New Home or Pre-existing Home? (Scranton: sale, water heater, neighborhoods)

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by greentown

Actually, you do have a choice. You can pay taxes and support the defense of the United States of America, or you are free to leave and live in a different country.

And just how is the Iraq debacle "defending" America? And please don't say how there are Al-qaeda in Iraq...they are there because we are there.

Bush and his fellow draft dodgers continue to get our soldiers killed for nothing in Iraq...all the while Bin Laden is still making videos and thumbing his nose at us. Remember him? I guess Dubya and Co. gave up looking for him since Iraqi oil was more important than finding the one responsible for taking down the twin towers and killing thousands of Americans.

[CosmicWizard]

greentown....

The USA is my home. I love the USA. It's the government I have a problem with, especially this current administration. I have no desire to leave, so I do pay my taxes. Where I have no choice is in HOW my taxes are spent. That is the point I'm making. I have a right NOT to support the war and you have a right to support it if that it what your heart is telling you. I respect your leanings whichever way you go. I don't believe in war as a means of settling differences with others who think differently than I do. There are peacful ways of settling differences, but those ways are not the big money maker that war is, so the corporations dictate to this president ( and alll others ) that war shall continue. That is where WE ( you & I both) have no real choice. And even IF you or I were to leave the USA, the war would continue. Anyway we have both strayed a long way from the original intent of this thread and I apologize to everyone for my part in it.

blessings...Franco

[greentown]

Originally Posted by go phillies

And just how is the Iraq debacle "defending" America? And please don't say how there are Al-qaeda in Iraq...they are there because we are there.

Bush and his fellow draft dodgers continue to get our soldiers killed for nothing in Iraq...all the while Bin Laden is still making videos and thumbing his nose at us. Remember him? I guess Dubya and Co. gave up looking for him since Iraqi oil was more important than finding the one responsible for taking down the twin towers and killing thousands of Americans.

I was waiting for the Bush bashing and name calling to begin. Thanks, you didn't disappoint!

[KristyLiz]

Originally Posted by greentown

Great idea. Redistribute the wealth of hard-working Americans so that the welfare crowd can have some more crack houses to trash. My husband doesn't spend weeks away from home busting his a** to give our family a comfortable life so that someone can tell us to how to spend our hard-earned money. The home, cars, and other things we have now were gotten through hard work and sacrifice for many years (and without the aid of college degrees or special schooling). Anyone thats WANTS TO WORK can do this; unfortunately, most just want to sit on their butt and get a handout.

YOu tell 'em!!!

I couldn't agree more!

This whole Robin Hood mentality is obviously the brain child of someone who hasn't worked nearly as hard as my husband and I have to get where we are.

[KristyLiz]

Originally Posted by go phillies

And just how is the Iraq debacle "defending" America? And please don't say how there are Al-qaeda in Iraq...they are there because we are there.

Bush and his fellow draft dodgers continue to get our soldiers killed for nothing in Iraq...all the while Bin Laden is still making videos and thumbing his nose at us. Remember him? I guess Dubya and Co. gave up looking for him since Iraqi oil was more important than finding the one responsible for taking down the twin towers and killing thousands of Americans.

Funny, I started out disagreeing with you on this thread, but couldn't agree with you MORE about good ol' GWB - he is nothing but a war monger - horrible man, horrible man.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by greentown

Great idea. Redistribute the wealth of hard-working Americans so that the welfare crowd can have some more crack houses to trash.

Habitat for Humanity families have jobs just like you, provide sweat equity as a down payment as they work on their home -- just like you -- and they work on other families' homes as well. They make house payments afterward just like you. They're not being handed anything.

[Katiana]

The population of the US is increasing, and average family size is decreasing. That is one reason there is a need for more housing. And please don't anyone get started on an immigration tear on a housing thread! Sprawl is in the eye of the beholder to a certain extent. People have to live somewhere. We don't all want to live in hgh-rises in downtown. Some of us like to have gardens to grow some of their own food (I do), some like yards for kids to play in, dogs to run in, etc.

A 30 yr old house can be a headache, not a charm. My house is 27 yrs old (have lived in it 18 yr) and it just needed new windows, will soon need a new furnace, on and on. We'll stay here b/c we like it here, but if we ever have to move, I'll go new or at least under 10 yrs old, which this one was when we bought it. The only thing older homes have better, IMO, is mature landscaping. Nothing beats a big old tree.

