New Yorkers, New Jersey folks!~ (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre: crime rate, how much, transfer)

[ScranBarre]

Well, DeeDee, you're certainly very opinionated! I don't necessarily like how you assume any and all New Yorkers who are relocating to the Scranton/Pocono area are just pond scum looking to suck the life out of another new exurban frontier. Then again, I've had nothing thus far but positive experiences with the transplants; I'm sure once they start to congest Pittston even more than it already has become (Highway 315, our local commuter highway to Wilkes-Barre, has already seen its daily traffic count DOUBLE over the past decade, and it's expected to double again in the NEXT decade as well), then I'll be singing a different tune. I-81 is currently also at more than twice its intended capacity, with some stretches near Scranton now handling in excess of 80,000 vehicles per day. Traffic congestion is something that has noticeably been on the increase here over the past several years; I'm stuck in half-hour back-ups now about once every two or three days as PennDOT struggles to decide how to fix our crumbling overpasses with limited cash reserves!

In general, you nailed it on the head in another reply when you called me "young and naive." At this point in time, I'm only able to see the "good" in people; I don't go out of my way to try to view others' intentions as sometimes being more insidious than I'd like them to be. Basically, there's also a fine line between the New Yorkers moving to Monroe County and the New Yorkers moving to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The ones moving to Monroe County are the "carpetbaggers" that are just looking to maximize their disposable incomes by decreasing their housing costs in order to have more money leftover to "keep up with the Jones's." The ones moving to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, in general, aren't making the two-hour commute to Midtown Manhattan. The ones moving here are pretty much either financially-sovlent retirees looking into our newer "active living communities" or are younger families who want to trade in the "rat race" lifestyle in NY/NJ for the more "laid-back" atmosphere in our area, often times sacrificing their larger urban salaries for our "peanut" wages.

Granted, when the commuter rail links Scranton to Hoboken in the upcoming years, you're going to see Scranton become just like a "mini-Manhattan" of sorts (Two new downtown Starbucks just opened, as well as a new soup cafe that parodies the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld, among other recent urban influences including an upcoming medical school, NY-style mega-mall just outside of the city, and a new downtown bed-and-breakfast). This trend in Scranton shedding its blue-collar image to more of a "chic" one is both a boon and a burden---It will be awesome to be a young, upper-middle-class professional living in a downtown loft and walking to all sorts of artsy amenities, but in general Scranton has a "lower-income" population who will probably see themselves being squeezed out of the city's housing market as the NY influence continues to spread (The fact that the NY Yankees will now be playing in Scranton will also hasten the gentrification of the Electric City to the Mini Big Apple) I truly do feel sorry for the grandsons and granddaughters of the coal miners in our area who will be feeling the economic "pinch" in the upcoming years, but, at the same time, I'm wondering if the social benefits of seeing the city become more culturally diverse and open-minded will outweigh the higher cost-of-living?
I'd be willing to work longer hours in order to afford the upcoming Scranton real estate prices if it meant that we'd have a cleaner, more "Progressive" city!

[winnie]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

That's out in the Berkshires, is it not? My dad was looking at a job offer in Springield, MA, and that was one of the towns we looked at for housing options. The town sounds like paradise to me! Being able to sit on a front porch and know people's names! I'm currently yearning for a few years of "downtown" living (after growing up on a middle-of-nowhere cul-de-sac), but I think I eventually want to settle down in a small-town atmosphere with leafy neighborhoods and the ability to walk to things! Amherst sounds wonderful; why they h-e-double hockey sticks did you move to Shohola?

Amherst is technically in the "Pioneer Valley", about 10 minutes from the CT river. The next town over the river is Northampton. The Berkshires start past Westfield. Nice town with some good resturants but I would have to write you a book on the list of things to do out there. Most of it would have to do with food LOL!

Springfield is ok to work in, but most would agree it would be better off to live in Granby, Hadley, Westfield, Amherst or even Northampton. There are many nice towns out there and they range from backwoods to artsy to slightly snobby. All depends on what you are looking for.

