Scranton Rail Project (Philadelphia, Allentown, Wilkes-Barre: how much, established neighborhood, new construction)

[weluvpa]

19 wow, your a road geek, you only have your license two years. Lots of travelin I bet.

My family had a company in East Orange for 35 years. You weren't even a thought in your parents mind when I was working summers down there... and then ran the company for well over a decade.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

19 wow, your a road geek, you only have your license two years. Lots of travelin I bet.

My family had a company in East Orange for 35 years. You weren't even a thought in your parents mind when I was working summers down there... and then ran the company for well over a decade.

Hmmmmmmm.....your nice side comes out when i say i'm a Roadgeek and but not when i'm a Railfan eh, Actually i don't have a license yet , but i have a driver.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by loveinbloom

Wow... that is crazy...and I am soooooo offended.

People wonder why educated youths flee in droves, never to return?

[SteelCityRising]

So, Dan's solution is "It is what it is" before flaming me for being forced to relocate to advance my own career? Wow. That's really going to put the brakes on the thousands of brilliant young minds that continue to flood OUT of NEPA annually to seek career opportunities in areas that "get it." Trust me, I do NOT want NEPA to turn into NoVA. Yes, some of the most well-educated and affluent people are here, but the urban sprawl is so horrific that I gnash my teeth sitting in traffic jams just trying to get to Wegman's on a Sunday. People think Papa John's is "good pizza" here. People here like the new vinyl-sided McMansion tract-housing garbage that you'd find on any given cul-de-sac in South Abington Township. Chain stores and restaurants THRIVE here because that's all that people crave. I surrendered a lot of grit, personality, charm, soul, and character to move here, but what was my other option? Take a pay CUT from my retail sales position to get my foot in the door as an A/P clerk making a hair above minimum wage, living in a 1-BR apartment in Plymouth or Edwardsville next to people with mullets shooting up half the day as they sponged off of the government, and live in an area where people are "suspicious" of any new face?

I'm sorry, Dan, but Scranton is DEAD if you all don't figure out a way to keep myself, my friends, and future generations from abandoning ship like the Titanic. Giving us a reliable and viable option to power-commute to career opportunities that don't involve a call center or a warehouse is one great way to start. You rattled off a few employers. Whoop-dee-doo. How many thousands of college graduates are churned out annually who burn out because they can't grab one of the select few opportunities being dangled? I aggressively pursued an opportunity with Parente Randolph, which was the region's largest accounting employer at the time. Only for an internship I had made it to the "final cut" with a round of intensive interviews, and there was still tons of fierce competition. Friends I have now who have their B.S. degrees are STILL working as servers in restaurants, baristas at Starbuck's, cleaning hotel rooms, or driving forklifts at distribution centers. Why even go to college and indebt yourself to that extent if you're going to stay in NEPA?

P.S. I'm earning over $42,000 right now and will be earning $90,000+ in several years. I hope to have my CPA, MBA, and potentially even Ph.D. by then. The opportunities in PROGRESSIVE places like NoVA for someone with my skills is light years ahead of the table scraps offered in REGRESSIVE areas like Scranton, where people fear any sort of change or progress and cling to "God, gays, and guns", as our illustrious leader put it so eloquently. NoVA may look like a Scooby Doo ghost town or Disney World with how plastic and "fake" everything is, but at least there are CAREER OPPORTUNITIES here, Dan, not just "jobs."

Also, I DID have plans to return in my early-30s to open up my own firm in Downtown Scranton or Downtown Wilkes-Barre, hire some local graduates, and live in a downtown loft. Now that I see just how narrow-minded and anti-progress most in the region are I'd never move back.

