South Central PA Sub-Forum (Philadelphia, Allentown: apartment, neighborhoods, school)

[ScranBarre]

Here is further justification for getting a fifth sub-forum for PA. I just did some research on this forum's activity levels, and Pennsylvania is the 8th-busiest forum out of the 155 forums on here that are related to states or cities. Out of that we are still the 6th-busiest state forum (2 of the other Top 8 are North Carolina city sub-forums).

We have 121,793 posts on the general PA forum, and our four state sub-forums combined have another 97,204 posts for an average of 24,301 posts per sub-forum. That is a total of 218,997 posts between our state forum and four sub-forums. Any way you slice it we're a very busy state forum that could use an additional sub-forum to help keep things better organized.

Benchmarks, you ask?


South Carolina currently has five sub-forums, one more than we currently have, but their state forum is only roughly half as busy as our state forum. There are 55,125 posts altogether in South Carolina's five sub-forums, for an average of just 11,025 posts per sub-forum, once again just under half of our average.

New York has seven sub-forums, three more than we currently have, and their state forum is only marginally busier than our own state forum. These seven sub-forums as an aggregate contain 142,372 posts. That's an average of around 20,338 posts per sub-forum, once again below our current average.

Tennessee's state forum activity is nearly identical to that of our own state forum, yet they too have five sub-forums. Colorado is far less busier than our own state forum, yet they also have four sub-forums, just like us. The Virginia forum has less than half of our state forum's activity, yet it also has our same number of sub-forums.

I just don't understand this.

[ScranBarre]

Ideally this is how I would break down the PA forum in the long-run once popularity continues to pick up.

Central Susquehanna Valley Sub-Forum
Columbia County (Bloomsburg/Berwick)
Montour County (Danville)
Northumberland County (Sunbury/Shamokin/Mt. Carmel/Milton)
Union County (Lewisburg)
Snyder County (Selinsgrove)



Laurel Highlands Sub-Forum
Bedford County (Bedford/Everett)
Blair County (Altoona/Hollidaysburg/Tyrone/Martinsburg)
Cambria County (Johnstown/Ebensburg/Loretto/Portage)
Clearfield County (Clearfield/Westover/DuBois/Lumber City)
Fulton County (McConnellsburg)
Huntingdon County (Huntingdon/Orbisonia/Raystown Lake/Saltilla)
Somerset County (Somerset/Shanksville/Callimont/Confluence)



Lehigh Valley Sub-Forum
Lehigh County (Allentown/Emmaus/Slatington/Macungie/Coopersburg)
Northampton County (Bethlehem/Easton/Wind Gap/Bangor/Walnutport)



Northeastern Pennsylvania Sub-Forum
Bradford County (Towanda/Sayre/Troy/Canton/Wyalusing)
Carbon County (Jim Thorpe/Lehighton/Albrightsville)
Lackawanna County (Scranton/Carbondale/Clarks Summit/Moscow)
Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton/Pittston/Dallas/White Haven)
Monroe County (The Stroudsburgs/Mt. Pocono/Tobyhanna/Effort/Blakeslee)
Pike County (Milford/Matamoras/Bushkill/Greentown)
Schuylkill County (Pottsville/McAdoo/Tamaqua/Girardville/Shenandoah)
Sullivan County (Laporte/Lopez/Eagles Mere/Dushore)
Susquehanna County (Montrose/Forest City/Hop Bottom/Hallstead)
Wayne County (Honesdale/Hawley/Hamlin/Waymart/Damascus/Lake Ariel)
Wyoming County (Tunkhannock/Meshoppen/Factoryville/Noxen/Falls)



Philadelphia Sub-Forum
Bucks County (Warminster/Doylestown/Perkasie/New Hope/Quakertown)
Chester County (West Chester/Phoenixville/Paoli/Kennett Square)
Delaware County (Chester/Darby/Lansdowne/Media/Radnor/Drexel Hill)
Montgomery County (Norristown/Collegeville/Pottstown/Lansdale/Hatboro)
Philadelphia County (Philadelphia)



Pittsburgh Sub-Forum
Allegheny County (Pittsburgh/Monroeville/Plum/McKeesport/Upper St. Clair)
Armstrong County (Kittanning/Apollo/North Vandergrift/Ford City)
Beaver County (Beaver Falls/Aliquippa/Midland/Industry/Economy/Monaca)
Butler County (Butler/Cranberry/Slippery Rock)
Fayette County (Uniontown/Belle Vernon/Newell/Connellsville/Masontown)
Greene County (Waynesburg)
Indiana County (Indiana/Saltsburg/Blairsville)
Lawrence County (Ellwood City/New Castle/New Beaver)
Washington County (Charleroi/Donora/Washington/Marianna/California)
Westmoreland County (New Kensington/Latrobe/Irwin/Monessen/Greensburg)