DH is military..so after 3 years of bliss in Western MA we moved to NY with my parents, then found our house out here in PA. We make the best out of wherever he is stationed but due to the cost of living here this one is perhaps the hardest to acclimate to so far! Not so much for the location but the finances part of it and the difficulties we are having with my daughters serious food allergy.

[HomeInWestPittston]

From my life experience I have learned that there is good in the worst of us and bad in the best of us. An assertive nature may be looked at as pushy and a reserved demeanor may come off as rude.

I am fortunate that I have equal parts NEPAer and NYer in me. I mentioned that I was born in Duryea and moved with my parents when they needed work. I returned to Luzerne County for High School and left after that for work. I now own a home in West Pittston but, am still living in NYC… for WORK… notice a common thread in that life?

Yes, we NYers can be a loud bunch – Yea, we NEPAers can be hicks, but, without each other, our lives wouldn’t be as good.

NYers (especially those who subscribe to CIGNA) – imagine calling a Service Center and being flipped off the phone by Petey-Bag-A-Donuts. NEPAers, imagine not having all those jobs on Montage Mountain. Add Prudential – JC Penny and a few others to that list. They may not be the best jobs, but, you were not pressed into labor.

Speaking of Montage Mountain – remember a few years ago, an enigma called Beaver Fever??? Did a bunch of greedy NYers go there and poison the water sheds blaming beavers, so they could develop that area??? No… it was locals. Are NYers not shopping in downtown Scranton? No… it’s the locals who look at Scranton and shudder.

Did a bunch of crazed NYers sneak in and buy cheap land in the Back Mountain to develop over priced track homes by gunpoint from unsuspecting farmers? No – But, consider – when I improve my property and make my home prettier, the value of yours improves – at no cost to you. Why not choose to be happy that your neighborhood is better and not sneer at me because I hired local craftsmen to make my place nice.

Check the demographics before you assume out-of-towners are buying those lots. Taste is subjective. Gaudy and big and loud may not be to your liking, but, to someone else, it’s not at all ostentatious.

It wasn’t a NYer who allowed toxic waste to be dumped into a mine shaft on his property causing the ever popular and toxic Butler Tunnel – it was a local.

I admit, NYers need to behave better, but, locals need to stop whining about what is being done TO them and start participating in their own future. I’ve never been tolerant of the Victim Mentality. NYers didn’t create the problems on NEPA, but, we’ll change them.

If you want NYers (or anyone) to stop buying homes – stop selling them. If you want development to stop – STOP IT. Are you a registered voter? Do you vote issues? Are your politicians working for you, or are you too busy trying to get a county job from your congressman’s brother’s cousin? Are you satisfied making a wage below the national average? I made choices in my life. I don’t ridicule yours – don’t ridicule mine. We both paid a price for our choices.

My hometown of Pittston is crumbling. Is it out-of-towners allowing it to happen? If I came and opened a gallery and perhaps a coffee shop, and paid my taxes and volunteered to serve on boards and joined the Chamber of Commerce and work my fat - - - off to make it a success for myself and for my town, would I be looked at as a snooty NYer? You know I would be.

A few years ago, Stroudsburg was the armpit of the state. It’s absolutely gorgeous now. Of course it’s not without its problems from growth, but… it GREW. It’s charming; people come there and infuse the economy. There are jobs, there is culture – I’m actually going to a concert in town next week. Was that all from local money? Of course it wasn’t. I would however, credit a few brilliant locals for getting it done and applaud the community for encouraging it along.

In NYC, I watch busloads of tourists clog up NY streets. I stand behind them in line as they s – l – o – w – l - y ask for price checks. I see my fellow city-dwellers get impatient and sometimes rude, but, I help as I can, giving directions and recommendations and try to discover from where their accents originate.

