Where do you live? Is it Philadelphia? Or perhaps somewhere in the Greater Philadelphia region? Or maybe the “Delaware Valley?” The term “Delaware Valley” has sparked much confusion over the past sixty years or so. ESI President Stephen Mullin, launched a campaign last fall aiming to kill the term “Delaware Valley.” He published a guest editorial in the Philadelphia Business Journal called “Let’s get rid of the term ‘Delaware Valley’” and it elicited a large response. The topic of the “Delaware Valley” has once again come up in conversation in the media on HiddenCityPhila.Org.
An excerpt from HiddenCityPhila.Org:
Mullin wrote that “Using the term ‘Delaware Valley’ instead of ‘Philadelphia’ is a big negative for our city and metropolitan area… It seems this expression of self-doubt and loathing caught on in a period… when our very own citizens and business leaders wanted to disassociate themselves and their activities with the very name Philadelphia and all it stood for.” That certainly seems to be what happened in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Furthermore, Mullin pointed out that “not using the central city name is virtually unheard of among major cities—you don’t hear people around Boston calling their metro area the “East-of Cape Cod Bay District” or New Yorkers calling themselves the “Lower Hudson Valley” or the Chicago metro area calling itself the Lower Lake Michigan Shore Region (they proudly shout Chicagoland).”