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I find it amazing that someone who left the area quite a while ago still feels it is ok to bash the area that he left. Maybe come back and help us make this a wonderful paradise like you found in Va, no wait Pittsburg. Not every metropolitan area is having an urban boom, you couldn't pay me to live in downtown Indianapolis, or Wichita, or large parts of LA, and yes I have lived there. I also went to college at Georgetown so I can tell you some things about DC that makes me not want to live there either. I saw the country and everthing that the large cities have to offer and decided a few years ago to come back to a nice area to raise the kids. I make a great living in management in one of those evil distribution centers you seem to hate but remember 10-15% of their workforce is management and makes good $. I live in Kingston and commute to Hazleton and the drive is more miles but less time than I ever had before, so why don't you come back and help instead of just telling us what we do is wrong?
How was I "bashing" the area in my post? Yes, I did say that NEPA tends to lag behind the rest of the nation in many trends. That isn't "bashing". That's just an opinion that is rooted in years of observation from both within and outside the Lackawanna/Luzerne "bubble".
I'm most certainly NOT bashing your decision to live in Kingston. On the contrary I've frequently cited Kingston (and neighboring Forty Fort) as prime examples of what suburbs SHOULD be---tidy homes on tree-lined streets with sidewalks within walking distance to shops, restaurants, parks, houses of worship, etc. The subdivisions in the Abingtons, Back Mountain, Mountain Top, (and, regrettably, increasingly my own native Greater Pittston) with their lack of sidewalks, cul-de-sacs curling in upon themselves, and intentional design to offer an air of exclusivity to surrounding areas are indeed slowly yet surely fading in popularity in American society. I reference Pittsburgh so often because it's the city I'm most familiar with, but even in the DC Area you'll see the city proper becoming outrageously expensive because developers can't build new housing quickly enough to meet the growing demand while housing values in the outer suburbs (i.e. Prince William County, VA) have declined. Housing values in a large swath of the city proper of Pittsburgh have literally exploded since 2000, and the metropolitan area, which is now growing for the first time in many decades, is having its growth fueled nearly entirely by Allegheny County, the "core" county.
P.S.
I asked this before & never got an answer. Why do you speak with such authority? I've never seen you say "I think" "I believe" "It is my contention" or anything like that. You always just speak like your word is unarguable truth. Maybe more people would listen to you & take you more seriously if you accepted the possibility that you might be wrong once in a while.
Because when it comes to Scranton I haven't been wrong..
Politics is supreme in this city and its driving the city into the ground at an alarming rate and since I know most if not all the players on a first name basis, went to school with them and have grown up with them. As well as my families involvement in Scranton politics going back to the Marjorie Scranton and my Great Grandmother fighting in the Suffragette movement, as well as being party committee people for years and years in the city I can pretty much call the plays...My grandfather has a tree in Nay Aug named after him from when he was the director of Parks & Rec under Mayor Schmidt...
I myself am a party committee person...Elected...
I'm more involved then you know and will ever be in your city...
The numbers don't lie and everything that I stated is going to happen and the debt numbers are right on the money..
We have several things working against us here in regards to people wanting to live closer to our downtown's. .1 we just are small cities, we do not have the "wow" factor that draws people to real, big cities. 2. We simply do not have high paying office jobs that attracts fresh out of college grads, singles. As far as empty nestor's, I don't see why they would want to live in a downtown W-B or Scranton. Big cities have much to offer, a wide range of restaraunts, entertainment, things to do, markets to shop at etc...we have slim pickins in all those regards. The thrill, for me, to live in a downtown would be the hustle and bustle, the views, being close to the action, the liveliness...we just don't have it here (to small), (too old), no jobs. 3. I believe many, many off the people that have decided to move back into downtown's and inner city neighborhoods in big cities like Philly etc. simply do it out of not having to sit in traffic for 2-3 hrs. a day...Again we don't have major daily traffic issues here, (unless it is due to the I-81 construction). Big cities also offer awesome mass transit...trains, subways, buses that run 24-7, taxi cabs all over....You really don't even need a car to live in Philly (downtown), NYC, Boston etc. Here you do need a car especially if you live in downtown, and parking options are very limited unless you want to pay out of the nose. All and all it is just a totally different way of life, and we here in NEPA cannot offer the things that make living in a downtown in a big city desirable. That's my opinion
Haha. I always hear people say "there's nothing to do around here" & it's funny because it simply is not true. We have bars, night clubs, tattoo shops, tanning salons, restaurants, movie theaters, car shows, art museums, history museums, city parks, state parks, and on & on & on & on. Can you name just 1 thing that you can find in a big city that you can't find here? Just 1? There is nothing NYC has to offer that isn't available in our area. They just have more of it, but why does more matter? Why do you need more than 5 night clubs if you only frequent two? Why complain about our lack of ethnic restaurants when the ones we have are phenomenal?
About the "wow" factor, Wilkes-Barre is no Manhattan by any stretch, but in the two hours I've been sitting near my open window this morning, the cars, people, & city noise have not stopped, so it's no Lewistown either. People act like a city is either huge or tiny. Why can't we all just see W-B for what it is, right in the middle? Also, many people from out of the area would come here for tourism if our rich history were more known & advertised. I love entertaining out-of-towners with a walk through the historic district & they are always very pleased with what they see.
