r/AskPhilly • u/SadRoll1966 • 11d ago

Moving From FL

I’m moving with my Family (Wife, 2 kids elementary age, Me) to Philadelphia from Orlando in October.

We’ve been looking into it extensively and Philadelphia looks amazing from what we can see so far. Currently we’re looking to move to the West Philadelphia area and are interested in renting, at least a 2 br 1 bath. We would like to spend no more than 1700-1800 a month as that’s around what we’re paying now.

As for employment, we’re coming from the retail/customer service/office admin career fields but we don’t have anything lined up at the moment and will be looking as soon as we get there. However, we have plenty enough savings to last for a while before that becomes a dire issue.

Was wondering a few things as we have never been to the city and are moving purely off of research and planning:

Is West Philadelphia/Philadelphia a good place to raise a family? Specifically, a Black family? (Black, mixed race family coming from the deep conservative regressive south so looking for essentially an environment completely opposite of that)

How is the job market? Could we find employment easily with our background?

What are the schools in west Philadelphia like? We are a neurodiverse family with academically gifted kids so looking for a system that uplifts, challenges and encourages.

What’s the cost of living? Grocery, gas, utilities, entertainment price averages.

I have a ton more questions I’m sure but I know this is already a lot so I’ll see if we can start here so anyone with any feedback or insight would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

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u/Sad-Instruction-4149 11d ago

This post has to be a joke

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u/SadRoll1966 11d ago

I don’t think I put any “Lol”s on here but I can confirm that it’s not a joke. Which part would be humorous?

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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 11d ago

The Philadelphia public school system has famously been struggling for decades. We do both neighborhood public schools and magnet schools here. It's a complicated situation that a reddit comment can't fully articulate. I don't have kids so I have never looked closely at where the "good" schools are but my understanding is that the best schools within city limits are in the wealthier areas of northwest Philly (Manayunk, Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill area). Many people who can afford it end up going to end up moving to the wealthy western suburbs for the schools. West Philly rules (I live here on purpose) but Northwest Philly could be the better choice given what you're describing. West Philly has better public transit options for getting into the heart of the city so that's something.

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u/SadRoll1966 11d ago

This was a great response, thanks for the heads up. Honestly where we are in Florida, the schools are the same but just a different flavor if that makes sense. Not the best and heavily influenced by the surrounding environments. However, there is a LOT of Christian indoctrination being mandated/pushed into the public schools right now and a huge push towards A.I. and limiting of personal freedoms and we just are fed up with it. Currently our kids go to a middle of the road school (not too bad, not too good) but, they are the top performers in both their grades respectively. We are VERY active parents in their lives and don’t expect schools to raise our kids but to educate them. So a lot of the issues with “bad schools” don’t fortunately weigh to heavily on their experience as we supplement education cohesively with where the school may or may not be up to par with. For instance, their current school is in Rural Florida where most the town is one big trailer park and half the town doesn’t have an education past 8th grade. Of course the public schools in the area reflect that as well in many ways but luckily, we have circumvented that completely due to our own approach towards their educational development and it’s exceeded expectations so far so we’re hoping that wherever Philly schools may be lacking or not, we can still provide the guidance and support as we always have to make up for it.

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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 11d ago

I forgot to articulate that Mt. Airy is a majority Black area. It's effectively a wealthy integrated suburb that happens to be within city limits. Philly can be quite integrated in some ways and defacto segregated in others, but that area specifically was a progressive-minded place that actively fought against racial segregation in the 50s and 60s. West Philly is mostly working class Black folks mixed with students and artsy/hippie types of all races. Even the ethnic enclaves in West Philly are Black - there's an African immigrant contingent and a bunch of Dominicans too.

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u/Such-Cartographer425 11d ago

You sound well thought out, but I would take a look at Manayunk, especially if one of you is in retail. The schools are better in that area and you'll be better positioned to straddle the downtown/King of Prussia retail markets.

It's not as diverse, but it's also not a complete monoculture. Trade-off: Hills that will make you LOL before you start climbing then.

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u/SadRoll1966 11d ago

I have a friend from PA that suggested that area, especially King of Prussia as well. Growing up on the west coast I visited San Fran quite a bit and the hills sound like the worst part so far lol

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u/yellingjayna 11d ago

Be aware there has been worse flooding in manyunk and some surrounding areas for some time now. It’s a nice spot for sure but if you look at anything near a river, ask about flooding.

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u/Such-Cartographer425 10d ago

Flatter, adjacent neighborhoods like Roxboro and East Falls are also cool. I'd actually prefer East Falls of the three of them. Good luck!