Re: [PLUG] Help Wanted

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On 27 Jul, 2004, at 11:58, David Chaplin-Loebell wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004, M.Simons wrote:
> > there is *NO SUCH THING* as NorthWEST philadelphia.  I have just seen 
> > a
> > few people using that lately and I just don't get it.
>
> This is a big surprise to me, since I've lived there all my life.
>
> Northwest Philadelphia consists of Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill, 
> Germantown,
> Roxborough, Manayunk, East Falls, Olney, and Oak Lane.
>
> This usage is far less bizarre to me than the use of the term "North
> Philadelphia" to describe the part of Philadelphia which is just north 
> of
> center city, but south of the vast majority of land area in the city.

Today, the usage of the term "Northwest Philadelphia" is almost 
exclusively limited to the Streets/Sanitation department. The "transfer 
station" at Domino Lane and Umbria Street in Roxborough has been called 
the "Northwest Transfer Station" since time immemorial.  It's an 
"official designation," not a "community" or "neighborhood" one.

The main reason that "Northwest Philadelphia" is not widely used is 
because the composite areas -- especially Roxborough and Chestnut Hill 
-- are about as alike as Lemons and Tomatoes.  Most of the other 
"geographic" references in fact, refer to reasonably homogeneous 
demographic areas, with -- surprise -- predictable voting patterns. 
Much of "Northwest" philadelphia is not even part of the Philadelphia 
"Congressional" area!

By the way, I grew up in "West Oak Lane" and never heard of "Oak Lane" 
or East Oak Lane, for that matter; but that is today's terminology.

And as far as North Philadelphia is concerned, the term applies to the 
area from Center City to where the Northeast and Northwest sections of 
the city "branch off."

To really understand all this, you need to go back to the City County 
Consolidation act of 1852, which created the City of Philadelphia as we 
know it today, and track the population growth since that time ... but 
that's a whole different topic.  Surprisingly, when viewed in the 
historical context, it all makes sense. And you can easily understand 
why entities like Manayunk and Juniata even exist.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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