Retitled: Suggestions for Improving Quality-of-life in Scranton

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by MovingBack2PA

Quote: "Scranton just has to cut back on the welfare for business idea. We need strong business's"

Not to be a smarty pants here, but, which ones do you have in mind, and still preserve the downtown flair?

Agreed. Other struggling "Rust Belt" downtowns are reinventing themselves to become a playground for upper-middle-class suburbanites with niche retailers, upscale boutiques, trendy coffee houses, fine arts, pubs, restaurants, etc. and have had much success with it. Let's all be realistic here---Downtown Scranton will never be restored to its heyday when 150,000 people made it the 36th-largest city in our nation and among the wealthiest, thanks to the anthracite mining and steel industries. People in our area wanted more "elbow room," and they got it via "The Abingtons." Consumers in our area wanted "everything under one roof," and they got that via big-box development Dickson City in the 1990s and now "lifestyle shopping" in Moosic/Montage in the 2000s. As much as the city is becoming attractive for the hip twenty-something crowd (such as myself and my Generation Y peers) and empty-nesters who no longer want to be saddled with cavernous suburban McMansions, selling the city to middle-class families with young children will always be a challenge when the Abingtons and their inviting tract housing and overrated school district are just 10 minutes away via the North Scranton Expressway.

Where are these two urban target groups---twenty-somethings and empty-nesters---most likely to relocate, judging by nationwide trends? Within one mile of an urban center, as the young professionals seek to be near to workplaces and nightlife and the nesters wish to be nearer to day-to-day conveniences to minimize the need to drive long distances as they age. Is Scranton doing a great job at capitalizing upon these two market segments? Not by a long shot! Granted, the Lofts @ The Mill has been a smashing success for that "hip twenty-something" crowd, but it is isolated from most city conveniences and is nowhere near the urban core. If a similar complex with a few hundred tenants was established nearer to downtown, just imagine the positive impact it would have on the surrounding businesses due to the increasing foot traffic! There are roughly a half-dozen other residential mixed-use projects on the downtown's horizon in the upcoming years as well, but only time will tell if they'll come to fruition. If they do, then, coupled with the anticipated influx of new students/faculty for the first class of the downtown medical school in 2009, there may very well be 1,000 new residents in the downtown by 2010-2012.

I know Daniel (WeLuvPA) have had our differences in the past, but one thing he and I will BOTH agree upon is that these proposed mixed-use projects are likely going to saturate the marketplace with upper-crust housing options that are unattainable to many. For example, St. Peter's Square units are anticipated to start at around $330,000---that same price tag will get you a very generous McMansion just ten minutes away here in my generally-inexpensive hometown of Pittston. The new single-story townhomes in Green Ridge are likewise not selling; they're similar in price to two-story executive-style units in Glenmaura, and when someone shopping around for a new townhome comares the two communities, they'll likely choose Glenmaura hands-down, especially for the "prestige" factor if nothing else, as that community is home to a few seven-figure mansions in addition to its townhomes. Furthermore, the median household income in our area is abysmal---somewhere around $35,000 I believe. If the typical Scranton resident earns a meager $35,000 to support his/her family, then how on Earth would they be able to cough up the bucks to purchase a $300,000 SoHo-styled urban loft in the Electric City? It's just not feasible. Yes, there will most definitely be a demand from these units from a couple of well-heeled New Yorkers who have been taken aback by the charm of Scranton and who may want to invest in the downtown based upon speculation (as that gay couple from NYC is doing with renovating the old Colonnade into a bed & breakfast), but their numbers will be very few and far between. The downtown housing market will be flooded with upscale properties without having a large enough demand to support them, and many will likely sit empty. With that said, I think ONE upper-class SoHo-styled loft project downtown with a couple dozen for-sale units would be feasible, but the other half-dozen or so mixed-use projects should be much more reasonably-priced and targeted towards a wider demographic than the CEO, corporate controller, or the NYC savant supreme.

