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I think she is being sarcastic and silly. or she is ill-informed.
Ok. but really. I am new,. What is the geographical difference between Kingston and Edwardsville. They look like they run together. Where is the Heights?
Ok. but really. I am new,. What is the geographical difference between Kingston and Edwardsville. They look like they run together. Where is the Heights?
Kingston and Edwardsville are indeed two adjacent municipalities, but while most of Kingston is stable and middle-class in nature a good chunk (but not all) of Edwardsville is home to nefarious elements and urban blight. Main Street in Edwardsville is one of the most depressing corridors in the entire valley, as it is lined with crumbling dive bars, convenience stores, overhead wires, etc. Many of the homes in town are in dire need of cosmetic updating. Edwardsville is home to several large-scale low-income housing projects, and there have been issues with crime here in recent years (towns of under 5,000 people should not be having any homicides, let alone an average of 2 or 3 per year).
Edwardsville has a very "wrong side of the tracks" reputation, and, sadly, much of it is warranted. I used to work in Edwardsville, and it wasn't really a pleasant experience. Kingston, save for the parts of town that border Edwardsville, is generally well-kept, safe, and quiet. Most people here take pride in their properties, know their neighbors, and steer clear of illicit activities. Kingston is a place I'd feel comfortable raising my family in.
The Heights is a neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre bounded roughly by Coal Street to the north, East Northampton Street to the south, Wilkes-Barre Boulevard to the west, and Business Route 309 to the east. It's a very dense urban neighborhood with narrow streets, older homes built nearly atop one another, limited on-street parking, and is generally gentrifying. It's convenient to either Downtown or the Highland Park shopping district of adjacent Wilkes-Barre Township.
Hey Paul ! I know that you are a former resident of West Pittston.
Very unlike you not to weigh in with an opinion.
Please check out my thread "Bad Experience in West Pittston"
Thanks
Sheena
I think without a doubt one of the most family-friendly communities in NEPA is West Pittston (a.k.a. "The Garden Village"). With just under 5,000 people the town is very compact, walkable, and leafy. There are many attractive historic homes, mom-and-pop businesses, and the people are some of the friendliest you'll find anywhere. It is part of the Wyoming Area School District, which is considered above-average for the area. As far as the urban core of the valley goes the town has an upper-middle-class vibe to it (lots of newer vehicles and a few more people here are college-educated than surrounding towns), but it is nowhere near as pretentious or "fake" feeling as some of the more exclusive enclaves of the Back Mountain, Abingtons, or Mountain Top.
I have fond memories of eating brunch after church on Sundays at Agolino's and being treated like family. West Pittston was one of the few places in NEPA (Honesdale and Tunkhannock also come to mind) where people would be willing to stop to wave pedestrians across the street in some areas. The townspeople love to whine about how "horrible" the place is (you'll soon learn people in Luzerne/Lackawanna Counties are the biggest whiners), but if you were to pick West Pittston up and plop it down where I live now in suburban DC it would have the exclusivity and desirability equivalent of Arlington or Bethesda (with a much lower price tag).
If and when I relocate back to NEPA my goal is to live in Downtown Wilkes-Barre or Downtown Scranton in one of the new lofts, but if I decide to raise a family I can't think of many better places than West Pittston. The flip-side? There is no levee protecting the borough, so if and when the river rises a good chunk of the historic district is submerged.
Paul's review of W.Pittston was posted earlier in this thread.
Kingston and Edwardsville are indeed two adjacent municipalities, but while most of Kingston is stable and middle-class in nature a good chunk (but not all) of Edwardsville is home to nefarious elements and urban blight. Main Street in Edwardsville is one of the most depressing corridors in the entire valley, as it is lined with crumbling dive bars, convenience stores, overhead wires, etc. Many of the homes in town are in dire need of cosmetic updating. Edwardsville is home to several large-scale low-income housing projects, and there have been issues with crime here in recent years (towns of under 5,000 people should not be having any homicides, let alone an average of 2 or 3 per year).
Edwardsville has a very "wrong side of the tracks" reputation, and, sadly, much of it is warranted. I used to work in Edwardsville, and it wasn't really a pleasant experience. Kingston, save for the parts of town that border Edwardsville, is generally well-kept, safe, and quiet. Most people here take pride in their properties, know their neighbors, and steer clear of illicit activities. Kingston is a place I'd feel comfortable raising my family in.
The Heights is a neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre bounded roughly by Coal Street to the north, East Northampton Street to the south, Wilkes-Barre Boulevard to the west, and Business Route 309 to the east. It's a very dense urban neighborhood with narrow streets, older homes built nearly atop one another, limited on-street parking, and is generally gentrifying. It's convenient to either Downtown or the Highland Park shopping district of adjacent Wilkes-Barre Township.
Thank you, I appreciate the info. Wish more posters here were like yours.
Hey Paul ! I know that you are a former resident of West Pittston.
Very unlike you not to weigh in with an opinion.
