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I recently spent a few days in Wilkes-Barre (wasn't mugged) because my niece from Portland, OR was visiting my Mother who lives in the Heights section. One day we were supposed to visit Ricketts Glen but she was jet lagged and rain threatened. We ended up visiting the Historical Society and doing the self guided walking tour. It was a nice afternoon.
Magritte, the mostly round building by the WMCA, rear Franklin Street, is the Luzerne County Medial Society.
As people continue to move into cities from the suburbs in the coming years as gas prices surge back up (they're back up around $2.50/gallon here in NoVA already), Wilkes-Barre is MUCH better-poised to capitalize upon that than Scranton.
Not if the current crime wave keeps going. Scranton isn't perfect, but it seems that Wilkes-Barre, after a somewhat quiet 2008, is making up for it with a shooting just about every other day. Just in the past couple of days a fatal shooting and a 1-year-old beat to death in Wilkes-Barre.
I work in Wilkes-Barre and will continue to live in Scranton....I'd rather drive 40 miles round trip a day than to live in Wilkes-Barre. Personally, I'm just not a Luzerne County fan altogether.
Not if the current crime wave keeps going. Scranton isn't perfect, but it seems that Wilkes-Barre, after a somewhat quiet 2008, is making up for it with a shooting just about every other day. Just in the past couple of days a fatal shooting and a 1-year-old beat to death in Wilkes-Barre.
I work in Wilkes-Barre and will continue to live in Scranton....I'd rather drive 40 miles round trip a day than to live in Wilkes-Barre. Personally, I'm just not a Luzerne County fan altogether.
Please do the research. ALL of those crimes were drug dealer on drug dealer or domestic violence. NOT RANDOM. I am SURE that it will come out the shooting was over drugs and the person who beat the one year old? It certainly isn't contained to WB. It happens all over the place.
Unless you actually live in Wilkes-Barre or at the very least spend free time here, you can't believe what you see on the news. They sensationalize everything.
I'll say it again --- I love living in Wilkes-Barre. I think it's a great city with a bad rep.
Please do the research. ALL of those crimes were drug dealer on drug dealer or domestic violence. NOT RANDOM. I am SURE that it will come out the shooting was over drugs and the person who beat the one year old? It certainly isn't contained to WB. It happens all over the place.
Unless you actually live in Wilkes-Barre or at the very least spend free time here, you can't believe what you see on the news. They sensationalize everything.
I'll say it again --- I love living in Wilkes-Barre. I think it's a great city with a bad rep.
So crime only matters if its "random?" What happens when these drug dealers infest the city to the point that they start firing on each other and innocent people get hit? You sugarcoat a baby beat to death by calling it "domestic violence?" These incidents are a sad commentary on a sizeable "bad element" population that has settled in Wilkes-Barre. I'm disturbed that Scranton seems to have attracted this type of crowd as well. But Wilkes-Barre seems to have attracted more of a "ghetto" element from out of town. I'm not basing this on what I read in paper or see on the news, I work in W-B and spend 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week here. I walk around too, and see the types that hang around downtown. I do think W-B has a lot of potential if it could drive out the drug-dealing ghetto population.
Also, I'm sure I'll be branded a racist for bring up the obvious, but as far as minority populations go, W-B has a bigger black population than Scranton. And most (not all, but most) of them in Wilkes-Barre are inner-city ghetto thug types....with the baggy pants with the underwear showing, the flat-brimmed sideways hats, talking in ebonics, etc. Mostly here for public assistance and/or the drug trade. These are not Bill Cosby type black people. How often do you see a black man in a suit carrying a briefcase in Wilkes-Barre? But I don't have to walk half of a block downtown without running into a "gangsta rap" type. But professional black people are common in places like NYC, DC, Philly, LA, etc. Its sad, because the people who don't get out of this area much think that the minorities that have moved to the area are a representation of minorities as a whole.....and its not true. Blacks, like whites, have their good people and bad people....but unfortunately it seems most of the ones who move here are an embarrasment to their race.
Scranton is attracting minorities too, but it seems to be more hispanics than blacks in Scranton. The hispanics tend to come here to work and provide for their families, rather than to get on welfare and sell drugs.
It may not be politically correct, but its true nonetheless.
So crime only matters if its "random?" What happens when these drug dealers infest the city to the point that they start firing on each other and innocent people get hit? You sugarcoat a baby beat to death by calling it "domestic violence?" These incidents are a sad commentary on a sizeable "bad element" population that has settled in Wilkes-Barre. I'm disturbed that Scranton seems to have attracted this type of crowd as well. But Wilkes-Barre seems to have attracted more of a "ghetto" element from out of town. I'm not basing this on what I read in paper or see on the news, I work in W-B and spend 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week here. I walk around too, and see the types that hang around downtown. I do think W-B has a lot of potential if it could drive out the drug-dealing ghetto population.
I didn't say it didn't matter but people think crimes here are random and they are not. So in that way, yes, it doesn't matter because I don't associate with those types of people and I don't get hurt.
I don't believe that dealers have to infiltrated Wilkes Barre anymore than Kingston, Mountain Top or Dallas.
I didn't call the baby's beating domestic violence. You did. Bad elements? There have always been and always will be bad elements in cities. It's the nature of the beast. Please, again, do research on some of the crimes that have happened in any city over the past 250 years and you will see that the crimes today are not nearly as widespread as people like you would have others believe.
