New Upscale Housing Coming to Downtown Scranton (Wilkes-Barre, Alba: lower-class, violent crime)

[The Commish]

Originally Posted by shoegal111

The majority of undergraduates at U of S are not from the area-they come from NY, NJ and CT.

That's true, but just for the sake of accuracy, a plurality of students are from PA (and just shy of a majority, too, at 49%).

[shoegal111]

Originally Posted by go phillies

That's all due to it being a college town...college towns and state capitals seem to be immune to the decay that's happened to downtowns in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Binghamton, and other smaller cities. That's why downtown State College is as prosperous as it is.....lots of college students, many of whom don't have cars so they need businesses in walking distance. The businesses in cities like Morgantown and State College sprouted up in RESPONSE to the demand from lots of people with disposable income creating a demand for businesses in walking distance. Those towns didn't just build millions upon millions of dollars in new empty buildings just thinking that people and businesses would show up to fill them....like Doherty has done here.

Morgantown thrives when the students are not there and they have seen their share of bad times but they aren't waiting for someone to bail them out. The towns people and the city government decided a long tome ago to reinvent themselves and did it with their own money, time and sweat equity.

State capitals are not immune to decay. Harrisburg has often been called a dump, has had high crime (statistically), etc.

The original city of Seattle actually burned to the ground. No insurance back then and the city leaders inacted an ordinance requiring that new construction be stone, concrete and brick. The townspeople rebuilt the original city on their dime under this new ordinance and while they were city planners spent millions to have the cliffs torn down and regrade the land which was empty so that the city could eventually attract new residents and businesses- and it eventually did.

In the 1960's they spent millions to build the space needle for a world expo and others thought they were nuts. But the town visionaries knew if they built something unique as a part of the expo the structure would bring tourists for decades to come and they did.

People from Vancouver, Canada (4 hours away) come down to Seattle just to shop at Nordstroms because of the exchange rate, great products and service at the store and that's even with a 9% sales tax.

Seattle's problem now is that the city has grown so much and while the locals have enjoyed the wealth they resent so many transplants.

Greenville, SC is very similar. Small town and lots of growth due to planning except they aren't resentful of the transplants.

Due to the current recession both Seattle and Greenville have high unemployment rates.

Scranton can be all of these things, it can be anything it wants to be. It just takes a vision, hard work, patience that it won't happen overnite and yes, some tax dollars to help build the dream.

To comment on a few other posts about the mayor's comment about attracting people who are sophisticated... Sophistication these days does not mean you have to have a college degree or be wealthy. Sophistication comes from being open to change, tolerant of others, appreciation for quality and uniqueness, diverse, well read, and savvy with thier money (e.g. They shop like to shop locally, etc.). One does not have to be a college professor, artist, doctor or lawyer to have those qualities or have a college degree. I see it all the time at work- people who are so impressed with themselves because of thier degree, their use of what I call " Five and Ten Dollar Words" but they have no crisis management skills, no customer/client services skills,interpret a clause in a contract, can't bring a project to a successful close, no time management skills, won't work past 5 p.m. and no weekend, etc. (in other words, they can't find thier way out of a paper bag) which is what holds them back professionally. And yet they are angry because other individuals who don't have the same college credentials are the ones who do have those skills and will put in the hours, are the ones getting the job or promotion they want and in many instances, and/or managing those with the PhDs/Masters degrees. Those moving up are those that are more sophisticated about thier business than those who are less.

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by shoegal111

State capitals are not immune to decay. Harrisburg has often been called a dump, has had high crime (statistically), etc.

Harrisburg's residential areas are mostly ghetto...but its downtown is nice...very busy due to all of the state offices.

[shoegal111]

Originally Posted by go phillies

I don't think the downtown is worse than 10 years ago, but I don't think its any better, either. Sure, some buildings have new facades and look better, but when those nice new looking buildings are mostly empty, its the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. They need to concentrate on the nieghbohoods and making them nice, safe, and liveable...because more people living in the city's neighborhoods means more demand for city businesses, and then the downtown and other business districts in the city will be booming. This mayor has never heard of "supply and demand," obviously. He's obviously watched too much "Field of Dreams," with his "if you build it, they will come" philosophy. The problem is, he's building it, but they aren't coming.

There once was a guy who decided to build a project on swamp land in the middle of nowhere and had no statistics to back up the fact that anyone would ever want to visit or move there. Everyone thought he was crazy. That guy was Walt Disney.

[NYRangers 2008]

Originally Posted by shoegal111

There once was a guy who decided to build a project on swamp land in the middle of nowhere and had no statistics to back up the fact that anyone would ever want to visit or move there. Everyone thought he was crazy. That guy was Walt Disney.

Yeah, but that's an amusement park. I have to agree with gophillies. The downtown is neither worse nor better than it was 10 years ago. Our point is, it should look a utopia considering all of the money Doherty has pumped into that and Nay Aug. It just doesn't look good enough to justify all the spent money. The administration should focus more on the neighborhoods instead of the downtown. What good is it to have a wonderful, centralized downtown if everything else around it is crumbling? Who would want to move here then? The mayor has his priorities backwards and that is why it is time for him to go. He had his 8 eight years to do something and it didn't work and now it is time to give someone else a try at it.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by NYRangers 2008

Yeah, but that's an amusement park. I have to agree with gophillies. The downtown is neither worse nor better than it was 10 years ago. Our point is, it should look a utopia considering all of the money Doherty has pumped into that and Nay Aug. It just doesn't look good enough to justify all the spent money. The administration should focus more on the neighborhoods instead of the downtown. What good is it to have a wonderful, centralized downtown if everything else around it is crumbling? Who would want to move here then? The mayor has his priorities backwards and that is why it is time for him to go. He had his 8 eight years to do something and it didn't work and now it is time to give someone else a try at it.

