In a country with such iconic cities as New York and LA, it may sound ridiculous at first that Philly is GQ's city of the year. But this year, everything is coming together for the home of the liberty bell.
There's, of course, their football team. The Eagles won their first Super Bowl ever this year, doing it while standing up (or rather, kneeling down) in protest to much maligned President Donald Trump.
There's also the Sixers. For those who trusted the process it has finally been paying off (with the exception of Markelle Fultz's free throw from). The team rebuilt slowly but surely and also recently injected a direct shot of adrenaline into their team with the addition of Jimmy Butler, who's hitting game winners and not criticizing his teammates at practice (they test their skill for tonight against Toronto).
Perhaps most importantly, there's Meek Mill. After getting sent to prison on a violation of parole that was universally regarded as absurd, he came out the other end as an outspoken critic of unfair, racially biased sentencing and released great album, pulling the best Jay Z verse in almost 15 years.
An excerpt from the article, quoted in Philly Mag:
Eagles players became activists, speaking out about the flawed criminal-justice system. Donald Trump disinvited the team from visited the White House out of spite; our mayor, Jim Kenney, then called our president “a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size.” Our recently elected District Attorney, Larry Krasner, is the most progressive D.A. in the entire country. Our restaurants now regularly grace Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants list. Will Smith joined Instagram and immediately became incredible at it. You don’t have to sell your plasma or your soul to afford an apartment in the city. It just feels … different in Philadelphia these days. Downright victorious, even.
