Scranton really does suck (Pittston: construction, contractors, inspectors)

[sues1]

They're illegal, what part of illegal does people not understand? They shouldn't be allowed to have their kids here, go home or get legal. Simple as that. Sick of footing the bill for these blood sucking people.

[blip]

Thanks for posting that.

I may be misreading it, but that sounds like it applies to people doing stuff like running across the border in the desert, etc not people who enter legally and outlive their stay or those who are found living somewhere whose means of entering can't be determined. So that *may* be the discrepancy. (Ugh, legalese.) Tried to find estimates on how most illegal aliens get here, but no luck.

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Doesn't anyone think that we need to have SAFE BORDERS that provide control over our SOVEREIGNTY, control over its our immigration policies?

In theory, yeah, that'd be great.

We can't just decide we're going to be tough and resolute about it and achieve it for free. The border fence is extremely costly, and it won't work. We couldn't find all 12 million illegal aliens if we spent a trillion dollars on it. Trade and travel mean that we can't completely seal ourselves off from Mexico. And then there's an even bigger, more porous border with Canada.

I agree that it's a big problem, but it's a big hairy mess of one with all kinds of hidden costs and benefits. It gets messier the longer we don't deal with it. In an ideal world it wouldn't happen, and we'd have a reasonable immigration policy that only let in smart productive people, and we'd all feel secure in our jobs.

It'd also be great in theory if everyone used their turn signals; if nobody cheated on taxes (the whole tax preparation business seems to hinge on avoiding egregious violations.); and if nobody stole office supplies. But we don't have the resources to try to pursue every single infraction of the law.

So, we have to pick our battles and use our attention and resources well. And, in this political season, illegal immigration seems particularly like a red herring that distracts us from the much bigger problems with our economy.

(fwiw, I thought McCain's proposals a couple years back took a reasonable, pragmatic approach to the problem. It's a shame that they failed and he's since renounced them, and the problem just gets more intractable...)

[ScranBarre]

[blip]

I thought from the start it's been largely about illegal immigrants here?

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by blip

I thought from the start it's been largely about illegal immigrants here?

I thought it was about how Scranton does/does not suck?

[blip]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

I thought it was about how Scranton does/does not suck?

see orig post-- mentions potholes and the city gov't catering to illegal immigrants. we could have gone on even longer about the potholes instead.

[Yac]

Guys, remember we have an immigration forum too.
Yac.

[mbs7]

As I said earlier, Scranton, like many other cities (particularly small cities in the NE U.S.), has a lot of problems and I think that no matter what one's opinion of illegal immigrants is, it would be a mistake to blame them for more than a tiny fraction of those problems. A recent study estimated that less than 1% of Medicaid spending was for illegal aliens. See: Medicaid spends 1 pct on illegal immigrants: study | Health | Reuters)

For far too long, this country has devoted too few of its resources to investments in the future. We should have spent the last three decades maintaining and modernizing our infrastructure, providing quality education, investing in basic research, promoting renewable energy development, encouraging and supporting innovative inventors, and attacking the problem of providing quality medical care to all. Instead, the nation went on a spending spree and the things we bought were not, on balance, good long-term investments. Both as individuals and as a nation, we went heavily into debt in order to take care of our current needs and wants with little thought for the future. (Please note: I'm not saying that every single American made irresponsible financial choices--some individuals and families did a good job of managing their funds. But I am saying that as a nation, we've made some unfortunate choices.) Now the spending spree is catching up with us, and trying to blame the resulting problems on illegal immigrants is a) misleading, and b) not going to solve anything. If Scranton gets bogged down in the illegal immigrant issue, it's likely to miss any real solutions to its current problems. Scranton, like every other American city, needs to address the big, expensive issues--like providing affordable medical care and reducing energy costs. It's time to acknowledge that the 20th century is over and that the challenges of the 21st century will be different and will not be solved with a "business as usual" approach.

It's interesting that this thread started out being about Scranton's problems (bad roads, etc. ) yet quickly morphed into a discussion of illegal immigrants. I see that as a small example of the sort of distraction that has been occurring on a much larger scale around the country. It's easy to blame others for our problems, but in the end, that's not really going to change anything.

[Courtney3697]

In 2002 I bought an old house in the hill and had over 80K to redo it.. after being screwed around by BAD crooked money theiving contractors and their BUDDIES at the CITY INSPECTORS OFFICE ( made downpayment to contractor of 1500 he never came back and all that happened was a 50 fine from the city..contraCTOR #2 DID SOME WORK ...SHODDY took money ALSO NEVER CAME BACK.. was featured on tv section for consumer complaints) and then the inspector, WHO LETS ILLEGALS RIGHT INTO HOUSES WITH NO PROBLEMS( see they have no money to pay him off so he doesn't bother)... gave me such crap and also a creepy close up comment of you haven't learned your lesson yet...(wouldn't let me live in it while working on it for no good reason ( all electric ok water on living space ok) AND HE WOULD NOT GIVE A WRITTEN REASON EITHER AS TO WHY I COULD NOT (basically being a prik cuz I was gonna sue contractor #2 who was his good fishing buddy...after all this I said screw scranton.. and moved!!! told them to keep the house took a loss of over 100K and have moved on.. Leave scRANTON to the Mexicans In fact if I could I buss em in and buy them houses next to Jack Ba@*^n and Ken Sos#$%ski... SO THOSE TWO COULD give them Mexicans lessons on crooked.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Courtney3697

In 2002 I bought an old house in the hill and had over 80K to redo it.. after being screwed around by BAD crooked money theiving contractors and their BUDDIES at the CITY INSPECTORS OFFICE ( made downpayment to contractor of 1500 he never came back and all that happened was a 50 fine from the city..contraCTOR #2 DID SOME WORK ...SHODDY took money ALSO NEVER CAME BACK.. was featured on tv section for consumer complaints) and then the inspector, WHO LETS ILLEGALS RIGHT INTO HOUSES WITH NO PROBLEMS( see they have no money to pay him off so he doesn't bother)... gave me such crap and also a creepy close up comment of you haven't learned your lesson yet...(wouldn't let me live in it while working on it for no good reason ( all electric ok water on living space ok) AND HE WOULD NOT GIVE A WRITTEN REASON EITHER AS TO WHY I COULD NOT (basically being a prik cuz I was gonna sue contractor #2 who was his good fishing buddy...after all this I said screw scranton.. and moved!!! told them to keep the house took a loss of over 100K and have moved on.. Leave scRANTON to the Mexicans In fact if I could I buss em in and buy them houses next to Jack Ba@*^n and Ken Sos#$%ski... SO THOSE TWO COULD give them Mexicans lessons on crooked.

So you judge an entire city based upon your dealings with shady contractors? Believe me, as someone who works with them on a daily basis I can tell you that MOST contractors in NEPA are rude, arrogant, lazy, and have a "holier than thou" mentality even though they are largely uneducated. I have people coming into my workplace DEMANDING discounts because they are contractors. I have them interrupting sales transactions with DIY homeowners because they're "in a hurry." I've heard one too many foul, vulgar obscenities coming out of their mouths to make me have much respect for their profession in general.

Thankfully our family used Advanced Builders out of Pittston Township for our recent MAJOR kitchen renovation project, and we were nothing but impressed and pleased. I know EnyaGirl also had similar success with Frank Carey Construction out of Jenkins Township. Unfortunately finding great, personable, friendly, and reliable contractors like these fine folks is like trying to find a needle in a haystack around these parts. The next person at work who butts in front of another customer and "demands" ANYTHING for being a contractor is going to be politely told where our exit door is.