Move to Landisville/commute to Harrisburg? (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: home, employment, best school)

[foxcroft01]

I am thinking of taking a job in Harrisburg. I currently live in Delaware County and need to remain on the east side of Harrisburg.

I have a child in elementary school. My primary requirements are: good school district and not a terrible commute. (My politics tend to the liberal, which is a bit of a concern for me in terms of relocation.)

Someone recommended Landisville to me. The same person also suggested Hershey. Any comments on schools/commute & the general community would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[ki0eh]

Hershey would be a far easier commute to Harrisburg, however if you're commuting to downtown Harrisburg some folks do take Amtrak in from Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Lancaster to save the driving and the parking costs.

Coming off PA 283 from Lancaster it stacks up first at the junction from PA 283 to I-283 and then all the way from I-283 compass west/road direction south on I-83 to the river bridge. So zipping up on a weekend isn't the whole story, add maybe 10-15 minutes to that if you work a typical day shift.

Hershey (Derry Township school district) is said by some to be the best school district in PA outside the Philly and Pittsburgh metros. State aid percentage is fairly low with a strong property tax base, so the anticipated state budget education cuts will hurt Derry less than probably any other school. The southwest corner of Derry Twp has a Hummelstown postal address (there are also many areas with a Hummelstown address that are NOT in Derry) so the price premium is a little less here than in the parts of Derry with a Hershey mailing address. One big issue with Hershey is that a lot of the children's activities are scheduled during the day or right after school when most people are working, the unspoken assumption in Derry is that there is a stay-at-home parent. Even the PTO meets during the day.

Judging by some of the threads on here some folks who move from away are less than happy with Lancaster County suburbs. The Harrisburg suburbs and even out to Elizabethtown seem to have more interchange of population with the outside world. But of course they are that much further from Delco and your ties there.

Edit: I just noticed that you say you lean liberal politically. Lancaster County does not, at all. Dauphin County other than Harrisburg itself does seem to lean Republican (although after 2008 there was a bare D plurality in registration), and Derry is more Republican as well (although a Democrat did just get elected township supervisor, only one out of five though). But the City of Harrisburg schools are awful, generally ranking in the bottom 1% in the state. The City of Lancaster is a better bet school-wise than the City of Harrisburg, by a long shot. Lancaster City will also be a bit more liberal than the suburban county areas. There are some nice detached-home areas in Lancaster too, more so than Harrisburg where there are almost none (the City is a very small part of the area with a Harrisburg postal address even).

[foxcroft01]

Thanks, ki0eh.

Based on what you have said, I am leaning toward Hershey because it will make my life easier in terms of commuting (I am a single parent). I need to be able to get between home and work easily.

I don't need to be in a blue area - but I don't want to be in an area where any kind of discrimination is commonly accepted. I know you get all kinds of people with all kinds of view points everywhere, but I just want to be in an area where the general attitude is one of tolerance.

Is Hershey big enough that kids growing up there feel there are things to do? (I am originally from outside DC, so I don't have a good sense for what growing up in a less cosmopolitan area will be like for my daughter.)

Can you give me your take on the good things and the less than great things about Hershey?

[ki0eh]

For a community of 20some thousand people I think it's fair to say there's a lot to do in Hershey, from competing gynmastic and dance studios for the little kids, to a theme park with a dozen coasters (big source of employment for local high school kids). While neither Hershey nor Harrisburg is a global city all of Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia are close enough for weekend day trips.

It seems more of the folks who live in Hershey are connected with the Penn State medical college and hospital, than work for The Hershey [Chocolate] Co. that continues to have its headquarters and three (soon to be two) factories in town. The Milton Hershey School owns the theme park and related properties, and a controlling interest in the chocolate company. Certainly many do commute to Harrisburg as well. The populations skews toward professional upper middle class but especially for those families connected with the medical center it's become more racially diverse.

The beef we have as a two-working-parent family is that many of the activities are scheduled during typical working hours, such as right after school for the school kids but not at the school. There is a long line of minivans and SUV's before and after school, ours rides the bus but that seems to be a minority option.

I'm not sure if the activites are scheduled any better in Lower Dauphin which is also highly rated. That area includes Hummelstown borough and areas both north and south of Derry generally with a Hummelstown address (there is a bit of Lower Dauphin that has a Hershey address too).

There are more threads in the Harrisburg area sub-forum that might be worth looking at.