The Debate -- Delaware Valley Vs Philadelphia
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- What do you call the region we live in? A local businessman hopes it isn't "The Delaware Valley," and he wants to put "Philadelphia" back at the center of the metropolitan area.
The way Steve Mullin sees it, the term "Delaware Valley" is a relic of a time when suburbs were the promised land and the city was a dystopia from which they offered escape.
"At that time, people did not want to say Philadelphia, they did not want to use that term or be associated with it." And what a misjudgment, says Mullin.
Philadelphia, he notes, is the 9th largest economy in the world, the linchpin of the region's success.
"I think that's a tremendous, tremendous asset. I just say use "Philadelphia" because we're the Philadelphia metropolitan area," he said.
Barry Seymour is executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, a name that's not likely to change.
"For whatever quirk of history, the term Delaware Valley has been around a long time," Seymour remarked.
He does see Mullin's point but he says the term is fading anyway.
Seymour suggests that maybe we can view it as just another historic artifact:
"We have a lot of quirks of history in this region that make us quaint, and that's part of our charm, isn't it?"
