If things are so bad in NEPA, why do people stay? (Scranton: find a job, transferring to)

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by johnqpublic

SWB... ever think of throwing your hat in the ring ??

I did in the past, but I've since lost my desire to run for office in the future in the city. I don't have thick enough skin to endure the likes of Fay Franus, Les Spindler, or the others who mean well to expose corruption but attack people personally in the process. I'd be dishing it right back to them. Furthermore, I had "issues" in late-2007 with some of the "lurkers" on here harassing some relatives of mine for my rather unpopular opinions, and if THAT is what I can expect just from a MESSAGE BOARD, then imagine what my family will endure if I ever ran for office!

I'd still LOVE to be part of the Hill Section Neighborhood Association in the future though. It seems to be one of the less active ones in the city, and it could use some reinvigoration. I can already picture holding MONTHLY (yes, as in 12 times per year) events to bring the community together. Perhaps July would be going to an SWB Yankees game with vouchers for hot dogs and drinks for the little ones sponsored by parents and adults without children pooling their money together. December might be a "Christmas in the Hill" type of event where we could go door-to-door singing Christmas carols with any donations we garner going to a charitable cause in the city. After the singing we could gather at someone's home for cookies and hot chocolate. Once EVERY month we could get together to volunteer to clean up Nay Aug Park in order to take some of the burden off the rest of the city; the Spring would bring plantings and fall would bring raking. Summer would involve adults once again pooling money together so that kids could enjoy the Nay Aug Park pool for free. Scranton, from what I've heard, has lost a lot of its neighborhood intimacy over the generations, and I'd like to see that return. My own subdivision has become sterile and unfriendly with people rarely waving back to you when you wave to them while driving by, and I don't want that same suburban indifference where neighbors don't care about their neighbors to seep into the city limits. I've grown to HATE housing developments as a direct result of this "I only befriend you to see if you have nicer stuff than I do so I can keep up" mentality, and I hope to raise my own future adopted children in a more down-to-earth, friendly environment that working-class city neighborhoods (like my own preferred Lower Hill) can offer. Scranton could be such an awesome city if people would start having PRIDE for their city again. One thing I like about the Doherty Administration is his slogan "Restoring the Pride." He has decimated it to the core, but if we ever want to see the city reborn, people have to start LOVING their city again. Perahaps post-2009 things will be different.

[johnqpublic]

Damn!! your bringing a tear to my eye !!! I think I might know who you are, and if so I voted for you back then. It was GREENER pastures back then !!

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by SWB

(Raises hand). When I was a teenager I thought Doherty was the best thing since sliced banana bread for getting people locally to care about our hub city again---a city that I was growing fond of. Now that he's polarized this city so severely that it can't even conduct a simple council meeting without people foaming at the mouth and crying for blood, I feel differently. He's no more of a "uniter" than President Bush is, and we've seen how angry many people in our nation are now regarding our political process thanks to his tenure in office.

What Mayor Doherty needs to do is finally take the high road and come clean with everyone. He needs to stop asking the Times-Tribune to put a positive spin on everything he does, and he finally has to have a heart-to-heart, open discussion with his constituents. He should "martyr" himself by attending a Scranton-Lackawanna Taxpayers' Association meeting and a special city council meeting in order to let people fire questions at him that he would TRUTHFULLY answer. I never felt so anti-Doherty until I saw his interview on WNEP a couple of weeks ago in which he threw an angry temper tantrum of "I'm the mayor. As long as I'm in office he's staying put. End of discussion." A GOOD mayor might respond with "Chief Davis has been a good friend of mine for many years and while I trust his competencies, having 91% of his force voting for his ousting is of concern to me. I promise to investigate the matter thoroughly as poor morale amongst our force can not be tolerated."

When he was running for office, he said he was going to be the "sixth councilman" and said he would routinely attend council meetings. This never happened. He also promised he would gradually reduce the wage tax a little bit each year, which is mainly what got him elected (that and everyone was just sick of Jimmy Connors). Instead we got a very arrogant man who ignores the people and acts as if he is a king and that nobody's opinion matters but his own....and rather than lowering taxes, he has kept the wage tax the same and has increased property taxes 25%, with more increases most likely on the way. He refuses to give even meager cost of living raises to city and proper equipment to city fire fighters and police officers, but has given $13,000 raises to his politically-appointed department heads.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by johnqpublic

Damn!! your bringing a tear to my eye !!! I think I might know who you are, and if so I voted for you back then. It was GREENER pastures back then !!

Ummm...thanks for the support, but I'm only 21 and have yet to run for any office of any sort. I currently live eight miles south of the city and am planning to move into the city in about two more years when I'm out of college and have a steady accounting position. It's nice to back out of your driveway at night though and look north into the city lights. Member weluvpa is a popular city political activist whom you may be familiar with (I'll let you either guess his identity or wait for him to reveal it for you---your only hint is that his mother hates skunks). LOL! Did you think I was Gary DiBileo? To be honest I've often wondered about MrKrabs's true identity, as he sounds VERY similar to a former regular poster on Talkback 16 Online from West Scranton by the name of "Pat."

[johnqpublic]

sorry, thought you may have been someone from one of the minority political partys...my mistake. You seem to have a good grasp and outlook for your age. good for you !!

[ambersky_08]

Having been raised in Paterson, NJ for a good part of my life, I often came to NE PA to visit family. The state grew on me..how pretty is is, the low cost of living despite hard times finding a job. I guess you really need to ask yourself, what is it I really want? what can i live without? what makes me happy? Everything is relevant...to me, it's how you look at life, how you look at things...I stay here because I know going back to NJ no matter how much I miss certain aspects of it, isn't for me. It was a rat race for me..to each his own right? Life has so many ups & downs or can needless to say..so why sweat the small stuff right? It's truly what we make it. I know IF I try hard enough I can be truly happy wherever God leads me. Oh well..

[I LOVE PA!]

I can still remember a cousin visitng us from LI for the first time...after saying "You live in the woods!!!!"...she said...."This is definitely a step up."
Thats when I REALLY knew that I did make an improvement in our lives.

[bobconan]

The story of northeast PA is one of settling. We all just settle with what we are given. Maybe we don't get what we want but we always settle for the next best thing. Examples would be Local Music, Bars, People,Housing(for those of us that cant afford to build) and most importantly jobs. We have been doing this in this area so long that we are experts at just making do. In short we are all happy to be miserable and that explains why we don't leave. We weren't raised with the tenacity to actually go after what we want because we learned its not there. I'm sure the imports would have a hard time understanding this. They came out here because this area was their first choice. People who grow up without nature or forests could feasibly want such things but when its your everyday its a little less appealing.

[beckycat]

IMHO, I think people stay b/c they don't have the money to get out. When I lived there alot of people where unemployed and on welfare.

[bobconan]

Originally Posted by beckycat

IMHO, I think people stay b/c they don't have the money to get out. When I lived there alot of people where unemployed and on welfare.

Ya and when you compare welfare to alot of the jobs around here is doesn't make sense to bother trying to get a job. There is no incentive to work even if your intelligent, unless you know someone your up the creek.