{"id":419,"date":"2001-06-08T23:11:45","date_gmt":"2001-06-09T03:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2011-07-17T03:09:06","modified_gmt":"2011-07-17T07:09:06","slug":"cheesteak-on-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"Cheesteak on my Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned in a previous posting, I lost my job a couple weeks ago. My job search since then has been going rather badly, having scored exactly one interview out of at least a dozen or so resumes I&#8217;ve sent out so far. The interview went well, but the job in question qoes something like this:<\/p>\n<p>1) Idiot buys expensive house near O&#8217;Hare Airport<br \/>\n2) Idiot is shocked to discover that jet airplanes make noise<br \/>\n3) Idiot, naturally, sues the City of Chicago<br \/>\n4) Judge decress that the city must pay to soundproof Idiot&#8217;s home<br \/>\n5) City hires architecture firm to oversee soundproofing of Idiot&#8217;s home, as well as the homes of several hundered other similar idiots. This is where yours truly would come in.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, it doesn&#8217;t sound like a very exciting position, but beggars can&#8217;t be choosers, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p>In my previous posting I also mentioned that with things in Chicago going so badly, I&#8217;m giving some consideration to leaving the city once again, possibly to Boston, Philadelphia, or the NYC area. After looking at a lot of information and doing a lot of soul-searching, right now I seem rather torn between sticking it out in Chicago or moving to Philly sometime this fall.<\/p>\n<p>Reasons to stay in Chicago:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ve grown very attached to Chicago over the past eight years of living here.<\/li>\n<li>Chicago is a very healthy and beautiful city<\/li>\n<li>Most of my closest friends live here<\/li>\n<li>Chicago has a very good architectural community<\/li>\n<li>I wouldn&#8217;t have to move all my crap 1000 miles again<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reasons to move to Philly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Drexel University&#8217;s co-op program will let me work full-time and still get my degree by taking evening classes<\/li>\n<li>Philly, unlike NYC or Boston, has plenty of affordable housing<\/li>\n<li>Philly is very close to NYC and Washington, and within a few hours of Boston.<\/li>\n<li>Several of my close friends in Chicago have family in Philly and visit regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Despite my housing fiasco last summer in Boston, part of me is still itching to broaden my horizons a bit by spending time in another city.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I applied to Drexel today just to see if they&#8217;re crazy enough to accept me, so I should have an answer within a few weeks. In the meantime, here&#8217;s a few questions I have for any Philadelphia residents or experts:<\/p>\n<p>1) Most importantly, any idea what Philly&#8217;s job market is like for architects? In what esteem is Drexel&#8217;s co-op program held within Philly&#8217;s architectural community?<\/p>\n<p>2) I know there&#8217;s a couple people here with connections to Drexel. What are your general impressions of the university? Strengths \/ weaknesses? Be candid.<\/p>\n<p>3) I&#8217;d be looking to get a one-bedroom apartment for less than $750 a month, close to public transit (preferably MFL, subway-surface or regional rail), but also someplace where parking wouldn&#8217;t be a hassle. From the rental listings I&#8217;ve seen, it doesn&#8217;t look like I&#8217;d have much trouble finding a place. I&#8217;d most likely end up in Northeast or maybe South Jersey just because it would be a somewhat shorter trip to NYC, but I&#8217;m open to any other suggestions.<\/p>\n<p>4) This may be a bit of a stretch, but how hard would it be to work in New York City and still take evening classes at Drexel? The commute would be a bitch at the very least, but I&#8217;m exploring all my options here.<\/p>\n<p>5) How healthy is Philly&#8217;s underground nightlife\/arts\/music scene? It can&#8217;t possibly be as sterile as Boston&#8217;s, but I&#8217;d still like to take advantage of such things without trekking all the way up to New York.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions&#8230; FYI, I probably wouldn&#8217;t be moving until October at the earliest, so the SubTalk field trip to Chicago wouldn&#8217;t be in danger.<\/p>\n<p><em>(originally posted on the SubTalk forum at nycsubway.org)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned in a previous posting, I lost my job a couple weeks ago. My job search since then has been going rather badly, having scored exactly one interview out of at least a dozen or so resumes I&#8217;ve sent out so far. The interview went well, but the job in question qoes something [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[108,113,28],"tags":[88,60,137],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingingin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}