Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You want the mall to turn around, get some store's there that people actually shop in. The only thing I go there for is Game Stop. Nothing interests me. And that cheesy movie theater is a joke. Especially when Cinemark is only 8 minutes away.
I personally think they need to drop the "Scranton/Wilkes-Barre" and "Wilkes-Barre/Scranton" from the local team names. The names are too long and don't flow together well. Call the Penguins the Wilkes-Barre Penguins and the Yankees the Scranton Yankees (personally I wish we could come up with a better name than the Yankees, preferably one with local ties). The parent clubs of both teams usually do not use both cities' names...in Pittsburgh, they refer to the local Pens as Wilkes-Barre, and I always hear the NY Yankees TV broadcasters refer to our local team as Scranton.
Good point. I live in Scranton, and I think Wilkes-Barre is a dump! I don"t want to be associated with it. As far as the local Yankees are concerned, the NY Yankees own it, and unfortunatley they have the naming rights. I think it is a stupid name. To bad the owners are so self centered
Good point. I live in Scranton, and I think Wilkes-Barre is a dump! I don"t want to be associated with it. As far as the local Yankees are concerned, the NY Yankees own it, and unfortunatley they have the naming rights. I think it is a stupid name. To bad the owners are so self centered
I live in Wilkes-Barre and think Scranton is a dump too, so the feeling is mutual. The only difference between Scranton and W-b is that Scranton THINKS it's beverly hills, even though it is no better then any other god forsaken, rust belt town in this region. Wilkes-Barre is content just being what it is. We don't need to make believe we are Manhattan to be happy. I too think there should be the Scranton Yankee's and the W-B Penguins, and as far as the airport goes. I think it should be called Pocono IntL. Airport since the Pocono's doesn't have one and we are close enough. Believe me, Scranton is a national laughing stock, and the butt of many jokes. It has been called many things, none of them good! As a Wilkes-Barrian, I'm not too thrilled to be so closely associated with Scranton either, but we are forever tied to each other. So we might as well make the best of it!
I agree that the "Wilkes Barre/Scranton" or "Scranton/Wilkes Barre" name needs to go, but at the time when they were naming the franchises, i agree completely with the use of both city names. Since the region wasnt (isnt to a degree) doing well, they had to advertise the region, give the perception of vitality and viability.
As a Wilkes-Barrian I think building the arena downtown would have done wonders for downtown W-B, but at the same time it would cause terrible traffic problem.
But "terrible" traffic would be a good thing for Scranton. Just think, people hat sitting in traffic so instead of doing so, they might go to a pub, or restaurant or sports bar to wait for traffic to die down. traffic is a wonderful thing for the city. It is an incentive for people to patronize the businesses. The only thing having the stadium on the mountain is doing is causing traffic headaches, low attendance, and a TON of pollution from the cars jammed. I bet so many people wish there was a bar or restaurant they could stop at to wait for traffic to die down.
The Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza SHOULD have been built at the foot of Coal Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, taking over the plot of vacant land at the side of the Jewelcor Building and potentially even taking over that building's site as well to use for a new parking garage to help accommodate the arena. I don't think rabid hockey fans from Scranton (i.e. NY Rangers 2008) would moan and kvetch all that much about having to drive all of 1.5 miles or so off of I-81 to get to an arena in Downtown Wilkes-Barre that would be a much-needed BOON to the city. I could have GUARANTEED you that if that arena had been built on that site, the adjacent Market Street Square site would have been redeveloped by now with new restaurants/shops to cater to the arena traffic, and the Stegmaier Buildings would have been renovated to house condos/lofts. Instead you have a very DUMPY and DISGUSTING gateway to the city at the bottom of Coal Street and a sea of uninviting and embarrassing urban sprawl adjacent to the Highland Park Boulevard exit off I-81 as far as the eye can see.
PNC Field SHOULD be renovated with only necessary repairs so that it can "just get by" for now, but after several more years when the economy (hopefully) gets itself out of this recession a new stadium SHOULD be built in or near to Downtown Scranton, perhaps even in Pinebrook as scrantonluna suggested, or maybe even on the Mt. Pleasant site to help bridge the gap between Downtown and West Side. I do NOT agree with the notion of tearing down the Steamtown Mall, but I concur that it DOES need to be "revamped." The side of the building facing Lackawanna Avenue should remain two stories with two floors of stores with walk-in facades. A new exterior walkway on the second floor with stairs leading to the ground-level sidewalk would be nice, and the rear of these stores would offer a second rear entrance that would back up to a plaza with urban green space linking the stores to the Steamtown rail yards (the catwalk from the existing food court would extend over to a rear second-floor walkway behind the second-floor stores, once again with stairs (and an elevator) leading down to the ground-level).
I know you folks hate it when I mention the evil "sprawl" word, but if this area ever wants to see Scranton and Wilkes-Barre thrive again then it has to start developing ways to make each city more attractive and livable again. I fail to see how places like Montage Mountain or South Abington Twp. have made Scranton a more financially stable place? People from South Abington work in Scranton and then take their paychecks back out of town, where they patronize Abington-area businesses. Montage Mountain's corporate behemoths could have EASILY been housed in vacant downtown office buildings (i.e. why can't MetLife relocate to the Southern Union Building as a sign of being committed to the community?), the Shoppes at Montage could have been housed Reading outlet style in the old ugly mostly-vacant warehouses near to South Side Flats and Smith's Restaurant, PNC Field can be relocated near to downtown, Glenmaura can be bulldozed and rebuilt on East Mountain within the municipal limits of the city, etc., etc.
