Scranton is in Growth Mode (Wilkes-Barre, Carbondale: tenants, high school, contractor)

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

It's a lose-lose situation. You cut services to hold the line on taxes, and people like Les Spindler complain. You raise taxes to maintain adequate services, and people like Les Spindler complain. What can be done to satisfy the 72,500 Les Spindler wannabes of the Electric City?

That might make sense if they raised taxes to maintain adequate services but they didn't. They raised taxes to cover the debt that was created by the mayor by handing out many high raises to cabinet members and creating over $15,000,000 in new hires and raises combined since he is office.

Les or I would never complain if they cut SPENDING to hold the line on taxes. Services should never have to cut or reduced when spending cutbacks could be made across the board.

Your too busy complaining about those that complain to even hear the complaints or the reasoning behind them.

Our budgets have increased close to $30,000,000 in 8 years.

For what?

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by loveinbloom

If I had my way I would move to Clarks Summit tomorrow, but hubby and I still can not agree where to buy!

But why Clarks Summit, as opposed to, say, Jessup, Dunmore, Old Forge, Throop, or Jermyn? I don't know what the draw is the the Abingtons, other than the "prestige" of a Clarks Summit address....

[loveinbloom]

Originally Posted by go phillies

But why Clarks Summit, as opposed to, say, Jessup, Dunmore, Old Forge, Throop, or Jermyn? I don't know what the draw is the the Abingtons, other than the "prestige" of a Clarks Summit address....

I have looked or am looking in Dunmore, Old Forge and Throop aLONG WITH Clarks Summit...Jessup and Jermyn according to my husband are too far out..., out of what I am still not sure...but it is what he always says. We were discussing Clarks Summit and that is why I made my Clark Summit specific comment; but you could insert any of the towns I mentioned.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by loveinbloom

I don't think any reader would feel "guilt tripping" for living in the Abingtons or another suburb reading your post, since they at least stayed in the state or moved here, while you took your degree and left. I do not mean to sound harsh but , it is what it is. If I had my way I would move to Clarks Summit tomorrow, but hubby and I still can not agree where to buy!

What can I say? Most educated people need to leave Scranton to earn what they are worth. In several years I'll be earning a salary in my mid-to-late-20s nearly as much as my parents, also college graduates, are earning combined during their current peak earning years. The plethora of low-wage big-box retail, fast food, hospitality/tourism, distribution center/warehousing, etc. jobs in NEPA keep salaries depressed for the white-collar sector as well. People may argue about the cost-of-living difference, but while I'm currently eating a $2.50 microwaveable dinner nightly and pinching pennies in a few years I'll be earning much more and have much more spending power in NoVA than I ever could have back in NEPA.

Until NEPA starts to transition to a more white-collar area you're going to continue to see much young talent move away. In a few years I MIGHT consider moving to a new downtown loft or condo in either Scranton or Wilkes-Barre if the career opportunities afforded to me there are comparable to the ones down here. Here I'm going to be earning a $10,000 annual raise for the next several years. Back home I wouldn't come anywhere near that.

[JD CSummit]

I dont fault you for leaving at all, if i didnt have the situation i have, meaning a good job to come home to when i graduated, i would be in New York or DC without question. A lot more needs to be done, not at a city level, but much higher, to lure younger people here. I believe that it can happen, but its a long way off.

The way i see it happening is the chamber, the city, the county, all need to re-direct their mission for job recruitment and additions. They get all excited for Wall Street companies to come here, and while that is exciting, why dont they look for the smaller scale finance companies that could afford downtown office space. Personally, i dont understand the obsession with the finance sector, but whatever works. I'd personally gear my marketing towards the energy sector, especially with all the natural gas they're pulling out from the northern counties and the med/healthcare sector with the school coming in.

[scrantonluna]

Originally Posted by JD CSummit

I'd personally gear my marketing towards the energy sector, especially with all the natural gas they're pulling out from the northern counties and the med/healthcare sector with the school coming in.

See Southern Union

[JD CSummit]

Fair point

[scrantonluna]

Originally Posted by JD CSummit

Fair point

Not that it could have been predicted.
Just a bad turn of events. Only in
Scranton.

[shoegal111]

Originally Posted by JD CSummit

I dont fault you for leaving at all, if i didnt have the situation i have, meaning a good job to come home to when i graduated, i would be in New York or DC without question. A lot more needs to be done, not at a city level, but much higher, to lure younger people here. I believe that it can happen, but its a long way off.

The way i see it happening is the chamber, the city, the county, all need to re-direct their mission for job recruitment and additions. They get all excited for Wall Street companies to come here, and while that is exciting, why dont they look for the smaller scale finance companies that could afford downtown office space. Personally, i dont understand the obsession with the finance sector, but whatever works. I'd personally gear my marketing towards the energy sector, especially with all the natural gas they're pulling out from the northern counties and the med/healthcare sector with the school coming in.

They can recruit all they want it won't work because they recruit companies for a cheap labor force instead of selling a skilled workforce.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by shoegal111

They can recruit all they want it won't work because they recruit companies for a cheap labor force instead of selling a skilled workforce.

Exactly. Some people think I come off as being elitist, but it's not that I'm "bashing blue-collars" as much as I am disgruntled that NEPA's diminutive percentage of college degree-holders keeps the area so economically depressed for white-collars. If you just want to go through high school and then go straight into the workforce, settling for a $20,000 salary, driving a beater pick-up truck, and living with your parents, then you have PLENTY of job opportunities in NEPA. If you intend to go for your Master's Degree or Ph.D. other than health care or higher education and want to earn a $50,000+ salary what fast-paced career track potential do you really have in a place like Scranton/Wilkes-Barre unless you power-commute?

Austin Burke keeps on touting us as a perfect place for large-scale low-wage employers to set up shop, so that's all we're really going to viably attract. Rob Mericle LIED THROUGH HIS TEETH to me when he promised me that Wall Street West would play a crucial role in his massive ongoing Center Point project in my hometown of Pittston Township. Instead the only tenants he is actively seeking are generally low-paying distribution center jobs to occupy his speculative "flex buildings" INSTEAD of luring in career opportunities. Now my hometown gets a mess of sprawl and rush-hour traffic congestion on 315 all for low-wage jobs. Great!

I hope people have a "Plan B" for when the inevitable influx of NYC/NJ/SEPA upper-middle-class folks drives up the cost-of-living here while those lower-than-average wages remain relatively flat (see Monroe County) or else you're going to have a LOT of natives "priced out" of the housing market as property values and property taxes spike (or is that just something people here aren't long-term enough to comprehend?) People actually lined up for those $20,000/year jobs at Sallie Mae? You have got to be kidding me! How can you support a family on $20,000/year?

As long as we college graduates continue to flood OUT of NEPA (I learn of more native friends leaving weekly), then our census statistics will continue to look bleak for prospective high-quality and high-paying employers who will be skeptical to locate in an area where the talent pool just doesn't exist in the workforce because it has been dispersed to other areas. The best they COULD hope for would be to set up shop in Scranton, advertise for the positions, and then hope that an influx of natives back to the city occurs. I must admit if my current employer opened up an office in Scranton I'd be back in a heartbeat---NoVA just isn't "all that," contrary to what people may say.