Scranton Mayoral Debate: What a Disaster! (Pittston: living in, dangerous, move)

[ScranBarre]

Well I've just fired off a letter to the editor of the Times-Tribune, figuring I won't be the target of much real-life "grief" (as I garnered in prior letters) since I'll soon be relocated and out of everyone's hair anyways. I'll be curious to see if it makes the light of day, as I concluded with my own inferences that all three candidates are sub-par for various reasons.

Lack of Brain Drain Acknowledgement a TRUE "Drain of the Brain."


Editor: As a recently-minted King's College graduate I am one of many in Northeastern Pennsylvania who will soon be walking across a stage to be presented our degrees before relocating out of the region in pursuit of greener economic pastures. For as much as I have come to love some facets of living near Scranton---the proximity to other areas, the historic architecture, the down-to-earth populace that inherently has a superior work ethic, the annual church picnics and firefighters' bazaars, the distinctive neighborhoods where people still wave American flags and greet their neighbors, etc.---there is still a very severe lack of professional white-collar opportunity in this region. The best superficial reasons in the world over which an area can reign supreme with bragging rights (such as those I have just referenced) can not stem the inevitable exodus of an area's youth out of an area due to one crucial factor---the lack of economic opportunity afforded to us.

Even though I've grown up in Greater Pittston my entire life I had long yearned to move into the city limits of Scranton to live in a historic home, open my own business venture someday, and raise my family in a close-knit neighborhood near playgrounds, schools, and independent businesses to minimize my utilization of a vehicle. I may still consider doing so someday, but after watching the televised mayoral candidates' debate the other evening on WNEP2 I must say I am disheartened that not only did the most formidable challenger admittedly have "no idea" about what the "Brain Drain" was but also cringed when another candidate made something up as he went along about the incumbent's record being a "drain on his brain" while the incumbent himself, who has had plenty of political experience, also stumbled, much to my chagrin, although not as blatantly and severely as his two opponents (but his response was STILL not "mayoral" quality). Not too long before the debate WVIA coincidentally hosted a round-table discussion that went into vivid detail about the "Brain Drain" that included a panel represented by various local college students, including two from my campus. All but one were leaving the region, and even that one didn't seem fully committed to living here permanently. Out of my 2005 graduating class at Pittston Area, I can't name many (if any) of my college-educated peers who plan to stay in Lackawanna or Luzerne Counties long-term. While our region is blessed with so many excellent institutions of higher learning that cater to a variety of different studies from architecture to accounting to nursing to biochemistry (and soon to more specialized medical fields as well) NO efforts have been made to "court" those of us to stay in the region, and someone like me has little incentive to remain here with the very probable consequence of being indefinitely underemployed when I'm instead in the process of relocating to another state where the sky is the limit for my professional success.

What may even be most shocking to me, though, has been the dismissive attitudes many Scrantonians have had about their mayoral candidates' apparent lack of a thorough understanding about the most crucial underlying factor behind why cities like Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are continuing to fail---the flight of our youth and its intellectual capital. I'm only 22-years-old and am intimately familiar with both Brookings and the "Brain Drain," as are many of my peers. Shouldn't it come as some concern that three individuals seeking the highest-profile office in our region's hub city, each of whom is at least twice my senior, are not well-versed on this issue? How to retain the thousands of bright young minds who are educated here annually should be of the utmost concern to ANY candidate in our entire region and should not be put onto the back-burner, as has been done for decades now as people try to cling to dying industries instead of striving to reinvent us into a new era of prosperity. The lack of concern exhibited by so many about this entire issue is appalling.

The only "drain of my brain" was watching the mayoral debate where all three failed miserably in their exhibition of a proper understanding of the "Brain Drain." As long as our region continues to have an educational attainment rate that is very far below the national and state percentages due to this "drain," we'll never be able to attract many high-tech, high-profile, high-paying employers. Why would such a company come to a city where most of the ones who'd be filling their ranks have already moved away? Conversely, why would many graduates stick around with such limited opportunity? We are in this perilous "Catch-22" of sorts, and I don't foresee that breaking anytime soon, hence why I'm packing my bags, along with a plethora of others. It's painful to abandon the area you've grown up in and have grown attached to, but why on Earth should we continue to settle for less professional opportunity than our peers in many nearby metropolitan areas, just shuffling our feet and being told "good things come to those who wait," as those before us have also been told for years now with little avail? The "Brain Drain" may just be the single most pressing issue facing the region, and any candidate not fully understanding it should not be worthy of your vote. In the case of Scranton I suppose this means all three candidates are not of sufficient caliber to be truly visionary. I asked myself after the debate "Out of a city of 72,500 or so souls, THESE THREE were the cream of the crop?" To stave off those who may call me an "outsider," as someone who may move back to the city someday this election's outcome may very well steer the course for the Scranton of the future. Do we want it to be better in 2013 than in 2009 or not?


