Sunday’s New York Times had an article titled: Philadelphia Story: The Next Borough?

The article, by the Philly Weekly’s Jessica Pressler, detailed what she described as the “Brooklynization” of Philadelphia; that is, the movement of mostly young people from Brooklyn to Philly, as they are priced out of NYC.

Many thoughts run through my head here, and I would encourage you to read the article, but let's start with this quote:

Fifteen or 20 years ago, the idea of Philadelphia as a place to go for quality life would have been laughable to many people, even to Philadelphians. Sandwiched between New York and Washington, Philadelphia was a flyover city - trainover really - a place where a mayor had ordered the bombing of a neighborhood and where Eagles fans reveled in booing their own team, its chief popular exports cheese steaks and "Rocky." While Philadelphia's rich cultural history, like its art museum, its symphony orchestra and its Colonial architecture, gave the city establishment credentials, it did not produce much of an avant-garde.

First, we are not the “next borough,” so, shove it. We are not part of the New York metropolitan area. We are not Hoboken. We are not Jersey City. We are Phila-goddamn-Delphia, the 5th biggest City in the Country. So, unless Brooklyn is planning on sending a few hundred thousand residents who are going to really take over our city, Philly will always be Philly. And, when exactly did we become less of a “flyover” City? When Jessica Pressler started her so cool column for the Weekly, where we can learn such important things as stalking Neil Stein, or discussing public sex in Rittenhouse Square? Give me a provincial, inward looking, break, aight?

15 Years ago Philly had no quality of life, eh? Well, we had affordable, beautiful housing. We still had a City that has *gasp* lots of trees, and the largest municipal park system in the Country. We still had a down to earth City, that was plain ol livable. We certainly did not have the night life we do now, and a lot of things have gotten better. But 15 years ago Times Square was best known as a seedy place where 5 bucks would buy you all the peep shows you wanted, so we have both come a long way, ok? (And, one sentence that mentions the Move Bombing, Cheesesteaks, Rocky and booing the Eagles? That has to set a record for all Philly clichés, doesn’t it? Can we expect a little more from a reporter who actually lives here?)

Now, that said, there are obviously some really good signs in this article, if you just ignore the obnoxious overtone that we are being elevated to hipness by our glorious friends from Brooklyn. For example:

Often they move to start the kind of business they had in New York. Danuta Mieloch, 39, an owner of Rescue Rittenhouse Spa, who administered body scrubs to celebrities at Paul Labrecque on the Upper East Side before moving to Philadelphia to start her own place, is an example. Jose Garces, 33, a former chef at Chicama and Pipa in Gramercy Park, will open Amada, a tapas restaurant in Old City, in September. Matthew Izzo, 35, and his business partner, Mark Ax, 35, defected from New York design firms to start their own home and design boutiques, the Matthew Izzo shops.

"It's just so much more workable here," Mr. Izzo said. "It's smaller and more manageable." And Lindsay Berman, 27, who left a marketing job at the Showtime network in Manhattan, is waiting tables part time at Jones, a 70's throwback diner in Center City, while she gets her T-shirt line, Dirty Old Shirt, off the ground.

As I said in my interview on Philly1, a far better problem to have to deal with is too many people wanting to move to Philly, rather than a traffic jam on 76 as tens of thousands of people scurry to the ‘burbs. Luring entrepreneurs and small business owners creates jobs, broadens our local tax base, and is just generally good for everyone involved. And, the more people who put down roots here, the more demands we have (hopefully) for better government in Philadelphia.

For those who knew me in College, they know that I was a constant booster of Philly, to the point of annoyance. I told people over and over to come live in Philly, that it was a wonderful place to be. And, I am at least partially responsible for five non-native Midwesterners moving to the City. The more the merrier. But, none of those people are coming to “save us” from our ultra-not cool selves (or does that make us even cooler?), they are coming to be a part of the fabric of our ever-evolving City. And, despite the article’s tone, I suspect most people who are making the move to Philly feel the same way.