Also, I'm tired of hearing people say that W-B & Scranton are too small to be big cities. First off, Scranton is roughly the same size as Boston. There's room for more people, trust me. As for Wilkes-Barre, estimates show that housing here can accommodate more than 650,000 residents. They both have potential.
What does any of that have to do with anything? The most populated places in the world cost the most to live in. If high taxes & related issues were gonna keep people from moving to an area, NYC, Philly, & similar cities would be entirely empty, wouldn't they?
Besides that, our population is finally evening out & is sure to bounce back up. The major influx of citizens from NY, NJ, & Philly that has been going on the past decade, & still is has boosted us up past the point where we're falling. We seem to be about level now & people keep coming in. Using 3rd grade logic, one can only postulate that the next most likely step in the pattern is a population boom.
AGAIN you are comparing Scranton and or Wilkes-Barre to cities that have sooooo much more to offer in lieu of the taxes that area paid, while Scranton and Wilkes-Barre really offer nothing to justify the taxes that have been and will be levied against the residents...
When you actually own a property and pay taxes on it you will see what you don't get for the money rather then what you do get..
Your 3rd grade logic has been evident in many posts and has yet to add up to squat......The AREA around the citry of Scranton might be a boom in population, but the city will most likely start to decline again after the taxes are levied to pay down almost $375,000,000 in municipal debt that doesn't include the almost $30,000,000 judgement against the city..
People will not stay here and pay a 78% tax increase for significantly decreased services that will also be raising their fees on the residents as well.
If you don't own a property then you have no idea what you speak of and are just another armchair quarterback, like the Steelcity who ran from the area, but yet feels he knows best for those of us that are here and haven't run..
Because when it comes to Scranton I haven't been wrong..
Politics is supreme in this city and its driving the city into the ground at an alarming rate and since I know most if not all the players on a first name basis, went to school with them and have grown up with them. As well as my families involvement in Scranton politics going back to the Marjorie Scranton and my Great Grandmother fighting in the Suffragette movement, as well as being party committee people for years and years in the city I can pretty much call the plays...My grandfather has a tree in Nay Aug named after him from when he was the director of Parks & Rec under Mayor Schmidt...
I myself am a party committee person...Elected...
I'm more involved then you know and will ever be in your city...
The numbers don't lie and everything that I stated is going to happen and the debt numbers are right on the money..
Okay, but even with that info, if you're speaking about a variable matter that is in the future & has yet to occur, there's no way to know for sure. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that speculation should be posed as opinion, not fact.
Also, I'm tired of hearing people say that W-B & Scranton are too small to be big cities. First off, Scranton is roughly the same size as Boston. There's room for more people, trust me. As for Wilkes-Barre, estimates show that housing here can accommodate more than 650,000 residents. They both have potential.
The city proper, covering only 48.43 square miles, had a population of 617,594 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
AGAIN you are comparing Scranton and or Wilkes-Barre to cities that have sooooo much more to offer in lieu of the taxes that area paid, while Scranton and Wilkes-Barre really offer nothing to justify the taxes that have been and will be levied against the residents...
When you actually own a property and pay taxes on it you will see what you don't get for the money rather then what you do get..
Your 3rd grade logic has been evident in many posts and has yet to add up to squat......The AREA around the citry of Scranton might be a boom in population, but the city will most likely start to decline again after the taxes are levied to pay down almost $375,000,000 in municipal debt that doesn't include the almost $30,000,000 judgement against the city..
People will not stay here and pay a 78% tax increase for significantly decreased services that will also be raising their fees on the residents as well.
If you don't own a property then you have no idea what you speak of and are just another armchair quarterback, like the Steelcity who ran from the area, but yet feels he knows best for those of us that are here and haven't run..
AGAIN, you fail to see the difference between comparison & parallel.
How do you know what people will put up with? Did people quit smoking when Marlboro's reached $10 in some places? No, people will put up with a lot if there's a good trade off. (Now don't get confused & tell me how I can't compare Wilkes-Barre to Marlboro's due to your failure to grasp figurative speech).
Even if taxes rise, Business Week still places our local job market at #10 nationally & reviews show that our urban cores are two of the strongest in the nation currently. Our housing market is so ridiculously affordable that people are willing to drive more than 6 hours round trip to live in the city.
Okay, but even with that info, if you're speaking about a variable matter that is in the future & has yet to occur, there's no way to know for sure. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that speculation should be posed as opinion, not fact.
There is NO variable anywhere, nothing has changed in over a 100 years. It's not speculation, its reality and it will happen. 1st the Parking Authority which is collapsing right now then the others will follow all while the city is folding in on itself..
There is absolutely no comparison between the two cities and I honestly believe that you have never left this area or lived in a "Real" city.
These two TOWNS are far from real cities and provide NOTHING like the amenities that can be found in "Real Cities"...
Your speculation proves foolish, as usual. I have lived in the biggest city in America before, not only that, but I was on my own at 15 when I did it. Sleeping on friend's floors & Brooklyn gutters got boring though & I came back.
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