Paul J. Laure, II
Pittston Township (Soon-to-Be Virginian)

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Sure, God forbid people exercise their right to free speech. For this girl to be lambasted for an opinion that might differ from some people's opinions is not right. So women can only win this pageant if they adhere to a certain political ideology? If this were the other way around, and the judges were conservative right-wingers, and they blackballed her for supporting gay marriage, the people who are now applauding would be up in arms.

Somehow Bishop Martino is seen as a villain, but not Perez Hilton? Seems to me that Hilton is not doing the gay community any favors with his idiocy.

Does not Perez Hilton have the same right to free speech....BLAH>>>BLAH>>>BLAH>>>The Issue is she lied and broke a contract what do gays have to do with it??????

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

and we all agreed to stay on topic...

[shoegal111]

Originally Posted by go phillies

I disagree on that one. Quite a few college graduates come from this area, I would say the percentage of high school graduates from this area who go on to higher education is very high in this area...the problem is that there's no good jobs to keep them here and most move away. I'm more than 15 years out of high school, and even then, most of my class went on to college, but a good number of them never returned after they got their degrees. I would have to think that the percentage of people going to college is even higher these days than it was 15-20 years ago.

Which is why there is not enough of a college educated base here in the city.

[shoegal111]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

As a fellow homosexual I can say that while most people around here claim to be "tolerant" of us the ugliness can rear its ugly head when you least expect it. Last night, for example, I was at my commencement ball at King's with a female friend of mine, and as soon as you liquored up the football jocks they were out on the dance floor grinding to sex reference-laden rap music and slow-dancing to love songs, in many cases, with each other, which elicited staring, pointing, laughing, jeers, etc. These were not "lovers"; they were just doing it to get a rise out of their peers at the expense of the social comfort level of people like me, who wonder if the LGBT community will EVER be successfully integrated into Scranton/Wilkes-Barrre or will always be used as an opportunity to capitalize upon for "laughs" and "kicks." Since I was the designated driver last night I was sober the entire time that most of the rest of my class was drunk, and it was a less-than-enjoyable experience to not only see that aforementioned experience with the jocks but then to also see heterosexual couples making out, groping each other, grinding in a very risque fashion, etc. Talk about double-standards in that respect because the parents of those couples who probably would have just said they're "kids being kids" would HIT THE ROOF if I were able to secure a mate of my own and do the same to HIM on the dance floor.

While I'm never outwardly physically threatened or harassed for my orientation in the same manner that your generation probably was growing up back in the 1960s-1970s, there's still tremendous leg-work that needs to occur in this area to get us not only into the 2000s but out of the 1980s for that matter! Now that I've had a taste of very progressive areas like Washington, DC a part of me never wants to come back to a socially-regressive place like Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, despite its lower cost-of-living and slower pace of life. In other areas people like us aren't used as a reason to laugh, and it's thanks to those experiences last night that a good chunk of my evening at The Woodlands---what was supposed to be the best night of my senior year of my undergraduate career---was ruined. While Generation Y is light years ahead of the Baby Boomers in terms of tolerance, they're still not "accepting" by any stretch of the imagination, as perpetuated last night. I felt very humiliated watching that occur.

Even as IA, MA, ME, VT, NH, CT, (presumably also soon RI), NY, NJ, and CA either consider legalizing same-sex marriage or have already done so, I don't foresee PA doing the same for a VERY long time. You may be better off in Victoria.

Scranbarre- You'll love the DC area especially now that Bush is gone. It's amazing how the atmosphere of that city changes with the President. It was snooze town (except Georgetown) for last eight years.

[shoegal111]

Originally Posted by PITTSTON2SARASOTA

It's true other industries picked up on the "coal collapse" rather quickly,I remember many factories, in Pittston alone, that each had over 2,000 employees......but as the economy changed the area didn't. we own our house and want to sell but......Florida is way worse off than Pennsylvania as far as the housing collapse goes, so it's gonna be awhile. My point is we were going to move to Scranton, downtown only like here, we too would mainly shop and spend our disposeable income in center city. But now I am not so sure; we are leaning toward Victoria Canada....have been together 26 years, and I pays my taxes... I want the same rights as everyone else....We can legally get married in Canada. I am not sure how welcome back Scranton would be with a "homeboy" bringing home his boyfriend...lol.....see our point.....

