Carbondale???? (Scranton, York, Hanover: apartment, rent, movers)

[dragonart]

Originally Posted by TheHighHat

Dragonart, I drive through Carbondale frequently and your house is just awesome. I love the old Victorian homes with charm and it is simply classy. Scranton has some beautiful victorians and each has their own magical charm. Great pick.

Thank you I'm hoping the market picks up soon and someone who will love the house as much as we did will buy it. We're both sad we had to leave it.

[ScranBarre]

I concur with the others. Your home is absolutely lovely. If only I had the funds available to buy that other dilapidated purple home and transform it into a showplace. I'm sure someone will do so eventually.

[FightinPhils]

Carbondale...way too many mulletts per capita for me.

[dragonart]

Originally Posted by FightinPhils

Carbondale...way too many mulletts per capita for me.

Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Doesn't make it right....or true.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by dragonart

Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Doesn't make it right....or true.

It absolutely is true...I grew up not that far outside of Carbondale, I know it well. There is a definite white trash vibe on that end of the valley....obviously I'm not speaking for everyone up there, there are lots of decent people there....but there is definitely a higher occurrence of mullets, NASCAR memorabilia, lowest-performing schools in the area, lowest median income, etc.

[dragonart]

Originally Posted by FightinPhils

It absolutely is true...I grew up not that far outside of Carbondale, I know it well. There is a definite white trash vibe on that end of the valley....obviously I'm not speaking for everyone up there, there are lots of decent people there....but there is definitely a higher occurrence of mullets, NASCAR memorabilia, lowest-performing schools in the area, lowest median income, etc.

Since you're obviously the judgementalist type...here goes. There's "white trash" everywhere, even in the richiest, snootiest, most high-brow stuck up neighborhoods. Get over it. Just because someone likes NASCAR that doesn't automatically drop them into the "white trash" bin. How do you know that people who go looking for online forums to bash townspeople they never even met, never even knew, aren't the real "white trash"? How do you know that your mulleted, NASCAR collector you're trashing isn't, behind the scenes, a rock star, or an artist, or someone actually cool to hang out with? How do you know that people don't see YOU as the white trash? Carbondale does have lower income people as do all towns. I guess those are what you look down your nose in the air at as "white trash" people, but most of the ones I met were good people. Yes there are bad eggs as there are every place else. And I've met more "highest median income", white trash slumlord landlords from Scranton, NY, and adjoining areas than I ever met anywhere else. AND...those are usually the ones who say the kind of things you say. Why? Because they want to KEEP their slummy areas and continue to rip people off. But there is a movement in Carbondale against this kind of attitude, and someday, the true "trash" will be kicked out once and for all.

[carbondaleproud]

Originally Posted by FightinPhils

It absolutely is true...I grew up not that far outside of Carbondale, I know it well. There is a definite white trash vibe on that end of the valley....obviously I'm not speaking for everyone up there, there are lots of decent people there....but there is definitely a higher occurrence of mullets, NASCAR memorabilia, lowest-performing schools in the area, lowest median income, etc.

Dear Sir,

I am trying my best to not take offense over your post, and would like to thank you for saying that not everyone in Carbondale is white trash.

You say you grew up near by. Can I ask what your hometown is? I see you live in Scranton, but where did you grow up? Wherever it is, I'm sure that the sidewalks where you learned to ride a bike now have someone close enough that if someone wanted to score pot, or heroin, or crack could and would be hooked up quickly. Social and ethical decline isn't something that's limited to the seedy element here in Carbondale. Every community has a criminal element ...

A Carbondale Area High School education ~ other than a factory job I had for four years after I graduated, every position I've held including that of a managing editor for two local newspapers normally require a college degree. I never went to college. But I earned those positions based on what education I had, and what nurturing my parents continued when I came home from school, every day. One of the most respected cardiologists in Scranton graduated with me from Carbondale Area in 1978. Dr. Steve Voyce. I don't make as much as Steve does, I'm sure, but my earnings as a restaurant manager are greater that the combined income of many couples who call the upper valley home.

The local news gives insight into where the problems are in this area. Granted, Carbondale has received some bad press in the past, but most recently, was covered extensively for the dedication of General O'Malley's bust in Memorial Park, our newly remodled Chamber of Commerce Building, The O'Malley Honor Room within the Chamber Building, the local efforts to raise money for a native son severely injured while defending us in Iraq, the community clean-up of our Maplewood Cemetery (one of the oldest in all of Lackawanna County) and free concerts ~ the first held at a newly refurbished park that was the first plane of the Gravity Railroad which was key in founding just about every industry that ever existed, and or still exists ,in not only upper Lackwanna County, but throughout Wayne County to the New York State border.

