Tree lined street in Society Hill by ConspiracyofHappiness, on Flickr, Creative Commons License

The economy is in the tank. A presidential campaign rages on, rapidly bringing the political discourse down to the lowest common denominator. Nationwide, the housing crisis continues to erode billions of dollars of wealth as housing prices continue to plunge.

But in around here, everything is coming up Philly.  The Phillies, of course, are set to meet the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday in Game 1 of the World Series™.  (Thanks to Ed for his memories of Series past.)  The housing bust is affecting the region but leaves us relatively unscathed - the flip side of not experiencing the full force of the housing boom.  Even the $850 million-over-5-years budget gap that the city announced a short time ago, while big in absolute terms, is relatively minor compared to the enormity of the city budget and the scale of problems being felt in other cities and states.

And now this.

The American Planning Association announced its selection of America’s Greatest Places and divided it into three categories: Greatest Neighborhoods, Greatest Street and Greatest Public Spaces.  While Philly got shut of the Public Spaces category (apparently the judges have never been to Three Bears Park), Society Hill (pictured) was named a Great Neighborhood and South Broad Street is near the top for Greatest Street.

From the write up of Society Hill:

Philadelphia’s Society Hill is a neighborhood of contrasts, where 18th century rowhouses coexist with 20th century apartment towers. Here, 1950s urban renewal programs were used innovatively to protect historic buildings — not tear them down — and citizen concerns led to the redesign of a freeway that would have compromised previous historic preservation efforts.

You’re probably thinking, “well duh, of course Society Hill is a great neighborhood.  The houses are worth millions and everyone that lives there is filthy rich.”  It’s not much a of surprise that this is one of the areas of the city to get national recognition.  What I’d like to know is, which of the region’s neighborhoods - city or suburban - do you consider “great” and why?   Where are the hidden gems?  While you might naturally point to your own neighborhoods as great, is there another neighborhood out there, that you consider great?

Also, I already mentioned that none of Philly’s public spaces rated a mention on the Greatest Public Spaces list, but I’m sure that readers of this blog have an opinion about which of the region’s public spaces are, in fact, great.  Chime in and let me know.

On a trip up to Main Street yesterday (and no, I wasn’t going to see if the folks there were really as screwed by Wall Street as politicians would have us think), I was reminded just how much I love the stretch along the Schuylkill River from Boathouse Row to East Falls.  The Manayunk Canal is also among the city’s hidden gems and a path on which I spend far too little time.

And take heart, Philadelphia.  It looks like the Tampa-St. Petersburg region was shut out on these lists.

(h/t The 13th Floor)