South Philly Named One Of The Top 10 Unhappiest Places To Live By Someone Who Has Obviously Never Been To Fishtown
Normally, we don’t give these Happy-Place-To-Live indexes too much credence — as often as not, they’re usually desperate grabs for hits by the geniuses over at Forbes.com or whatever — but this time, the folks over at Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index really did their homework, creating a rubric of factors, then plugging them in and rating congressional districts across America accordingly. And it’s here that we’d like to say that sometimes, the numbers lie, because according to this, South Philly is one of the top ten unhappiest places to live (scroll to the bottom and weep). In all of America. The America that includes Florida, and Texas, and Delaware County, and… yes, Fishtown. Having lived all over this great city of ours over the years, we know this much: South Philly isn’t even one of the top ten unhappiest places to live in the Delaware Valley, much less the whole of America. You can get cheap produce (GREEN VEGETABLES) there! Cute girls on bicycles are all over the place! DECENT PHO AND MEXICAN FOOD FOR AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE! And yeah, depending what block you live on and the cut of your hipster/grup jib, yes, your neighbors may hate you, but they also hate the Koreans and the Blacks and the Gays and the Irish, too. If this is what unhappiness looks like, put on the Morrissey, pass me a clove cigarette and let me get back to cutting my arms. For here is what they call “the happy place.”
November 11th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Creative Class mislabeled PA’s first congressional district as solely South Philadelphia. Bob Brady’s map shows what he represents:
http://www.brady.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=59§iontree=6,59
November 11th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Have I just not lived in Fishtown nearly long enough? Because I like it so much more than South Philly, and don’t see that changing any time soon. I’m sorry you hate it so much, especially if it means losing youse as neighbors, but dang, I just don’t fully understand it. Unless it is mostly because it’s where your from.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
As a GHEY living in S. Philly I can’t say I’ve experienced this. I rather like it there.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
This poll isn’t saying that South Philly as we know it is one of the unhappiest places on earth. It is the 1st congressional district that is included in the poll. That includes Chester, and I hardly think it’s a stretch to count Chester as one of the unhappiest places in the US.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Not just Chester, but Darby, too. I saw a movie once about Darby and it made me want to cry.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Which comedian said, upon appearing at the Tower Theatre within the past year or two, that “If this is Upper Darby, I’d hate to see Lower”?
November 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Oh come on. Where else can you see live chickens, smell baking tomato pies 24-7, and chase skateboarding taggers off your roof garden? That list must have been written by someone who is afraid of life.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
try living in a place with no trees and trash everywhere, then tell me how happy you are.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
They may have clean streets and trees, but I’ll tell you where life is vacant: the suburbs.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I’m laughing my ass about Williamsburg. Hipsters will do that sort of thing I guess.
So judging from the map Wyoming is the happiest state/place? Probably because you don’t have to deal with any people.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
As a resident along the Gray’s Ferry / Point Breeze border I can easily see what they’re talking about. Just because you like Passyunk East and the Italian Market areas doesn’t mean that South Philly isn’t, for the most part, a giant, treeless trash hole with ridiculous racial tensions an crazy violence. That being said, Kenso and Olney didn’t make it?!? Maybe the difference is that, in South Philly, it’s ALSO affluent white folks who are being shot.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
“yes, your neighbors may hate you, but they also hate the Koreans and the Blacks and the Gays and the Irish, too. If this is what unhappiness looks like…” Racism, homophobia, and discrimination based on national origin do look like unhappiness.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
South Philly is an unhappy place if you grow up there and you’re smart. The public schools are awful (at least when i was growing up) and Catholic School will RUIN YOU. I seriously don’t know anyone who graduated from St. Nick’s who doesn’t have some crazy psychological complex and awful self esteem. The hipsters/yuppies moving in like all the ethnic shit and the new restaurants, but try being raised here and you’ll be singing a compleeetely different tune.