[ScranBarre]

I'm sorry I'm seemingly the only one on this thread that sees merit and value to infilling our established residential neighborhoods before automatically retreating to a "new frontier." To the individual that slammed Pittston into the ground, while it may be true that Tomato Town has seen better economic days and is about as aesthetically-appealing as Janet Reno in an edible thong, what's your excuse for West Pittston, which is inarguably one of the best communities in the region with its tree-lined streets, grand older homes, block parties, etc.? Is it okay that this town is likewise emptying out like Rosie O'Donnell's bowels after visiting a Mexican restaurant (sorry about the controversial similes tonight---I'm in a comedic mood!) Just about EVERY established borough and city in our region is declining in population (EVERY city for that matter) while just about every township in NEPA is growing by leaps and bounds. Why does it have to be this way? I can see the excuse of people not wanting to live in lofts in Scranton or rowhomes in Wilkes-Barre when they have kids and pets, but as I alluded to earlier, what's to keep someone from tearing down (or preferably restoring) a vacated house in West Pittston, Forty Fort, Kingston, Dunmore, Clarks Summit (yes this town is also in steep decline), or any other borough in the region that is shedding population? In this sense your family can have a dream home in a suburban atmosphere yet still be socially RESPONSIBLE by not putting a lousy dollar into the pockets of greedy housing developers in places like the Back Mountain, Mountain Top, North Pocono, or South Abington.

It brings a tear to my eye to see trees falling around me left and right here in Greater Pittston for oodles of new $300,000+ McMansions while our safe, established, tranquil older towns like West Pittston, Wyoming, Avoca, Dupont, etc. continue to rot. My parents were part of this problem, as they moved from our 100+ year-old home in the established neighborhood of Inkerman to a newer housing development here in Sprawl Township back in 1996, much to my chagrin (Hey, I was nine-years-old at the time---how was I going to protest this?)

Some of you are simply "Chicken Littles" if you think communities like West Pittston, Clarks Summit, Dunmore, Old Forge, Kingston, Forty Fort, etc. are breeding grounds for crime simply because every other home isn't a show-offy 4,000 square-foot McMansion with fancy driveway entry pillars and "uplights" to make the entire abode shine like a palace at night (as I see all over the Pittston area). Why don't any of you simply want to admit that we've become a purely wasteful society?

Even though I'm pursuing a career as a corporate controller and/or real estate broker that will likely have me netting a generous salary (which would afford me the ability to live in a McMansion if I wanted to), I'm going to take the advice of NewAgeRedneck and live in a smaller home in one of Scranton's established walkable neighborhoods and give the surplus to charity. Why do I need to "prove myself" to my peers with a BMW in the driveway and a media room next to my three-car garage that's in front of my indoor pool when I can't take any of that junk with me when I'm pushing up daisies six-feet under anyways? I'd rather leave a legacy of altruism behind rather as a legacy of "the guy with the most stuff." It's sad to see so few others feel this way in our nation.

[Katiana]

Most people don't like being told they are socially "irresponsible" for one thing. Some of us actually like suburban living, like room to spread a little, don't like the constraints of small city lots. The value of your house is relative to the homes around it, too. Who wants to build new in an old, dilapidated part of town? Gentrification is great, but no one wants to be the first on the block to start it. This paragraph has no cohesiveness b/c I am trying to respond to some of your questions/points.

[toobusytoday]

I think there's a shade of grey that you might be missing SWB. I do not live in a McMansion. Our house is a simple two story colonial. We did the renovation thing with our first three houses. Dude, you weren't even born when we were working on our first home that was over 100 years old. But, we've had to move with my husband's job and now on house number four, we just want to enjoy our family and friends. We did not contribute to the sprawl, we moved into homes that had already been built. What's the difference between moving into a home in a development and moving into an older home in town? I'm sorry I can't comment on the Pittston thing, I live in the Lehigh Valley.

I too cringe when I see the fields being plowed for more houses but I understand why people don't want to deal with older homes. Besides the houses themselves, newer neighborhoods have new, younger people. When we lived in our second house that was just a few years old, there were babies and young kids in just about every house. There was a real feeling that we were all in this together and we immediately formed playgroups and took turns watching each other's kids. In this, our fourth house, we chose a neighborhood that was ten years old thinking that there would be alot of ten year old kids for my son to play with - and there were! To me, a house has to have some things, like a good size kitchen, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a finished basement, but what's important are the school districts and the people in a neighborhood.