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The Harrisburg area has a small zoo with no exotic animals ZooAmerica - North American Wildlife Park and a summer wildlife park with more distantly sourced representatives of the animal kingdom Lake Tobias Wildlife Park | Welcome - and a local college has a natural history museum Oakes Museum of Natural History | Grantham, PA . An hour and a half north is Clyde Peeling which is a much higher quality attraction than one would initially suspect (the second generation's main business is building exhibits for other zoos and museums so their own is kind of a showroom display).
These places look so fun! He will have a blast there, and luckily so will I.
However, all of Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, and Washington DC are within a three hour trip (long weekend day, or overnight better to NYC). Pittsburgh is at least a one-night trip with a little one (4.5 hours one way driving) but has a better natural history museum than Philadelphia (the very first identified T.Rex is in the Carnegie).
Driving is the best for our family. Thank you so much for the great information.
So far as the cities themselves, I have checked Trulia and zillow for rentals and haven't found much in the way of rentals. Do you know if the local paper (which I don't know) advertises rentals also? Which areas should be look into? Is there an address range for Harrisburg or area that is preferable for what we are seeking? Looking at google earth we can see the railroad tracks and it looks like one side is better than the other. Is that in fact the case or is it separated more by single family homes and then row homes and such?
The railroad isn't the best guide for what's "good" or not in Harrisburg, Shipoke (ritzy) and Olde Uptown (dodgy) are on the same side of the tracks, Allison Hill (probably the worst city neighborhood) is opposite, but so is much else. I know NS has several worksites in the Harrisburg area, from Enola on the West Shore to Rutherford in Swatara Twp, in traffic it's 30 minutes from one to the other, do you have an address for the worksite?
We do not have an address for the worksite. He is working through the process of employment right now. Not putting our eggs in one basket, he is also looking at police dispatch jobs across the area also. I know that Harrisburg combined operations with Dauphin County, and he is watching that too.
Thanks for the information about the RR tracks, as we really didn't know what we were looking at. We don't want to live ritzy, as I gave up my work life to raise our son and will be staying home with him for a few more years and that has obviously cut down on spending power. We just need a slower pace to life and a small town for him to grow up in. We both grew up in small towns and want that for him: Safety, things to do (you more than covered that!) and an opportunity for him to see what life outside the city is.
Are all the sites there for NS Train Dispatcher sites? That is the position he has been applying for.
Im surprised that no one has mentioned the Susquehanna Township, Middletown or the Central Dauphin School District area as options.
Thanks for some new options! I have never heard of these towns. I will look them up tonight. What cities would encompass the Central Dauphin School District?
I personally would think that the Camp Hill area would be more diverse than Hummelstown proper, but Hummelstown area might be about equal. Generally, central PA is not very diverse in general; the whole area surrounding Harrisburg is conservative, mostly white, WASP like types, not real friendly, who 'cling to guns and religion', as well as family lines that go back several hundred years . (Sorry PAers, I found it to be true and didn't know why everyone was in an uproar).
I could not agree more! Although there are lots of nice people around, but also an alarming amount of waspy types /QUOTE]
Last edited by toobusytoday; 04-03-2012 at 09:08 PM..
Multiracial person here. Born in Carlisle and most recently lived in Harrisburg City x 5 years. I left Harrisburg 4 years ago and came to Manhattan.
First, it's really incorrect to call the people you find in the midstate "WASPs". WASP implies high status/upper class, well educated, and snotty about it. Think Charlotte York MacDougal from SATC. Most of the midstate isn't quite that well educated, rich, or trying hard to impress. True WASPs don't shop at Walmart. They don't live in areas where there isn't a brick and mortar Talbots or JCrew. Fine dining to a WASP is not the restaurants on 2nd Street in Downtown Harrisburg. Just sayin'.
I personally would not raise interracial children in the midstate. Not too much overt stuff but still a lot of racial negativity around. I mean, no one is going to burn crosses on your lawn in Camp Hill but you will be treated differently. The people at the mall are going to ask for ID when your husband purchases something with a credit card while they will not question the white people behind him who also use one. When you're white, it's easy not to notice but I've got stories.
I am so freakin' tired of people calling the Hershey Medical Center and Hershey proper "diverse"! A handful of black medical students and the kids at the Milton Hershey School do not make the area diverse. Yeah, among the medical center low level staff (e.g., cleaning people, transport, cafeteria workers, etc.) there are black people but not among the professional ranks. Most of the black people who work at the medical center live in Steelton and Harrisburg - not Hershey. Varies by person but the medical center's white professional staff can be racist as hell.
I lived in a high rise in Downtown Harrisburg and really loved my apartment. Nice, relatively diverse, quiet building with great views of the river and City Island. I would have to be a millionaire to live like that in NYC. Harrisburg's a cheap area with some really great places like Baltimore, DC, and Philly not too far away. I used to be able to walk to the Amtrak station a few blocks away from my apartment and take the train to NYC to see a show or similar. I'm a hiker so I hate not being in an area where the AT, St Anthony's Wilderness, and other great hiking spots aren't nearby. The natural beauty of Central PA is its great asset. Life in Harrisburg was good for me but I crafted it that way and this would be more difficult to do with kids (who are impressionable and need to be in school around other kids with not so nice ideas or ways of thinking about them...this would be my biggest fear.)
