Johnstown will be a hub for hipsters and better bars and clubs in 10 yrs

[mams1559]

It's interseting to see all the different perspectives about Johnstown. Sometimes I think I'm too close/entrenched to see the positives because I get too focused on the negatives. All the "if onlys" that I've heard that haven't happened ... just makes me a bit skeptical that it ever will.

I too am proud of the positives of Johnstown and the strides the city has made. There are neighborhood groups popping up to beautify their areas and keep blight to a minimum. More power to them.

The post below I like a lot. I have some responses for the poster I hope he/she might find interesting...

Originally Posted by jkbatca

Here's my perception of what has to happen to make Johnstown "come back".

1) Better roads to and from Pittsburgh to get to JTown faster. 22 is a mess (especially in the winter) and refuse to go on it. Turnpike + 219 is OK, but it seems to take "forever" to get to/from larger hubs from JTown. Because of this, JTown will always feel "out of the way" and not attract visitors / more permanent people. After drving in other parts of the country, it seems like it takes "forever" to get to any major metropolitan areas such as Pittsburgh or Washington DC. That's my perception. For some, that's a plus, but for others, it's not.

Well, as I type this, US 22 is now a complete 4-lane highway from Altoona to Armagh and they are doing construction from Armagh to New Alexandria to make the rest of it a 4-lane highway. So hopefully by autumn 2009 or summer 2010, a complete 4-lane highway will be available from Pittsburgh to Altoona. PA 56, the main corridor from Jtwn to US22 is due for a facelift and they're kicking around ideas on how to make it 4-lane from Jtwn to US22. Also, completion of a 4-lane limited access highway of US-219 from Somerset to Meyersdale is in the pipeline. They're done with the planning phase, now it's on to the next round - land acquisition.

Originally Posted by jkbatca

2) Most of JTown consists of older people. Only UPJ (where I graduated from) has any density of young people. I agree that the whole UPJ area should be expanded greatly from it's current satellite role and the surrounding area should take advantage of this population more. Try to develop more businesses to keep those graduates there...

They are trying. What we need are big thinking developers and business people willing to relocate here or expand their operations here. Lockheed-Martin closed their facility down south (GA or SC?) and relocated the workers here to Jtwn. We can't be all bad. I think the city needs to take a comprehensive approach to luring business here ... like one-stop shopping. Cut the red tape and make it a streamlined process for business to come here. We already have KOZs and other tax-incentive locations, but no one knows about them.

Originally Posted by jkbatca

3) The whole JTown area has tons of outdoors. What I suggest should have been done when the economy was stronger, but the JTown area could have been developed for major mountain bike, water sport, other outdoor sport mecca(s). Heck, the Youghiogheny River is one of the most premiere whitewater rivers around. Also, develop more motorized recreational areas, such as dirt bikes and ATV OHV areas. Blue Knob could be a mountain bike mecca as well as skiing if it wanted to (I think it once was), heck I known people who would travel all the way from eastern MD to go to Blue Knob for skiing! Why doesn't this translate to more JTown traffic?!?!?!

Yes, this is a much under-developed asset. However, there is now a whitewater park on the Stonycreek river in Conemaugh Twp., Somerset County (about 15 min from downtown Jtwn -- near Ferndale). They've opened an ATV-dirt bike park in the northern part of Cambria County as well. But it's true, much more needs developed closer to Jtwn or Jtwn needs to learn how to draw folks from those areas to town.

Originally Posted by jkbatca

4) I would have to respectfully disagree with others and say Johnstown did not have the best weather for myself. Yes, four seasons is great, but Johnstown's winter doesn't get cold enough often enough to build any decent snowpack for winter activities. It usually just gets grey and dreary there for long stretches of time. May be different now due to global warming, but that's how I remember it...

Well, the weather is the weather. Can't do much to control that...

Originally Posted by jkbatca

5) Hate to say this, and this is my opinion, but JTown has to clean up all those unused old steel mill buildings and clean up some of the rivers with all the legacy acid mine drainage.

