Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Saturn64
You know, I haven't actually been to Wilmington except on the highway or the train down south, so I haven't actually set foot in it, but I can tell you from an outsider's perspective that Wilmington's reputation is vastly more negative than positive. I know that on a national level we complain about Philly having a bad reputation, but in the Delaware Valley, there's no denying it. Wilmington isn't popular. Honestly, reputation wise, I think it's closer to Camden than Philly. At the moment, it seems like Wilmington is known foremost as a major crime town. While I realize that there may not be as much truth to that as it may seem, and that's just public perception, I am certain that public perception does determine whether or not people move to - for residential life or jobs. I am also certain that Wilmington is improving. I don't know if it is in the crime aspect, but I do see the foundation for a better city being laid.
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I’m not necessarily doubting the perspective, but that perspective of Wilmington being some crime-ridden hell hole is misguided. One big problem is that Wilmington has really small city limits and all (or almost all) of the really bad neighborhoods are within those limits. That jacks up the crime rate to an artificially high rate. If the city limits included more of Wilmington’s suburban surroundings (say more like 200k), like other cities do, I’m guessing the crime rate would be higher than average but nothing special—certainly not murder town.
Unfortunately that explanation doesn’t really stick with people. It’s like my Fox News-watching dad who thinks Chicago is basically Iraq without realizing that high crime areas are usually narrowly confined to certain neighborhoods.
Now, that said, those bad neighborhoods in Wilmington are really bad. The only way to change the perception is to treat the problem or slowly gentrify it away. Obviously the former is far more desirable, but I’m no crime/poverty expert.
Regarding downtown employers: yes, lots of the biggies are out of downtown, but there are still lots of white collar or other office jobs downtown (500+ highly paid corporate lawyers and their staff, State government, banks, etc.), so we just need more of them to live in and around downtown—at least in city limits. Not in Philly, Greenville, Chads Ford, Hockessin, etc. And while Incyte isn’t downtown, it’s only a mile or so away and easy walking or biking distance from Trolley and Forty Acres.