In the near 30 years I have lived here, I have never once had crack heads hanging out on my corner or been victim of a drive-by shooting. I have never been mugged or swindled. I read the NY Times and know what’s playing at The Met.

I fled the city on 9/11 and pray that my life wasn’t too drastically shortened because I was in the dust cloud for 4 hours. I do not, however, feel contempt for the tourists who have the need to see “Ground Zero” and pose for pictures in what should be a solemn place. It is their right to be there too.

So, like I said in my opening… there is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves us to comment on the rest of us. In other words – live and let live.

[ScranBarre]

Well, Miss "NewHome", I must say that you are exactly the type of person we need in political office here in NEPA! You could very easily be a catalyst of positive change; encouraging the locals to shed some of their horrific habits in favor of "improving" themselves (Who cares if they think you're just another "NY snob?")

I agree with just about everything you said. For starters, on a microchasmic level, Pittston is in the sorry state of disrepair it is today simply because the LOCALS allowed it to become a toxic cess pool. You never see people window-shopping along Main Street, yet the Pittston Township Wal-Mart along Oak Street is a mad house at just about any time of day! Our local elected officials are equally as idiotic; planning for sprawling strip mall after obtrusive housing development in both Pittston Township and Jenkins Township to the point where traffic along Highway 315 is now horrific at times (Just today I was stuck ON I-81 Northbound in a back-up because traffic on 315 was so congested that people couldn't get off the freeway exit!) I don't at all think that our idiotic township supervisors for one moment think of the term "trip generation" when they approve these new housing developments left and right. There are now approximately 50 new homes and townhomes in Horizon Estates, right along congested, two-lane Oak Street, the main commuter link between downtown and I-81 via Highway 315. I don't think any of the "three stooges", as I have now dubbed them, ever considered the fact that there would now be at least 50 more vehicles (perhaps even 100 since most in Horizon Estates are dually-employed professional couples) utilizing Highway 315, Oak Street, and I-81 daily between their cul-de-sacs and work in Wilkes-Barre or Scranton! Couple this with the brand new Mohegan Sun Casino, the upcoming "Pittston Crossings" mall, the upcoming, four-phase "CenterPoint" commerce park, as well as other planned upscale townhome communities in Jenkins Township and Pittston Township, and I foresee nothing but an even more horrific traffic mess in the years to come. Just at this past meeting of the Pittston Township supervisors, I actually convinced the officials to DENY giving final approval for the Pittston Crossings project by making them see just how horrific traffic would become along Highway 315 with a new Wal-Mart Supercenter and seventeen other retailers (Along with their thousands of employees and daily shoppers!) This decision was met with sharp disapproval from the rest of my idiot neighbors in Pittston Township, who care more about how an issue looks on paper vs. the reality of what new sprawl will bring five years down the line.

[ScranBarre]

As you can see, the moronic people of Greater Pittston are the ones who have turned a once-thriving Downtown Pittston into a collapsing cess pool and once-quiet Pittston Township and Jenkins Township into congested suburban playgrounds, where Audis and vinyl-siding now outnumber trees and deer 50:1! The people of New York had nothing to do with Pittston's decline; the locals did that on their own. Now that I'm talking about revitalizing the downtown with art galleries, pubs, unique specialty shops, cafes, restored historic architecture, loft housing options, etc., people think I'm a "snob." Meanwhile, head to Downtown Clarks Summit and see just how alive and vibrant their community is (Their downtown is likewise home to unique gift shops, organic food markets, etc.) vs. Downtown Pittston, which is now home to nothing but medical offices, drive-thru banks and pharmacies, and fast-food restaurants to cater to the elderly masses who live in the city (While the city's former younger residents have all fled to the McMansions of Jenkins Township and Pittston Township, contributing nothing to downtown as they commute daily between their cul-de-sacs and suburban strip malls, further harming the downtown!)

