While it may well be that the term "University City" is a marketing scheme
(albeit according to the historical society, one that actually pre-dates the
construction of my house and most of the houses in my neighborhood), I'm not
sure that being defined by a marketing scheme is necessarily always a bad
thing. After all, you don't find indignant Alexandrians complaining "Virginia
is _NOT_ for lovers! That is a marketing scheme!"
My parents patently refuse to go to West Philadelphia and have not visited
while I've lived here. Having watched local news for the past 30 years, they
realize that West Philly is a drug infested cesspool with rivers of blood. They
may, however, visit me in University City. Is "University City" different from
59th and Osage? I'll leave it to people more knowledgable to quantify, but if
someone wants to market my neighborhood as having 37.2% fewer shootings than
West Philadelphia, having 67.4% more restaurants than West Philadelphia, 18%
more parks, or whatever, and my friends from college realize that I'm not some
lunatic living in the Wild West, stepping over bodies to go to the grocery
store in an up-armored Humvee and they decide to come visit, I'm happy enough
for the distinction.