Again, I LIVE my life in Wilkes-Barre. My children play here, my friends are here, my church is here, my workplace is here and my children's school is here. I know what I am talking about. I don't know where you work but Public Square (like all city downtown areas) have it's bums and weirdos. Again, completely normal. I would never try to base my idea of what living in a city is like by just working there. It's impossible to do.
Also, I'm sure I'll be branded a racist for bring up the obvious, but as far as minority populations go, W-B has a bigger black population than Scranton. And most (not all, but most) of them in Wilkes-Barre are inner-city ghetto thug types....with the baggy pants with the underwear showing, the flat-brimmed sideways hats, talking in ebonics, etc. Mostly here for public assistance and/or the drug trade. These are not Bill Cosby type black people. How often do you see a black man in a suit carrying a briefcase in Wilkes-Barre? But I don't have to walk half of a block downtown without running into a "gangsta rap" type. But professional black people are common in places like NYC, DC, Philly, LA, etc. Its sad, because the people who don't get out of this area much think that the minorities that have moved to the area are a representation of minorities as a whole.....and its not true. Blacks, like whites, have their good people and bad people....but unfortunately it seems most of the ones who move here are an embarrasment to their race.
Scranton is attracting minorities too, but it seems to be more hispanics than blacks in Scranton. The hispanics tend to come here to work and provide for their families, rather than to get on welfare and sell drugs.
It may not be politically correct, but its true nonetheless.
I don't think you are racist just woefully incorrect.
I don't believe that dealers have to infiltrated Wilkes Barre anymore than Kingston, Mountain Top or Dallas.
I'm glad you're happy living there, and hey, I have to work there so for the good of the area, I hope Wilkes-Barre is able to clean up and drive out the trash. I'm not rooting for the city to fail or anything, just giving my observations.
But I have to disagree with you....you honestly think that Mountain Top and Dallas have as big of a problem with drug dealers as Wilkes-Barre? I highly doubt it.....they go where the cheap housing and public housing is. Big city drug dealers and gang members are not going to live in some high-dollar subdivision in the Back Mountain....they're going to go to Sherman Hills or some crummy apartment house in South W-B where they'll blend in a little better.
Also, I'm sure I'll be branded a racist for bring up the obvious, but as far as minority populations go, W-B has a bigger black population than Scranton. And most (not all, but most) of them in Wilkes-Barre are inner-city ghetto thug types....with the baggy pants with the underwear showing, the flat-brimmed sideways hats, talking in ebonics, etc. Mostly here for public assistance and/or the drug trade. These are not Bill Cosby type black people. How often do you see a black man in a suit carrying a briefcase in Wilkes-Barre? But I don't have to walk half of a block downtown without running into a "gangsta rap" type. But professional black people are common in places like NYC, DC, Philly, LA, etc. Its sad, because the people who don't get out of this area much think that the minorities that have moved to the area are a representation of minorities as a whole.....and its not true. Blacks, like whites, have their good people and bad people....but unfortunately it seems most of the ones who move here are an embarrasment to their race.
Scranton is attracting minorities too, but it seems to be more hispanics than blacks in Scranton. The hispanics tend to come here to work and provide for their families, rather than to get on welfare and sell drugs.
It may not be politically correct, but its true nonetheless.
Sadly I must concur with you. Here in DC there is a VERY impressive African-American middle-class and upper-middle-class population whereas I can agree with you that I don't think I ever saw an African-American male walking around Public Square with a briefcase in a suit. Back in NEPA I hate to say it but if I was walking around Wilkes-Barre alone after dark en route to campus from my commuter parking lot I'd feel very uncomfortable if I saw a group of young African-American males walking my way. Why, pray tell? They comprise perhaps 5% of the region's population but seem to commit 1/3 of the crimes. You're by no means a "racist" for pointing that out. You are indeed correct that while places like Downstate NY, SW CT, NJ, etc. are attracting all of the educated middle-class people---whites and minorities alike---from the bigger cities, for some reason or other NEPA seems to be attracting mostly the trashy types who prey upon our government assistance programs (that our hard-earned tax dollars pay for) and those moving here for the drug trade. Will the implementation of the commuter rail line linking Scranton to NYC import more of this "element" or turn Scranton into a "hip" white-collar satellite city, not unlike White Plains, Stamford, or Princeton? Only time will tell.
It's been refreshing down here, actually, to be immersed amongst so many different minorities and see very little cultural clashing (beyond some of the well-to-do whites calling Herndon "Herndondez" due to its very high Hispanic population). I was grocery shopping yesterday in the town of Herndon and my cashier was bilingual, saying "Como estas?" to the Hispanic woman in front of me and the Hispanic man behind me but speaking English to me. There are a TON of bilingual people down here, even many Caucasians have a working knowledge of Spanish. I don't understand why so many in NEPA were "afraid" of hearing a different language being spoken in public when so far down here I've overheard Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and Mandarin all in the course of about two weeks. It's nice to live in an area with a high proportion of minorities in the middle-class whereas you ARE sadly correct that most minorities in Wilkes-Barre are lower-class types.
I have to agree that saying the drug problems in the dallas and mountain top areas are equivalent to that in Wilkes-Barre are very false. High school kids occasionally smoking weed cannot be compared to people shooting up heroin and smoking crack. Plus the level of drug trafficing is nowhere near equal. Kingston is closer to Wilkes-Barre but, still not as bad.
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