Who cares? Seriously its not like it will ever happen, not in my lifetime. If it did it would be poorly constructed and in need of major repairs with in 5 years due to total lack of maintenance. This is the way of Scranton......
We actually need to have a downtown at least to put a stadium in and at the rate that people are leaving the city we will be lucky to even have the mall, nevermind any other business's in the downtown besides gov't jobs and law firms.
Shoegal although I know you seem to have that city glimmer in your eye, Scranton is not Seattle and there is no stadium large enough or team big enough to make that happen....Seattle has a pop. of over 582,000 and Scranton is BARELY holding on to 68,000 people. There is no comparison.
I'd support a stadium downtown or in the nearby periphery, maybe even some modest expenditures by the government, as it'd have a good impact on the city.
The last thing that should be done though, is to tear down some parts of town and make some new superblock to house the stadium, and to close existing streets. This town is already really disjoint--traveling between adjacent neighborhoods requires 9 turns on 7 streets.
The mall doesn't seem so bad to me; Viewmont seems more depressingly lifeless, though I don't frequent either. A more pragmatic way to improve the mall and downtown would be integrating the Lack. Ave side more into the city. I think Luna's on the right track:
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrantonluna
A new life for the mall at Steamtown has been
the topic of multiple discussions on here over
the past couple years.
My recommendation would be to, first, remove
the extension over Lackawanna Ave. This does
nothing but block out the sun and essentially
create a dead zone. The retail space it provides
is not even being used.
Second, the street side of the mall needs to be
converted to provide the same look and experience
as the Shoppes at Montage; store fronts should be
just that, fronts, with a street entrance. New
facades, which would give the illusion of what the
500 block actually is, would fit better with the downtown
and provide an open air environment.
The second floor retail should be converted to office
and professional space, which I think would do quite
well. Doctors, dentists, offices, etc. The first floor
retail in the rear of the building would probably be
well suited for restaurants. The common area could
be revamped, and similar to Harrisburg's 'Strawberry
Square,' could provide simulated open air eating all
year round.
The two main 'anchor stores' should be treated more
as seperate entities, with new facades as well.
I really do not think that housing would be a good use
for the mall at this point in time.
The Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza SHOULD have been built at the foot of Coal Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, taking over the plot of vacant land at the side of the Jewelcor Building and potentially even taking over that building's site as well to use for a new parking garage to help accommodate the arena. I don't think rabid hockey fans from Scranton (i.e. NY Rangers 2008) would moan and kvetch all that much about having to drive all of 1.5 miles or so off of I-81 to get to an arena in Downtown Wilkes-Barre that would be a much-needed BOON to the city. I could have GUARANTEED you that if that arena had been built on that site, the adjacent Market Street Square site would have been redeveloped by now with new restaurants/shops to cater to the arena traffic, and the Stegmaier Buildings would have been renovated to house condos/lofts. Instead you have a very DUMPY and DISGUSTING gateway to the city at the bottom of Coal Street and a sea of uninviting and embarrassing urban sprawl adjacent to the Highland Park Boulevard exit off I-81 as far as the eye can see.
PNC Field SHOULD be renovated with only necessary repairs so that it can "just get by" for now, but after several more years when the economy (hopefully) gets itself out of this recession a new stadium SHOULD be built in or near to Downtown Scranton, perhaps even in Pinebrook as scrantonluna suggested, or maybe even on the Mt. Pleasant site to help bridge the gap between Downtown and West Side. I do NOT agree with the notion of tearing down the Steamtown Mall, but I concur that it DOES need to be "revamped." The side of the building facing Lackawanna Avenue should remain two stories with two floors of stores with walk-in facades. A new exterior walkway on the second floor with stairs leading to the ground-level sidewalk would be nice, and the rear of these stores would offer a second rear entrance that would back up to a plaza with urban green space linking the stores to the Steamtown rail yards (the catwalk from the existing food court would extend over to a rear second-floor walkway behind the second-floor stores, once again with stairs (and an elevator) leading down to the ground-level).
I know you folks hate it when I mention the evil "sprawl" word, but if this area ever wants to see Scranton and Wilkes-Barre thrive again then it has to start developing ways to make each city more attractive and livable again. I fail to see how places like Montage Mountain or South Abington Twp. have made Scranton a more financially stable place? People from South Abington work in Scranton and then take their paychecks back out of town, where they patronize Abington-area businesses. Montage Mountain's corporate behemoths could have EASILY been housed in vacant downtown office buildings (i.e. why can't MetLife relocate to the Southern Union Building as a sign of being committed to the community?), the Shoppes at Montage could have been housed Reading outlet style in the old ugly mostly-vacant warehouses near to South Side Flats and Smith's Restaurant, PNC Field can be relocated near to downtown, Glenmaura can be bulldozed and rebuilt on East Mountain within the municipal limits of the city, etc., etc.
Paul, I wouldn't care where they built the arena, I'm so hockey hungry I'll go anywhere for my fix.
I agree with you that PNC Field should be renovated for now, I mean it's
only 20 years old. Are they building stadiums these days and purposely giving them only a life span of 20 or so years? I'm still not sold on a downtown stadium. People aren't going to Moosic and that's right off 81. People coming from the south are not going to want to go further to downtown Scranton and deal with the nightmares up here. The logistics would have to be worked out and before anything like that would thrive here, the mercantile and wage taxes would have to be lowered or removed. That is why MetLife is up on the mountain and not downtown. More business would move here if it wasn't for short-sightedness on the part of the current administration.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
