chasm

Interesting article. A little disappointed in the "best of Philadelphia" magazine for picking a cheese steak shop not in Philly.

As for the main subject of the post, I am not sure I agree with the possible reasons that are offered by Men’s Health as to why Philly is so depressed. They offer the “shadows of NY to the north and Washington D.C. to the south” theory. However, NY is number 11 on the most depressed list. That would imply that Philly is depressed because they are what, jealous of NY? What other emotion can a city have in this situation towards another city? Jealousy is the only one I can think of. However, logic goes against the living in the shadows theory.

In other words, Men’s health offers the idea that Philly is depressed because they are jealous of NY which is also depressed. Who would be jealous of a depressed city? Assuming that by a city being depressed it means the quality of life is not good. So then one must ask; why is NY depressed? Are they depressed because they aren’t number one on the depressed list? Or is it because they have Boston to the north and Jersey City to the south (which happens to be the third happiest city in the country)? Can we really believe that Jersey City is the third happiest city in America?

Perhaps Men’s Health was too lazy to find real reasons why a city would have a high depressed rate. It seems to me that most of the “depressed cities” in America are areas with large minority groups. NYC, Philly, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, LA, Phoenix, etc. Also, most of the depressed cities are the most populated in the country. For instance, here are the rankings for population in the cities noted above: 1, 5, 40, 10, 34, 2, and 6. Maybe there is some connection between large populations and people feeling depressed. Maybe they feel lost in the city. Maybe it’s because the creation of suburbs have left the cities full of poverty and despair which in turn leads to depressed citizens.

My last criticism is to see their methodology. As far as the article states they used raw data for suicides, antidepressant pills, days being depressed. Did Men’s Health account for the population change between cities? Was an index used? Because if they weren’t, I believe that would account for many of the depressed cities being large urban areas.

P.S. Upon following links and looking at data I came across the safest cities for large metro areas based upon the US census Bureau. Number 15 in the Country: drum roll please…..the Lehigh Valley. Also, in today’s morning call they announced the Valley as being the 32nd worst place for allergies in America, not number 10 as previously thought. Wahoo...go Lehigh Valley!!

Men's Health is a lame magazine published by a sell-out publishing company based out of Emmaus, PA...... don't buy into their assessment. Yet, Philly does suck.

I find it funny that Robb insists on asserting his opionion about a place he has been, uh, maybe a handful of times and only been to maybe two places within the city. How one claims to know a city without ever going there I don't understand.

It's because of the traffic and non-existent [somewhat safe] free parking spaces and/or the crappy public transportation system (at least that's why I'm depressed every time I'm there).

Ha, funny you should mention that ... we had quite an interesting time driving / parking for the Rob Thomas show at the Electric Factory last night ... I'm surprised Jon hasn't already commented on it seeing as he loves to hate on Philly anyway.

hmmmm.... sorry Chris. I suppose I must live in Philly for several years before I am ALLOWED to give my opinion on it... because obviously only someone with your breadth of knowledge of philadelphia is permitted to write a tomb about the city of brotherly love.

Been to philly. been to the airport. the vet. citizens bank. university of penn. temple.

seems like i can formulate an opinion on the city based on those experiences. that and the fact that I can read a fucking newspaper and watch the evening news.

by the way-- all i said was "philly sucks." Sorry if I offended the master of ceremonies, Herrn Bergstrom.

Robb, you may certainly give your opinion on any matter. The point of my comment was merely to point out how futile it is. The fact that you have been to, like I said before, only a couple of places in Philly, means that no one should hold much value in your opinion.

I also enjoy how you point to the media as another way of "knowing" Philly. The media never distorts things. I mean if you watched Al Jazeera I'm sure you would hold the same opinion of the United States as you do now. Right. (sarcasim is present in this paragraph)

Lastly, I make no claims to as whether Philly sucks or not, as you do in your comment. Therefore I think it is rather pathetic for you to attack me by claiming that I in some way established to have a "breadth of knowledge of Philadelphia" when in fact I never claim to. If you care to debate the comments that I posted go right ahead, but please do not try to confuse the people of chasm by injecting my position on whether Philly sucks or not. Thanks!

Berg-- you are a bigger idiot than most people think.

I believe my comment was, "Yet, Philly does suck." You read into that and commented about how unsupported the claim was.

First off, it was just a joke. Secondly, this blog (along with most others) would not exist if people did not comment. Therefore, if one reads into your assessment, then only professors, scientists, and experts in a given field would be allowed to post. All others would be unsubtantiated.

