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I don't have a good answer because I haven't lived there in a little while, but how bad has it gotten up there?
I'll be returning to the region at the end of Feb or March and I'm scared to death that it seriously will be the end of any hope for me careerwise and personally. Am I right to be afraid?
I don't have a good answer because I haven't lived there in a little while, but how bad has it gotten up there?
I'll be returning to the region at the end of Feb or March and I'm scared to death that it seriously will be the end of any hope for me careerwise and personally. Am I right to be afraid?
It depends on who you talk to.
I don't think its as bad as others here do. There are two or three others who post here regularly who agree with me. OTOH there is room for improvement.
Do you have a job lined up here? Where will you be moving to?
I'd like to see more energy expended on bringing people here to visit. Enough bars downtown. We don't need anymore. I'd like to see a museum downtown. I'd like to see the downtown library advertised more.
Of course, we have to address the job situation here too. I'm not sure if that's on the city level or county level to try and lure businesses here.
In my opinion the biggest improvement needed in the area is an overall change in attitude. The current problems that face the valley are not specific just to the area, they are problems that people from all over face. If you take a look around you will see people living their lives and enjoying it and taking the next challenges as the come. Reality is a far cry from the "sky is falling"mentality that is to often depicted on this forum. The problem is that the "sky is falling" mentality is shared by the most vocal of society, those that like to complain and get things of their chest. They will talk to who ever will listen, family, friends, work associates, and people on the internet. Those that are actually happy with their lives tend to talk about it less, they go on about their business and their conversations are usually much more specific than generalizations about a certain area. That's the problem, people need to more vocal about how they feel. The area is a great place to call home and earn a honest living and raise a family! That's the American Dream, which has become harder to accomplish EVERYWHERE not just the Wyoming Valley or Northeastern Pennsylvania. As you go about your daily travels you will see countless people doing just that and I bet a bunch of them are very happy! Sometimes it would be nice to hear from them and get their take on the area!
I agree wholeheartedly that negative external perception of the region, borne from years of negative INTERNAL bellyaching and ballyhooing from the highest hilltops, is a HUGE problem.
When people think of Portland, OR they think "hip"; "cool"; "bike lanes"; "eco-friendly"; etc.
When people think of Boulder, CO they think "mountains"; "progressives"; "skiing"; etc.
When people think of Boston, MA they think "educated"; "world-class"; "smart"; etc.
When people think of Seattle, WA they think "Starbucks"; "Microsoft"; "beautiful"; "wealthy"; etc.
When people think of Wilkes-Barre, PA they think "political corruption"; "nepotism"; "taxes"; "cancer"; "potholes"; "urban decay"; "racism"; "homophobia"; "crime"; "uneducated"; "coal"; etc.
^ Why? Residents of the former cities are PROUD of where they live and want to project a positive image to outsiders whereas residents of the latter city seem to think their problems are somehow unique to their city and require "warning" outsiders to stay away.
Boston has its fair share of homophobes. Portland has underemployment issues. Boulder has an extremely expensive cost-of-living relative to the size of the city's employment opportunities. Seattle has rain, clouds, rain, clouds, oh, and rain, too. Guess what? Instead of dwelling on the negatives residents of those cities try to mitigate them and squish them under POSITIVES. Why can't people in NEPA do the same? It's not like people in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre are the Morlocks, and people everywhere else are the Eloi. What gives with this "victimized" mentality? Does it stem from the coal mining days?
I'm depressed sometimes because the NEPA sub-forum used to be constantly abuzz with activity from naysayers and cheerleaders alike. Now almost nobody posts on here, and many of those who do are negative.
I also wish the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce would create an "Economic Ambassador" position for yours truly, in which my sole responsibility would be to try to recruit entrepreneurs and employers to the region to create family-sustaining career opportunities here.
We need to do a better job of leveraging our assets. Right now King's, Wilkes, Misericordia, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber, the Greater Scranton Chamber, and even the Greater Pittston Chamber pretty much all function independently of one another in a haphazard fashion---almost competitively. If all of these entities could pool their talents and resources, then the entire REGION would benefit from the results. For example? Let's say as a King's alumnus I know the school has a great reputation for graduating very skilled accountants. I also know that outside of ParenteBeard (formerly Parente Randolph) almost all of the recruiters on campus are "Big Four" (or close to it) accounting firms, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Florham Park, NJ; Reznick Group in Baltimore, MD; Ernst & Young and Deloitte in NYC; etc. Why not have someone from the Chamber meet with someone from King's and invite representatives from such organizations to Downtown Wilkes-Barre for a day to show them around and try to convince them to open sub-offices here to provide lucrative career opportunities for fresh King's graduates right here in the Diamond City instead of just exporting them?
Wilkes is known for having a great pharmaceutical program. Why not have a similar meeting between a Chamber official; a Wilkes representative; and representatives from companies like Pfizer; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck; Bayer; Johnson & Johnson; etc. to promote ourselves and try to woo some jobs here, where the cost of doing business is lower?
