Work begins on the Connell Building (Scranton, Penn: city hall, houses, unemployment rate)

[Roaddog81]

So what is the Connell building be ?It was offices years ago?And they did tear down that parking gargage wright next to it to put up a new one I think that is what they are doing .

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Roaddog81

So what is the Connell building be ?It was offices years ago?And they did tear down that parking gargage wright next to it to put up a new one I think that is what they are doing .

Yes. Instead of renovating the existing garage, the city decided to tear it down to build a new one. The design is bone-headed in my opinion, because at scrantonluna said any new good garage should also have some space for retail/restaurant usage as well on the ground floor to help make the street scape run much more smoothly to pedestrians as they pass by. The Connell Building will feature office space on the second and third floors, 89 upscale apartments in the upper floors, and ground-level space for retail/restaurants (even though I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a Whole Foods and/or Border's!)

[The Commish]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

The Mall and a bunch of bars is not downtown living...There actually needs to be a downtown before we build downtown housing otherwise there is no reason to live in the housing is there.

This kind of thinking is very "chicken or the egg."

You don't have people downtown unless they live there. And it's not attractive to live there unless there are the amenities that downtown living provides: close proximity to basically all your needs. But we have to start somewhere. What will happen is that downtown living will be relatively cheap initially. As the attractiveness of downtown living increases, the demand will go up as the supply goes down. So rents will increase, developers will build more apartments, and all the amenities of downtown living will start to come. But it has to start somewhere. Why not now?

[The Commish]

Originally Posted by NYRangers 2008

All the pipe dreamers want to believe it's NY, but it's not. If you want that kind of living, move to Greenwich Village or something comparable to that. You're not going to find it in downtown Scranton, that's for sure.

I don't find that argument very convincing.

The goal isn't Manhattan; the goal is to create a small but vibrant downtown through mixed-use development. A few apartments, a few retail shops, restaurants, food markets, theaters, art galleries, and so on. This project in particular won't do it alone, but it's a good step forward.

Brain-drain is obviously a huge problem, because the young, ambitious, educated people who create culture leave the area. What we're left with is a bunch of unimaginative, uneducated people who comprise the majority of the city's residents (less than 16% have college degrees... yikes!).

Everything that we can do to make the downtown more attractive to potential residents is a good thing.

[ScranBarre]

I don't want to sound classist or elitist myself, but EVERYTHING that ails Scranton is a case of the "Chicken or The Egg." In terms of the economic turmoils afflicting the city we can't attract better-paying jobs if we don't have the intellectual capital available here to fill those high-paying white-collar positions, and we can't RETAIN those brilliant minds if all we have to offer for them is dead-end employment with big-box stores, chain restaurants, distribution centers, dying factories, and in the tourism industry. There's a tremendous number of people that I can rattle off the top of my head who are currently underemployed, but since we have no official way to measure "underemployment" it is difficult to truly quantify. My parents both have college degrees and while we are upper-middle-class for our region they still earn much less than what their counterparts in most other areas earn. My father took a $20,000 pay cut when his position with IBM was outsourced to Asia back in 2002. I work at Lowe's Home Improvement beside MANY with Bachelor's Degrees or in several cases even Master's Degrees. I'll probably retain my employment here even after landing a full-time job in the accounting field in order to help compensate for the lower-than-average salary I'll likely be earning.

The problem is that most of those beating their chests for better wages and clamoring for the head of Austin Burke, Scott Weiland, and Chris Doherty on a silver platter are those who have limited skills or educations. If I were an employer (which I may very well be in Downtown Scranton someday) what incentive SHOULD I have to pay you more if you aren't bringing me more to the table in order to justify the greater financial burden against me? My sister is earning her Master's Degree as I speak so she can command a higher salary as a local public school teacher. I hope to earn my Ph.D. someday myself in order to make myself more marketable to my employer. As The Commish said, a city where less than 1/5 of the adult population has a college degree is a city that will never get very far.

Manufacturing is nearly dead nationwide. Stop clinging to it and calling us "elitist" by advocating getting an education of some sort! The only jobs coming here are at distribution centers, where wages probably tend to be $10/hr.-$14/hr. That's nothing to be proud about. Considering I earn $11/hr. and can't support myself while going to school, how are those who earn $11/hr. and raising CHILDREN supposed to have a good standard of living? The United States as a whole is becoming a second-world nation.

[The Commish]

How many more rep points do I have to spread before I can give them to you again?

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

The problem is that most of those beating their chests for better wages and clamoring for the head of Austin Burke, Scott Weiland, and Chris Doherty on a silver platter are those who have limited skills or educations.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[blip]

Originally Posted by The Commish

IThe goal isn't Manhattan; the goal is to create a small but vibrant downtown through mixed-use development. A few apartments, a few retail shops, restaurants, food markets, theaters, art galleries, and so on. This project in particular won't do it alone, but it's a good step forward.

Right on, would rep you if I could.

[GreenRidgeGuy]

In order to sustain a livable downtown, Scranton needs one thing...... a grocery store within walking distance. I'm not talking Harris Teeter or Whole Foods, but someplace where downtown residence can buy groceries. If you build it, they will come...

[blip]

Originally Posted by GreenRidgeGuy

In order to sustain a livable downtown, Scranton needs one thing...... a grocery store within walking distance. I'm not talking Harris Teeter or Whole Foods, but someplace where downtown residence can buy groceries. If you build it, they will come...

Some people from the western side of downtown do walk over to Redner's. I often see someone with bags coming from there when I walk across the bridge. Of course the layout of Redner's with that giant suburban-style lot is not conducive to it... But it's not far otherwise.

Yeah, I can't see a Whole Foods opening any time soon downtown, or anywhere around here for that matter.. A small grocery store / good bodega can get you a lot..

[GreenRidgeGuy]

Originally Posted by blip

Some people from the western side of downtown do walk over to Redner's. I often see someone with bags coming from there when I walk across the bridge. Of course the layout of Redner's with that giant suburban-style lot is not conducive to it... But it's not far otherwise.

Yeah, I can't see a Whole Foods opening any time soon downtown, or anywhere around here for that matter.. A small grocery store / good bodega can get you a lot..

I wouldn't want to walk to Redner's from downtown. There is plenty of available real estate to build something closer.