Lancaster County - Positives & Negatives? (Philadelphia, Reading: appointed, fit in, to rent)

[Positiveone]

Hi there! Can anybody fill me in on the Positives & Negatives of living in Lancaster County Pa?

Topics such as Crime, Job Market, The people, Traffic, What areas to avoid, the best & worst school districts, Shopping, Weather, Flood areas? Good restaurants?

Add whatever comes to mind.

Thanks

[solancogirl]

Positives are if you are a part of the area it is an incredible place to live. It is beautiful and has an old fashioned feel with values to match.

On the negative--growing by leaps and bounds. Prices are skyrocketing in some areas and it is becoming very congested as more outsiders move in. Most jobs are centered around the tourist trades and are not high paying. Areas such as the Southern part of the county (below Strasburg) do not welcome outsiders and many who have tried (and failed) to fit in have found it almost impossible.

As a major tourist attraction the area has plenty of good restaurants etc. For incomers the best areas to move are areas like Manheim, Denver/Adamstown and the city. These areas are more used to people moving in from outlying areas and are also easier for outsiders to adapt to because they are more like a rural suburbia. One thing to note is while the city has some diversity, the majority of the county does not.

Of other note: Lancaster County is the bible belt of Pennsylvania and also it is the most Republican County in Pennsylvania. And no the Amish will not be your new best friends. They will be civil, they will be friendly, but to develop a relationship can take many, many years.

It is a major transition to move here and you have to understand why you want it. Is it because you have a true connection here or is it because you have a connection built from the commercials on TV?

[CountryGirl8]

From an outsider spending the summer in Lancaster County, I can tell you the things that I personally noticed. If you're an outsider, it will take you a long time to be accepted. Learn how to pronounce "Lancaster" correctly. That will definitely help to start you off on the right foot. There's a lot of Amish there. I was fascinated by them (I've really never encountered the Amish before). They have a truly unique way of life, just be prepared to get stuck behind buggies wherever you go...even Target. There are PLENTY of outlet malls in Lancaster County. There are also numerous farmers' markets to take advantage of. You could eat out at a different restaurant (even other than the popular chains) every day and be satisfied for well over a month. I would highly suggest the smorgasboards; my family was fascinated with them when they came to visit. There are a lot of narrow and windy backroads. I got annoyed when I could never do more than 40 mph on my way to work. There are lots of tourist traps, which I thoroughly enjoyed! Oh, make sure you take a tour of the covered bridges! They're pretty neat!

I couldn't tell you much more than that. I was only there for an internship this summer.

[Positiveone]

Thanks for the info! But how is the crime rate? what areas are considered unsafe? Are there areas so bad that i should totally avoid? And what school districts are considered the best?

Thanks again!

[pinetar10]

the county is very safe. there may be a few places in the city here and there that some crime occurs, but its nothing major and safe compared to most cities.

[Oldiebutgoodie26]

The only "areas" I avoid are south east Lancaster City. I tend to avoid anything east of Duke street and south of King street. Not that I never go there, but, not my first pick. My sister lives on a city street (cute house, OK neighbors), but the flow of traffic through there is questionable. There is a huge difference between South Ann street and the areas around Franklin and Marshall College. The SE sections of the city are just that- CITY. Not what most would consider "Lancaster". I taught in the city elem schools, and they are about 80% Latino. And tend to be poor. If you do not want a little Bronx neighborhood ( we have a HUGE influx of NYC folks), stay away from the SE part. But there are a lot of things to do in the city, like all cities.

In Lancaster county, there is shopping galore. Someone here wrote about us not having any "high end" restaurants, nor stores, but you will not be lacking for anything here. The traffic is irksome, as the population has exploded, and the roads have not kept up with the demand, but, that is everywhere. I go one mile to work, but hit eleven stop lights. If you head to Rt. 340 in the summer- you will not move on that road. The "country Sunday drive" is OK in January. But March - December, our little roads are clogged with out of state tourists, clamoring to get a peek at an Amish buggy. And PA has terrible roads. We just do. Sorry.

Crime? We have a police blotter in the paper, and stuff happens (robbery, assault, vandalism). Is this Philadelphia? No. LA? No. We've had some crazy things make the news in the last couple of years (killings, shootings), but, that is not typical. You lock your doors and keep track of your kids and leave nothing in your cars- like everywhere else in the world. Are there massive drive-bye shootings? Are people being slaughtered in the streets? No. Should you be aware of things and what is going on around you? Yes, like everywhere else. If you stay away from the "element"- you will be fine. I've not seen skyrocketing crime here.

Don't know about jobs. I've seen low-paying ones advertised in the paper, and lots of part-time, no benefit jobs. Lots of opportunities for anyone in the nursing field, though. I don't know what you do. Check the papers.

