What Kept The City Alive

Without its fairly extensive if not good enough legacy public transit system, Philly would have likely imploded completely, instead of finding itself on a steady if slow rebirth. Elites and most policymakers don't understand this enough. Poor people can't afford cars, and even lots of relatively rich people choose the city precisely because they don't want the car dependent existence available to them everywhere else in the country. It's only a set of historical accidents and miracle timely cash confusions that keep the system as intact as it is. The people who run the place (elected, media, various foundations and nonprofits that think thy should run the place, etc.) too often think it's basically a welfare system for the poors, instead of something that the city couldn't exist without.