What's Hershey/Harrisburg like? (Allentown, Reading: townhome, neighborhood, school district)

[nocturnal rooster]

Originally Posted by Delmar

Rural PA is backwards and full of rednecks.

Damn, thank god I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed that. I knew people from Perry County... Good god that is as redneck as you can get.

Hershey is a good place to live if you are well-off, say upper class. Untouchable for the working middle class. Harrisburg is straight out ghetto.

[tiffan28]

hershey - great place to live
northern Harrisburg towards Hershey, linglestown, west hanover - also a great area
Harrisburg "inner" City (not downtown area) is in bad shape - these are the areas where you immediately lock your doors at the traffic lights
Downtown Hbg is nice - I never felt unsafe jogging along the river after work

[SimplyMe111370]

My husband is from Queens, NY and I am from Stamford, CT. We lived in Queens, NY for years after getting married. Just before having our first child we relocated to DC metro area thinking that this would be a slower pace and perhaps a better place to raise a family. Well, the DC metro area isn't much better than a few areas in NY.

Our daughter 7 and we now have a 2 year old son. We currently reside in Laurel, MD just outside of D.C. My husband and I have been considering relocating to the York, PA area. My husband is employed with a company that has several locations throughout the US. The company has several locations in PA to include Harrisburg and York just to name a few.

Our issues with the area where we currently reside is the crime, the quality of education within the public education system and the high cost of living.

We are in the process of purchasing a home and the prices for a home in this area is "outta conrtol" 1/2 a mill would be considered the low-end. And deck of the homes is the backyard.

Being that I've been a homemaker since the birth of my son I've had the opportunity to visit my daughter's school and be deeply involved in the education that she's receiving from the public school system in PG county and let me tell you it's not the best. Compared to the public education system in CT this is very poor.

Can anyone tell me about the York, PA area? The crime rate, education system, homes and if the PA area is somewhat diverse regarding race ?

[danwxman]

York is not diverse regarding race, unless you're in the city. But even the city is full of a lot of backwards attitude about racial/cultural issues. The good news is there is a lot of migration it's getting better, but it's still going to be quite a culture shock for you. I would recommend looking further north towards the Harrisburg area.

[snjdalton]

I must admit, in looking at communities for medical schools and being potentially one of those involved in the Hospital, I'm a bit torn. Many of you speak of the Redneck/lack of diversity/tolerance/etc. and I sometimes wonder how some of you would describe Ferntucky (Fernley, NV) where the 8th grade graduation ceremony is a grandiose townwide celebration. (probably becuase its the only one they'll have) I live in Western NV where the prostitution/alcoholism/meth use are staples of the community. You know you're in a great place when the County has ordinances governing the size of ***** house signs on the highway and where your kids may ask what a Bunny Ranch is. The trouble with this, is that although Nevada has a very right leaning church going population, it seems so hypocritical and often so disgusted with it that I long for a place with a bit of a moral compass. Much of what you folks describe makes me wonder if the only change would be that the trees hide the white trash housing better than dust bowled, sage brush strewn valleys in Nevada, and the prostitution doesn't have signs with ride lights flashing all over it from the highway. At least I don't have to look at the filth.

A couple things I wonder though... would a middle school teacher from NV even have a decent chance at a teaching position or is it woefully nepotistic where if you don't know the secret handshake they wouldn't even grant you an interview. In terms of raising a family while in Medical School, how does Hershey and much of the surrounding 15 minute car ride to the hospital area stack up?

Thanks

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by snjdalton

I must admit, in looking at communities for medical schools and being potentially one of those involved in the Hospital, I'm a bit torn. Many of you speak of the Redneck/lack of diversity/tolerance/etc. and I sometimes wonder how some of you would describe Ferntucky (Fernley, NV) where the 8th grade graduation ceremony is a grandiose townwide celebration. (probably becuase its the only one they'll have) I live in Western NV where the prostitution/alcoholism/meth use are staples of the community. You know you're in a great place when the County has ordinances governing the size of ***** house signs on the highway and where your kids may ask what a Bunny Ranch is. The trouble with this, is that although Nevada has a very right leaning church going population, it seems so hypocritical and often so disgusted with it that I long for a place with a bit of a moral compass. Much of what you folks describe makes me wonder if the only change would be that the trees hide the white trash housing better than dust bowled, sage brush strewn valleys in Nevada, and the prostitution doesn't have signs with ride lights flashing all over it from the highway. At least I don't have to look at the filth.

A couple things I wonder though... would a middle school teacher from NV even have a decent chance at a teaching position or is it woefully nepotistic where if you don't know the secret handshake they wouldn't even grant you an interview. In terms of raising a family while in Medical School, how does Hershey and much of the surrounding 15 minute car ride to the hospital area stack up?

Thanks

Interesting post about Nevada, I've always thought it was more libertarian then right-wing.

The Hershey area is a great place to raise a child, no doubt about it. Great parks, beautiful scenery and great schools abound. The only thing with the immediate Hershey area (Derry Township actually) is that the housing prices are going to be a shock from you moving from Nevada. Not outrageous, but more expensive I'm sure. It's definitely a family-oriented area however, and you shouldn't have a problem fitting right in.

[micrguy]

My wife and I moved to Hershey so that she could go to school at the Med Center. Coming from the west what shocked us most were all of the taxes in Hershey. You have state income tax, local income tax, school tax, occupation tax and I'm sure that I am missing another tax or two.

If your spouse is looking for a job I found out that people in PA don't know of any colleges beyond the PA border. I graduated from a PAC-10 university and everyone there acted like they had never heard of my school before. If you mention that your spouse is going to school in Hershey, they don't want to hire you because they know that you will move out of the area in a couple of years. I always had to lie and say that my wife and loved the area and were planning on spending the rest of our lives in Central PA.

[carperry]

Well yes, see previous letter, Harrisburg is a dump. My wife taught there briefly, no support from administration and nineteen year old students twice her size. Hershey is the status address on the east side of the river and, no surprise, the most expensive spot in the mid-state. I recommend Lebanon county. From near my house I can count thirteen silos and endless corn fields.

[carperry]

Must admit I don not recognize PAC-10 but believe it must be a athletic conference. Now for academics, I doubt you can do any better than PENN. Swarthmore, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Pitt, Lafayette, and a host of others that are not only nationally rated but at or near the top of those rating. I do admit that none of the good schools are in Harrisburg or Hershey.

[micrguy]

My point was that most people, especially employers seemed to know or recognize any school outside of the state. I went to the University of Arizona, so I assumed that people would have heard of it, but I was wrong. The best story about out of state schools that I heard was from some friends of ours that were attending school in Hershey with my wife. Our friend's wife had graduated from M.I.T. and spelled it out on her resume. Somebody doing an interview looked at the school and said "Mass. Institute of Technology, is that a tech school like DeVry or something?" The person doing the interview would not believe her when she tried to explain that is one of the best colleges in the country like Harvard or Yale.

Hershey was a good spot to spend a few years to see what living back east was like and confirmed for us that the western United States is the best place to live. We were able to get all of our east coast sight-seeing out of our system and have no great desire to go east of the Mississippi River ever again.