Weather? It's cold from late November to April. Rains a lot. Cloudy a lot. We really have no spring here- it goes from 60 degrees to 80 in the course of a week (in May), then hovers around 74 until June. Summers can get hot, and it rains a lot. I love the fall, which arrives in late October. It is beautiful here. Lancaster is rather flat, so if you like the mountains, you need to drive somewhere.

Philly, NYC, and the Jersey shore are east, Baltimore and DC are south, not much west (Harrisburg, Gettysburg, which is great). North is Reading. You are close to getting to other places. AMTRAK has a station in Lancaster. Harrisburg Airport is close, so is BWI. There is a Fisher-Price one in Lititiz, if you want to do the Indiana Jones plane thing. The PA turnpike is just north of Ephrata. It is easy to get to many places living here.

Schools? What are you looking for? The School District if Lancaster- despite its PR machine- is a city school district. They have about a 70% graduation rate- I read that somewhere last year. Lots of "diversity!!!" in that system, but it comes with all the problems you'd expect. The suburbs are what you'd expect, too. Depends on what you are looking for. I worked in the Ephrata and Cocalico schools, and thought they were fantastic. But, they get a different rep than, say, Manheim Township and Hempfield. The Penn Manor SD just had a kid in the paper yesterday who is suing the SD, b/c he wore a shirt with a gun on it (fight against terrorism, it said) and they wanted him to wear it inside out. This is the second time he wore the stupid thing, so, yeah, we have loonies here in the 'burbs, too.

Living here is NOT the movie "Witness". The Amish are not actors, nor simpletons put here to amuse the rest of us. They are simply people who choose to live their faith in very outward ways. No big deal. Have had many a fine conversation with Amish folks, but since I live in the city, don't see them everyday. Getting behind a buggy is not nearly as annoying as the people in the oncoming lane who will nearly hit you head on to pass a buggy- and heaven forbid they have to wait a nanosecond. I do not understand the driving in this area. I do not. And this is coming from someone who managed the capital (DC) beltway every day for seven years. You kinda make your own rules around here in your car.

People? I have found the locals to be very, very unfriendly. They just are. Never experienced it before, and I do not have an overwhelming need to be best friends with my neighbors. ~shrugs~ It will either drive you away from here, or you won't be bothered. I don't even care to get into the whole "We're native Lancastrians, German, PA Dutch from 300 years ago, stop messing up our pristine farmland...." Rudeness is rudeness. Church is plentiful here- most people are members......somewhere!

Good place to raise a family. Lots of activities for families. It is a conservative area, so it you are coming here to dress in all black and howl at the moon all night- you will probably get some stares. People coming here to challenge "the norm" and make their "own personal statement" about ...Whatever....is not appreciated here- just so you know.

[jonny_quest]

I’m going to copy/paste some things I posted in another thread, but also add some new stuff

There is a huge brain-drain in Pennsylvania, and Lancaster County is definitely NOT doing its part to attract young professionals. In fact if you look at the population statistics here, people in the 18-30 age group are flat out leaving and here’s a bit of evidence to back that up: http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/planni...population.pdf. As a young professional living in Lancaster, I can't wait to get out. Most other 20-somethings in the area seam to have associates degrees at best, went to nearby colleges/technical schools, and never left the area. Many of them act like they never left high school. Everyone here seams to already have their “clique,” and if you weren't in that group since high school you can expect the cold shoulder. Young professionals do not want to be here.

As a previous post noted, people aren’t outgoing in Lancaster, so don't expect locals jumping at the opportunity to make new friends or even meet you. You'll definitely need to make an effort to meet people, as a majority of those who live here already have their life set for them and don't like much of anything resembling change. As I’ve said before, it’s like most residents already have their clique, and don’t want to expand it.

People generally aren’t into sports. Other than high school sports their kids play in, many area residents don’t understand how people can get fanatically excited to watch a team play. I guess this stems partly from Lancaster having no nearby colleges with notable teams (sorry, F&M and Millersville don’t cut it). You’ll also be hard pressed to find any leisurely league/intramural sports to get involved with. Although, Lancaster does have a new baseball stadium which has been great for the community and golf is fairly big.

There’s ALLOT of retirement communities throughout Lancaster, and ALLOT of seniors. They’re unavoidable. I think I read or heard somewhere that Lancaster is up there with Florida as far as retirement attraction goes. I have no idea why it attracts so many seniors, possibly because of its reputation as a lazy farming community (which it no longer is) or just the large number of retirement communities.

