People who moved to PA and hate it (Pittsburgh, Reading: house, school)

[Shizzles]

I live outside Philly, and to me this area is great from a convenience standpoint. NY and DC are a stones throw away, as is the Jersey Shore and the Catskills. Lancaster is wonderful and many parts of Center City Philly are relativley safe and have a good nightlife scene.

Personally, IMHO, I'd forget about going anywhere outside the two big cities. My experience with the heart of the state is it's eveything Appaliachia personafied: Bigotry, ignorance, meaness, isolation and various other social pathologies.

[DanceOfDays]

If you are looking for tolerance and open-mindedness, especially when it comes to diversity, I wouldn't recommend looking past Philly or Pittsburgh. There are, of course, perfectly open, accepting and decent people everywhere, but in general you will encounter more bigotry the farther out you travel from either city. Philadelphia's suburbs are more-densely populated and therefore more sprawled out, while Pittsburgh is a bit more contained and has a cheaper cost of living. Both offer big city amenities, although I would argue Philly offers bigger-city amenities and easy rail access to NYC, Boston or DC. Suburban Philly could be your best bet if you don't mind living a good 45 minutes from the city in either sprawl or a quaint historic downtown. There are literally hundreds of patchwork boroughs, townships and "towns" (although no such thing as a town really exists in all of PA except for one, maybe two places) surrounding Philadelphia, and if you're wondering about both cities each forum would be the place to ask.

I live in the suburbs of Philly, and while I hate living as far as I do from the city and the traffic getting there and back, it's not awfully inconvenient and the suburbs offer more than one would think.

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by Shizzles

I live outside Philly, and to me this area is great from a convenience standpoint. NY and DC are a stones throw away, as is the Jersey Shore and the Catskills. Lancaster is wonderful and many parts of Center City Philly are relativley safe and have a good nightlife scene.

Personally, IMHO, I'd forget about going anywhere outside the two big cities. My experience with the heart of the state is it's eveything Appaliachia personafied: Bigotry, ignorance, meaness, isolation and various other social pathologies.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

Originally Posted by DanceOfDays

If you are looking for tolerance and open-mindedness, especially when it comes to diversity, I wouldn't recommend looking past Philly or Pittsburgh. There are, of course, perfectly open, accepting and decent people everywhere, but in general you will encounter more bigotry the farther out you travel from either city.

There is a difference between the tolerance and open-mindedness you will encounter as a visitor or potential resident, and what you will have to live with every day if you move to the central part of the state. I'm not saying there is bigotry here (of the hate crime cross-burning type) to a greater extent here than you would find anywhere. But there is a barrier between the people who are 'from here' and those who are not -- which is something I had never encountered before either growing up, at college, or in the work place. It's a subtle thing that we transplants all notice and joke about among ourselves...and the locals for the most part deny. I've lived in Central PA for nearly 20 years, and I am still an obvious outsider.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by Shizzles

I live outside Philly, and to me this area is great from a convenience standpoint. NY and DC are a stones throw away, as is the Jersey Shore and the Catskills. Lancaster is wonderful and many parts of Center City Philly are relatively safe and have a good nightlife scene.

Personally, IMHO, I'd forget about going anywhere outside the two big cities. My experience with the heart of the state is it's everything Appalachia personified: Bigotry, ignorance, meanness, isolation and various other social pathologies.

I absolutely hate these generalizations about places that the poster has no first hand knowledge of. Have you lived in every area of the state, in my town in the Lehigh Valley? I have lived in three counties surrounding Philadelphia and am quite happy to be living here now.

BTW, I fixed all the spelling errors in your post. That might be a problem for you if you move out of Philadelphia.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by Shizzles

Personally, IMHO, I'd forget about going anywhere outside the two big cities. My experience with the heart of the state is it's eveything Appaliachia personafied: Bigotry, ignorance, meaness, isolation and various other social pathologies.

That tells us more about you than it does the area you are claiming to describe.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Shizzles

Personally, IMHO, I'd forget about going anywhere outside the two big cities. My experience with the heart of the state is it's eveything Appaliachia personafied: Bigotry, ignorance, meaness, isolation and various other social pathologies.

Unfortunately, there's plenty of that inside the two big cities as well. Small cities and rural areas do not corner the market on ignorance, meanness and bigotry.

[Shizzles]

/\Hmmm....Maybe I should have added "Insecurity" to that list as well.

I'm really getting sick and tired of the "I'm not hateful" crowd lately. If you yourself are not a bigot, then good for you, but my experience has been that PA definetly has a small-minded attitude in alot of areas, even down here in Philly. And bigot, BTW, isn't just about "race" (another topic i'm sick of), but just being againist anything not like themselves. Plenty of black/hispanic bigots in the ghettos as well, IMHO

[pman]

Harrisburg is boring relative to a big city, but for its size, it's pretty nice. I read that thousands of abandoned buildings have been filled over the past two decades so I'd say change has been a good thing for Harrisburg. If you are downtown, you're a short walk from the train to NYC and Philly (though the last train out of philly on saturday night is a ridiculously early 8:45pm).
As for Philly, yes, there are bigots (though I've never had problems with hispanic bigots but there are definitely certain areas that have a black anti-white contingent, though those are largely areas most people don't go if they don't live there...and vice versa, racist white parts (mainly but not entirely in the northeast/port richmond). that said, by and large, the city is a pretty tolerant place and it's been increasingly so since people have becoming more accustomed to new people moving into philly (and improving it). anyway, I used to dislike living here but the more I've traveled the more I've come to appreciate what's here. yeah, it's not barcelona but few places are. the winters aren't that bad, the worst parts of summer are relatively short. there's a ton of culture, it's improving, there are plenty of transportation options, historic architecture, the state doesn't have water shortages, taxes are too high on business, but aren't NJ ridiculous. the food scene gets better every year in Philly and has rubbed off on its suburbs a bit as well.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Shizzles

but my experience has been that PA definetly has a small-minded attitude in alot of areas, even down here in Philly.

So ... hold the phone here. First you say you'd "forget about going anywhere outside the two big cities" because everywhere else is nothing but Bigot-O-Rama; now you're admitting that Philadelphia has bigots, too?

Boy Howdy, I am confused ...