People considering moving to Scranton welcome (Philadelphia, Blakely: school, wage, tax)
Northeastern PennsylvaniaScranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"Its getting worse by the day?" If youre talking about the financial situation, yes, but even that has been coming for a long time, its just Doherty's running out of smoke and mirrors. As far as quality of life, seems about the same to me in the decade I've lived in the city.
What needs to change here is that the people need to stop electing these boobs to office. Doherty, Evans, et al, are all incompetent self-serving corrupt NEPA politicians. People need to stop voting for who will do them a favor or if their last name is Irish, or if they're a "good catlick."
The school board is being run by idiots with GED's and the quality of life has changed, the roads are a nightmare, crime is on the rise and the city is more and more blighted by the day...
The seeds that Doherty planted are coming home and we will not be able to recover from it for decades and by then it will be too late..
Every empty lot will be a dumping ground as soon as the DPW is privatized and every street will be riddled with so many holes that you won't be able to drive on them. The tax increases will drive many from the city and increased fees will drive more and then what?
Mad max movies will seem nice compared to this place in 10 years..
Welcome to the area. It is great to have ppl moving to the area. I'm a transplant living in Scranton for 7 years really like it here. I have traveled allot and find Scranton to be a really nice clean city. There is no perfect place so it bothers me when ppl here curse there own ground & say it is not good here. They do not realize how good they have it here, I find most of the ppl that say its bad here just never left and seen how good it is. So, come check it out the what the area has to offer & you will see all Scranton has for you & your family.
Let's get back to what Scranton has to offer please....
Couple things I would say Scranton and Nepa are two different things. Scranton I would consider relatively safe and cheap but crime has picked up and as one guy mentioned the city is financially a mess! Not even debatable. But the area is still a nice place for a family in my opinion and has enough going on that there's enough stuff to do. I prefer Pittsburgh and state college area but the Scranton area if you can find a good job although not a ton of opportunities is a nice place to live.
I still do not agree with the crime thing. Politics aside, I've never felt uncomfortable walking around lower south side. I've been to plenty of large cities and done sight seeing in many areas during my visits. I was just in Florida last month and took a half day trip to Miami and there are sections in that city I wouldn't dare walk down. Also my band used to play in Baltimore a few blocks away from the inner harbor, which from what it looked like was right around the corner from some red light district and shady bodegas, dirty strip joints, homeless, and thugs. I've had more issues walking around in Jessup and Archbald when I lived there opposed in Scranton.
The roads issue I do agree on, but I find that to be most of PA in general. Whenever I head to NY with the wife to visit her family, once we pass Matamoras (or Delaware Water Gap if we're heading into NYC) as soon as you pass the border the roads magically change for the better. Same with going into MD from around Harrisburg or York. The only other state I can think of with equally or crappier roads was RI, but I haven't been up that way in a while.
Also financial horrors aside and politics again aside, it's cheap. Living where we are is allowing my wife and I to save up funds for the future. She is self employed and going to school as well and is still able to make a decent amount. I'm all for people coming here, but as long as they have a job lined up and aren't coming to mooch and sit around all day doing nothing. Also I have Chicano's in a super short walk and that keeps me happy.
I still do not agree with the crime thing. Politics aside, I've never felt uncomfortable walking around lower south side. .
I agree. I've never felt uncomfortable walking around West Side, even taking my dog for a walk at night. Unfortunately in this area, people think seeing some darker faces or hearing people speak Spanish equates to higher crime.....
The prejudice in this area is worse than Alabama or Mississippi, in my opinion, but it is slowly going away....I think the more people meet newcomers to the area of other races and see that they're not all gang banging drug dealers and that they're human beings just like everyone else, that helps to erase that racism.
Here's another example of our local officials screwing the existing infrastructure in the city and other local towns in the name of uncontrolled sprawl once again. The Chamber of Commerce once again promoting destruction of once-pristine wilderness, when there are already plenty of struggling industrial parks in the area. This is not necessarily to say that these buildings should have been built in the city of Scranton, because there are also industrial parks with plenty of available space in Dunmore, Throop, Olyphant, Taylor, etc. But this is what the "road to nowhere" has brought to the area...more unchecked sprawl, and a once-scenic mountain now home to a 4-lane highway with little traffic and a bunch of industrial buildings. Good ol NEPA. With characters like Austin Burke and Rob "kids 4 cash" Mericle involved, I'm sure there was some sort of backdoor palm-greasing going on as well.
I wouldn't say that anything right off of the Casey is Pristine Wilderness, that area is a maze of coal dumps upon coal dumps...Its really not Pristine until you get to the Marshwood Rd and 247 split and even then its still been handled by man at one point or another...The Top of Moosic Mtn. is pristine and some of it is protected around Moosic Lakes by the Nature Conservancy...My mother and her group of residents from Moosic Lakes/Jefferson Twnship fought the business park, heliport and women's prison in fed court in Harrisburg to have it protected with assistance from the Sierra Club...Now its protected and the Hubbard Mtn Biking Club maintains trails up there..
The city sucks and it always has and will never get better, that is the reality. I moved out after almost 10 years. I could not take the wage tax anymore and the fact that West side is becoming the Bronx. Property values are going down and taxes are going up!!!!! The mayor is clueless and the city is no better than 10 years ago, in fact it's worse!!!! Good riddance Scranton, I won't miss you. There is no cheerleading that could make that city better, NONE!!!!!
The city sucks and it always has and will never get better, that is the reality. I moved out after almost 10 years. I could not take the wage tax anymore and the fact that West side is becoming the Bronx. Property values are going down and taxes are going up!!!!! The mayor is clueless and the city is no better than 10 years ago, in fact it's worse!!!! Good riddance Scranton, I won't miss you. There is no cheerleading that could make that city better, NONE!!!!!
Rangers, I know you've been unhappy in Scranton, and I'm sure it wasn't easy waiting for your chance to get out. Now that you have, I hope you're finding it better where you are now. BUT, I take exception to your remark, bolded above.
I came to Scranton in the mid '60s and it was a great place to live. At the time, I came from an area that was in upheaval over some ugliness that was taking place. With three teen-aged sons, it was like night and day by comparison. We spent seven years there and it was hard to say goodbye.
While the Electric City's current problems are seemingly insurmountable, I know that it has not always been so. There was a time, oh, what a time it was...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