There's very few bars in the entire county which could be considered a class above holes in the wall, and your "fine dining" experience will be mostly contained to chain restaurants. Good luck finding a true 5-star restaurant, with the only one close to/in this rating being the Log Cabin Restaurant. A new nice bar/restaurant/microbrewery did open a few months ago (Iron Hill), however, which has a more upscale feel to it and if you're a restaurateur you will be happy to hear that Friday night they were running 2.5 hrs behind on their reservations, and at 6pm were reserved out until 11pm. So there's obviously high demand for nicer establishments, just very little supply.

Along these lines, Lancaster County basically shuts down by 9:00PM, even on weekends. Bars stay open, but as I’ve said before you don’t have much to choose from there and if you do want to go out, you’ll have to drive or have a DD since very few of the bars/restaurants are within walking distance of one another or the majority of residential areas. The only so-called “club” in the area still has one of those disco floors with large square light-up tiles from the 70’s, because it probably hasn’t been renovated since. As you can imagine, it’s not the classiest place.

If you like shopping the outlets are one of the county's largest tourist draws (becoming less and less so however, as similar outlets are springing up around other towns and areas Lancaster typically draws from) and Lancaster has a large shopping mall. However, if you’re looking for anything a step up from Sears/Kohls/Boscovs/JC Penny’s, etc. and more fashionable you will have to travel 1.5 hrs out of the county to King of Prussia. You won't find higher end stores like Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, etc. in Lancaster, and if you wear some of the pricier/more fashionable items, expect to get funny looks from the locals suggesting, “Who does this person think he/she is?”

I like to read California forums, and one of the major complaints there seams to be a big “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality. You won’t find that in Lancaster – in fact you’ll find the complete opposite. Most of Lancaster County’s citizens are blue collar, or at least like to think they are, and you'll notice complaining about the cost of things is part of the local culture no matter if the item is affordable or the complainer can afford it. It’s as if people enjoy making a competition out of who can afford the least, and the winner of the contest is whoever can cry about prices the most. I often find myself thinking that competition’s supposed to work the other way.

As far as transportation goes, our roads are getting more and more congested by the day, and noticeably so. In a recent survey by the county over 70 percent of participants said road conditions are getting worse and the same goes for driver behavior and 100% said traffic congestions was getting worse, with 60% giving congestion a rating of “D” or below. Have a look at the survey results here: http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/planni...07_summary.pdf Lots of development is occurring but government officials, planners, developers, and engineers avoid creating additional capacity to the main routes using excuses like, “These are just old farm lanes and there’s no room,” “It’s not our responsibility,” and, “It’s too expensive.” There’s only a few freeways in the county, and the rest of the arterial roads are congested 2-lane highways with unlimited access and frequent traffic signals. You’ll have no opportunity to pass on most roads in the typical Lancaster County daily commute, and because of the large retired/elderly population you can expect to spend allot of time lulling along behind a senior who’s driving obscenely slow. Don’t expect to move here and have your commute be some fairy-tail dirt road trip with little traffic, because you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Public transportation in Lancaster is contained to bussing services (Red Road Transit), and I wouldn’t want to depend on them for my daily needs. They keep cutting routes and operation times aren’t that great, because ridership simply can’t support it. If you enjoy nightlife and wish to use public transportation, you’re S.O.L. since the last busses stop running around 10:30pm. Using public transportation in Lancaster is generally viewed as something reserved for the lower class and is somewhat frowned upon. Lancaster residents love their cars, in fact something like 77% of commuters drive alone. Move to Lancaster and expect to need a car. Check out this link for supporting evidence: http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/planni...te/traffic.pdf

For about three-quarters of the year, you’ll be smelling manure. Live here long enough, and you’ll be able to distinguish what type- be it cow, pig, chicken, horse, or human.

The county is ultra-conservative. Just as an example, I moved here I was asked by several people when I plan to marry my girlfriend and buy a house. The response that I'm young, single, and prefer to rent immediately told them -and me- that I probably don’t belong.

The county is part of the Bible Belt. Have a brochure… or six dozen. Oh and according to locals the only place you’ll meet a nice girl is church, so that’s where you need to go… right now, before the devil eats your soul!

The weather consistently has high humidity, and there’s lots of cloudy days. This makes summers extremely hot and winters very cold. If you take a long trip somewhere with low humidity weather, you’ll be surprised when you get back and come off the plane and you’re hit with what seams like a wall of moisture. It also means in the summer most people are using AC and in the winter heat.

Now that’s allot of negatives, but it’s what you asked for. As for some positives, well:

Apparently it’s a nice place to retire (judging from the numbers anyway).
It’s a nice place to live if you and your spouse want the kids, house, and a dog thing; the county is generally very family oriented. Just don’t expect your offspring to stick around after they turn 18.