Forgive me if I can't recall how many positive Scranton stories have aired very recently, other than that thing revolving around the series "The Office," and, of course, the annual St. Ann's Novena ~ when news of a triple homocide in Scranton airs for days over my TV, while my scanner keeps buzzing with other criminal activity occuring 16 miles away, I can't help but think, "Thank God I live in Carbondale."

There is crime, there are drugs, there is ethical decline in every community, on every block, and if you don't realize that, you're living in a bubble.

Another local story involved a township enacting a nuisance ordinance. I'm sorry I can't remember just which community had earned Channel 16's coverage, but the person they were talking to said that based on the success other areas have had with such a law, they planned on enacting a similar plan. And what community was one of the first, if NOT the first, who adopted such an ordinance? Carbondale ...

Has it made a difference? You bet! Does Scranton, or the community you grew up in have such a law? You tell me. I admittedly don't know. I DO know that it's very common for people to walk freely throughout Carbondale with their family, or to curb their dog, without fear. There may actually be those who STILL don't lock their doors at night, as stupid as that is, in this day and age ...

And there are those who rest assured that what crime there is in their hometown is much less prevelant than it is in neighboring communties, and that after decades of decline, our hometown is going forward, and that what we can offer to community only aides the upswing. It's called involvement, Sir. It's part of community pride. It's very much based on personal pride. I know where I'm from. I know where I am. I see where we're going, and I'm in it for the long run.

I live very close to Marian Community Hospital. Very seldom do I hear a siren, and that is because Carbondale is a family friendly community where murder is a very rare occurance.

Triple Murder? Unhead of. A feather in Scranton's cap?

Though as I was moving into my house, 11 years ago, the buzz of the neighborhood was a drug overdose four doors down on the right. I'm sure, as you're reading this, there's someone doing something dangerous and illegal within walking distance of your home, and within walking distance of the front steps you climbed to your home in your original hometown.

What makes a difference is personal involvement.

I could slam Scranton, but I don't live there. You can slam Carbondale, but you never lived here. All of us can complain, or be critical, or we can take action and make a differnce.

We're moving forward in a positive light, up here in the upper valley. I wish you the same, Sir. I hope you're involved as much in your community as the majority of people here in Carbondale are.

And what does Nascar have to do with any of this? One of my vehicles is a Monte Carlo. The other is a Jeep Wrangler. What does this tell you about me? I'm not sure, and I know, for the most part, I don't care. Even though, based on what you might consider popluar belief, a single woman living in Carbondale, educated in the Carbondale public school system couldn't possibly afford a ten room house and two vehicles with money to spare. I can, and I do, and that doesn't include what I've invested in my personal interests like sophisticated digital camera equipment and four computers ... I am NOT low income or a deadbeat. and I'm holding my own despte this country's economy and my Carbondale Area education.

If you were walking through Carbondale while I happened to be taking pictures of this historic town, I'd offer you a sincere smile and hello, much like most people on the street would. Your odds or being robbed, mugged, assaulted, or murdered on our streets are most likely a lot lower than you'd face while out for an evening walk in any part of Scranton.

And you grew up where? One of my sisters lives very close to the Windsor Inn in Jerymn, and I work in Eynon. I spent 13 years of my life as a valued resident of Waymart, Wayne Couty. This entire valley has a special meaning to me, and it rests in my hands as to whether I can inprove upon my legacy, or sit back an knock any flaws remaining in the wake of its economic collapse. I choose to be active, and I hope you're as involved in both your current hometown as your are in the community of your legacy.

It escapes my logic how anyone can label a certain city or community as white trash ...

I will not armchair quarterback Scranton as I have limited knowledge of that city. I respectfully request you treat Carbondale in a similar manner. I've never lived in Scranton, you've never lived in Carbondale. I consider Scranton bustling, beautiful, and historical. You consider MY hometown as ridden with White Trash. That term alone is terribly offensive. I don't know how you are possibly reading any of this with your nose so drastically pointed upward ...

Carbondale is moving forward after many years of free falling. If you're interested in helping, you're more than welcome to join us for the ride. Get involved, get dirty, make a difference, or get out of the way.

I'm trying not to take offense, Sir, but when you're shot through the heart, it's difficult to not take some things personally.

