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Opinions on Scranton politics notwithstanding, the place where the city has missed the boat is in basic urban planning. It's not a "chicken and egg" situation; to adequately place a city, first you must have industry, infrastructure and amenities, and THEN residents will move in. Scranton has precious few jobs downtown, even fewer amenities, and the infrastructure renders the city unwalkable and uncommutable. The city doesn't have the money to add things like a light rail, so people will always need cars to get around. So why bother having an apartment downtown when you can have an entire house in the neighborhoods?
Furthermore, the type of population that tends to flock to these types of apartments, which includes for the most part young professionals, is largely nonexistent in Scranton. The brain drain phenomenon sees these young people graduate from Marywood or U. of S. and then they take off for greener pastures. There just aren't enough jobs in Scranton, most especially in the downtown region, to sustain an urban core. No one is going to stay in downtown Scranton just because they have some nifty looking apartments if they can't find the jobs to pay for their rent.
Efforts aren't being made to retain our "best and brightest". A higher percentage of local high school students overall go on to attend college than many other areas; however, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ranks in the bottom 10% of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation for educational attainment levels of the workforce due to the fact that the majority of our college graduates leave. I can't think of a single high school peer of mine who went on to college, earned a degree, and is now living in the City of Pittston. That should be a HUGE concern. Nationwide many cities are capitalizing upon the "Bright Flight" from the suburbs back into urban environments, but Scranton is missing this prime opportunity.
What might help?
1.) My "pay-for-stay" proposal that I've pitched a couple of times to city council in Scranton to no avail. Local (and perhaps state and Federal) jurisdictions, private donors, a consortium of local colleges and universities, etc. would all pool financial resources to establish a scholarship fund in which students enrolling in local institutions of higher learning would sign a contract agreeing to stay within the city limits for "X" number of years after earning their degrees. The amount of tuition assistance offered would rise incrementally and proportionately with the length of time the student committed to the city. For example, a student might be able to garner grants from this fund for up to 50% of their tuition being reimbursed if they commit to living in the city for at least 10 years after graduation. That might go down to 25% assistance for a 5-year commitment. Maybe 10% assistance for a 1-year commitment.
The benefits? As more and more graduates live in the city, annual census estimates will show a rapidly-increasing proportion of city residents in the workforce possessing higher levels of educational attainment. The Chamber of Commerce could use such a trend as a means to show Scranton as a city that is becoming a "magnet" for skilled young professionals, and more high-paying white-collar opportunities could follow as companies are lured here to capitalize upon that growing talent pool. In addition, the longer these students (especially ones not originally from the area) settle in the city, the more likely they'll be to develop an attachment towards it and decide to raise their families in Scranton, open businesses in Scranton (hiring future graduates in the process), and become active in city politics (ushering in a new wave of progress once self-serving grand-standing "old guard" politicians like Mayor Doherty and Council President Evans are given the boot when city residents finally come to their senses). A more educated city means generally higher median household incomes, which also means more wage tax revenues reaped (resulting in a reduction of the wage tax percentage, benefiting everyone in the process, as you can reap a similar yield from a lower rate with more higher-earners in the mix).
The drawbacks? Yes, it's a bribe. There's no way to avoid the stigma associated with a community being so desperate as it has been ravaged by an incessant "Brain Drain" that it actually needed to resort to PAYING college graduates to stay instead of hoofing it to NJ, NYC, NoVA, DC, MD, and other areas with higher concentrations of employment opportunities commensurate with their degrees. We'd also be faced with another "chicken or the egg" phenomenon in that for perhaps the first 5-10 years the inaugural classes that would participate in this program may largely find themselves trading tuition assistance for underemployment locally while in their 20s, which could stunt their overall career trajectories and result in reduced lifetime earnings. I still know fellow graduates from my 2009 class who are working at Home Depot, Lowe's, or restaurants. Given how negative people in Scranton appear to be and how suspicious they are about change undoubtedly there would be a LOT of stiff opposition to spending one tax dollar on a "gamble" to help ebb the Brain Drain, even if very promising long-term projections were offered indicating this would be a successful program.
2.) High-speed commuter rail to NYC/NNJ. If locals could board a train in Downtown Scranton and have a 75-minute commute each way to work in Northern New Jersey, then this may also help to convince people to live Downtown and pay peanuts for urban living, walk to the train station, relax/sleep/work en route to their offices, earn higher salaries, and then come back "home" to an area with less congestion and a higher quality-of-life. Xenophobic and geocentric Scrantonians claim the train will just bring "drugs" and "gangs" (completely ignoring the fact, of course, that criminals would much prefer to DRIVE across state lines, as they have been doing, to remain more inconspicuous, but I digress). I know I'd move to Downtown Scranton if I learned I could board a train and take it to work at PwC in Florham Park, NJ, for example, in 75 minutes. I wouldn't dare move to Downtown Scranton and then DRIVE to NJ, though, via I-80. I know some who take the Martz bus to NYC daily for work, but I think the train would offer a slightly more expeditious (and more enjoyable) ride.
The benefits? Local college graduates could stay "close to home" yet also have access to career opportunities in adjacent areas that are doing better economically. If Option #1 were implemented, then this option would give graduates the ability to attend school in Scranton at a reduced price, live in Scranton, and ride the rails to career opportunities elsewhere until our area was able to stand on its OWN two feet economically without needing to "leech" off of NJ's white-collar success.
