Honestly, and this isn't what you want to hear, but maybe consider Center City. I live downtown and really love it. I'm not familiar with Manayunk, but have the same impression that you picked up from reading about it.

Truthfully, that 30 minutes on a bus is annoying and will keep you from doing things. If money is what is making you think Manayunk over CC, include also the money you're spending on getting back to Manayunk via Lyft/Uber after the bars.

You're going to be spending good money either way, why not live around all of the things you want to live around?

Edit* - Put more plainly, having lived in Center City and having met lots of people around the area and other spots in Philly, I don't think I've ever heard anyone suggest going anywhere in Manayunk for anything.

I dunno if this is typical. This is the Chief of Staff of the Senate President going down for a connection to a political operative that's pleaded guilty to hiring hitmen to murder another operative. And he's been linked to other murders.

Might be worth reading the full stories on this one.

>One source said this stems from a separate investigation into Sean Caddle, a former Jersey City political operative who pled guilty in a plot to murder a long-time associate. The source said Teixeira’s charges are not related to that plot but was unearthed by the investigation.

>A document obtained by Politico New Jersey in March said state investigators were examining payments Caddle allegedly made to Teixeira.

>In the document, the state Attorney General’s Office demanded Caddle and his consulting firm to “identify the purpose” of a dozen payments totaling $46,000 it says the firm, Arkady, made to Teixeira and his late wife, between May 2015 and September 2017, according to the Politico report.