Clarks Summit (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Back Mountain: cul-de-sac, middle-class, real estate)

[Foxfire]

I have seen some posts on Clarks Summit in the past. Does anyone have additional info on the area such as taxes, med. facilities, entertainment venues, community info

[Retired Law 08]

Originally Posted by Foxfire

I have seen some posts on Clarks Summit in the past. Does anyone have additional info on the area such as taxes, med. facilities, entertainment venues, community info

I am retiring in oct07 and recently purchased a home in clarks summit in oct06
I am very happy with the area, it is a very good safe place to live( you can checkrelocation crime lab.com) the people are very friendly, the taxes can be from anywhere from 2,000/4000 the schools are excellent,hospitals are located in scranton( about 6 miles) scranton/wilkes barre has a photo shot of clarks summit check it out. it is a nice upscale area houses can go for 160's to 500's downtown clarks summit is small but it has nice stores and a jazz restaurant( state st. grill) it does have a busy rt. 6 going by it but has a krispy kreme store, damons restaurant,hampton inn,weis supermkt. starbucks
waffle house. the rural area of clarks summit is very nice, lake winola, and lackawanna state park are not far, most of the real entertainment is in scranton, but there are some nice restaurants like amore(italian) fire grill,state st. grill, as always whats good for one person may not be good for someone else so you are doing the right thing by finding out info, also research areas also check the national sex offender registry. if you need any other info feel free to ask, good luck

[ang102]

I am relocating to Clarks Summit in the next few months does anyone know where I can take classes for Certified Nurses Aid/Assistant in the area?

[to570717]

I was born and rasied there. Floral PArk. Best Schools in the area. about 10 minutes from the hospitals in Scranton. There is a CMC med center if you need stiched ect. Great dentists, peditrcians (generally doctors want their private practices close to home) Glen Oak Country club, Scranton Country Club. Summit Hills Public Course. Rt. 6/11 kind of sucks dur to traffic. There are a bunch of chain restuarnts there. Close proxcimity to 81 and PA turnpike.

The Summit offers excellent neighborhood for raising a family. Where i lived there was a ton of kids my age. we lived a 2 minuet walk to South Campus which is now called clarks summit elementary. There are woods for playing in, bike paths made way back in the day that still exist.

All the talk about Abington being elitist is silly. Good people, families, older folks. I would not consider living in NEPA if i wasnt in the Summit or by ELK mountain. (Lake Idlewild)

Good bars and restuarants. Wellingtons, Jim Dandys, Armetta's, Dino and Francesco's, State Street, Patsels. These are all good eateries. With excepption to Armettas and Dinos and PAtsels they are good bars also. All within 5 minuets.

I can't say enough great things about Clarks Summit. I love it. Since I moved I realized how great a place it really is I will definitly move back there when it is time to settle down. Clarks Summit= best place in NEPA

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by to570717

I was born and rasied there. Floral PArk. Best Schools in the area. about 10 minutes from the hospitals in Scranton. Ther eis a CMC medie center if you need stiched ect. Great dentists, peditrcians (generally doctors want their private practices close to home) Glen Oak Country club, Scranton Country Club. Summit Hills Public Course. Rt. 6/11 kind of sucks dur to traffic. There are a bunch of chain restuarnts there. Close proxcimity to 81 and PA turnpike.

The Summit offers excellent neighborhood for raising a family. Where i lived there was a ton of kids my age. we lived a 2 minuet walk to South Campus which is now called clarks summit elementary. There are woods for playing in, bike paths made way back in the day that still exist.

All the talk about Abington being elitist is silly. Good people, families, older folks. I would not consider living in NEPA if i wasnt in the Summit or by ELK mountain. (Lake Idlewild)

Good bars and restuarants. Wellingtons, Jim Dandys, Armetta's, Dino and Francesco's, State Street, Patsels. These are all good eateries. With excepption to Armettas and Dinos and PAtsels they are good bars also. All within 5 minuets.