Well, the Stonycreek is much better than it ever used to be in my entire memory. The majority of cleaning has to be done on the Little Conemaugh .. it's still as orange as ever. The mills are being repurposed. A large chunk of the old Bethlehem buildings near the point are now home to JWF Industries -- a welding/fabricating business that's doing quite well. The old Franklin mills are being demolished and how house EMF Metals -- a steel recycling outfit. As touched on above, there are brownfield tax incentives to lure manufacturers or new light-industrial business, but no one knows about it. Time to quit keeping quiet and pursue qualified businesses to repurpose all the available acres.

Originally Posted by jkbatca

Of course, once you get the young crowd there, the beer will get them to stay (it would work for me!).

Johnstown always felt "too out of the way" to be connected to other places, such as Pittsburgh or the east coast (DC). I just drove from JTown to Washington DC, and it "seemed" longer than driving from LA to San Francisco. JTown has that "small town" feel, and if that's what you want, then it's great. But it's not going to grow unless more younger people move in, and you need to give them a good reason to.

This is all my opinion, from my perspective, and your milage may vary.

Side note: Not going to touch what the parent poster said about CA, but you should have seen the looks I got and disbelief when I told people in CA I never seen a person of Hispanic decent in Johnstown during the 60's through the 80's. I'm sure that has changed by now!

There are more hispanics here, as well as asians and Indian/Pakistani.. but still very few compared to any costal city like LA or NYC. For the most part, I agree with your insights. And until the state and local leaders get together to get Jtwn "connected" with more direct highways, that will not change either.

[meltinjohn]

Originally Posted by loose cannon

I agree. I think brew pubs are phony and pretentious and I do not visit them. Usually you are in a crowded room full of jabronies with Eagles or Steelers gear who yell and scream, while playing annoying rock like Hinder on the jukebox. I prefer bars that have Miller, Yuengling, and Pabst on the tap with a few higher level beers like Sam Adams or Guiness in a bottle available if Im in the mood to splurge.

I can agree. Theres brewpubs down in FL like say Sarasota/Bradenton/Brandon Ale House. Its a 3 county chain or so within those 3 cities and its all a sports bar with obnoxious eagles fans also your right. In FL I was gonna stop at one of these places (Sarasotas) and I saw EAGLES FANS lol. It made me leave since it was crowded with sports nuts. I didnt even walk in. Then theres Sarasota Brewing Co thats a brew pub and they play the FL football games lol.
Johnstown Brewing seems to be the same altho a little different of a vibe but very expensive also for the area.
Deschutes in Oregon looked similar as far as the mainstream sports nuts or applebees type crowds going in there to eat so I didnt bother going in there also. Brewpubs lots of times do draw those crowds although theres one I was at that didnt. Most do tho your right.

[danwxman]

I sure hope it is! Johnstown should look into starting a four-year university within its city limits, like Harrisburg and Scranton have done. Harrisburg previously had none, but Scranton already has a couple I believe. Having more of a "college vibe" certainly can help create a bohemian atmosphere.

[missemilyjane]

Hahah!!! I grew up in that town and I was SO happy the day I got out. I'm guessing the unemployment rate is still awful?

[BackToTheCityMouse]

Any town with a high enough percentage of younger residents is going to attract certain types of businesses catering to that demographic. Unfortunately, being a hipster magnet is not a permanent status for any town or city. Trends come and go, regardless of the average age or income of the residents, and when a scene becomes passe' the hipsters move on to the next happening spot. Successful urban centers have appeal way beyond hipness or any single demographic group, and offer a wider range of amenities to residents than bars and eateries.

Johnstown, being where it is, is kinda off the hipster circuit. As are all the towns and small cities of cetral Pennsylvania. Interesting article at this link:

http: //www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/meltdown-geography

Remove spaces when you copy + paste.

