Favorite mid-sized PA city skyline? (Allentown, Bethlehem: houses, trees, area)

[jimmyrocks]

I love all the towns nestled in between the hills! I also think that Allentown could use a better picture.

[Samir_Abdul]

harrisburgh...

[GuardianSensor]

Originally Posted by danwxman

I do not have ill feelings towards Erie. Maybe you need to look at my other posts where I said I love Erie and am a strong supporter of any place in Pennsylvania

You on the other hand are a blind worshipper of anything Erie and have dissed every other city in the state. That, my friend, is not cool. Having pride in your city is cool, but you shouldn't bash other parts of the state in the process.

And you claim that Erie's strength is that it has surface parking lots? LOL You do realize of course that Erie was once dense and those were all beautiful buildings that were torn down?

Yes, I know that. I loathe the idea that we have a 5 story city hall now that replaced a grand City hall building 189 ft tall with charm and PRESENCE. We lost some buildings to fires, some to ill repair, and others to retarded redevelopment that thought getting rid of classic buildings was the thing to do.

And yes I do look at those parking lots as sites for future skyscrapers and high-rise residential structures, shopping and more.

I don't agree that a downtown HAS to be densely built, but it sure don't hurt.

I don't know your rep on Erie all that well....just like you can't see a post of mine where I flamed any PA City....maybe that tax guzzling, population dwindling Philly....LOL Nah I love Philly....just messin.

[GuardianSensor]

Actually it's not blind anything. And it's definitely not worship!

I'm fascinated with urban culture, and just think Erie's LOCATION more than just the city alone, merits more growth than many other places.

Just think of how much easier it is to build in Erie than to terraform some mountain and RUIN that mountain's ecosystem, and natural beauty?

Erie is located in what Geo-Physical terms call a Lake Plain. With a naturally slow inclination up towards the old lake boundaries, which tilt the terrain just ever so slightly to provide awesome drainage to limit flooding and erosion. Which makes it a wonderful and safe place to build and live.

I love driving through the rest of the state, I am intrigued by our History, and respect the progress most of the state has made and mourn the loss of good jobs that set us back.

My tendency towards Erie being developed over say Allentown is that the Lehigh Valley with all those resort areas needs to be cleaned up and left more natural and open.


Yeah Erie has some impressive Natural landmarks and ecosystems...but we already leave them alone....the rest of the City/County is ripe to be developed into a metropolis with easy transportation without having to ruin beautiful mountains and rolling hills!!

Oh, well.

JMHO

[sunspotzz]

Slow down people, I did not want to start a war. All I wanted was for people to see Erie. It really is a nice place for family's, with the lake and peninsula, you get a city and nature feeling all in one. It's a nice place now, and could be even better in 20 years.

[Livermore]

Originally Posted by GuardianSensor

the rest of the City/County is ripe to be developed into a metropolis with easy transportation without having to ruin beautiful mountains and rolling hills!!

so Erie County doesnt have rolling hills?

[GuardianSensor]

Originally Posted by Livermore

so Erie County doesnt have rolling hills?

Not like the rest of the state....and not as dramatic.

Our Scenery is awesome along the Shore and Presque Isle and along the Vineyards , the bay front and most of the cultured city parks and all of the county is beautiful rural scenery.

But our hills aren't as dramatic which makes them more accessible for development and usage, and you really aren't ruining the scenery by building on them.

[GuardianSensor]

Check out these pics!

[twoeightythreez]

Originally Posted by Marodi

IDK if you are new to PA or not, but judging cities in PA based on the actual city size is misleading. You need to go by MSA. Mostly due to strict regulation in PA that makes it difficult for cities and towns to expand their borders as opposed to other states.

That puts Harrisburg for example at 600K or so.

I will try to get some better pics of Allentown for this blog. I know allentown's skyline is pretty puny compared to Harrisburg's but there are places that can give justice for what is there. (Looking east over the Hamilton St. Bridge for starters.) Btw the MSA for Allentown is over 800,000....which makes it's skyline even punier compared to the population! The puny skyline is due to the fact that Allentown hasn't seen hardly ANY development at all between late 1970's and 2003..with the exception of the Corporate Plaza building in 1989 which was imploded in 1994. Coincidentally this is when most of these smaller urban areas started building more high rises, bethlehem's Martin tower is a prime example. We also have many abandoned buildings downtown....all the big development in the LV was in the suburbs. We're still waiting here in allentown (not to quote...lol) for a bridge that was planned in the 70's....still not even started. (Allentown's in-city population topped out in the 1940's at about 140k and has been declining ever since...population currently is around 107k) Allentown used to be known as the "little apple" back in the day...that should tell you how big it might have gotten if things were just a little different. If the US steel industry would have kept up with the times, if they would have kept growing at the rate they were, Allentown and Bethlehem would look significantly different today......in fact, if that would have happened, I believe Allentown would have more in common with manhattan than you would believe. (since Allentown is basically landlocked with communities all around it...and only has 18sq.mi. to play with....it would have had to grow up and up and up.....hence my comparison to Manhattan...lol...but it didn't turn out that way. Allentown is just another failed city among many in PA....but it's my hometown and I like it anyway.) I'm not intending to diss Hburg but Allentown passed 100k population in the early 1900's, from less then 20k in 1880's....Harrisburg has yet to even reach 100k within it's actual limits....correct me if I'm wrong?...which is OK....most state capitals are small compared to said state's cities....it's skyline is still impressive
I apologize for the bad grammar, It's late and I'm trying to type this all out...lol

[AlexisT]

Harrisburg is under 50K, but you need to see the map. The city itself is very small--almost none of the suburban areas (many of which are "Harrisburg" according to the USPS) are part of the city. Even the "urbanized area" definition of the area as a whole (which is a bit skimpy - really, there's a 5-10 minute gap between the end of the sprawl in Silver Spring Twp, and the start of Carlisle) is 372K, which shows you how small the city proper is.