post Office is at 3000 Chestnut Street in the University City district. The facility at 3000 Chestnut
became Philadelphia's main post office at 8 A.M. on Monday
September 29, 2008, after the closure of the former main post
office at 30th Street and Market Street in University City.
Politics and elections
Presidential election results
| Year |
Republican |
Democratic |
| 2008 |
16.33% 117,221 |
83.01%
595,980 |
| 2004 |
19.3% 130,099 |
80.4%
542,205 |
| 2000 |
18.0% 100,959 |
80.0%
449,182 |
| 1996 |
16.0% 85,345 |
77.5%
412,988 |
| 1992 |
20.9% 133,328 |
68.2%
434,904 |
| 1988 |
32.5% 219,053 |
66.6%
449,566 |
| 1984 |
34.6% 267,178 |
64.9%
501,369 |
| 1980 |
34.0% 244,108 |
58.7%
421,253 |
| 1976 |
32.0% 239,000 |
66.3%
494,579 |
| 1972 |
43.4% 340,096 |
55.1%
431,736 |
| 1968 |
30.0% 254,153 |
61.8%
525,768 |
| 1964 |
26.2% 239,733 |
73.4%
670,645 |
| 1960 |
31.8% 291,000 |
68.0%
622,544 |
As of November 2008, there are 1,126,768 registered voters in
Philadelphia.
From the
American Civil War until
the mid-20th century, Philadelphia was a bastion of the
Republican Party, which
arose from the staunch pro-Northern views of Philadelphia residents
during and after the war. After the
Great Depression, Democratic registrations
increased, but the city was not carried by Democratic
Franklin D. Roosevelt in his landslide victory of
1932 (in which Pennsylvania was one of the few states won by
Republican
Herbert Hoover). While
other Northern industrial cities were electing Democratic mayors in
the 1930s and 1940s, Philadelphia did not follow suit until 1951.
That is, Philadelphia never had a "New Deal" coalition.
The city is now one of the most Democratic in the country, despite
the frequent election of Republicans to statewide offices since the
1930s; in 2008, Democrat
Barack Obama
drew 83% of the city's vote.
Philadelphia once comprised six
congressional districts. However, as
a result of the city's declining population, it now has only four:
the 1st
district, represented by
Bob Brady;
the 2nd,
represented by
Chaka Fattah;
the 8th,
represented by
Patrick
Murphy; and
the 13th,
represented by
Allyson Schwartz.
All four are Democrats. Although they are usually swamped by
Democrats in city, state and national elections, Republicans still
have some support in the area; a Republican represented a
significant portion of Philadelphia in the House as late as 1983.
Pennsylvania's Democratic
Senator,
Arlen
Specter, is from Philadelphia.
Crime
Like many American cities, Philadelphia saw a gradual yet
pronounced rise in crime in the years following
World War II. There were 525 murders in 1990, a
rate of 31.5 per 100,000. There were an average of about 600
murders a year for most of the 1990s. The murder count dropped in
2002 to 288, then surged four years later to 406. Out of the ten
most populous cities in the United States in 2006, Philadelphia had
the highest homicide rate at 27.7 per 100,000 people, though the
number of murders decreased to 392 in 2007.
In 2004, there were 7,513.5 crimes per 200,000 people in
Philadelphia. In 2005, Philadelphia was ranked by
Morgan Quitno as the sixth-most dangerous
among 32 American cities with populations over 500,000.
Among
its neighboring Mid-Atlantic cities in the same population group,
Baltimore
and Washington, D.C. were ranked second- and third-most dangerous
cities in the United States, respectively, and Camden
, New
Jersey
, a city across the Delaware River from
Philadelphia, was ranked as the most dangerous city in the United
States.
In 2008, Camden was the second-most dangerous city in the country,
lower than its 2004 ranking, but still high for a city its size,
while Philadelphia was ranked 22nd.
Education
Education in Philadelphia is provided by
many private and public institutions. The
School District of
Philadelphia runs the city's
public schools. The
Philadelphia School District is the eighth largest
school district in the United States with
210,432 students in 346 public and
charter schools.
Philadelphia is one of the largest
college
towns in the United States and has the second-largest student
concentration on the East Coast with over 120,000 college and
university students enrolled within the city and nearly 300,000 in
the metropolitan area. There are over 80 colleges, universities,
trade, and specialty schools in the Philadelphia region.