I can't say enough great things about Clarks Summit. I love it. Since I movesd I realized how great a place it really is I will definitly move back there when it is time to settle down. Clarks Summit= best place in NEPA

Clarks Summit = would not exist without Scranton. Clarks Summit is another unfortunate example of urban sprawl gone mad. What was once a quiet, probably country town, is now a sprawling mess of cul-de-sacs, Mcmansions, and strip malls. Riding up US 6-11 into the Abingtons is indistinguishable from suburban NJ. Granted, the town center of Clarks Summit is nice, and there are a lot of nice simple older homes....but the more recent growth of the Abingtons is pitiful....boring cookie-cutter developments with people more interested in pursuing their careers and getting the latest landscaping and luxury SUV than in socializing with neighbors and spending time with their kids.

I hate Stepford Wives suburbia. Give me an older city neighborhood with character, small neighborhood schools, and down to earth people anyday. And I do not look down on upper-class suburbia because I can't afford it...I most certainly could afford to live there if chasing the almighty dollar was my goal in life. I'm college educated, have a good job....but I prefer that my wife stays home to raise our children, rather than the career-type people who need to have both parents working and the children raised by daycare, just so they can drive the latest SUV and have the latest Mcmansion and plasma screen TV. So we make sacrifices....living in an older home in the city, driving simpler vehicles, etc, so that we can raise our children.. And personally I would rather live in Scranton than on Wisteria Lane amongst the snobs anyday.

And Abington Heights is an overrated district....not to say its bad, but overrated. I'm not one for the "bus your kids 10 miles away to a megaschool with 1000 kids in it," I like Scranton's small neighborhood schools where you know the principal and teachers and other parents on a first-name basis.

[to570717]

go Phillies= Way off. I lived on a 4 acre lot in a neighbor hood. Can't get that in Scranton. My parent house was built in 1950. I lived in the quackenbush area of Floral Park The newer part is not cookie cutter at all.

I forgot to mention we usally have the best HS sports teams in the area as well. This may be where Go-Phillies jealousy derives from.


People that don't live there are haters. Offer them a house and they would move there in a heart beat.

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by to570717

go Phillies= Way off. I lived on a 4 acre lot in a neighbor hood. Can't get that in Scranton. My parent house was built in 1950. I lived in the quackenbush area of Floral Park The newer part is not cookie cutter at all.

I forgot to mention we usally have the best HS sports teams in the area as well. This may be where Go-Phillies jealousy derives from.


People that don't live there are haters. Offer them a house and they would move there in a heart beat.

I'm out of HS 15 years now. When I was in school, Abington Heights was a joke...their football team usually battled for the cellar in the Big 11. Maybe they were good in the "Grey Poupon" type sports like field hockey and golf, but who really cares? Plus, the fact that you give a damn, as a supposed adult, about how much the high school sports teams win, is pathetic. I don't base my decision on where my kids will go to school on the athletic teams.

Also revealing is the fact that Abington, along with Prep (which is mostly Abington area students), are two school with the biggest drug problems in the area. Lots of rich kids with money to burn and little parental involvement in their lives.

Like I said, I don't like snobby materialistic people. Which is why I would never live in the Abingtons, regardless of my income.

[to570717]

Weak arguments. Abington doesn't have a large drug problem!

Snobby materialistic people. Talk about overgeneralization. You can stay in Scranton or where ever. For the people actually interested in Clarks Summit, I am confident you will love the area for all of its great attributes.

Don't listen to the haters!

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by Foxfire

I have seen some posts on Clarks Summit in the past. Does anyone have additional info on the area such as taxes, med. facilities, entertainment venues, community info

Property taxes are high in Clarks Summit, due to the highest school taxes in the area. This is because the teachers in Abington Heights school district seemingly go on strike every other year to hold the taxpayers ransom for some ridiculous demand or another, like no copays on prescriptions and no contributions toward health insurance.

Medical facilities, entertainment venues, etc, are all in and around Scranton.

[ScranBarre]

I'm sorry, but while there might be a lot of very friendly, amicable, generous, kind-hearted, down-to-earth people in The Abingtons, there are just as many superficial people who care more about what adorns your driveway and how professionally your lawn is landscaped as opposed to getting to know you on a personal level. How do I know this? I live in the suburbs myself, and my particular community isn't nearly as wealthy as the Abingtons (median household income here in Pittston Township of around $41,337 vs. $73,611 in Waverly and an abysmal $28,805 in Scranton). If my suburb, which has a MUCH lower median household income than the Abingtons, shows many signs of materialism, competition, and an overall sense of "keeping up with the Jones's," then I could assume that the Abingtons take this one step further. While people in Pittston Township are buying Pontiac Solstices and Nissan Armadas to "show off," people in the Abingtons are probably buying Mercedes-Benzes and Escalades to "show off."