South Central Pennsylvania Sub-Forum
Adams County (Gettysburg/Carroll Valley/New Oxford/Mount Joy)
Cumberland County (Carlisle/Camp Hill/Wormleysburg/Mechanicsburg)
Dauphin County (Harrisburg/Hershey/Middletown/Steelton)
Franklin County (Chambersburg/Shippensburg)
Lancaster County (Lancaster/Lititz/Strasburg/Manheim/Ephrata/Columbia)
Lebanon County (Lebanon/Cleona/Ft. Indiantown Gap)
Perry County (Liverpool/Bloomfield/Duncannon)
York County (York/Hanover/New Freedom/Dillsburg/Stewartstown)

[filmsniffer]

ScranB, you should add Wayensboro in the Franklin county data. I see it being mentioned along with Chambersburg frequently, and it's experiencing population growth,

[filmsniffer]

Originally Posted by danwxman

Disagree completely. Lancaster, York, Harrisburg and the other towns in south central PA were all established around the same time as cities like Baltimore and DC and could CERTAINLY exist without the other. York only recently began to see a surge in commuters from Baltimore (who mainly reside in the southern part of the county, anyway). I think it is misleading and incorrect to say that south central PA would be desolate without cities in Maryland.

Harrisburg is coming along nicely....but York? Long, LONG way to go. While York has high taxes, it's still cheaper than Maryland hence the surge. After the $4 gas prices, I wonder how many still remain in York Co and commute to Baltimore?

South-central PA has little to support itself. What good-paying jobs [and I'm not talking about factory jobs] do exist in Adams, York, Franklin, Cumberland [and perhaps Perry]?

If it isn't Baltimore, it's D.C. I have met many people who make the stupid commute to DC/MD/VA from South-central PA areas like Littlestown, Chambersburg, and Waynesboro.

Have you been to south-central PA lately? Yes, the smell still lingers around the area.

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by filmsniffer

Harrisburg is coming along nicely....but York? Long, LONG way to go. While York has high taxes, it's still cheaper than Maryland hence the surge. After the $4 gas prices, I wonder how many still remain in York Co and commute to Baltimore?

South-central PA has little to support itself. What good-paying jobs [and I'm not talking about factory jobs] do exist in Adams, York, Franklin, Cumberland [and perhaps Perry]?

If it isn't Baltimore, it's D.C. I have met many people who make the stupid commute to DC/MD/VA from South-central PA areas like Littlestown, Chambersburg, and Waynesboro.

Have you been to south-central PA lately? Yes, the smell still lingers around the area.

I live in south central PA. Are you aware that Harrisburg is the state capital, home to tens of thousands of well-paying state jobs? There are a lot of good paying jobs in this area, I'd say this is one of the most well off areas of the state right now. In Harrisburg you have the state government of course and everything that comes along with it (well-paid lobbyists, lawyers, etc). Also in the area you have the Hershey company, which employs thousands (aside from its factory jobs). The Penn State Hershey Medical center and university employs over 7,000. In health insurance you have Highmark and Blue Cross which also employ thousands. In the financial sector you have Penn National Insurance, Fulton Financial (and bank). Cumberland county is one of the wealthiest counties outside of the Philadelphia metro, certainly not from commuters from DC or Baltimore. They are pretty much only building houses for 500k+ in Cumberland county right now (stupid, I think).

Are there bedroom communities for DC/Baltimore in south central PA? Sure are...mostly near the Mason Dixon line...and those communities are going to be emptying out (they already are) from high gas prices. And life in south central PA will continue to go on

[ScranBarre]

Harrisburg has always impressed me. For a city of just 50,000 it has a very nice skyline and a plethora of white-collar opportunity. It's not unusual to open the Sunday paper here, read the recent weddings, and note that a number of the couples are relocating to South Central PA due to our dearth of college-level employment options (nobody with a mountain of college debt and a Master's Degree wants to work at Wal-Mart or Burger King). If Harrisburg's crime rate wasn't so exorbitant I'd consider moving there myself. It's supposedly a very gay-friendly city.

[califdave]

i agree. We are new residents of Chambersburg

[pinetar10]

I think Indiana County would be better suited in the laurel highlands subforum. It has much more in common with those counties than it does with the Pittsburgh area counties.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by pinetar10

I think Indiana County would be better suited in the laurel highlands subforum. It has much more in common with those counties than it does with the Pittsburgh area counties.

Well I'm not saying there ever will be a Laurel Highlands sub-forum (the concept seems very unlikely anyways), but it could very well be argued that Indiana County would be more aligned with the Laurel Highlands than with Greater Pittsburgh. I was just basing those rough state regions on some of my research.

I still don't see why they feel as if there's not been enough activity in South Central PA to warrant its own sub-forum. I can point out many, many threads on the first ten pages of the PA forum alone that would be included.

[pinetar10]

keep bugging them, maybe they'll give in

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Well I'm not saying there ever will be a Laurel Highlands sub-forum (the concept seems very unlikely anyways), but it could very well be argued that Indiana County would be more aligned with the Laurel Highlands than with Greater Pittsburgh. I was just basing those rough state regions on some of my research.

I still don't see why they feel as if there's not been enough activity in South Central PA to warrant its own sub-forum. I can point out many, many threads on the first ten pages of the PA forum alone that would be included.