Origins
Unlike most Philadelphia residents, I wasn’t born here. After being raised in North Jersey, I lived in North Carolina, upstate New York, the Jersey shore, and spent twelve years in New York City. Manhattan to be exact. Soho to be more exact. Until the fateful day came when I decided to make the move to Philly.
This was early spring 2003. Though I love New York with all my heart, I was feeling suffocated, both by lack of space and exorbitant rent. I needing breathing room that was simply impossible to afford in Manhattan. So I started looking around online for somewhere relatively close to move.
My best choices seemed to be upstate NY in the lower Catskill region, Jersey shore, and Philly. I had lived in the two former areas and had only visited the latter (that’s a story for another page). But I was open to anything at that point, so on the advice of a friend, I included it in my list. So began the cruising of every corner of the internet for available rental properties.
Pickings were very slim upstate and nothing was available even remotely close to the ocean in NJ. There were plenty of apartment complexes in Philly, though, with a decent amount of space at a decent price. While still keeping an eye on my other target areas, I started to concentrate more on the possibilities Philadelphia offered.
After all, I thought, it’s only a short train ride away from NY, the closest major metropolitan area. If I can’t have mountain or beach life, that’s OK, I love cities too. How bad could it be?
Didn’t take me long to find out…..