Favorite mid-sized PA city skyline? (Allentown, Erie: townhouses, campus, parking)

[danwxman]

I love Erie, I'll be up there this weekend! Hope the weather is good. Anything special going on??

[Ohiogirl81]

Erie Pennsylvania ...Feel the Lake Effect

Doesn't look like anything special, but one man's snoozefest is another's fiesta! I'm going up next weekend to get my yearly fill of Concord grapes and other cheap produce, and to hit the wineries. Oh ... and to visit my mom, too. Heh.

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Erie Pennsylvania ...Feel the Lake Effect

Doesn't look like anything special, but one man's snoozefest is another's fiesta! I'm going up next weekend to get my yearly fill of Concord grapes and other cheap produce, and to hit the wineries. Oh ... and to visit my mom, too. Heh.

I'm planning a romantic getaway kind of thing. Lake on Saturday and wineries on Sunday...have fun!

[GuardianSensor]

I have a few pictures of my own from Erie they are from VERY VERY far out from Downtown, but once you realize how spread out Downtown and some buildings are so far in the background they look like low-rises!


The images are to large to post here, so email me and I'll send it to you.

rls1980_3@msn.com

[CHIP72]

The most accurate measure for urban area population aren't the MSA or CSA values, it is the urbanized area population value. The urbanized area population actually determines which counties are in an MSA because if a city's urbanized area goes into another county, then that entire county becomes part of the MSA, even if the urbanized area within a county is very small. (The exception to this is if that nearby county has its own urbanized area that has a population of 50,000 people or greater.) A good example of a county being included with a city's urbanized area even though most of the county is not urbanized is Perry County; Marysville is part of Harrisburg's urbanized area, but the rest of the county is not. Nonetheless, all of Perry County is included in the Harrisburg MSA.

Here's a link to tables showing all the urbanized areas in the United States. The same link also includes links to tables showing the populations of all urbanized clusters within the U.S. (sometimes also called micropolitan areas; these are built-up locations that have populations between 2,500 and 50,000). Based on these tables, here are the 2000 U.S. Census populations for all the urbanized areas (above 50,000 people) that are primarily located in Pennsylvania:

1) Philadelphia: 5,149,079 (contains 4 states)
2) Pittsburgh: 1,753,136
3) Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton: 576,408 (contains 2 states)
4) Scranton/Wilkes-Barre: 385,237
5) Harrisburg: 362,782
6) Lancaster: 323,554
7) Reading: 240,264
8) Erie: 194,804
9) York: 192,903
10) Altoona: 82,520
11) Johnstown: 76,113
12) Pottstown: 73,597
13) State College: 71,301
14) Lebanon: 63,681
15) Williamsport: 58,693
16) Uniontown/Connellsville: 58,442
17) Monessen: 56,408
18) Hazleton: 51,746

In the case of Uniontown, it only qualifies because its urbanized area touches Connellsville's urbanized area, which pushes the combined area population over 50,000. In the case of Monessen, it is separate from Pittsburgh because it does not touch Pittsburgh's urbanized area. There are also a number of decent-sized towns near Monessen that push the combined urban area population over 50,000; Monessen is the largest of these towns (actually boroughs and/or cities).

Besides the above cities, other cities that have a portion of urbanized area within Pennsylvania include Youngstown, OH (i.e. the Sharon/Farrell area), Binghamton, NY, Hagerstown, MD, Weirton, WV/Steubenville, OH, and Cumberland, MD.

A few places in Pennsylvania didn't meet the 50,000 population threshold but came close, most notably Hanover (48,696), Bloomsburg/Berwick/Danville (48,245), New Castle (43,222), Pottsville (43,033), Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg (40,664), Butler (40,622), Chambersburg (37,872), and Carlisle (37,695). Hanover will definitely become an official urbanized area in the 2010 Census, and both the Bloomsburg/Berwick area and the Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg area both have good chances of also becoming official urbanized areas. If these things happen, Adams County (which borders Hanover and contains part of Hanover's urbanized population) will likely join the York County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Columbia and Montour Counties (Bloomsburg/Berwick/Danville) will need to form a new MPO, and Monroe County (Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg) will also need to form a new MPO, though either of the latter locations could join a larger MPO if their urbanized area population spills into a county that already has an MPO (as is the case with the Berwick area and Luzerne County, which contains Wilkes-Barre and has an MPO covering Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties).

Needless to say, the urbanized area populations also allow more accurate comparisons in terms of population for places across the U.S. because they adjust for annexation regulations between states while excluding portions of counties that aren't urbanized or part of the primary city's urbanized area.

[CHIP72]

Incidentally, to answer the original question, Harrisburg wins rather easily, with Reading being the only other serious contender.

[W-B proud]

The Dedicated Wilkes-Barre Skyline Photo Tread - SkyscraperPage Forum

[Lakeland Yankee]

Harrisburg

[sr1234]

I have to say I was pretty impressed with Wilkes-Barre. I have only been there once. I actually preferred the downtown area to the outlying areas.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Harrisburg, with Reading in 2nd. Johnstown has an impressive skyline for a smaller city, as does Uniontown.