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This thread seems to be about three different demographics moving to PA for somewhat different things:
1. Poor Hispanics from the Bronx and Upper Manhattan are moving to the older, smaller post-industrial Pennsylvania cities like Allentown, Reading and Lancaster. (The NY Times article profiles Reading.) These cities had been economically depressed for a while now, and where most Hispanics settle are still low-income places with high crime and bad public schools. They have old, cheap housing stock but they're "urban" cities with bodegas etc. Allentown is commutable to NYC. Reading and Lancaster are not. People from the South Bronx moving to the inner city Hispanic parts of Allentown or Reading aren't necessarily improving their lives much... their kids are still living in fairly dangerous neighborhoods with bad schools. But they can buy a rowhouse for $90k.
2. People from New York are moving to new suburbs just across the PA/NJ border (the Poconos, the suburban parts of the Lehigh Valley, Bucks County in the Philadelphia suburbs). These are usually more middle income families who want a bigger house (a "McMansion") and decent school districts, and they're willing to put up with a hellish commute for it.
3. Yuppies from New York City are moving to Philadelphia because they want a penthouse loft with exposed brick overlooking tony Rittenhouse Square, and can afford to take the Acela every day with their New York City professionals' paycheck.
My god, with Acela is Philadelphia becoming a suburb of NY now!
Actually I think you hit the nail on the head. The only thing I would change is add working class blacks (including Carribean) and a few whites to your point about hispanics. I have personally seen this.
There are just as many NY license plates as PA plates along the Main Line nowadays.A portion have to do with schools (Villanova and about a dozen liberal arts colleges Bryn Mawr,Haverford,cabrini etc.) but alot are scooping up houses. A Million Dollar Main Line house would probably be 2.5 M in a similar suburb of NYC. This area is becoming inundated with upscale autos representing NY,CT,Mass,Va.Md, plates. which is a great thing fro Pa.. But keep the poor people from the Bronx in the Bronx.You guys are infatuated with immigrants most of them lower socio economic disadvantaged, keep them in NYC.
But keep the poor people from the Bronx in the Bronx.You guys are infatuated with immigrants most of them lower socio economic disadvantaged, keep them in NYC.
Unfortunately for you, the US Constitution gives all Americans - immigrant or natural - the right to live wherever they choose to in the USA. You've just got to suck it up if you don't like it, I guess.
Blackbeauty..if you are paying $1,800 to live in a closet, that is because you are unaware of apts and rents in the outerboroughs. You can get a large, new or renovated 2 bedroom apt in Mott Haven for $1,300 OR LESS. That would mean 20 minute commute to 14th street. Do your homework.
Please - Im not paying 1300$ month to have an 60 minute commute downtown to Wall street every morning (20 minutes is an extreme exaggeration) it takes me 20 minutes now, on the M23 crosstown to the 6 to 14th and then wait for a 4 or 5 to Wall street.
Then on top of that I'd probably be living on a crack infested street, where you have to get in the house before the sun goes down.
Plus where im located now a 10$ cab fare will get me almost anywhere I want in the city.
I moved from NJ to Pa and Pa isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Everybody is moving here and the crime is getting worse, maybe you should stay there or find someplace else to go.
The population and crime here in NEPA are both exploding. Scranton has had four homicides thus far in 2008, a far cry from having 0 in the entire county in 2006. There have been a lot of gang-related tensions as well, especially in Monroe County. There was just a major heroin ring bust in Wilkes-Barre that broke up a major turf war between rival gangs "Long Island Boys" and "Jersey City Boys." I know of a number of people who commute daily from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre into Northern New Jersey or NYC. NY license plates are EVERYWHERE here. I myself have still not ruled it out as a possibility. Want to see how popular NEPA is? Go over to the PA forum and check out the number of posts per sub-forum. NEPA is untouchable in that regard. We may just be City-Data's busiest sub-forum on a per-capita basis.
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