Any philadelphians or visitors to philadelphia want to chime in? I want to visit it due to history and architecture.

Is the city center doing well, or decaying? I know some cities have vibrant cores but decaying inner peripheries. (i.e. between downtown and newer suburbs)

You should, it's a great place to visit. It has issues (crime, crappy transportation, etc) but as a visitor you should be able to mostly avoid those.

Philadelphia has a lot to offer, I'm from the suburbs of Philadelphia and I find myself going to the city almost every weekend. Lot's of great bars (especially on South Street), the Philadelphia museum of art, and all of the historical landmarks make it a great place to visit. Philadelphia also has a huge resurgence in biking, if you go to Philadelphia on a nice afternoon you'd be able to spot hundreds of bikers. It really isn't as bad as people make it out to be, just don't stray into the more crime riddled neighborhoods (North Philly, West Philly, Camden, etc.)

What killed my inclination to visit Philly was the Bill Burr rant (Google Bill Burr philadelphia incident). It may not be the same now, and that was a few years back, but just the thought that such a big crowd can be such jerks -- and I know the relative sample size is small and skewed (drunk) -- just destroyed my urge.

The big reason I wanted to visit was the history, and also (this might seem silly) because Bill Cosby is from there.

For the record that didn't happen in Philadelphia it happened in Camden NJ which is across the river. Clearly a lot of people in attendance were from Philly but they were also from NJ and other surrounding areas. Also it happened at an Opie and Anthony event, so you can imagine what sort of crowd was there.

It's also notable that they stopped doing those events at all because booing of new comedians was a general problem everywhere.

Philly does have a lot of problems, but it annoys me that we have a reputation as particularly bad crowds at sporting events etc based on a few notable incidents. If you look at basically any other city where large crowds of drunk obnoxious people congregate they have similar incidents.

If ever there was a city that deserved the Escape From New York "wall it off and write it off" treatment, it is Camden. Thankfully the Delaware River really does an effective job at keeping that rot at bay.

Philly really isn't that bad... though I suspect many HNers who are used to the shinier west coast cities would experience a bit of culture shock.

I wouldn't say Philly is going anywhere quickly at the moment, whether good or not. However it has excellent food, decent drinking and nightlife, and it's pretty close to both DC and NYC.

Don't let the goofy public trash cans discourage you--there are lots of good reasons to visit Philadelphia. In no particular order, Philadelphia has great bars and restaurants, especially great beer options, the Art Museum, the Rodin, the Barnes, the Kimmel Center, a vibrant Chinatown, the Italian Market (which morphs into a bit of Southeast Asian Market), and many quaint and historical places to walk.

I'm glad to hear that. I have to say I've been put off by Philadelphia sports fans more than anything else, but you've presented a more diverse and interesting picture of the city.