The drawbacks? We'd also face the possibility of a growth spurt of people from NJ moving to NEPA in pursuit of cheaper housing using the train to commute while overrunning the area in the process. This can be avoided through strict urban growth boundaries that would help to funnel and channel new growth into existing residential neighborhoods and that would provide incentives for developers to redevelop existing brownfield sites instead of tearing down trees for new construction in the suburbs; however, you currently don't have anyone foward-thinking enough in office in NEPA who'd be "ballsy" enough to propose urban growth boundaries. We don't want the entire area to end up looking as hideous as South Abington Township. The costs would be astronomical, and the rail line would most certainly NEED to be subsidized by taxpayers to remain afloat (just like SEPTA in Metro Philadelphia or PAT in Metro Pittsburgh).
3.) Develop MORE business incubators.
4.) Stop wasting our precious open space on developments with companies paying low wages for unskilled labor (i.e. CenterPoint in my native Pittston Township, where starting wages tend to be in the $10/hr.-$12/hr. range) and instead develop more white-collar opportunities.
1.) My "pay-for-stay" proposal that I've pitched a couple of times to city council in Scranton to no avail. Local (and perhaps state and Federal) jurisdictions, private donors, a consortium of local colleges and universities, etc. would all pool financial resources to establish a scholarship fund in which students enrolling in local institutions of higher learning would sign a contract agreeing to stay within the city limits for "X" number of years after earning their degrees. The amount of tuition assistance offered would rise incrementally and proportionately with the length of time the student committed to the city. For example, a student might be able to garner grants from this fund for up to 50% of their tuition being reimbursed if they commit to living in the city for at least 10 years after graduation. That might go down to 25% assistance for a 5-year commitment. Maybe 10% assistance for a 1-year commitment.
And What would these students do for a living?? Cart before the horse...
High-speed commuter rail to NYC/NNJ. If locals could board a train in Downtown Scranton and have a 75-minute commute each way to work in Northern New Jersey, then this may also help to convince people to live Downtown and pay peanuts for urban living, walk to the train station, relax/sleep/work en route to their offices, earn higher salaries, and then come back "home" to an area with less congestion and a higher quality-of-life. Xenophobic and geocentric Scrantonians claim the train will just bring "drugs" and "gangs" (completely ignoring the fact, of course, that criminals would much prefer to DRIVE across state lines, as they have been doing, to remain more inconspicuous, but I digress). I know I'd move to Downtown Scranton if I learned I could board a train and take it to work at PwC in Florham Park, NJ, for example, in 75 minutes. I wouldn't dare move to Downtown Scranton and then DRIVE to NJ, though, via I-80. I know some who take the Martz bus to NYC daily for work, but I think the train would offer a slightly more expeditious (and more enjoyable) ride.
High speed rail?? geographically next to impossible.. there is rail service proposed and half baked for quite a few years now.. it will still be faster to drive..
There are incubators.. for the most part, existing tax paying businesses have moved into them promising a few more jobs, a facade to gain KOZ status anf avoid taxes..
Stop wasting our precious open space on developments with companies paying low wages for unskilled labor (i.e. CenterPoint in my native Pittston Township, where starting wages tend to be in the $10/hr.-$12/hr. range) and instead develop more white-collar opportunities
There are incubators.. for the most part, existing tax paying businesses have moved into them promising a few more jobs, a facade to gain KOZ status anf avoid taxes..
Exactly...just like TMG Health...now that the KOZ is expiring, they're moving out of Scranton and building a new facility in Jessup....with the help of good ol' Austin Burke and the Chamber, of course...
And TMG wasn't just a business starting up when it moved into the incubator...they used to be over on James Ave in the place that's now called "the lofts at the mill." They just moved to the incubator to avoid paying taxes.
McCann Business School did the same thing....they weren't a start up business, they've been around a long time, but they moved into the incubator to avoid taxes, then moved up to Dickson City.
Reston, you have so many ideas, and sometimes not the best audience here. In addition to posting here, you should set up a blog site, like a free one at WordPress.com — Get a Free Blog Here and cut and paste all your best posts from this site there, as well as other new ideas, etc.
Then you could refer people to your blog, especially politicians... your might get some good followers too.
And What would these students do for a living?? Cart before the horse...
I explained that in the "drawbacks" section. The problem? Skilled employers won't set up shop in an area where the general workforce lacks the skills necessary to fulfill their job functions (unless they are incentivized/subsidized). In the interim skilled youths won't just "hang around" being underemployed for years in Scranton without being incentivized. Scranton has been caught in this "Catch 22" for decades now, and I don't foresee that just naturally changing on its own without someone visionary stepping in to FORCE a policy like this. Otherwise we'll continue to have employers who'd employ college graduates avoiding the area due to the low educational attainment of the workforce and college graduates themselves moving out in droves because who wants to use their MBA at Wal-Mart or a distribution center at CenterPoint, paying off expensive student loans while earning the same amount of money as the high school graduates beside them who didn't have to put themselves in debt to pursue an education?
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqpublic
High speed rail?? geographically next to impossible.. there is rail service proposed and half baked for quite a few years now.. it will still be faster to drive..
It will be faster to sit in gridlock on I-80 from Monroe County and through all of NJ in the coming years as more people commute from NEPA to NJ than it would be to sit on a train without having any traffic to deal with?
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqpublic
There are incubators.. for the most part, existing tax paying businesses have moved into them promising a few more jobs, a facade to gain KOZ status anf avoid taxes..
You're looking at only the negatives. For every "scam"/"sham" business that has just feasted upon the incubators' KOZ statuses there are also businesses who are growing organically and are doing great things in the area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqpublic
Call Austin Burke and tell him!!!!!
Do you think Austin Burke cares? You have NOBODY visionary at the helm of your local Chambers of Commerce, counties, municipalities, etc.
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