Pittston has so much potential to be a thriving riverside mecca for the arts and nightlife, yet the residents are admittedly too "dumb" to embrace any new ideas presented by our youth. If allowing our town to be taken over by New Yorkers means that Downtown Pittston will someday resemble Stroudsburg, Lewisburg, New Hope, Clarks Summit, Red Bank, or Greenwich Village vs. its current image of Downtown Camden, then I'm all for it! These local "baby boomers" deserve all the hell they can be slapped with for what they've done to ruin Pittston for my generation and for our children as well. Let's hope that there are enough civic-minded youths, such as myself and a few friends, who care enough about erasing forty years of shoddy urban sprawl to bring our city up from the ashes like the Phoenix!

I truly can envision the NEPA Philharmonic playing in an amphitheater in Riverfront Park beneath the fiber-optic lighting of the Water Street Bridge on Independence Day while fireworks are shot off overhead. I can envision an annual "Winter in the City" festival occurring between Thanksgiving and Christmas with live ice sculpting, Christmas carolers, horsedrawn carriage rides through the city, sidewalk sales, cookie and hot cocoa stations, and a Santa Parade for the little ones (and the young at heart!) I can envision people livingin the city again, trading in their $400,000 McMansions in the 'burbs for an urban fixer-upper in a quiet neighborhood where they could once again walk to conveniences. I can envision Downtown Pittston having a small, independent theater back again (such as the Dietrich Theatre that I photographed in my Tunkhannock photo tour), that would show second-run movies, independent films, and host an annual "Film Festival." I can envision regatta races launching from the marina on the banks of the cleansed Susquehanna River at Riverfront Park. Considering Pittston is just a fifteen minute drive from either Scranton or Wilkes-Barre and hundreds of thousands of potential tourists and window-shoppers, I truly can't understand why NOBODY has any hopes or dreams of this town being any better than the vermin and poverty-ravaged mess it currently is!

[bamboosmom]

I also lost friends on 911 at the World Trade Center...
Don't go and assume because you will make an A S S out of U and Me!
LOL

I don't want to change a thing. When we build our home we only want the trees cut where the house is to go and that's it!!! Keep it beautiful is what I say!


Florida is way too hot for me and I don't want to see hurricanes anymore.
I just want to be closer to the family...is that too much to ask for?

[HomeInWestPittston]

LOL, SWB - THIS Miss NewHouse owns a 125 year old former coal mine company shack in an alley of West Pittston.

While thinning out some OLD schrubs, I uncovered an old cement/stone/trash wall... I guess my ancestors used to keep livestock.

The house may have wavy floors and low ceilings, but, it has 3 porches and I love it.

Imagine... a 45 year old single mother witch who left town to go to NYC running for anything (including Dog Catcher) in Pittston..... I'm a Republican to boot!

Too funny.

L

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by HomeInWestPittston

LOL, SWB - THIS Miss NewHouse owns a 125 year old former coal mine company shack in an alley of West Pittston.

While thinning out some OLD schrubs, I uncovered an old cement/stone/trash wall... I guess my ancestors used to keep livestock.

The house may have wavy floors and low ceilings, but, it has 3 porches and I love it.

Imagine... a 45 year old single mother witch who left town to go to NYC running for anything (including Dog Catcher) in Pittston..... I'm a Republican to boot!

Too funny.

L

Actually, I accidentally mistook your user name for someone else's, and I apologize! I was just poring over an e-mail I had received earlier from a member named "NewHome", and then I saw your message with the word "Home" in your member name, and I totally mixed you two up! It's been a stressful two weeks; I need a vacation! Alaska here I come! LOL!

[bamboosmom]

Originally Posted by HomeInWestPittston

From my life experience I have learned that there is good in the worst of us and bad in the best of us. An assertive nature may be looked at as pushy and a reserved demeanor may come off as rude.

I am fortunate that I have equal parts NEPAer and NYer in me. I mentioned that I was born in Duryea and moved with my parents when they needed work. I returned to Luzerne County for High School and left after that for work. I now own a home in West Pittston but, am still living in NYC… for WORK… notice a common thread in that life?