The big problem downtown isn't that the developing tenant mix isn't a good fit; it's that it's coming at the wrong time. Businesses like Poochie, New Laundry, Martini Grille, etc. would be poised for great success in the downtown I envision in 2010-2015, but right now there's simply not enough of their upper-middle-class target segment to draw from besides those hailing in the Abingtons and Glenmaura, both of whom are more often than not chain-store whores who tend to snub not only the downtown whenever they can, but mom-and-pop retailers as well. There's a reason why the wealthiest suburban enclave in our region recently saw two long-time fixtures, Tudor Bookstore & Cafe and Taylor Hobby World, go out of business, and it's not because of faulty financial oversight; the nearby status-conscious residents of the Abingtons would rather drive ten minutes to Borders or Lowe's in Dickson City as opposed to supporting their own downtown mom-and-pops. With the exception of Everything Natural, which is a major draw for the entire regional marketplace, I honestly don't know how most of the stores in Downtown Clarks Summit honestly stay in business when their own townspeople shun them in favor of the big-boxes.

Getting back on track with Scranton (sorry about the little imbedded anti-sprawl rant there), when there are hundreds of more residents living in and enjoying the downtown in about a decade from now, there will be more than enough foot traffic to sustain those niche retailers that I mentioned earlier. The problem is that while most rebounding downtowns attempt to attract both new residents and new businesses simultaneously so each can feed off of each other's growth (new residents = more revenue for existing businesses = more new businesses who hope to catch growing foot traffic = more new residents lured into the downtown = rebounded downtown). Scranton has done a marvelous job in the past 2-4 years of attracting new businesses to its downtown, but many are now threatened because the powers-that-be didn't keep pace by likewise attracting residential growth downtown to help support those businesses.

Moderator cut: personal/off topic

These businesses are the direction Scranton should be heading in; the city will NEVER be able to compete with Dickson City or Montage, so striving to "break the mold" with unique, trendy, hip, and different stores and restaurants is the path it must take, as other cities already have with great success. However, that new business growth SHOULD have been accompanied by residential growth to support it, as I've been saying for years to deaf ears. Back in Scranton's heyday a lot more people lived within a short walk/cablecar ride to downtown and did their shopping there. In this era of suburban tract malls, the only way for traditional downtowns to survive is to offer consumers something the "power centers" can not---uniqueness, nostalgia, diversity, and great customer service, all of which can be found right now in that one small block of Spruce Street. I simply hope these businesses can all "hang on" a bit longer until more people start moving into the city in about a decade. Lackawanna County showed marginal growth last year for the first time in many, many decades, and that trend is predicted to continue to grow in the coming years, as ex-NYC/NJ transplants consider North Pocono as an alternative to Tobyhanna. Eventually that growth may spill down the mountain into Scranton, at which point we'll hopefully be ready for it.

I still think Scranton has MUCH more potential than meets the eye. There's a reason why this quirky, intelligent young mind is staying in the city after graduate school to rehabilitate an older home, open up his own business, start a family, and volunteer in the community, and it's not because he's a dummy!

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by MovingBack2PA

Quote: "Scranton just has to cut back on the welfare for business idea. We need strong business's"

Not to be a smarty pants here, but, which ones do you have in mind, and still preserve the downtown flair?

First I wasn't talking about eliminating any business's just stop giving them soo much money to open and then support them with welfare, if a business is unable to operate successfully then throwing more $$$ at it will not help either. Northern lights is a perfect example it was the only real coffee shop downtown and it was opened with OECD $$$$$ and it is unable to succeed. It currently has 3 tax leins, 1 federal and 2 state against right now, it really does not provide any vast or what would be considered solid employement but we gave it the welfare to open and its on its ass right now. This would be considered a bad investment for HUD $$$$ and it should never have been aloud to eat up federal money. Scranton has a huge amount of potential but it must come at a pace that keep up with the tax base and really try to keep the incured debt down in the process. Progress is good but we have so much coming at us right here in the city. The EPA required cso conversion is going to cost $150,000,000 minimum(sp?). There is just too much debt besides what the mayor has created between the school district and the sewers and then the projects, its just too much too fast.

[weluvpa]

Moderator cut: off topic

The politicians are not supposed to get the jobs for us, thats our responsiblity but , the politicians are supposed to help our economy by developing good strong relationships with good strong companies, which we really are lacking in Scranton.