Sharon vs. New Castle (Pittsburgh, Erie: real estate, rentals, houses)

[sr1234]

What are the pros and cons?

[PeterRabbit]

http://www.city-data.com/forum/penns...-surgence.html

There's also other threads about it/them.

[sr1234]

Thanks, but the majority of those comments are from 2008. I was hoping for some newer input. I was wondering if there are any new revitalization plans in the works for either city. I have been to New Castle and love the architecture but Sharon (never been there) seems to have more activities to offer in the region. I was looking for locals advice.

[JRTurner]

What type of activities are you interested in?

I know both towns and can't really see where Sharon would have more....unless there's something specific.

I'll be glad to help, but need more info.

[sr1234]

Outdoor activities, shopping, restaurants, parks, and cultural activities. I also love old buildings and homes.

[JRTurner]

New Castle has the N.C. Playhouse for live plays and the Hoyt Institute for lots of differing cultural things. NC is for example having it's Arts Festival downtown over the long weekend. Local shopping is probably about equal, although it would be a much shorter distance to large malls from NC over Sharon. NC is close to Moraine State Park, McConnells Mill, Living Treasures animal park, and it has a few small parks within the city. Just adjacent is Neshannock Twp with a real nice park and a sports facility (hockey, skating, tennis, swimming, etc.). The city also operates a roller hockey rink. NC is also polluted with restaurants ranging from excellent-pricey to good bar food. You can get most anything from an authentic Irish Pub, Chinese, Italian, a Mexican restaurant owned by real Mexicans, or a Mexican chain. It also has loads of old interesting homes and architecture from it's glory days.
In most ways, I'd say Sharon and New Castle are a lot alike. The one down side (in my opinion) with Sharon is that it's location is sort of isolated (meaning it's a further drive to any larger metro area).
I didn't say much about Sharon here since you seem to have already done your homework on what's offered there. Sharon would get the nod for sure if you're into golf. Not that you can't find golf courses in NC, but Sharon has one really good course nearby and another free for residents course. I do remember reading a few years back that Hermitage (basically Sharon) was one of the fastest growing communities in PA.

[SorryIMovedBack]

sr1234, I am in the Sharon / Hermitage area. Not much happens here. Hermitage gets the population that is fleeing the blacks and drugs and the riffraff of Sharon. Sharon is being taken over by elements that moved out of Farrell once they'd decimated it, and downtown Sharon is nothing but empty buildings waiting for a big arson fire to get started. The Irvine Avenue and the whole West Hill of Sharon is the wild crime-ridden West. The older once-elegant area of Stambaugh/Cedar/Prindle/Sherman Aves., etc. is going to the blacks. Check the real estate tax rates of the area communities if you are considering buying any property. Sharon, as I recall, has very high property taxes.

New Castle is closer to Pittsburgh and Cranberry, for employment. Lots of what keeps Sharon and New Castle going is the jobs in Pittsburgh area that people commute to, and the OTR truck drivers who've parked their families here but earn a living elsewhere.

Sharon has concerts in Buhl Park, which is actually in Hermitage. They have a big car show downtown in August. Not much else goes on there, unless you like to watch high school sports. Not much goes on in Hermitage, either. New Castle seems the most "urban" of cities and town around here. New Castle seems to have a lot of Italians. This entire area is old mill town, and largely Catholic. All that women seem to do here is small town mom life. And the only other alternatives are rural outdoorsmen's activities. So if family life or the rural outdoors are not your things, maybe it's not a good area for you.

I am moving, and the ethnic/social/economic factors are a large part of that. As a single, child-free non-family-life woman, with college degrees, I find the entire region far too stagnant, family-centric, and boring. You also have to hunt really, really, hard to find college graduates to pal around with here, too. This is a high school diploma region, due to all of the mill jobs and factory and assembly line jobs. When Youngstown boomed, this area also thrived and had more glamorous entertainment and cultural offerings. But when Y-town fell, all of these towns fell on hard times. These are all towns of sit-at-home people who don't travel far from home unless it's for a hunting or fishing trip.

Nobody mentioned the Back to the '50s weekend in New Castle, around July 4 weekend. Huge car cruise / show weekend at Cascade Park with bands and dancing in the old dance pavilion there, and also a competing car cruise in Downtown NC. It's one event I honestly enjoy.

Hermitage has the huge Father's Day car show. It's worth seeing. People bring in early 1900s antiques through modern muscle. A few restores fire trucks, milk tankers, tractors, bikes, etc, too. It's free and always worth seeing. Sponsored by the Sharon region AACA, so they have the pull to bring in some unusual vehicles from out of town.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Here's a Y-town story, sr1234. What they say about Y-town pretty well applies to New Castle, Sharon, and the rest. They do rather revel in blue collar and dysfunctional. The people in Shanango Valley tend to be more closely allied with Ohio than with PA.
Semper Youngstown

[sr1234]

I guess that I am one of the few people who sees the potential for revitalization in New Castle and Sharon. On top of that, I think PA has the bonus of being a great state with more than enough opportunities for fishing, hiking, boating, and hunting.

The plus with Sharon is that you aren't far from lakes, including Erie.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Potential, yes, but any actual would be decades away, if at all. One huge problem with the area is that there are lots of $10 per hour jobs with no benefits. The major employers are hospitals and schools. Nursing homes might be another. The electricians, masons, and other skilled trades are mostly working jobs that out of town or out of state, and either commuting daily or only coming home on weekends. Sharon is a in a rural area, and with Y-town so far gone, Sharon is not near any city anymore. Also, I don't know what age you are, but here, there are lots of elderly and leading edge of the baby boomers, and those are mostly the people who have the money and the nice homes. There was a "brain drain" starting in the '70s, and thus the younger populace here that are raising families are pretty darned poor. There was also a migration to Hermitage from 'way back, like '50s and '60s, because Hermitage had the land and still has the best schools for the college-bound students, and the least amount of "behavior problem" students.

When those elderly homeowners pass away, most likely their children live elsewhere. The inherited money goes to the kids, it doesn't stay here, and the house is sold. It's just an area that's facing economic decay for decades now. Sharon has over 35% rentals and maybe closer to 50% rental houses now. Hermitage is the owner-occupied place.

It's just an area with a lot of decay. I don't know what can be done to reverse it. It was starting to make improvements and get some manufacturing going again, then the "Recession" which looks like Great Depression II from where I sit, knocked it flat again.


Sharon isn't really interested in historical preservation, either. They were more than happy to bulldoze all of the Victorian buildings, whether they needed it or not. It's just a mill town, not very well educated. Yes, lots of rural outdoorsmen's things to do, but not much else.