Know anything about Lebanon PA? (Lancaster, Ephrata: crime, houses, construction)

[jeb412]

I may be moving to the Lebanon, PA area. My husband will be working in Lebanon, but we could live anywhere within 20-30 min. of there. We have 3 kids, and are interested in a family-friendly area, (not too rural) with good schools. Any ideas?

[jdhall1]

Stay away from Leb. City. It is quite depressing and has crime. There are lots of nice little towns around there,such as Annville, Elizabethtown, Lititz,and Ephrata.

[jeb412]

Thanks, that helps. I was looking online at some newer developments in Annville. Do you know anything about the schools? From what I've found, they seem decent.

[jdhall1]

They are ok. I went to college with people from around there and they never had a problem with grades or whatnot in school.

[openless]

there is a beautiful town called hershey about 20 minutes west of lebanon. it is very espensive, however it's suburbs of anville and palmyra are cheaper and are close to shopping and stores. the schools are all pretty good, the city of lebanon proper is out of control. there are gangs there from new york and every few months there is a homicide. sounds funny, but they advertised in the nyc area in the 1980's to have people move down there and fill up all the vacated houses. bad idea. the rest of the area is rural and laidback. lots of fams and such. fredricksburg, jonestown and frystown are all pretty nice, but if you live there you better be prepared to travel. most of the jobs are either in the city or between lebanon and hershey along rts 322 and 422. Swatara state park is nice to check out, as is memorial lake. cornwall is cool and so is ephrata cloister.

[password]

Openless is on target. I was born and raised in Lebanon and it was a very lovely quaint place in the 50s and 60s. It is very sad to see what has happened to the city which is now riddled with crime. Had the county had leadership with vision they could have saved downtown but it was allowed to simply deteriorate. I would never return to Lebanon per se, but there are other areas which have retained their beauty. Hershey is one but taxes are high. Annville is also nice. On the other side of Lebanon, lies Myerstown which is a quaint PA Dutch village. Lancaster is also nice but becoming overly developed...what isn't?

[MLG]

Cornwall is a nice little town where I grew up. I agree with everyone else that is saying that Lebanon city has been going downhill. There is too much crime there now, and I dont even like returning to the city. But Cornwall is a nice area outside out the city. Hershey, Annville, and Palmyra are nice as well.

[bluemonday]

Another reason to stay out of Lebanon City...TAXES! I am also looking for a property in either Lebanon or Berks County. In my search, I noticed the school taxes for Lebanon School District are VERY HIGH in comparison to neighboring school districts. They are going up another 5%!

[rcrs1217]

lebanon city isnt very pleasent. but the lebanon suburbs are great. i live there and its the perfect small town community for growing up. its very orginal.

hope i helped!

[csamuel]

I myself live in Lebanon. I live in the area which is surrounded by the "Ghetto". Yes there is crime in the city if you are looking at it compared to the surrounding towns but Compared to other cities of this size Lebanon is extremely safe. There are "gangs" but they really have no criminal activities and usually breakup and become nothing. If you afraid of walking down the street and getting caught in a drive by between bloods and crips you are afraid of nothing. There are no real gangs in Lebanon.

A lot of ex-gang members come to Lebanon to lead a life without crime. They look threating but that is just history. I live in Lebanon and walk to places all the time and feel safe. The media makes Lebanon look bad. You will read about how the city is out of money but you will never see the community garden we opened in the city or anything else positive. Currently the city is undergoing major construction. Don't let it scare you. I go to the high school here and think it is fine. For awhile the school had lost some funding. This resulted in the grades at the schools to drop. The scores at our schools are getting better and better. We have the best music program in the state. We also have many brilliant students.

Another reason to pick Lebanon is that other schools in the area have drug and abuse problems. Schools such as Cedar Crest have major drug problems. At our school since it is as large as it is they bring in drug dogs to check the building and the never have a problem.