Being a few hours away from a real urban center, and having nightlife, does not make a successful center of commerce, education, and culture. As long as the prevailing mood is provincial and divisive (back patting about catering to specific demographic groups while blinkering out others) any develpment will be a stage setting only. Like in the old Westerns, where there were a few rows of building facades (saloons, banks, hotels, the jail) and behind nothing but dirt and tumbleweeds.

[Orwelleaut]

[quote=mrkool;5777946]

Originally Posted by meltinjohn

I think many of the old people contaminating the place with their soiled minds need to die off quote]

Your statement is proof that sometimes it's the YOUNG people who contaminate a place, have soiled minds, and need to die off.
Don't take that the wrong way, pal.

I'd have to agree. The old folks who have the strongest sense of what life is about dying off is not going to solve anything. As a thirtysomething, I can think back to what society was like in the 80's, then the 90's, and now, and also remember what society was like when "old farts" were a different generation than they are now. I hate to say it, but I do not see society as having gotten better in too many ways in either the 90's or, especially, this decade. Society was better when old folks were the folks who lived through the depression. They had, as a generation, a far better moral fabric than the Silents or, especially, the Boomers. They lived most of their lives until their later years in an America where you could leave your doors unlocked in small towns, city neighborhoods, and just about anywhere. Murders were rare and unheard of. The Silents remember this AMerica from their younger years, and the Boomers do not even remember this America. They are the ones who took America down the track of drug use and violent crime that is has been on ever since. This track has only gotten worse and worse within my memory, never better.

In the 90's, doors were still being left unlocked in JOhnstown. Murders were something that happened in the big city. Now, apparently, this stuff is starting to happen in places like DuBois. Another thread mentioned gang activity in DuBois and Uniontown, and shootings in these towns.

Instead of wanting the old folks who remember and expect a better, kinder, gentler America to just die off and go away, we younger folks should be learning from them, and expecting the same things they do. We younger folks need to be expecting our country to get back to the great place it once was, and expecting for violence and drug addiction to become a thing of the past. I would like, as a Generation X'er, to be able to someday look back at this period we are in right now, and be able to tell young folks about how much crime and drug abuse there was, and tell them with pride how it got cleaned up. More members of my generation, and especially Generation Y, need to start learning from the old folks before it is too late, so we can make this country better at some point.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

Wow, Orwelleaut, that was well said!

The drugs and crime are visible symptoms of despair.

During the Depression, many families all across the US had it rough. But folks in small towns had no reason to feel it was the part of the country they lived in that was keeping them down. It still was possible to work hard and get to a better place -- even if you stayed in your home town. My paternal grandfather came to this country at 14 as a political refugee. He left his artistocratic status behind him in 'the old country' and got a job as a stable boy in Boston. He worked factory jobs his whole life, but owned a home and sent one of this three sons to medical school. All his descendants in my generation went to college. But that was possible then, and I hope it will be again.

I've lived near really small towns in Juniata County, and many young people there are encouraged from an early age to quit school as soon as possilbe to work for minimum wage in food processing plants. The cost of living there can be quite low if your family has owned some land for generations and there are some spare buildings or trailers for you to live in. But the images from the outside world are always hitting them in the face, and they can't understand why no one they know lives like that and why the horizon for them and their friends is kept so low.

For the old folks during the Depression, middle/working class life was very similar no matter where you lived. I'm an antiques dealer, and it used to surprise me that estate auctions at an old farm houses down a dirt road had pretty much the same consumer goods that my grandparents or older aunts had in their homes on the East Coast: Fiestaware, Depression Glass, bakelite jewelry. They read the same magazines and used the same cookbooks. That is no longer true for my generation (I'm a boomer). I found that I could relate much more easily to the older people than those my own age because we had so much experience in common. For people my own age -- or, worse, if they were younger -- it was like making yourself understood in a foreign language.

I don't know how to change this, but something has to be changed. Adding a bunch of bar-hopping hipsters to each small town or city isn't really going to do it.

[Spinndry]

That's a great term.
I think I'm going to use it if there is no copyright.
Thanks