You said you know Carbondale well. Please feel free to send me an email and explain just what you experienced that inspires you to trash us. My family helped found this city ~ this entire area ~ with their sweat and blood, and I'd like to know just what Carbondale did to you to merit your distain.

~ Nancy

PS What is a mullet? That is a term I don't understand. Whatever is it, I'm probably not one of them, nor is 99.9 percent of Carbondale residents.

[ScranBarre]

Very well-written post, Nancy. For the record though, Pittston, my hometown for better or for worse, is the community that you saw recently enacting that nuisance renter ordinance. They based it off of similar legislation in Sunbury, not Carbondale.

I've known FightinPhils (a.k.a. MrKrabs, ConorsDad, and I believe also "Pat" from WNEP-TV's Talkback 16 Online), long enough to realize that he's not intending to be inflammatory in his remarks. Carbondale just has an outdated "stigma" to it that everyone is stuck living in the past. Plymouth, Edwardsville, and Nanticoke in Luzerne County all have the same reputation. Likewise Pittston has the reputation of being a Mafia town (which I do believe is true, by the way, considering I know half the people here who have limited education and don't even work are wealthier than my college-educated parents, but I digress).

FightinPhils just rubs some people the wrong way because he doesn't sugar-coat things the way I and many others tend to do on this forum. To answer one of your questions he grew up in Archbald and attended Valley View, if I'm not mistaken, then moved to Dunmore, and now lives in Hyde Park, in Scranton's West Side. It is true that SAT scores don't necessarily reflect the potential of a school's graduating class. I was a 2005 graduate of Pittston Area, which routinely ranks amongst the worst public school districts in the county for standardized testing, yet I can rattle off dozens of our graduates who now earn six-figures, some of them with esteemed Ivy-league educations. There are always exceptions to the rule. I'm sure Carbondale Area is the same way. Ditto Valley View. I'm sure there are likewise kids that are as dumb as bricks that go to very affluent schools like Abington Heights, Dallas, Crestwood, and North Pocono.

[ScranBarre]

For the record, this was Scranton's first multiple-homicide in nearly a decade. For a city of 70,000-72,500 (depending on what estimates you chose to believe), that's something to be very proud of. I happened to have gone to school with one of the victims of that heinous crime, and I will likely be attending his viewing tomorrow evening. This was an isolated incident that could have happened anywhere. This nut (cough..."from the city"...cough) went into a jealous rage when he assumed his girlfriend was cheating on him, so he decided to kill her baby's father and two other able-bodied males in the home whom he likely deemed to be threats. Thankfully though he spared a toddler, a handicapped child, a woman, and his ex-girlfriend.

Let's rewind to January 2007. The setting? Midland Drive, a quiet suburban street in the affluent Back Mountain of Luzerne County. Firefighters respond to a well-kept home that was set ablaze, only to discover the nearly-decapitated corpse of a gay porn producer, Brian Kocis, inside in the living room. A couple years prior to this, also in the "crime doesn't happen here" Back Mountain, five dismembered bodies were unearthed on the property of Hugo Selenski. Several years before that there was a major drug bust at the "our kids are too good for those influences" Abington Heights High School. Even in my own upper-middle-class suburb of Pittston Township more and more of our neighbors are demanding increased police patrols as we notice more and more "questionable" figures roaming our neighborhood streets.
For your sake I hope you tone down the volume a bit on mentioning the triple-homicide in Scranton, as incidents like this can happen anywhere. Carbondale's most recent claim to fame might have been an ugly hairy naked guy robbing a convenience store or something several months back because he was "bored," but rest assured as long as there is a serious drug problem in Carbondale (which I know there is from talking with acquaintances there), then the potential always exists for a murder to happen there to, at which point you will have to eat crow.

[FightinPhils]

carbondaleproud....First of all, I didn't say that all, or even most, people in Carbondale are white trash. I know lots of good people from Carbondale, and have friends that live there. Scranbarre is right about my previous identites on CD and I did grow up in and around Archbald, but I'm not the poster Pat from talback 16 he's referring to. Anyways, I will not take back the fact that I believe there is a pretty sizeable "white trash" element to Carbondale and the upper valley. It just may be that you're closer to rural areas and further from the cities, and tend to have more "redneck" type of people....many of which are harmless and not criminals. There is a big drug problem in Carbondale, I would argue that its just as big, if not bigger, than Scranton's drug problem. Also, crime is probably just as high, if not higher, in the upper valley than in Scranton.....I've lived in Scranton for more than 5 years with no crimes committed against me whatsoever, no thefts, no vandalism, etc. I was robbed one time....it was in Jermyn.