The city
contains three major research universities: the University
of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and Temple University. Other institutions of higher learning
within the city's borders include Saint
Joseph's University, La Salle University, Peirce College
, University of the Sciences in
Philadelphia, The University of the Arts
, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts
, the Curtis Institute of Music
, Thomas Jefferson University, Moore College of Art and
Design
, The Art Institute of
Philadelphia
, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic
Medicine, The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill
College
, Philadelphia University
, Chestnut Hill College
, Holy
Family University
, the Community College of
Philadelphia
and Messiah College Philadelphia
Campus
.
Philadelphia's famous Pennsylvania Main Line and western
suburbs are home to other notable colleges and universities
including Villanova University, Bryn Mawr College
, Haverford College
, and Swarthmore College
.
In early September 2009, the
Free Library of Philadelphia
announced that the Parkway Central Library and all of its local and
regional branches will cease operations as of the 2nd of October,
2009 due to the state budget crisis in Harrisburg.
Infrastructure
Philadelphia is served by the Southeastern
Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA),
which operates buses, trains, rapid transit,
trolleys, and trackless
trolleys throughout Philadelphia, the four Pennsylvania
suburban counties of Bucks, Chester
, Delaware, and Montgomery, in addition to service to Mercer
County, New Jersey
and New Castle County, Delaware
. The city's subway, opened in 1907, is the
third-oldest in America.
SEPTA's
R1 Regional Rail line offers direct
service to the Philadelphia International
Airport
.
Philadelphia's 30th
Street Station is a major railroad
station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which offers access
to Amtrak, SEPTA, and New Jersey
Transit lines.
The
PATCO Speedline provides rapid transit service to Camden, Collingswood
, Westmont
, Haddonfield
, Woodcrest 
, Ashland 
, and Lindenwold
, New
Jersey, from stations on Locust Street between 16th
and 15th, 13th and 12th, and 10th and 9th Streets, and on Market
Street at 8th Street.
Airports
Two
airports serve Philadelphia: the Philadelphia International
Airport (PHL), straddling the southern boundary of the
city, and the Northeast Philadelphia
Airport
(PNE), a general aviation reliever airport in
Northeast
Philadelphia. Philadelphia International Airport provides
scheduled domestic and international air service, while Northeast
Philadelphia Airport serves general and corporate aviation. As of
March 2006, Philadelphia International Airport was the 10th largest
airport measured by "traffic movements" (i.e. takeoffs and
landings), and was also a primary hub for
US
Airways.
Roads
Aerial view showing the major highways
circumscribing Philadelphia.
Interstate 95 runs
through the city along the Delaware River as a main north-south
artery. The city is also served by the
Schuylkill Expressway, a portion of
Interstate 76 that runs along
the
Schuylkill River.
It meets the
Pennsylvania Turnpike at
King of
Prussia, Pennsylvania, providing access to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
and points west. Interstate 676, the
Vine Street Expressway, was completed
in 1991 after years of planning. A link between I-95 and I-76, it
runs below street level through Center City, connecting to the
Ben Franklin Bridge at its
eastern end.
Roosevelt
Boulevard and the
Roosevelt Expressway
(
U.S. 1) connect Northeast
Philadelphia with Center City. Woodhaven Road
(Route 63), built in 1966, and
Cottman Avenue (Route 73) serve the
neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia, running between Interstate 95 and the
Roosevelt Boulevard (U.S. 1).
The Fort Washington
Expressway (Pennsylvania Route
309) extends north from the city's northern border, serving
Montgomery County and Bucks County. Route
30
, extending east-west from West Philadelphia to Lancaster
, is known as Lancaster Avenue throughout most of
the city and through the adjacent Main Line suburb.
Interstate 476, commonly nicknamed the "Blue
Route" through Delaware County, bypasses the city to the west, serving the city's
western suburbs, as well as providing a link to Allentown
and points north. Similarly, Interstate 276, the Pennsylvania Turnpike's
Delaware River Extension, acts as a bypass and commuter route to
the north of the city as well as a link to the New Jersey Turnpike to New York
.
However, other planned
freeways have been
canceled, such as an
Interstate 695 running
southwest from downtown, two freeways connecting
Interstate 95 to
Interstate 76 that would have replaced
Girard Avenue and South Street and a freeway upgrade of
Roosevelt
Boulevard.
