Enough speculation and unreliable Wackypedia entries.
A great PDF from Philadelphia City Planning Commission "The Political
and Community Service Boundaries of Philadelphia":
http://www.philaplanning.org/data/boundaries.pdf
The PDF includes a map showing Baltimore Ave as the boundary between
W and SW Philadelphia, *only* above 50th St. The eastern end of the
dividing line is at Grays Ferry Ave. and the river. Then it zigzags
NW to 50th & Baltimore and follows Baltimore to Cobbs Creek. The
streets aren't all marked but page 36 (PDF page 42) has the clearest
map, I think.
PCPC maps page, not as useful but interesting:
http://www.philaplanning.org/data/datamaps.html
Frank
On Apr 2, 2007, at 12:27 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In a message dated 4/2/2007 9:44:43 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Actually, I've been worrying about this Southwest/West Philly
business for some time. What are the "actual" boundaries, and
according to whom? You seem to imply that SOBA is Southwest Philly
-- if the 34 trolley line really does bifurcate the two. Does that
mean that Woodland Cemetery and Clark Park are actually in SW?
Seems counterintuitive, dude. Got maps?
In a message dated 4/2/2007 11:21:25 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
There is discordance among the wikipedia articles ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Philadelphia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Philadelphia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_City%2C_Philadelphia%
2C_Pennsylvania
The definitions say south of Balitomore ... the maps show the
Schuylkill ... I always heard it was Woodland.
The City Planning Commission, long ago, declared it SOBA http://
www.phila.gov/phils/Docs/otherinfo/pname3.htm . Or, call City
planning to confirm.
Of course a SW Philadelphia in "University City" didn't and still
doesn't sit well with some of the merchandisers of real estate, who
needed to disassociate the immediate off-campus SW areas from the
Kingsessing area of SW, which rapidly deteriorated due to some
particularly poor FHA mortgage underwriting standards implemented
in the mid 1950's, more so than anything having to do with the race
of the then new buyers. (During the current sub-prime mortgage
shake-out, we'll get to see a lot of middle class white folk get
smoked by misunderstanding the implications of their interest-only
and/or negative amortizing mortgages.)
Enjoy your stay in SW, and while you are here maybe you too can
help to stem the tide of local violence, instill a practical sense
of social justice, and make SW Philly a better place for all of its
residents to live work and learn; the same things decent people
everywhere desire.
Ciao,
Craig
See what's free at AOL.com.
