Do you like your town? (Allentown, Bethlehem: buy, school district, live)

[familymom]

I would like to hear what makes your town or area so inviting. Also if you are a native PA or have relocated from other areas. Thanks, hope for some interesting reading

[toobusytoday]

I love our town! We moved here almost 14 years ago from Delaware County, but had moved quite a bit before that. We've lived in five states and four counties in Pennsylvania. Coopersburg is very much like the town I grew up with in lower Delaware except the schools are better here and Coopersburg didn't have a long bad patch of shuttered stores like my hometown did.

I like that it's a small school district and how I can go into any store and know someone. Or how I can go to an event like yesterday's Memorial day service by myself and find people I know to sit with. Also, there is never a really bad traffic day. If I have to wait five minutes to get through an intersection, that's a long time.

There are community events all year long in the three areas that cover our school district - Upper Saucon, Lower Milford and Coopersburgh borough and a friendly competition about that. Today is the first day of the Coopersburg Fireman's carnival and we usually buy cabbage and noodles from the volunteer fire fighters group while families with young children take the kids on the rides. Last weekend was a 3K run through town. In the early fall there will be community days in Coopersburg, Upper Saucon and Lower Milford, each one a little different.

Our Schools are good too. For the size of our HS, just over 1,000 students, they offer over a dozen AP classes, and all of the core subjects have strict pre-rec's that make them challenging but do-able to the students that qualify. Parkland allows any student to take their AP classes, which I think changes the value of the class. Building a new intermediate school for grades 4-6 also relieved an overcrowding problem.

All in all, Coopersburg has been a very good choice for our family.

[loose cannon]

I was born here. I have traveled. I have tried to leave. Things did not work out. Not as bad as it was. Bethlehem is great. Allentown blows. One of these days I'll be gone. In the meantime I am here.

[KristyLiz]

I have lived here for 3 1/2 years, and am very happy with our town. I grew up on Long Island and have lived in CT, VT, NYC and 2 other areas of PA, and can honestly say I feel the most "at home" here.

I like the fact that our area is new and growing. Yes - we have our growing pains, but I like the people who make up our community, which is really the most important thing.

[boiled]

I don't mind the town of Slatington area/ Washington township but what makes it bad are some bad neighbors and a township that looks the other way on illegal activities. Also we have no police/ no law in Washington Township Lehigh County so anything goes.

[plastics]

I like Jim Thorpe. I used to not like it, being a teenager, I wanted to be in the city, and all that. Now that I'm older, it's a nice town. The police don't do much, but there isn't too much crime. More people are moving into this area though. I work in Allentown, and most of Allentown is grimy, I don't like it.