The
Delaware River Port
Authority operates four bridges in the Philadelphia area across
the Delaware River to New Jersey: the Walt Whitman Bridge
(I-76), the Benjamin Franklin Bridge (I-676 and
US 30), the Betsy Ross Bridge (Route 90), and the Commodore Barry Bridge
(US 322).
The
Tacony-Palmyra Bridge connects
PA Route 73 in the Tacony section of Northeast Philadelphia with New Jersey's Route 73 in Palmyra
, Camden County, and is maintained by the Burlington County Bridge
Commission.
Bus Service
Philadelphia is also a major hub for
Greyhound Lines, which operates 24-hour
service to points east of the
Mississippi River.
Most of Greyhound's
services in Philadelphia operate to/from the Philadelphia Greyhound
Terminal
, located at 1001 Filbert Street in Center City
Philadelphia. In 2006, the Philadelphia Greyhound
Terminal was the second busiest Greyhound terminal in the United
States, after the Port Authority Bus Terminal
in New York. Besides Greyhound, six other
bus operators provide service to the Center City Greyhound
terminal. These are
Bieber Tourways,
Capitol Trailways,
Martz Trailways,
Peter Pan Bus Lines,
Susquehanna Trailways, and the
bus division for New
Jersey Transit Other services include
Megabus and
Bolt
Bus.
Rail
Suburban Station
Since the early days of
rail transport in the United
States, Philadelphia has served as hub for several major rail
companies, particularly the
Pennsylvania Railroad and the
Reading Railroad.
The Pennsylvania
Railroad first operated Broad
Street Station
, then 30th Street Station
and Suburban Station
, and the Reading Railroad operated out of Reading
Terminal
, now part of the Pennsylvania Convention
Center
. The two companies also operated competing
commuter rail systems in the area, known collectively as the
Regional Rail system. The two systems today, for the most part
still intact but now connected, operate as a single system under
the control of the
SEPTA,
the regional transit authority.
Additionally, Philadelphia is linked to
southern New
Jersey via the PATCO
Speedline subway system.
Philadelphia, once home to more than 4,000 trolleys on 65 lines, is
one of the few North American cities to maintain
streetcar lines.
Today, SEPTA operates five
"subway-surface" trolleys that run on street-level tracks in
West Philadelphia and subway
tunnels in Center City. SEPTA also recently reintroduced trolley
service to the
Girard Avenue Line,
Route 15. The route is considered by some a "heritage" line, yet
the use of rebuilt
1947 PCC streetcars
was primarily for budgetary reasons, not a historic tribute.
Today,
Philadelphia is a hub of the semi-nationalized Amtrak system, with 30th Street Station being a
primary stop on the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor and the Keystone Corridor to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh
, Pennsylvania. 30th Street also serves as a major station
for services via the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Pennsylvania Main Line to
Chicago. 30th Street is Amtrak's third-busiest
station in numbers of passengers as of
fiscal year 2003. It is also a terminus of
New Jersey Transit's
Atlantic City Line.
Telecommunications
Southeastern Pennsylvania was, at one time,
served only by the 215
area code, beginning in 1947 when the North American Numbering Plan
of the "Bell System" went into
effect. The area covered by the code was severely
truncated when area
code 610
was split
from 215. Today only the city and its northern suburbs are
covered by 215. An
overlay area
code, 267, was added to the 215 service area in 1997. A plan to
introduce
area code 445 as an
additional overlay in 2001 was delayed and later rescinded.
Philadelphia is now also served by
Wireless
Philadelphia, a citywide initiative to provide
Wi-Fi service. The Proof of Concept area was approved
on May 23, 2007, and service is now available in many areas of the
city; although discontinued by Earthlink.
Sister cities
Philadelphia has ten
sister cities, as
designated by the
International Visitors Council of Philadelphia
(IVC):
Philadelphia has dedicated landmarks to its sister cities.
Dedicated in June 1976, the Sister Cities
Plaza, a one-half-acre site located at 18th and Benjamin Franklin
Parkway, honors Philadelphia's relationships with Tel Aviv
and Florence
which were its first Sister Cities.
Another
landmark, the Torun Triangle, honoring the Sister City relationship
with Toruń
, Poland
, was constructed in 1976, west of the United Way building at 18th Street and
the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Triangle contains the
Copernicus monument.
The Chinatown Gate, erected in 1984 and
crafted by artisans of Tianjin, China
, stands astride the intersection of 10th and
Arch Streets as an elaborate and colorful symbol of the Sister City
relationship.
See also
References
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