Yes, we NYers can be a loud bunch – Yea, we NEPAers can be hicks, but, without each other, our lives wouldn’t be as good.

NYers (especially those who subscribe to CIGNA) – imagine calling a Service Center and being flipped off the phone by Petey-Bag-A-Donuts. NEPAers, imagine not having all those jobs on Montage Mountain. Add Prudential – JC Penny and a few others to that list. They may not be the best jobs, but, you were not pressed into labor.



Did a bunch of crazed NYers sneak in and buy cheap land in the Back Mountain to develop over priced track homes by gunpoint from unsuspecting farmers? No – But, consider – when I improve my property and make my home prettier, the value of yours improves – at no cost to you. Why not choose to be happy that your neighborhood is better and not sneer at me because I hired local craftsmen to make my place nice.

Check the demographics before you assume out-of-towners are buying those lots. Taste is subjective. Gaudy and big and loud may not be to your liking, but, to someone else, it’s not at all ostentatious.

It wasn’t a NYer who allowed toxic waste to be dumped into a mine shaft on his property causing the ever popular and toxic Butler Tunnel – it was a local.

I admit, NYers need to behave better, but, locals need to stop whining about what is being done TO them and start participating in their own future. I’ve never been tolerant of the Victim Mentality. NYers didn’t create the problems on NEPA, but, we’ll change them.

If you want NYers (or anyone) to stop buying homes – stop selling them. If you want development to stop – STOP IT. Are you a registered voter? Do you vote issues? Are your politicians working for you, or are you too busy trying to get a county job from your congressman’s brother’s cousin? Are you satisfied making a wage below the national average? I made choices in my life. I don’t ridicule yours – don’t ridicule mine. We both paid a price for our choices.

My hometown of Pittston is crumbling. Is it out-of-towners allowing it to happen? If I came and opened a gallery and perhaps a coffee shop, and paid my taxes and volunteered to serve on boards and joined the Chamber of Commerce and work my fat - - - off to make it a success for myself and for my town, would I be looked at as a snooty NYer? You know I would be.

A few years ago, Stroudsburg was the armpit of the state. It’s absolutely gorgeous now. Of course it’s not without its problems from growth, but… it GREW. It’s charming; people come there and infuse the economy. There are jobs, there is culture – I’m actually going to a concert in town next week. Was that all from local money? Of course it wasn’t. I would however, credit a few brilliant locals for getting it done and applaud the community for encouraging it along.

In NYC, I watch busloads of tourists clog up NY streets. I stand behind them in line as they s – l – o – w – l - y ask for price checks. I see my fellow city-dwellers get impatient and sometimes rude, but, I help as I can, giving directions and recommendations and try to discover from where their accents originate.

In the near 30 years I have lived here, I have never once had crack heads hanging out on my corner or been victim of a drive-by shooting. I have never been mugged or swindled. I read the NY Times and know what’s playing at The Met.

I fled the city on 9/11 and pray that my life wasn’t too drastically shortened because I was in the dust cloud for 4 hours. I do not, however, feel contempt for the tourists who have the need to see “Ground Zero” and pose for pictures in what should be a solemn place. It is their right to be there too.

So, like I said in my opening… there is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves us to comment on the rest of us. In other words – live and let live.

This is all so true. Don't go judging everybody the same. We are all unique in our own way. I don't want to live in a place with people that shun me.
If those people turn their heads when I approach then I don't need them, period. I am a friendly person and that's the kind of people I like to be around. Not grumpy ones with negative things to say about people different from them.
If any New York or New Jersey people want to get together, let me know.
We can have a ball! Seriously, we can have picnics, parties, etc.

[njnomore]

In my so far limited experience with PA people in the Mongomery, Chester, and Delaware county areas is that they're mostly friendly. Especially the ones who earn a good salary have been at least civil with me whereas here in Northern NJ where I currently reside these same type people don't even think you're deservant to breathe in the same airspace as them.