If you decide on Victoria, you'll love the area and you can get to Seattle via a high speed boat in 2 hours. Close enough to visit and experience all of the best the area has to offer but without the dreaded "Seattle Freeze"

[ScranBarre]

As an update from my earlier reply the editor of the paper left a voice mail on my cell phone (I've been out doing yard work for the past few hours), and he said that he was going to edit it for brevity, as I gave him permission to do, since it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that there's a lot of "fluff" in there that can be pulled out.

My main gist: I, ScranBarre, am aghast that not only are all three city mayoral candidates not fully well-versed in they symptoms of the Brain Drain, let alone how to rectify it, but also at the laissez faire attitudes of most in Scranton who are saying "no big deal." You can't reduce taxes if you don't encourage growth. You can't encourage growth if you don't have an adequate supply of job opportunities. You can't have an adequate supply of job opportunities without intellectual capital available to fill those positions. You can't have that capital thanks to the "Brain Drain." It's a simple concept, and if all three candidates were left out to dry (with Doherty at least coming somewhat close) then what does that say about the likelihood of any of them using the next four years to seriously undertake efforts to not only retain my successive college graduation classes but also lure my class and our predecessors back? I've been on the web site of "Redisover Scranton," and it's an absolute joke. Half of the success stories they profile are people who moved back to work at their own family's businesses. Well golly gee! That took a lot of effort and soul-searching, let me tell you what!

[Summering]

Well someone just put ME in for MAYOR........so is there a poll on here I missed?

Would that solve the problem? Hey Scranbarre......your copying my "golly gee"......all golly's are mine........LOLOL

Ok, now I have to read all this fluff about brain drain.( I havn't read the thread yet) I tell ya' if you stay out of politics, you'll have a longer life!!!! Yah, hear me?

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Summering

Well someone just put ME in for MAYOR........so is there a poll on here I missed?

Would that solve the problem? Hey Scranbarre......your copying my "golly gee"......all golly's are mine........LOLOL

Ok, now I have to read all this fluff about brain drain.( I havn't read the thread yet) I tell ya' if you stay out of politics, you'll have a longer life!!!! Yah, hear me?

You might be best off just staying out of it, Summering, lest your usual happy-go-lucky personality be soured by we "grumpy old men!" The "Brain Drain" is just a term used to describe how most youths in our area who go on to college move elsewhere once they get their degrees. The debate in Scranton was a debacle because people who were bragging about how good they would be a "job creation" proved that they were just using that as a "buzz word" because they didn't know the most important component behind our area's lack of ability to attract or retain fresh talent.

[blip]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

My main gist: I, ScranBarre, am aghast that not only are all three city mayoral candidates not fully well-versed in they symptoms of the Brain Drain, let alone how to rectify it, but also at the laissez faire attitudes of most in Scranton who are saying "no big deal." You can't reduce taxes if you don't encourage growth. You can't encourage growth if you don't have an adequate supply of job opportunities. You can't have an adequate supply of job opportunities without intellectual capital available to fill those positions. You can't have that capital thanks to the "Brain Drain." It's a simple concept, and if all three candidates were left out to dry (with Doherty at least coming somewhat close) then what does that say about the likelihood of any of them using the next four years to seriously undertake efforts to not only retain my successive college graduation classes but also lure my class and our predecessors back? I've been on the web site of "Redisover Scranton," and it's an absolute joke. Half of the success stories they profile are people who moved back to work at their own family's businesses. Well golly gee! That took a lot of effort and soul-searching, let me tell you what!

A few more thoughts on the brain drain. Though it's a bit of both, I view it as more of a symptom of economic woes than a cause.

If you focus too closely on that symptom, e.g. in a "creative class" approach, you can miss more effective ways to boost the economy (esp. here cutting spending + taxes, zoning and infrastructure, or some major transformative projects), which ultimately will help stem the brain drain.

So, while I think it's an important sign to keep an eye on, I can understand why people feel like it's no big deal in itself--of course if the economy is crappy, educated young adults are going to be the first to leave.

Glad to see it wasn't a direct focus of your own mayoral platform though.