Wall Street West Idea Dead (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: relocate, zoning, jobs)

[mathjak107]

looks like the plan to have wall street west in nepa is kind of a dead issue.
well if we all wondered why big business dosent come to nepa here are the reasons cited for not coming here. all are pretty much nepa's poor infrastructure for supporting medium to large companies.


no available sizeable buildings availaible without starting from scratch building one. companies who were interested in opening offices here said they want to be in their location in no more than 90 days, not 1-2 years building a place.


lack of capacity in electrical grids for huge hvac equipment and computers.

lack of sewers and sewage treatment plants,,, i guess a cesspool or septic tank is out of the question for 500 people.

zoning issues every which way they looked.

lack of support business's like having a staples near bye without having an employee drive 30 miles back and forth.

lack of professional services businesses needed

lack of support such as eateries. imagine 500 employees going to some local diner.

lack of public transportation

to many one lane roads making getting around tough , if grandma goes out for a drive 1/2 the work force can be late.

looks like nepa is pretty much resigned to its number 1 industry tourisim

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

looks like nepa is pretty much resigned to its number 1 industry tourisim

...and it looks as if my peers and I will have to resign ourselves to hellish commutes from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre into Northern NJ in the future for employment options. It's sickening.

[mathjak107]

i have to agree with their reasons too, they do match my own observations.

[Jackie2008]

Hey ScranBarre,

are you the former SWB, the SWB who wrote on the Pocono Commute thread on Talkback 16 online? I haven't been on the NEPA thread in awhile, but if you are the same person, and judging from your comments here and on Talkback, what has changed your mind about NEPA? You were pretty positive about the job outlook in the area a few months back on another thread here. Just curious.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Jackie2008

Hey ScranBarre,

are you the former SWB, the SWB who wrote on the Pocono Commute thread on Talkback 16 online? I haven't been on the NEPA thread in awhile, but if you are the same person, and judging from your comments here and on Talkback, what has changed your mind about NEPA? You were pretty positive about the job outlook in the area a few months back on another thread here. Just curious.

I would have to say I was optimistic right up until a job opportunity I was pursuing with a regional accounting firm fell through after I made it to the final cut, and then a subsequent search for "back-up" internship positions through several sources yielded no results in the region. Most of my peers wish to leave NEPA faster than bats out of hell, so they are eagerly pursuing rewarding careers with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Florham Park, NJ, Reznick in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Deloitte & Touche in Pittsburgh, etc. Meanwhile those of us who wish to stay locally bite the dust. My college brags about having a nearly 100% placement rate for fresh graduates, but they also conveniently omit where these fresh graduates end up. I can GUARANTEE that the vast majority relocate to Baltimore, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, etc. while those who wish to stay and raise their families in Wilkes-Barre or Scranton must settle for a position outside of our fields, often one that pays considerably less for that matter.

Yes, I am the same person who is in some very hot water right now due to some inflammatory comments I made on Talkback 16 Online as "SWB," but I was even more disgusted by the responses I received that more or less told me to shut up and move out of the area. Why is THAT the message we're sending to our best and brightest? Do we want to become an area replete with only retirees fleeing NYC/NJ, drug dealers from those same aforementioned areas of the BosWash Corridor, and homegrown dolts who barely completed high school? Our region is doomed if it can't retain its intellectual capital; this is part of the reason why I'm such an ardent supporter of the new medical school coming to Scranton, the new law school coming to Wilkes, the potential Wall Street West movement, the commuter rail to NYC, etc.

Am I bitter? Yes. I changed my major to Accounting because I was DECEIVED by others at my campus into thinking there was some sort of "accountancy shortage" here and that I was better off sacrificing my professional dreams in order to obtain steady employment in a field that afforded me many options in an area with an extreme scarcity of white-collar professionals. Now that I'm a Junior and putting my feelers out for internships, I can see that there are dozens of students, all like me who have a GPA of 3.5+, vying for the same one or two openings everywhere I go. Why? If there is such a "dearth" of accounting professionals in NEPA, then why are there so few positions available to match upcoming graduates? If I had known in advance that I'd have zero opportunities in NEPA as a CPA I would have much rather preferred to instead pursue my true passion---obtaining my Ph.D. in Urban Planning and then petitioning for a local campus to permit me to start an urban planning program locally to educate the public about what the future of NEPA will be like if we don't start planning ahead for our impending growth spurt from NJ/NYC.

