Best places in PA...

[mancat100]

Camp Hill and Hershey are good areas. Regarding the "Chester" posts, they were referring to Chester COUNTY. The city of Chester is actually in Delaware County (oddly enough) and is not a nice place at all.

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by soConfused83

From the areas we seen, I think I like the Camp Hill area as well as the vicinity of Hershey.

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Am I looking in the wrong general area, or are there not really any rural type homes in the area?

There is much discussion of Camp Hill and Hershey in the Harrisburg area sub-forum on this site. Both are suburban more than rural, although rural has a very slippery definition. If you can say more about "rural type homes" that you might be looking for we might be able to point a little more. The Cumberland Valley and Lower Dauphin schools are highly rated and have areas of lower population density including a few actual farms.

Homes in south-central and southeastern PA seem to be on smaller lot sizes than many areas of the country.

[toobusytoday]

Agree with mancat about the Chester confusion. No one would willingly move to Chester, PA. Chester County, however, is a nice outlying suburb of Philadelphia that includes huge tracts of developments, some rural areas and some very nice towns.

[George Carlin Day]

Originally Posted by soConfused83

First let me apologize if this post is a bit winded.

Never could understand why people complain about "novel long posts."

In my opinion computers are like dumb criminals with guns in that if a person has a computer that doesn't necssarily mean they're smart. You should never feel the need to apologize for a "winded" post...especially if there's no stinky, rotten smell coming from it.

Seems to me the person issuing the apology is taking a bit of a risk in that they might be apologizing to a class A moron and not even know it. Next time save your breath. In the end it's quality that matters most, quality above quantity.

Thread back on track.

[2nd trick op]

With the exception of a couple of older, blue-collar communities like Chester snd Norristown, all of Southeastern Pennsylvania beyond the older Philly 'burbs is clean and generally open-minded, Reading and the Lehigh Valley cities have a few rough neighborhoods, but there are also plenty of good ones, and a few cosmopolitan enclaves for the unattached -- Lancaster seems particularly healthy.

Over the past six years, I've lived (while working temporarily nearby) in Northampton (an older community with a broad-spectrum Eastern European enclave, somewhat like Cleveland's Parma), Alburtis (a little crossroads on the "back road" between Allentown and Reading), and Topton (once a "foundry" town -- the birthplace of Caloric ranges, but now an alternative to the nearby college community of Kutztown). All of them were satisfactory, and I had no difficulty finding quarters for a single adult at a reasonable price. A couple should find a suitable arrangement even more easily.

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Chester isn't blue collar. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure there's plenty of hard-working people in that city but to call it blue-collar implies it's a stable, working class area and makes it out to be a lot safer than it is. Unless somebody has experience living in a potentially dangerous, troubled urban area then I would not recommend they consider Chester.

Also, what's wrong with the older Philly burbs when it comes to being clean and open-minded? There's plenty of open-minded people in them, especially considering how diverse they continue to get. Some of them are just having major problems is all, especially the ones closest to West and Southwest Philly from Milbourne on down.

[2nd trick op]

Originally Posted by couldntthinkofaclevername

Chester isn't blue collar. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure there's plenty of hard-working people in that city but to call it blue-collar implies it's a stable, working class area and makes it out to be a lot safer than it is. Unless somebody has experience living in a potentially dangerous, troubled urban area then I would not recommend they consider Chester.

Also, what's wrong with the older Philly burbs when it comes to being clean and open-minded? There's plenty of open-minded people in them, especially considering how diverse they continue to get. Some of them are just having major problems is all, especially the ones closest to West and Southwest Philly from Milbourne on down.

My poinr was merely to distinguish the older, more-built-up areas of the suburbs, which tend to reflect more of the character of the central city itself, from the newer "exurbs". We need both, and no generalized resentment was implied.