Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Andrew Cassel and Dan Rottenberg

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Andrew Cassel

The Ever-Adaptable Philadelphia

Posted Tuesday, March 6, 2001, at 5:08 PM ET

Dan,

It is the nature of community boosters to boost, and I have noticed that the content of their boosting typically has little to do with the qualities of the community that you or I would hold dear. When conventions seemed to be a growth business, they boosted restaurants and other conventionalia. When dot-coms were (briefly) in flower, they boosted our supposed high-tech prowess, summoning up stuff like the invention of the first computer at U-Penn in the 1940s. One of the defining qualities of Philadelphia, indeed, might be its adaptability to whatever strain of boosting is currently infectious since there's a little of just about anything you care to name around here somewhere.

You're right: A city that spends a lot of energy trying to promote itself as "major league" is probably a minor league sort of place. It's the old Calvin Trillin disease, rubaphobia (fear of being thought a rube) as public policy. Fortunately, most Philadelphians pay little if any attention to all this image stuff; they've got lives to lead and goals that don't depend on whether somebody in Columbus has a positive or negative image of the region.

That doesn't mean a little civic self-consciousness isn't useful, particularly if it sensitizes people in authority to their constituents' real needs. If it took the Republican National Convention to get us cleaner streets and less graffitti, then let's have more such.

I had never been to the Barnes until last summer, when I took the family on a Sunday morning. Fabulous--just about everything I'd seen in my art history 101 course was there in the flesh--er, frame. The funny thing was, when I raved about it afterwards to friends and colleagues here, the most common reaction was on the order of, "gee, I've always heard about it, but I've never been." It's like New Yorkers and the Statue of Liberty--the locals never go. Go figure!

Andy

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Andrew Cassel

The Ever-Adaptable Philadelphia

Posted Tuesday, March 6, 2001, at 5:08 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Andrew Cassel writes a thrice-weekly column about the economy. He has been a columnist, business reporter, and national correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1984. Philadelphia journalist Dan Rottenberg is a veteran of 16 years with alternative publications and the author of seven books, most recently The Inheritor's Handbook. He currently edits Family Business magazine.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
The Great Debate
Marcus | Forget Biden. I'd like to see McCain face off against Palin.
Toles: Another McCain SurpriseStumped: Where's Palin's Baby?