Please check out my thread "Bad Experience in West Pittston"
Thanks
Sheena
Sheena,
I'm well aware that you and I share sentiments on nearly every facet on this forum, and I do indeed like you; however, in this case I've neglected to respond to your DM and have not reinforced your experience in the other thread simply because I disagree with you. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but growing up in nearby Pittston Township and spending so much time visiting friends and relatives in West Pittston, strolling the streets with my ex-boyfriend, getting ice cream at Blue Ribbon, running beneath the shade trees, bumping elbows with friendly people at Agolino's, etc., etc. I can't come on here with a good conscience and say "Sheena is right. West Pittston sucks." It doesn't. PITTSTON is an open sewer, just like Edwardsville, Shenandoah, and a few other notorious local towns, but West Pittston is a place I have nothing but the most happiest memories of. When I did my photo tour in 2007 I saw a grandmother toting toddlers in a little red wagon down the sidewalk, a mother jogging with a side-by-side stroller with twins inside, people waved me across crosswalks, etc. It isn't exactly Mayberry, but it's as close as you can get in Greater Pittston.
I'd also like to correct a poster above who said West Pittston is a local Democratic/liberal stronghold. It's actually much more evenly split between Republicans and Democrats than most other parts of the valley. Roughly 70% of people in Pittston voted for Obama in 2008, but that percentage was much lower in West Pittston and Pittston Township, where there are many wealthy Republican business owners. I think Obama did still carry West Pittston, but it wasn't a "runaway" by any means. Pittston Township actually favored Republican Lou Barletta the last time he ran for local office.
Sheena, as the only openly-gay person in my high school several years ago I did shoulder my fair share of cold shoulders and hostility, but I do not to this day view Pittston overall as being replete with homophobes just because of a few bad apples (quite the contrary, actually, since I now know dozens upon dozens of LGBT people in Greater Pittston). You can't judge West Pittston based upon one bad experience. Are people in West Pittston busy-bodies? Yes. Is that necessarily a bad thing? If it keeps crime in town nearly at zero, then no.
I did not initially or ever say that "West Pittston sucks". My experience there did.
At first I merely said that the way that we were treated was shabby. After being treated that way,I no longer want to live there.Would you?
I do not feel good about that place. First impressions count for a lot.
Do you agree with some guy in a pick up truck trying to run us off the road?
Do you agree with that RE agent refusing to sell us the house?
What part of what happened to us do you agree with exactly?
Calling the police? Well they were just doing their job.
They did and when they saw us they left.
I still agree with you in the following ways -
It is a pretty little sleepy town. I ventured that far from Wilkes Barre and Scranton because in part of your recent glowing recommendations of the place!
THE MAN WOULD NOT SELL US THE HOUSE BECAUSE WE WERE FROM NY!!!
That is what he said. That was it.
Vehicular menacing and real estate bigotry are not nice happy small town values.
I guess West Pittston is a nice little town if you are from there - or your grandparents are from there. Or something to that effect.
But while it is pretty and desirable, not selling us the house because we are from NY is illegal.
I can understand why you do not hate the whole town. you are from W.P. and have some good memories and a lifetime connection to the area.
But can you see it in your heart to hate what happened to some prospective homeowners who were rushed out of town?
They are 2 separate things.
These are mutually exclusive items, Sheena. What happened to you is morally reprehensible, but it is not necessarily characteristic of the entire borough and could have happened in any municipality in the region for that matter. If you think people in West Pittston are insular then you should read up on Shenandoah, a town where you might seem "fashionable" wearing a white sheet, if you catch my drift.
I had an "Obama '08" bumper sticker on my former sedan when I resided in Pittston Township and had two pick-up trucks with "McCain" bumper stickers "bully" me on two separate occasions. Did I then say "People in Pittston Township are inbred ignorant redneck hick Republicans?" No. It is possible that our opposing bumper stickers were merely coincidental. It is also possible given the increasingly important role Pittston Township is playing in the metropolitan area's economy that neither driver lived in my community. I once had someone yell a slur at me and throw a bottle at me from their passing vehicle as I ran through Dupont. Did I project that onto the 2,800 people in town and decry them as socially regressive and poorly educated homophobes? No.
Sheena, think what you will of West Pittston based upon ONE homeowner and ONE motorist, but you're not going to succeed in getting me to lambast the town in general based upon such isolated experiences, especially when it is a town I treasured growing up near. There is NO excuse for what you endured. I don't know what else you want me to say. If you don't like West Pittston, which is one of the few WELL-KEPT valley floor communities in comparison to white-trash-infested places like Pittston, then there's not much more I can say.
Thank you Paul! Really that is all I needed from you or from anyone. To say that what happened to me in West Pittston was "reprehensible".
There is no excuse for what my whole family endured.
Do I think that everyone from WP is this way? Well you are not. I know that, and trusting your opinion is why I even gave the place a look.
You are right - I am sure that not everyone who lives in or is from West Pittston is like this. And yes Paul you are right one homeowner should not dictate my opinions of an entire town.
However since I never had an issue even close to this in Kingston or Forty Fort or Scranton Or Clarks Summit - my impression remains unfavorable.
The residents who rushed to their defense made things worse with each post supporting their actions.
When Coalman came out in their defense - as well as others - I felt that what I long held to be ?Universal Truths" - that one does not discriminate against people because they happen to be somewhat different was up for debate.
I have a number of conservative friends - as well as a couple on this forum - who do not run people off the road - or try to- because they do not like a bumper sticker.
I live in a town where Left and Right gather each Saturday morning and express their differing political beliefs. But they live side by side and do not harass each other on other days. A few are actually friends.
Paul I am sure that there are MANY nice people in West Pittston who would decry what happened to my family.
You are one.
But there are other equally nice places in which to live. And after that I am a bit afraid.
I am sorry if I offended you.
Sheena
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