People who moved to PA and hate it (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: crime, college)

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

The Harrisburg area might be worth considering as well. Certainly plenty of IT jobs with the state, state contractors, and locally headquartered corporations such as Harsco, Rite Aid, and Hershey. Don't know how many are hiring, not my field. The state has some horrendously old mainframes they won't yet pay to replace but still need to keep running.

Other forum members might soon weigh in on the compact area of center city and resurgent Midtown urban neighborhoods, but Harrisburg also puts you close to the Appalachian Trail and large tracts of state-owned forest land (there is a 25,000 acre tract that starts six miles from the City of Harrisburg) to the north and west. SATC - Hiking Southcentral Pennsylvania Choice of two highways or Amtrak to head to NYC and two of the choices go through Philadelphia as well. Two hour weekend drive to either Baltimore or DC.

Check out this article:
Help wanted - Central Penn Business Journal

There ARE places hiring in the Harrisburg area but they are demanding highly-skilled workers. This is one of the reasons Harrisburg University was founded. In that article there is a company in Mechanicsburg looking to hire IT professionals but they just can't find the people in this area so they are looking elsewhere. If there is one place in PA that needs IT people..it is south central. The problem is it's too hard to get young people to move into this area.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

People trained in non-destructive testing?

That's not an uncommon specialty in Pennsylvania. There are companies who make equipment, do field testing, sell parts and supplies in West Chester, Mifflin County, and State College. A bit of networking could probably turn up a body or two she would want to interview.

This is also not an uncommon skill for people who were in the military, and there's a pretty good pool of veterans out here to hire from.

Disclosure: first job out of college was human resources for an ndt company, circa 1978. Used to run help wanted ads for personnel in the State College paper: engineers, technicians, field sales trainees (with backgrounds as techs or jr engineers). Dang What happened out here in 30 years?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

The Harrisburg area might be worth considering as well. Certainly plenty of IT jobs with the state, state contractors, and locally headquartered corporations such as Harsco, Rite Aid, and Hershey. Don't know how many are hiring, not my field. The state has some horrendously old mainframes they won't yet pay to replace but still need to keep running.

Other forum members might soon weigh in on the compact area of center city and resurgent Midtown urban neighborhoods, but Harrisburg also puts you close to the Appalachian Trail and large tracts of state-owned forest land (there is a 25,000 acre tract that starts six miles from the City of Harrisburg) to the north and west. SATC - Hiking Southcentral Pennsylvania Choice of two highways or Amtrak to head to NYC and two of the choices go through Philadelphia as well. Two hour weekend drive to either Baltimore or DC.

With all due respect, he'll be bored to tears in Harrisburg.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

What is boring about Harrisburg? I'm not being snarky. I really want to know what people think is missing or what changes they would like to see.

I've lived in or near 3 state capital cities: Trenton (NJ), Annapolis, and now Harrisburg.

Trenton had the biggest population, but had lost most of its downtown activity other than state government in the riots of the 60s. From what I've heard, the area is in trouble again.

Annapolis was on the way up in the 70s; this was before it became infested with chain retail and yuppie suits. Totally walkable (didn't have a car!) even at 3 AM if you used common sense.

Harrisburg in my opinion has the best geography and some neat architecture and authentic history. But Harrisburg seems confused about its identity: Civil War might-have-been, Wild West of the East, a shrinky dinked Brooklyn + New Hope, State College as it was before the Big 10?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by BackToTheCityMouse

What is boring about Harrisburg? I'm not being snarky. I really want to know what people think is missing or what changes they would like to see.

I was in major culture shock when I moved from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg in my 20s.

Don't get me wrong, I ended up loving it there. But the OP is coming from a surburb of NYC so his culture shock will be greater. Afterall, Pittsburgh is just a midsized city.

What's it missing? A city feel. It's more like small town American. That's great if that's what you want.

My first shock was discovering that the downtown restaurants closed after lunchtime---and many didn't reopen for dinner---when I went looking for food at 3pm in the afternoon. During my first month in Harrisburgh, I stayed at the Holiday Inn downtown while looking for a job and housing. I really had to adjust my eating and sleeping schedule just to get food.

The news is all about state politics and agriculture. If you're not from Harrisburg, you don't care about Pennsylvania politics. If you're not a farmer, you don't care about agriculture either.

Aside from the Pirate's farm league team (the Senators, right?), there's not much in the way of sports. I have to admit that it was really super cool to see the baseball field's outfield fence lined with local business advertisements like in the movies!

My friends would go to high school football and basketball games for entertainment. They didn't even have a relative or friend playing on the team!

Oh, I learned how to play a mean game of pool. Harrisburgh has lots of dive bars with pool tables. I'm proud to tell you that I came in 3rd in a 9 ball tournament out of 50 people, and I was the only women playing. (I never played pool in Pittsburgh. I never had the desire. Playing pool was truly one of the only things to do in Harrisburg!)

There weren't any public swimming pools when I lived there. I guess everyone goes to some sort of private membership place? No clue. I never found out. I just made friends with people who had swimming pools.

The upside is that the people are SUPER FRIENDLY. I made tons of friends and they always invited me everywhere. Sometimes when we were out, we'd get invited by strangers to picnics and pig roasts. The pig roast was totally cool. I'd never been to one before!

The downside is that EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYONE. Anyone moving there needs to know that. If you meet someone, you'll meet 5 other people over the course of a few months who are related to them, worked with them, or went to high school with them, etc.

NO JOKE: When my boyfriend and I were getting an apartment together, I called the phone company to have his phone hooked up in our new place. The woman at the telephone company called HIS MOTHER. THAT'S how she found out we were planning to live together!!!