With an interracial family, would think south of the Mason Dixon line. I found Maryland to be more interracial and black people friendly.
Multiracial person here. Born in Carlisle and most recently lived in Harrisburg City x 5 years. I left Harrisburg 4 years ago and came to Manhattan.
First, it's really incorrect to call the people you find in the midstate "WASPs". WASP implies high status/upper class, well educated, and snotty about it. Think Charlotte York MacDougal from SATC. Most of the midstate isn't quite that well educated, rich, or trying hard to impress. True WASPs don't shop at Walmart. They don't live in areas where there isn't a brick and mortar Talbots or JCrew. Fine dining to a WASP is not the restaurants on 2nd Street in Downtown Harrisburg. Just sayin'.
I personally would not raise interracial children in the midstate. Not too much overt stuff but still a lot of racial negativity around. I mean, no one is going to burn crosses on your lawn in Camp Hill but you will be treated differently. The people at the mall are going to ask for ID when your husband purchases something with a credit card while they will not question the white people behind him who also use one. When you're white, it's easy not to notice but I've got stories.
I am so freakin' tired of people calling the Hershey Medical Center and Hershey proper "diverse"! A handful of black medical students and the kids at the Milton Hershey School do not make the area diverse. Yeah, among the medical center low level staff (e.g., cleaning people, transport, cafeteria workers, etc.) there are black people but not among the professional ranks. Most of the black people who work at the medical center live in Steelton and Harrisburg - not Hershey. Varies by person but the medical center's white professional staff can be racist as hell.
I lived in a high rise in Downtown Harrisburg and really loved my apartment. Nice, relatively diverse, quiet building with great views of the river and City Island. I would have to be a millionaire to live like that in NYC. Harrisburg's a cheap area with some really great places like Baltimore, DC, and Philly not too far away. I used to be able to walk to the Amtrak station a few blocks away from my apartment and take the train to NYC to see a show or similar. I'm a hiker so I hate not being in an area where the AT, St Anthony's Wilderness, and other great hiking spots aren't nearby. The natural beauty of Central PA is its great asset. Life in Harrisburg was good for me but I crafted it that way and this would be more difficult to do with kids (who are impressionable and need to be in school around other kids with not so nice ideas or ways of thinking about them...this would be my biggest fear.)
With an interracial family, would think south of the Mason Dixon line. I found Maryland to be more interracial and black people friendly.
I agree with most of your post but I just want to take issue with one thing. I worked in retail for many years in Central PA, some of those as a manager, and I remember a few instances when African-Americans got offended at certain normal procedures that weren't racist at all. For example, I worked at a place that had to ID every customer to purchase alcohol - a handful of times we had complaints that the cashier was racist, when in fact they were IDing everybody and the customer just didn't notice or pay attention. I had a full blown argument once after the person was offended. I showed them the sign, all the documentation and they just refused to believe me. Another time, the customer was using a check for the first time so we asked for an ID (standard procedure) and the customer had a fit because they thought it was racist and we were just asking because they were black. I'm not necessarily doubting your incident or the experiences you have been through, but I felt the need to share my experience. Perhaps it's my white liberal guilt, but it can be very disheartening to be accused of racism when it's not true.
I agree with most of your post but I just want to take issue with one thing. I worked in retail for many years in Central PA, some of those as a manager, and I remember a few instances when African-Americans got offended at certain normal procedures that weren't racist at all. For example, I worked at a place that had to ID every customer to purchase alcohol - a handful of times we had complaints that the cashier was racist, when in fact they were IDing everybody and the customer just didn't notice or pay attention. I had a full blown argument once after the person was offended. I showed them the sign, all the documentation and they just refused to believe me. Another time, the customer was using a check for the first time so we asked for an ID (standard procedure) and the customer had a fit because they thought it was racist and we were just asking because they were black. I'm not necessarily doubting your incident or the experiences you have been through, but I felt the need to share my experience. Perhaps it's my white liberal guilt, but it can be very disheartening to be accused of racism when it's not true.
Um, there's a very big difference between mandatory carding re: ETOH and randomly asking people for ID when using a CC at the Hbg Mall Macy's. I actually stood back and watched countless white people use CCs after I was asked for ID. I then returned my purchases.
Um, there's a very big difference between mandatory carding re: ETOH and randomly asking people for ID when using a CC at the Hbg Mall Macy's. I actually stood back and watched countless white people use CCs after I was asked for ID. I then returned my purchases.
I used to shop at the HBG Mall Macys pretty regularly actually and most of the shoppers and employees are black. Nevertheless, sorry that happened to you.
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