It is admittedly a "gamble," but if Scranton can successfully revitalize its core then it stands to reason that people will find that area energetic, vibrant, and attractive enough to want to live nearby, which will encourage the gentrification of neighborhoods surrounding downtown. After decades of decline Philadelphia now has a vibrant Center City with 100,000 residents, and now that prices there have risen dramatically young professionals, empty-nesters, the LGBT community, etc. are charging in to take a gamble on renovating buildings in nearby neighborhoods like Fishtown, Northern Liberties, etc. so that they can live near the "pulse" of the city's core while still being able to afford it. I can rattle off numerous people who'd be interested in living in the downtown areas of either Scranton or Wilkes-Barre, including myself someday.

[The Commish]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Harrisburg's residential areas are mostly ghetto...

This isn't exactly true.

I lived in Harrisburg for 3 years once. Only the Allison Hill neighborhood is truly a ghetto. (And what a ghetto it is: bombed-out buildings, 100% minority population, heavy police presence. I used to park my car there and walk across the Mulberry St. Bridge to get to work... in a suit. That got some looks.) Midtown has some elements of this, but it's generally pretty well kept up because many professionals make their homes there. Harrisburg's other areas (and surrounding towns) have a significant minority population, but aren't ghettos strictly speaking.

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by shoegal111

There once was a guy who decided to build a project on swamp land in the middle of nowhere and had no statistics to back up the fact that anyone would ever want to visit or move there. Everyone thought he was crazy. That guy was Walt Disney.

If Scranton was Disney then I guess we wouldn't have anything to be unhappy about, BUT ITS NOT. Weak reference IMHO. How much taxpayer money do you think Walt needed to build his dreamworld?

Let me just get this straight....You are comparing Doherty and his business sense and downtown construction to Walt Disney and his visionary ideas for to bring fantasy to reality for the children of this country and world for that matter. Thats a stretch, no its not even that, its joke.

Walt Disney changed the world and how children see it thru their eyes, myself included, but he did it on his own and didn't drive an areas finances into the ground doing it. He actaully had a vision.

Chris Doherty has made this city unsafe for children, who can't even play outside without their parents worrying about gun shots and stabbings and made sure that the children of Scranton will be paying for his debt for generations to come.

I see the comparison.........Your kidding right.

Comparing the legacy of Walt Disney to the legacy of Chris Doherty is probably the weakest and most profoundly stupid comparison that I have ever heard.


Scranron city hall..........

[blip]

Originally Posted by shoegal111

There once was a guy who decided to build a project on swamp land in the middle of nowhere and had no statistics to back up the fact that anyone would ever want to visit or move there. Everyone thought he was crazy. That guy was Walt Disney.

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Let me just get this straight....You are comparing Doherty and his business sense and downtown construction to Walt Disney and his visionary ideas for to bring fantasy to reality for the children of this country and world for that matter. Thats a stretch, no its not even that, its joke.

I'll help you out here. I believe she was just saying that if you can build Disney World out of swamp, you could turn Scranton around. No mention of the mayor or any comparison between him and Walt.

Man, this obsession with Chris Doherty is unhealthy.

[weluvpa]

Unhealthy........I don't even let my son out of my sight because there have been robberies and vandalism in my neighborhood that I have never seen in the 15 years that I have lived here and it has gotten worse the more the police are cut and held back. I hold the mayor responsible for this because he is the one, the only one, that is responsible for the condition of the SPD.

Get a scanner and listen at night, then tell me I'm wrong.

Again comparing Walt Disney and his vision for the world to Doherty or Scranton for that matter is absolutely stupid.

The mayor is the single biggest obstacle to Scranton actually growing, he is the single biggest obstacle to progress in Scranton due to his lack of fiscal and common sense when it comes to business and expenditures.

You want to turn Scranton around then get rid of Doherty because until that happens our debt will continue to increase. They will have to borrow another $5,500,000 million just to cover the whole in the budget because he HAD to plug the money in the budget from that tax office.

Who or what business man would plug money into a budget that he doesn't have nor seems like he is going to get? How is that fiscally responsible? Its ok though because the taxpayers will pick up the tab.

Blip you have NOTHING to compare the Doherty admin to, nothing at all. You moved here in the last year of his secomnd term and have no idea what has happened in the city over the last 8 years.

Shoegal....I still say that your a Doherty troll or whatever and see no respectable or reasonable excuse why you would move from Seattle to live in downtown Scranton......

I was downtown yesterday afternoon...A beautiful Saturday afternoon and there was NO ONE down there other then in front of the mall. Ghost town, if there were 6,000 new jobs in Scranton and we were actually recession proof then were are the people? Ghost town on a Saturday afternoon in the 70's and sunny.

GHOST TOWN