Rumors is...Toys R Us offered free rent to stay in Mall, said no thanks!!! (Scranton: cheap house, buying)

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by johnqpublic

The process once pulled over takes appx 20 minutes to 1/2 hr.
The point is that the overzealousness of this officer is keeping MANY people out of the citys downtown businesses at night.

Then maybe that's a sign that we need something downtown besides bars. Seems that's the city's idea of downtown progress....more bars. Maybe if they'd get rid of the ridiculous mercantile tax, we'd get some more business there.

[sues1]

Originally Posted by Lehigh Valley Native

Christ, only in NEPA could you have people bitching because the police are too aggressive about drunk driving. If you're not drunk, who cares, you are inconvenienced for 10 minutes.

That's right, if you drink, don't drive. I don't care if i get pulled over for a check, i don't drink and drive and if i do, oh well, then it's my fault.

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Then maybe that's a sign that we need something downtown besides bars. Seems that's the city's idea of downtown progress....more bars. Maybe if they'd get rid of the ridiculous mercantile tax, we'd get some more business there.

As long as they see a rebouding of the downtown equaled to opening new bars and restaurants they will continue to see a decrease in people going downtown.

As far as the drinking and driving...If NOBODY DRINKS & DRIVES in downtown Scranton, then there will be NOBODY THERE AT NIGHT OR ON THE WEEKENDS.

When you have a downtown that solely revolves around gov't employees by day and bars by night and you allow an officer to hover around the bars and get phone calls from bouncers about people leaving you then have no reason to ***** when the downtown business life crumbles around said officer.......

Like I said you cannot have both ways...Unless you can figure out to encourage other business to come to Scranton and willingly pay much more in taxes then the surrounding communities for less patronage of their shows you have to deal with the cards that you have in your hand....

I have no problem going to eat and have a few drinks in other towns or neighborhoods rather then the downtown, no problem at all....

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

As long as they see a rebouding of the downtown equaled to opening new bars and restaurants they will continue to see a decrease in people going downtown.

As far as the drinking and driving...If NOBODY DRINKS & DRIVES in downtown Scranton, then there will be NOBODY THERE AT NIGHT OR ON THE WEEKENDS.

When you have a downtown that solely revolves around gov't employees by day and bars by night and you allow an officer to hover around the bars and get phone calls from bouncers about people leaving you then have no reason to ***** when the downtown business life crumbles around said officer.......

Like I said you cannot have both ways...Unless you can figure out to encourage other business to come to Scranton and willingly pay much more in taxes then the surrounding communities for less patronage of their shows you have to deal with the cards that you have in your hand....

I have no problem going to eat and have a few drinks in other towns or neighborhoods rather then the downtown, no problem at all....

Oh well.

[Lehigh Valley Native]

If any of you actually want to help Scranton get some culture, instead of another bar. Why don't you come to the Timmy's Town Center fundraiser at St. Mary's on the 26th. We will be there. You know what they say about talk being cheap.
Hope to see you there.
Welcome to Timmy's Town Center, Scranton, PA 18503

[jongig]

Scranton has needed for years to get rid of the huge taxes on businesses and the wage tax on residents. The properties would get bought up and more tax would come to the city if they would reduce it to what all the surounding towns are, 1%. Even renters in the city have to take this into account if they are working. If you earn $30,000 per year and rent anywhere around Scranton but not in Scranton you'll have nearly $600 more in your pocket at the end of the year.

[JohnZ963]

Originally Posted by johnqpublic

One can have a few drinks and not be legally drunk, but if they are pulled over in downtown Scranton, they will be in for much more than a 10 minute "inconvenience" Thus many many people now avoid downtown like the plague.. That in turn hurts business, both restaurants and bars and any other ancillary businesses that might benefit from more foot traffic in the downtown area.

I usually do not post on the NEPA board, but felt I had to chime in based on personal experience.

About a year ago, I was visiting some friends who live in the area. We visited a certain Scranton drinking establishment. I had two drinks and some food over the course of 2 hours. One friend drank heavily, and the other drank nothing. I was on one car and the other two in another, with the sober one driving that one. My personal experience (I own a breathalyzer, odd gift from mom, I know) is that it would take me double that quantity to qualify me for DUI under PA laws. I have never and will never get behind the wheel after drinking enough to qualify for DUI in PA.

So I left the bar, headed for the friends' house about 5 miles away. A car appeared to be following me closely. I am driving at the speed limit. I swerved to avoid a large pothole, which caused me to cross the double yellow line by like 2 feet. Traffic was light. It was around 10 on a Friday night. The flashing lights came on behind me almost immediately. I pulled over. Cop asks the usual "have you been drinking, where are you going?" questions. Says he suspects me of DUI. I take the test and blow a .04. Then makes me do the "one foot behind the other" walk along a line. I did it perfectly. 45 minutes after I was stopped, he runs every kind of computer check he can on me (all come up clean, this is the first time I had ever been pulled over in my life), then gives me a "careless driving" ticket.

Not only that, he suspects that I am unsafe to drive despite being under the limit. He would not release me unless I had a person who hadn't been drinking pick me up. So I call my friends and they come to the scene. I figure they will drive me home and we'll pick up the car tomorrow. So they show up and the cop gives a breath test to the driver (who had not been drinking). Finding nothing, in utter disgust, he finally lets us all go home.

That is pretty much harrassment of innocent people. I don't know if the officer was the one being mentioned on here, but it completely discouraged me from partaking in any future nightlife in Scranton. I have not been back since. The cops don't do that where I live. They go after the people at 2am who are actually DRUNK and drive 60 in a 35, are all over the road, run stop signs, etc.

[Magritte25]

He should have allowed you to drive home, absolutely. That is ridiculous!

However, swerving over the line is a major red flag of drunk driving so I don't disagree with him pulling you over. The careless driving ticket is probably overkill though. My husband got one for proceeding through a yellow-turning-red light in Wilkes-Barre Twp.

BTW, why should time of day matter? There are drunks on the road at all hours. I think it is a cop's job to investigate suspicious driving.

[toobusytoday]

Please post comments regarding drunk driving and overzealous police here - Overzealous drunk driving pullovers in Scranton?

[bloominscranton]

Those of us that live here know the deal, and what does and does not go on. We also know and have generated ideas to save our city! But, what do we get, put downs, name calling and dismissed by people who know it all and do little! Honesty is confused with bashing, reality portrayed as disgruntled residents with a "coal cracker mentality" lol! I had to look that up.

I am self admitted confused liberal who had here rose colored glasses ripped off in 1993. Since joining this forum back in I think 2005 or 06?, which actually use to be informative and dare I say FUN I have been called: a racist, a doomer, a carpetbagger, an interloper, a transplant, a non feminist, an elitist, a downer etc etc. Basically everything but a human being. Put a branch of the public library in the empty space At the mall instead of a new building in South side, and kill two birds with one stone. It will not happen here, it is too fiscally responsible.