So, until you get some credentials-- i.e. published articles in peer reviewed journals or are some other national achievement, please refrain from ever commenting on a blog. It would be, as you put it, futile.

Robb -
How come whenever you are intellectually challenged you resort to word games? You simply try and coerce the people of chasm to think you are correct by playing word games. By word games I mean you write a nice, witty one sided article for a magazine where the people can not respond back, however, I can respond back.

I do not believe that people need to be "professors, scientists," or "experts" to comment on blogs. However, I feel that if one is writing their opinion they should have some type of context in which to write it.

Also, the point of the article was not whether Philly sucks or not, it was why is Philly depressed? You simply wrote an opinion while this post was looking for reasons as to why Philly might be depressed. (and no I do not believe that most will accept the answer that they are depressed because Philly sucks). Not to mention your bad intentions towards Rodale in your original post because they did not hire you. You simply write out of emotion without searching for real reasons. Perhaps you would have been good at Rodale then. They seem to accept these fallacies presented by Men's Health as to why Philly is depressed.

Finally, I never claim to be intelligent. But it is flattering that somewhere people do consider me something above an "idiot". As far as I am concerned, I could really care less of what people think of me. I know you and a few others get really offended if the world should ever consider you less than genius, however, I hate to point it out but as smart as you are, I have met many smarter. Especially my roommate Tom Stanley.

I apologize to readers of chasm for this unfortunate tiff, but some people need to realize when they are out of line / incorrect. I also apologize to Tom because I know he wants his blog to be free of grammar and spelling mistakes, but I wrote this at 1140 p.m. on thurs night which means that I am drunk.

Chris,

Men's Health is a lame publication-- I've read it. It's a watered-down, hackneyed attempt at a men's mag. Rodale, whose original focus was to be a journalistic ("green," if you will) book publishing company has released several crap publications in an attempt to penetrate the "main stream" market (i.e. they sold out). That is why I wrote what I did. Not because I did not get a job there. (Though you can think what you want)

Secondly. You don't want to get into an argument with me about logic, the lexicon, or the structure of an argument. You'll lose.

Now I suggest you go back to your beer and come up with some other long-winded way to spew your propaganda. Remember, you threw down the gauntlet. I was just the one who shined it up real nice... you can see where this is headed.

Robb-
I am glad you have done some homework on Men's Health, however, I will retain my opinion on your original bashing of Rodale. For I am sure that if you were hired by Rodale, the comment would not have been made.

Secondly, please do not ever shout empty threats towards me. You might think you are God as far as intelligence is concerned but I assure you, you are nothing more than an average liberal arts student. You must realize there are trade offs in everything one does. Therefore while you lived at home for college and didn't participate at all in the social scene, it left you with lots of time to learn, which is good. However, there are kids that will go out every night, drink beer, smoke weed, and still manage to get better grades than you. That right there is because they are more intelligent. Give them a couple of nights to read up on what you did you entire college career and I’m sure they'll out shine you every time. Why? Because they are intelligent; not just well learned.

As for going to drink another beer, don't worry, I did. Unlike you I go out and meet people and have fun. Some might call it being social, you should try it sometime!

Chris,

I'm not really sure what you are arguing, but I commend you for the effort. For the record, I do not consider myself a "God of intelligence" Nor do I look at you as a drunken creton.

With that, I must gracefully remove myself from this argument. You have your preconceived judgements of me--most of which are unfounded, because you really know very little about me at all. Aside from jokingly calling you an idiot and questioning your credibility, I never attacked or judged the choices you made in life--nor would I. Sorry you can't say the same.

Wow, all this fucking arguing when all you need is me to lay down the law. While there are some nice places in Philly, and the also some nice surrounding suburbs, the majority of it is a big stinking pile of shit. Do I rate it much worse than most other large cities??? probably not, at least not of the ones in the North East. However, if given the choice to take an hr drive and hang out in Philly, or drive 2 hours and go to NYC, Ill defintely go to NYC. The only things I like about Philly are the things that all major cities have (concerts, sports teams). Anything that is directly a part of Philly culture kinda sucks. And that ladies and gents, is why it is a depressing place :-)

Jon, please describe one thing that is "directly a part of Philly culture".

Jon: Sure, but you won't actually look up any friends while you're here, will ya?

Tom: Speaking for Jon, they've got trolleys! They all smell like piss, of course, but I guess that speaks to Jon's point.

Rob and Chris: In the words of the Bad Boys, you two should just bone and get it over with.