[HollywoodSIAS]

I think a commuter train from the poconos to nyc is just part of the bigger picture. We all know that this country needs to overhaul its transportation system, and Europe has proven that high speed and light rail is a viable option. Even US cities in the past thrived when Streetcars and light rail were in use, Scranton being one of them, and businesses were prosperous where the rail ran. I believe I saw someone mention Detroit on this thread, do 10 minutes of research and you'll see why Detroit is trying to be a front runner in returning to train use. Detroit used to thrive off of it, and it's urban planning was completely based on the railways. Henry Ford basically killed Detroit, and will eventually destroy this country if we don't change quickly. Well, it's unfair to put all the blame on one man, but it's hard to believe that using cars, a mode of transportation most of us have and will depend on our entire lives, has caused so many economic problems. Believe me, I love cars, alway have and always will, and have been fortunate enough to own many of them over the years. I just think it's time to rethink how we live our lives, and more importantly how are children will live in the future. We all should be supportive in making these steps towards a greater good. Taxes on a project like this should be looked at as an investment for a higher standard of living, not a burden

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

P.S. I'm earning over $42,000 right now and will be earning $90,000+ in several years. I hope to have my CPA, MBA, and potentially even Ph.D. by then. The opportunities in PROGRESSIVE places like NoVA for someone with my skills is light years ahead of the table scraps offered in REGRESSIVE areas like Scranton, where people fear any sort of change or progress and cling to "God, gays, and guns", as our illustrious leader put it so eloquently. NoVA may look like a Scooby Doo ghost town or Disney World with how plastic and "fake" everything is, but at least there are CAREER OPPORTUNITIES here, Dan, not just "jobs."

.

P.S. - so am I....in an area where I can earn that much and live comfortably and support a family. Hate to burst your bubble, but 42k in the DC area is equivalent to living in NEPA on a Wal-Mart salary.

[weluvpa]

Education has nothing to do with leaving... I know many that never attended a day in college that left and never came back.

This area is what you make of it. You made the choice to leave.

[toobusytoday]

Nothing wrong with being anti-trains or growth, but let's have a conversation about that please.

I have very mixed feelings about making it easier for people to get to where I live as well. I think it would be very handy to have a train to visit family in NYC or to go see an Eagles or Phillies game in Philadelphia but I don't want to see the disappearance of any more woods and fields that the influx of people would bring.

It sort of reminds me of where we used to live in Delaware county PA. We had the last little patch of the county that was not built up until a sewer line was brought in. Overnight it seemed that all the woods were cut down to put in McMansions, the schools were no longer big enough and the small town was suddenly a huge housing development. Three years after we left two schools had to be built and two others renovated just to keep up with the population. I would not believe so much change could happen in such a short period of time if I hadn't seen it myself.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Education has nothing to do with leaving... I know many that never attended a day in college that left and never came back.

This area is what you make of it. You made the choice to leave.

How could I have justified spending four years and tens of thousands of dollars on a college degree that would netted me no "edge" over people who had just graduated high school? What would the point of going to college have even been? My father is an IT professional with decades of experience. He could be earning twice his salary in many other nearby markets. You're right. He chose to stay in NEPA and earn much less than he was worth. Is that right?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Nothing wrong with being anti-trains or growth, but let's have a conversation about that please.

I have very mixed feelings about making it easier for people to get to where I live as well. I think it would be very handy to have a train to visit family in NYC or to go see an Eagles or Phillies game in Philadelphia but I don't want to see the disappearance of any more woods and fields that the influx of people would bring.

It sort of reminds me of where we used to live in Delaware county PA. We had the last little patch of the county that was not built up until a sewer line was brought in. Overnight it seemed that all the woods were cut down to put in McMansions, the schools were no longer big enough and the small town was suddenly a huge housing development. Three years after we left two schools had to be built and two others renovated just to keep up with the population. I would not believe so much change could happen in such a short period of time if I hadn't seen it myself.

It's called you just need to have better leadership to think of the region in the LONG-term. If I were in office in NEPA I would have made drawing up "urban growth boundaries" one of my PRIMARY concerns. Being a resident of the Lehigh Valley you're obviously not very familiar with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but while the metropolitan region's population has NOSEDIVED for decades its land usage footprint has skyrocketed, meaning every acre plowed over for tract-housing, strip malls, parking lots, etc. was useless. All we've been doing is picking up people from established neighborhoods in the urban core of the valley and plopping them down in new McMansion Wonderlands cleverly named after the beautiful natural features they destroyed during their development. All for what reason?

If we DESIGNATED areas that were "off-limits" for sprawl so it could be forever preserved as open space, then people would HAVE to search for housing in existing established areas, helping to revitalize them. It's worked in Lexington, KY. It's worked in Oregon. Why can't it work in NEPA?