I suppose I can see some "trends" in society that others can't. Americans, in general, are becoming narcissistic, materialistic, snobby, greedy, etc. I see this in plain sight in suburbs such as the Abingtons, Back Mountain, Mountain Top, and now even permeating here in Greater Pittston and North Pocono as well, where people would rather amass shiny objects to say "I'm better than you are," as opposed to most city neighborhoods, where people are more concerned about the well-being of their neighbors. In the future I hope to utilize my high salary to make life better for people around me, something the equestrians, croquet players, caviar coniesseurs, luxury SUV drivers, and wine-and-cheese enthusiasts of the Abingtons haven't quite grasped yet.

Once again, I'll reiterate that perhaps half of the Abingtons consist of good-natured, down-to-earth people who haven't yet been bitten by the materialism bug. However, the other half has their heads shoved so far up their own rear-ends that they have become blinded to the struggling and turmoils of others. I'd care to estimate that the percentage of compassionate vs. narcissistic in Scranton is 90% vs. 10%, and probably about 70% vs. 30% here in the Pittston 'burbs, whereas the Abingtons is closer to 50/50 for wonderful people vs. stuck-up jerks.

People, there's more to life than trying to outshine others. I spent the first half of my life in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Pittston amongst some friends from trailer parks and the projects whose parents were wondering where the income would come to pay for the next grocery bill. Nevertheless, those parents hid their financial concerns from us, and the first half of my childhood was the best years of my life. People just seemed so involved in the lives of others back then in my old neighborhood, whereas here in my current upper-middle-class subdivision where I'll often wave to people as I drive by and don't get a wave or even a smile back because everyone is just too stressed out from working so much to acquire more "stuff."

Case in point---my friend who works for a local commercial real estate company was telling us about a local business magnate who is currently building a 30,000 square-foot mansion in the hoighty-toighty Wilkes-Barre suburb of the Back Mountain. Why on Earth would anyone require a home that big other than to just "show off?" I can say the same for much of the Abingtons, where McMansions in excess of 3,500 square feet have become the "norm" in new constructions for families with their 2.1 children. I could never, ever envision just hoarding personal wealth for myself when there is so much suffering going on around us. How the BMW-driving, wine-guzzling, iPhone-fiddling half of the residents of the Abingtons can turn a blind eye to the economic plight of others on the other side of the "notch" is beyond me. As for me, I'd be happiest using my money in a way that would benefit more than just myself. Bob Bolus showcased his kindness at yesterday's council meeting when he offered to donate his own money to propose a solution to the handicapped swingset debacle at Nay Aug Park. Many others in Scranton, which, according to the census, is a horrifically poor city, still manage to dig into their wallets to help provide needy children with a free day of swimming at Nay Aug Park or to aid victims of tragedies, such as the recent fire on Court Street. Here's a case of the lower-middle-class in Scranton sacrificing their bi-weekly trip to a restaurant to help those even less fortunate while many of those living just ten minutes northwest on the other side of the "notch" couldn't care less about giving to others.

There's something to be said about down-to-earth, wholesome neighborhoods where everyone looks out for one another and has your back in times of crisis, which is why I wholeheartedly believe that Scranton has the edge in liveability over the "trendier" suburbs. As a future CPA who will likely never achieve his dream of having his own family, I'll have a respectable salary with only myself to spend it on---I'd be a perfect candidate to move to a place like Waverly if I so chose. However, I'd much rather live in a smaller 1,500 square-foot older home in the city and use my remaining income to make life better for others as opposed to trying to build better driveway entry pillars than my neighbor or trying to purchase an
Audi A8 to upstage his new Audi A6.

Just think of how vibrant Scranton would be if we picked up the tens of thousands of people who now live in the Abingtons and plopped them back into the limits of the Electric City---the "Doherty Debt" would be cured overnight.