I'm not going to blame anyone else for my own shortcomings in life though. Yes, I permitted King's to deceive me into thinking that accountants were in very high demand, but I also could have educated myself even further to contact local accounting firms to inquire about their long-term employment projections BEFORE switching majors. I have only myself to blame as I watch my dream of raising my family in Scranton fading into obscurity as nearly ALL of my educated friends make grand plans to leave NEPA in the dust. Just look at this sub-forum; we're one of the few very busy sub-forums on City-Data that have a noticeable dearth of young people (under 30). Why? They don't exist here anymore. Our region graduates thousands of brilliant young minds annually. How many stay? Dozens? Also look at NEPA-x-pat, skijmpr, miamiman, KittensPurr, and all of the other wonderful people who were forced to leave our area due to our horrible economy. Is that my future as well? It goes without saying that I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with life as time progresses. Now that mathjak just pointed out that Wall Street West has been a farce, I'm resigned to the fact that I can either stay in NEPA and utilize my CPA as a forklift operator or a cart attendant or I can move elsewhere and become a corporate controller in an area that would appreciate the ideas I have to pitch. What would YOU choose?

[formerdrunkenSP]

Wall Street West was dead from the get-go. Millions of dollars were/are being spent to do all kinds of fesiability studies thats it. First off the high speed data cable would only come as far east/north as Allentown -Easton. Besides the workforce would be the commuters from the Poconos if any jobs were available to begin with. Biggest thing that the only jobs coming were server farms to back up the data. The majority of high paying professional jobs would be staying in New York. This was a big to do about nothing. last I heard they still haven't started laying the high speed fiber optic lines from NYC through New Jersey yet. This project only made money for the consultants and work force development folks. Besides everybody and their grandmother was trying to get their ncity to be a Wall Street West site and could care less about working together for the better good.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

looks like the plan to have wall street west in nepa is kind of a dead issue.
well if we all wondered why big business dosent come to nepa here are the reasons cited for not coming here. all are pretty much nepa's poor infrastructure for supporting medium to large companies.


no available sizeable buildings availaible without starting from scratch building one. companies who were interested in opening offices here said they want to be in their location in no more than 90 days, not 1-2 years building a place.


lack of capacity in electrical grids for huge hvac equipment and computers.

lack of sewers and sewage treatment plants,,, i guess a cesspool or septic tank is out of the question for 500 people.

zoning issues every which way they looked.

lack of support business's like having a staples near bye without having an employee drive 30 miles back and forth.

lack of professional services businesses needed

lack of support such as eateries. imagine 500 employees going to some local diner.

lack of public transportation

to many one lane roads making getting around tough , if grandma goes out for a drive 1/2 the work force can be late.

looks like nepa is pretty much resigned to its number 1 industry tourisim

Your argument makes sense if you're talking about the Poconos.....but not too many of the reasons you cited apply to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. I still think NE PA would be a good location for this, but I think Scranton/Wilkes-Barre makes more sense than the Poconos.

[mathjak107]

problem in this case was other areas were to far for the fiber network.

[mathjak107]

paul sorry to hear the job fell thru, but in away that may be a positive thing. remember the discussion where i warned you about going for the biggest bang for the buck and utilizing your full earning potential , even if it meant leaving nepa

[poconoproud]

I was against it from the start, just for the reason that I felt it puts our region in the same jeopardy that New York found itself in. I always thought that if the bad guys knew of our back-up plan, then they might have a back-up plan of their own. I kinda hope this fails. Not that I don't want businesses and industry and jobs, but just not what Wall Street West was originally planned for.