What is the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area like? (Pittsburgh, Back Mountain: transplants, renting)

[wheelingman]

This is one of the only major PA metro areas I have not been to.

[ScranBarre]

• Very historic---lots of older, well-preserved buildings, especially in Scranton. Also some nice historic areas of Wilkes-Barre, but downtown underwent a "modernist" movement shortly after the major 1972 Agnes flood with disastrous consequences.
• Very self-deprecating---when someone says "Hi. I just moved here from ___. Where's a good place to eat?" often times the locals will respond with "Why would you move HERE?" (as if we're the seventh layer of hell because the locals are mostly very insular and have never traveled before to appreciate the GOOD things we have here in NEPA).
• Down-to-Earth---people here will give you the shirts off their backs in times of crisis. Even though we currently have the highest unemployment rate in the state and have a poverty rate of nearly 20%, people are still very, very generous. Chivalry is not dead in NEPA.
• Sprawl-threatened---as the Poconos' exurban growth pushes closer and closer to the Luzerne and Lackawanna County lines, it is only perhaps another decade, in my estimation, before the flood gates open, and transplants start tumbling northwestwards into our area seeking a low cost-of-living, better schools (snicker), less congestion, and lower crime.
• Scenic---there's a lot of natural splendor all around us. One can go from sipping a latte at Starbucks while toying around with their iPhone in Downtown Scranton to cross-country skiing or bird-watching in the hills outside of town just several miles away.

[njmike]

Dull, depressing, etc.

[weluvpa]

I think downtown Wheeling is nicer then Scranton.....Didn't I stay in hotel by the first suspension bridge build in the US in Wheeling?

[ScranBarre]

Downtown Wheeling is very nice, especially by West Virginia's standards. You also have a PROPER speed limit of 70 miles per hour on your Interstate as opposed to the "I'm an old fart and can't hit the gas pedal" 55 mile-per-hour speed limits up here. We ate at the Applebee's just to the east of town near Cabela's, and we found everyone there to be quite friendly on our way to Cincinnati last year.

[Chefkey]

This Valley is unto itself like no other in the Country. The fact that you can see most of the populations dwellings from almost anywhere in the valley is beautiful. Working here, I get the whole breadth of the people who live here. The ones coming down from the Back Mountain to work with me in the Valley and how they avoided or did hit a deer. The singles in the urban sections that are renting or the ones content with the travel from Wayne County. In all scenarios, the people of NEPA are good down to earth people who just want to enjoy life and most I know want to enjoy nature. Of course there the types that enjoy the urban areas of the valley but that is what makes this area so great, a good mix of city life mixed in with nature.

I for one love the nature of the area and love gazing out my bay windows at the valley, I have friends in Pringle and look out across the valley towards their area and marvel that I can see their location. On days off their are countless wildlife areas to walk and do other things like picnic. Then there are the great many fairs that occur in the summer.

This smalltown feel with a big infrastructure will lend itself well to an area verged on a resurgance of growth. I am looking forward to seeing the results.

[MovingOutOfNJ]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

One can go from sipping a latte at Starbucks while toying around with their iPhone in Downtown Scranton to cross-country skiing or bird-watching in the hills outside of town just several miles away.

idk about scranton..

but the drive thru starbucks in wilkes barre.. JESUS the line is longer then at most mcdonalds!!!

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Downtown Wheeling is very nice, especially by West Virginia's standards. You also have a PROPER speed limit of 70 miles per hour on your Interstate as opposed to the "I'm an old fart and can't hit the gas pedal" 55 mile-per-hour speed limits up here. We ate at the Applebee's just to the east of town near Cabela's, and we found everyone there to be quite friendly on our way to Cincinnati last year.

I passed through Wheeling once, stayed overnight in a hotel there on a long drive a few years ago. Seems like a nice city...a lot of nice older houses, and the scenery around it with how the mountains are right on top of the city and the suspension bridges is nice. Seems like a nice place to live, and it isn't all that far from Pittsburgh.

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

[list] One can go from sipping a latte at Starbucks while toying around with their iPhone in Downtown Scranton to cross-country skiing or bird-watching in the hills outside of town just several miles away.

Where?

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Where?

Lackawanna State Park is only a 15-minute jaunt outside the city. Tobyhanna State Park is about 20-minutes away. Frances Slocum State Park is 15-minutes outside of Wilkes-Barre. I go hiking sometimes on old trails off of Suscon Road, about a 10-minute drive outside of Dupont. Perhaps you're not "instantly" from urban to rural, but compared to many other urban areas being only 15-20-minutes away from natural splendor is something to be proud of.