Three words: SMALL TOWN USA.

A great place to raise a family, but it will bore the OP to tears.

Re-read his second post in this thread:

Originally Posted by Ilikesurfin

I'm in IT, I want to be in an area that has many restaurants (not chains), shops, stores and with many things to do. I have no children and would like more adult oriented activities. I would like to be close to excitement but still close to parks and wooded areas. I wouldn't mind living in a condo or townhouse.

I also would like to be around diversity and different groups of people, I have lived in backward areas of the country before and I do not want to experience that again.

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I was in major culture shock when I moved from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg in my 20s.

Don't get me wrong, I ended up loving it there. But the OP is coming from a surburb of NYC so his culture shock will be greater. Afterall, Pittsburgh is just a midsized city.

What's it missing? A city feel. It's more like small town American. That's great if that's what you want.

My first shock was discovering that the downtown restaurants closed after lunchtime---and many didn't reopen for dinner---when I went looking for food at 3pm in the afternoon. During my first month in Harrisburgh, I stayed at the Holiday Inn downtown while looking for a job and housing. I really had to adjust my eating and sleeping schedule just to get food.

The news is all about state politics and agriculture. If you're not from Harrisburg, you don't care about Pennsylvania politics. If you're not a farmer, you don't care about agriculture either.

Aside from the Pirate's farm league team (the Senators, right?), there's not much in the way of sports. I have to admit that it was really super cool to see the baseball field's outfield fence lined with local business advertisements like in the movies!

My friends would go to high school football and basketball games for entertainment. They didn't even have a relative or friend playing on the team!

Oh, I learned how to play a mean game of pool. Harrisburgh has lots of dive bars with pool tables. I'm proud to tell you that I came in 3rd in a 9 ball tournament out of 50 people, and I was the only women playing. (I never played pool in Pittsburgh. I never had the desire. Playing pool was truly one of the only things to do in Harrisburg!)

There weren't any public swimming pools when I lived there. I guess everyone goes to some sort of private membership place? No clue. I never found out. I just made friends with people who had swimming pools.

The upside is that the people are SUPER FRIENDLY. I made tons of friends and they always invited me everywhere. Sometimes when we were out, we'd get invited by strangers to picnics and pig roasts. The pig roast was totally cool. I'd never been to one before!

The downside is that EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYONE. Anyone moving there needs to know that. If you meet someone, you'll meet 5 other people over the course of a few months who are related to them, worked with them, or went to high school with them, etc.

NO JOKE: When my boyfriend and I were getting an apartment together, I called the phone company to have his phone hooked up in our new place. The woman at the telephone company called HIS MOTHER. THAT'S how she found out we were planning to live together!!!

Three words: SMALL TOWN USA.

A great place to raise a family, but it will bore the OP to tears.

Re-read his second post in this thread:

Restaurants that close at lunchtime? That was Harrisburg pre-downtown boom of a few years ago. Now, downtown restaurants are filled at happy hour and all through the night and literally hundreds to sometimes thousands fill the streets on Friday and Saturday nights. There's plenty to do here and it's a city that has VASTLY improved in the past ten years.

Sometimes I wish it was bigger like Philly or Baltimore...but it is what it is, and that is a very decent small-sized city. If I want to visit Philly or another big city I can be there in a couple hours or less.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

Hopes, the old Harrisburg sounds like it was rather nice. Very much like the towns to the west in Perry, Juniata, and Mifflin counties. The people who are willing to get to know an outsider can be the nicest, most genuine, folks you could ever meet.

Not like NYC certainly, but then no place is really like New York. No one would expect a small city like Hburg to have the buzz of major metro.

I think Harrisburg has changed a bit, though, from what you describe. More shiny surface, but no added depth. Or so it seems.

[Hopes]

I'm sort of sorry to hear it's changed. Like I said, it grew on me. I really ended up loving the small town feel. I made great friends.

[sunsetcliff]

I moved to PA in 1988 from Chicago. I love it! Here is the thing. Do not move here expecting to change the area. It wont go over well.

The West Shore of Harrisburg and area is possibly the best metro in PA. Philly and Pitt can be too expensive. State College is very nice.

My favorite part of PA is the northern tier.

Pennsylvania is one of 3 commonwealths. IMO- it is in the top 3 states to live in.

Don't forget- the bank crises will redo all of America. Here in the Susquehanna Valley- we think- Wall Streets loss- will be our gain.

[centralpasucks]

It depends on where you grew up where you should move. I'm from NY city and my wife is from Mechanicsburg which is close to Harrisburg and we both hate the Harrisburg/Central PA area. I have lived in 4 different states over the course of my life and after 9 years this is the pits. There is no culture here, no hospitality, most people here are flakes, there is absolutelty nothing to do after you have visited hershey and the civil war museum 64 times. Anywhere worthwhile to travel to say a beach , a museum other than civil war, a decent restauraunt, a major league sporting event, a good class of people is 3 hours away. As far as state jobs they are some of the lowest paying jobs in the United States. It is true that you can be a state employee and still be eligible for food stamps. That is sickening and the state is at a hiring freeze and will be cutting more and more jobs. In this area you have limited options because there is no growth and there is nothing here people want to spend their money on to make it grow. If you're thinking PA do yourself a favor try and get into a nice suburban area of Philly. It might cost you more but you'll thank me later. Stay away from the white trailer trash and boredom that central pa has to offer. PS: Youll also never be able to sleep in on a Saturday because they start their lawn mowers at around 8 am.