What would you change or not change bout your hometown? (middle-class, transplants)

[Stonecoldharbours]

If you could that is, and if so what what it be? And how would you do it? And if you would not change anything, why not? Love to hear what you all think!!!

[The Dissenter]

Hampton, VA. I would try to make the school system more competitive with other systems in that area. the best way to do it would be to squeeze more $ out of gov. Kaine.

[GreggB]

In my EX-hometown of Appleton Wisconsin, I'd have the mayor and the entire inept city council run out of town "On A Rail". In my present hometown of Las Vegas, I would continue to support Mayor Oscar Goodman and encorage him not to give up on his plan of severing the fingers of "Taggers" who are caught.

[JenM]

Well I live in New Haven, Michigan (30 minutes outside of Detroit by expressway) anyway I love the area. THe people are friendly and the atmosphere is pleasant. What would I change? Job opportunities!!! There are no jobs in Michigan! Heck we have people with higher degrees working at Mc Donalds! What does that mean for the rest of us without a college degree? No work! I've had a Medical Assisting Certificate for our 6 years now, and still no job!

[Marks]

Less crime and less buildings, but these things I can't change that's why we're exiting out.

[bellafinzi]

Metro Syracuse....I'd like it to grow in population much faster. I remember the mini-boom of the late 80s and it was an exciting time to live here. It would be great to experience another boom in my lifetime.

[Waterlily]

There's a couple of things I'd like to change here. A few of the streets need new pavement. They have cracks and holes in these streets. Plus I'd fix any broken sidewalks as well.

Next this town needs more room to expand. There is hardly any bare land left in the city,so it needs to expand it's borders out to take in more land.

Other than that I think it's pretty good.

[SteelCityRising]

SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE, PA---There are a plethora of things I'd love to change about my metro area, including the following:

-Finding a way for the homegrown, bedrock, blue-collar, "salt of the earth" locals and the newer, faster-paced, "chic" transplants from NYC/NJ to live more harmoniously: There have been a few conflicts lately between the local natives who are opposed to large-scale change and the newcomers who are trying to bring it to NEPA. Some sort of compromise needs to be reached. As our population continues to grow, become better-educated, etc., we need to find a way to make everyone happy.

-Importing more minorities: I don't want to make them sound like some sort of industrial commodity up for trade, but when your area is 96% white, non-Hispanic, and heterosexual (largely Christian and middle-class too), then people tend to put up barriers and become fearful and hostile towards minorities for being "different." We're seeing this in places like Hazleton, which has garnered national media recognition as of late for the brou-ha-ha occurring between whites and Hispanics (including some natives who contacted the KKK for help). As a gay person myself, I can also say that I don't feel comfortable at all going on a date in public, and I'm very depressed as a result. There's just no minorities moving to our area, and I don't know why. More diversity would force the lower-classes of people in our area who target minorities for cruelty to finally open their hearts and minds through exposure to the beauty of differences in others.

-Curtailing urban sprawl before it causes more damage than it already has: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was seeing massive population nosedives for many decades. At the same time, our land usage grew by 20 square miles. Why?
McMansions dot our once-forested hillsides. Big-box stores are creeping up everywhere. Traffic congestion is continuing to worsen (I-81 is now at TWICE its capacity in the Scranton area). As our population is now growing for the first time in 50+ years, I'm terrified that our urban sprawl epidemic and accompanying traffic congestion are only going to continue to worsen.

-Urban forestry: Arguably, the most beautiful, attractive, liveable neighborhoods in both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre themselves are the ones where large shade trees adorn the roadways. There have been many studies done that have proven trees in residential areas to "calm" traffic, purify the air, improve property values, provide habitats for small animals, deter criminal activity, and even cool the area on warmer days, among other great benefits. Scranton and Wilkes-Barre could only benefit from the implementation of more tree lawns.

-Downtown living options for everyone: I'm a BIG supporter of "in-town" living---that is being able to live near an urban core within walking distance of shops, restaurants, workplaces, houses of worship, schools, parks, civic buildings, etc. Scranton and Wilkes-Barre each have multiple mixed-use projects underway in their respective downtowns, but all of the living units are catering to either the upper-middle-class or upper-class of the region. For example, the St. Peter's Square project in Scranton wil have units starting at $330,000! Downtown Pittston is getting two new luxury condo towers on the waterfront that are also supposed to be in the $300,000 range. The units in Wilkes-Barre will also be steep. For downtowns to truly bounce back as urban neighborhoods, they need to provide living options for people of all walks of life, from starving artists and single working mothers on up to CFOs.

[hiknapster]

My hometown? That would be Southbridge, Massachusetts. The American Optical Company was its lifeblood. We had a beautiful church on the top of a hilltop called Notre Dame. Every factory worker put there money into that church. It rivaled Notre Dame in Paris.

We had a department store with three stories and an elevator. I bought my first bra there. It was a beautiful town and voted an "All America City."

Then they were bought out by Warner-Lambert. That was all she wrote. They sent all the jobs to Mexico. Most of the town is abandoned.

It is pathetic.

My mother lives a few towns away, now. My Dad is in Florida.

I haven't seen the town since 1996, but I remember that it was the quintessential town. It was Mayberry. It was not perfect but it was my town, but like all of America, it got exported.

We should be all ashamed. But we can whine, but I have no idea what to do about the exporting of our jobs. We had great workers HERE.

[Stonecoldharbours]

Common sceario everywhere.....very sad.