NEPA has excellent colleges. Guess what? They fill young local minds with all sorts of brilliance and then export those minds to NJ, NoVA, DC, Pittsburgh, and other booming areas, leaving NEPA to bite the dust. If Pittsburgh can thrive because Carnegie Mellon University's engineering and software reptuations have convinced Google, Intel, Disney, and Apple to come here and provide high-paying jobs, then why can't Wilkes-Barre do the same on a smaller scale by promoting the advantages of its own local institutions of higher learning?
-I'd love to see a new multi-story building come to the Hotel Sterling site, anchored by a Trader Joe's on the ground level with an underground parking garage and apartments in the upper floors. A store like Trader Joe's would be a unique regional draw to get people from as far away as The Poconos and The Abingtons to come to Downtown Wilkes-Barre to shop and dine.
-A specialty museum (perhaps a children's science center?) would also be nice, maybe housed in the former Irem Temple mosque.
-Urban growth boundaries need to start being considered. Luzerne County has been sharting itself in terms of population loss for generations, yet land usage has been increasing like crazy because we're picking up fewer and fewer people and spreading them further and further out like butter on bread due to suburban sprawl. Instead of tearing down more trees in Jackson Township or Rice Township for McMansions we need to start investigating why those young professional families or DINKs wouldn't consider a pre-existing "in-town" house in Wilkes-Barre instead. Schools? Crime? Racism? Why?
Unless you have a connection to the area I don't think you give too much thought about the Wyoming Valley and that's okay. This area was never thought of in the manner of some of the cities that you mentioned and quite honestly doesn't have to be in order for it's problems to be fixed. Where I see the problem is amongst the current community and people outside of it wishing to visit or relocate here. The attitude and mentality I mentioned earlier only grows because it is left to fester..people who are unfamiliar with the area see that and it has an impact. If I were to judge my opinions based on what I have read here I would avoid the area like a plague but I know better and actually enjoy learning about new places so researching certain areas is fun for me. It also helps that I am familiar with the area but other people are not and come on here to check things out and the vibe they get most of the time is not a very good one.
In my opinion a change in mentality would be a good start..it would level the playing field a little so to speak. Once that happens some of the issues the area faces (issues that exist everywhere) may just to start to take care of themselves or at the very least be easier to correct!
I also wish the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce would create an "Economic Ambassador" position for yours truly, in which my sole responsibility would be to try to recruit entrepreneurs and employers to the region to create family-sustaining career opportunities here.
We need to do a better job of leveraging our assets. Right now King's, Wilkes, Misericordia, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber, the Greater Scranton Chamber, and even the Greater Pittston Chamber pretty much all function independently of one another in a haphazard fashion---almost competitively. If all of these entities could pool their talents and resources, then the entire REGION would benefit from the results. For example? Let's say as a King's alumnus I know the school has a great reputation for graduating very skilled accountants. I also know that outside of ParenteBeard (formerly Parente Randolph) almost all of the recruiters on campus are "Big Four" (or close to it) accounting firms, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Florham Park, NJ; Reznick Group in Baltimore, MD; Ernst & Young and Deloitte in NYC; etc. Why not have someone from the Chamber meet with someone from King's and invite representatives from such organizations to Downtown Wilkes-Barre for a day to show them around and try to convince them to open sub-offices here to provide lucrative career opportunities for fresh King's graduates right here in the Diamond City instead of just exporting them?
Wilkes is known for having a great pharmaceutical program. Why not have a similar meeting between a Chamber official; a Wilkes representative; and representatives from companies like Pfizer; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck; Bayer; Johnson & Johnson; etc. to promote ourselves and try to woo some jobs here, where the cost of doing business is lower?
NEPA has excellent colleges. Guess what? They fill young local minds with all sorts of brilliance and then export those minds to NJ, NoVA, DC, Pittsburgh, and other booming areas, leaving NEPA to bite the dust. If Pittsburgh can thrive because Carnegie Mellon University's engineering and software reptuations have convinced Google, Intel, Disney, and Apple to come here and provide high-paying jobs, then why can't Wilkes-Barre do the same on a smaller scale by promoting the advantages of its own local institutions of higher learning?
I really think the area is going through growing pains associated with the recent Recession, as well as the "old guard" mentality that exists with older generations. It's going to take a few years more for places like Scranton and Wilkes-barre to bounce back than it will larger cities that have more to offer. Businesses aren't going to open up branches or suboffices in the region until they are back on stable ground. I remember in the late 1990s a lot of companies opening offices up on Montage and in other office parks; a lot of them pulled out after 9/11 as the economy started to tank. I have heard reports of people getting jobs with the natural gas industry but I don't know whether to believe them, or if it's just a few new graduates with environmental science degrees who got hired. At any rate, IF the region does improve, it's going to be a while.
I don't want to seem like I'm totally knocking NePA. If you are lucky enough to have a decent job, it can be a nice place to live. But for me, there is no way I will ever find a job in my field up there, so I will either have to settle for a job making much less than I am worth or spend even more money getting yet another degree in a field that is in-demand for the region. Either way, it's a dead end for me and I can pretty much kiss any chance of a good life goodbye.
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