People who moved to PA and hate it (Pittsburgh, Erie: best town, real estate)

[bethany12]

Originally Posted by Cowgirl15

I was born and raised in PA...I absolutely hate it here. Thankfully, I will be moving out to Wyoming at the end of this year.

I do not like the massive numbers of people. I do not like that everything is being built up. People are always in a rush...the light turns green and you don't move the horns are blaring. People are never happy, they have to drive 10 minutes to get somewhere and they consider that to be too long of a drive. As far as scenery, I don't care for metropolitan areas so that does nothing for me. All the trees and mountains don't appeal to me either...I'd rather be able to see for miles on end with nothing but open land. I do not like the humidity. In the summer the gnats are everywhere and you of course are sweating because of the humidity. In the winter it makes it colder, the snow is wet and heavy too. 32 degrees here in PA feels a heck of a lot colder than 32 degrees in Wyoming.

I prefer a slower way of life with less people, fewer bugs, wide open spaces, and less humidity, hence why I'm moving to Wyoming. For you and many others PA is great, it just doesn't suit me.

Good luck to you. I don't blame you one bit. Besides, PA is become one big suburb for those from NY, NJ, and MD.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by bethany12

Don't listen to the hype - Pittsburgh is a rust belt city. If you are under 25 and like a bar crawl (Southside) or the Steelers/Pens (all other teams are hated), then Pittsburgh is the place for you. Otherwise there is only the zoo, a couple museums, and italian restaurants to keep you occupied. The local government and people are still living in the 70s, so corruption, kickbacks, and the mindless union mentality rules. It goes further than racism here, there is open discrimination between all ethnicities.
The newest fad is to move over an hour away and put up with the commute. I am hopping on that bandwagon.

Don't listen to the rubes who hate where they live (because they're failures, I guess. Why else would you stay somewhere you hate?). Pittsburgh is great. I only have Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle and Richmond, VA to compare it to, so I could be wrong, or at least sheltered.

[Bettylou22]

You know, it all depends on what you are looking for right now.

I grew up outside of Harrisburg (South Central, PA) and it is a very angry, agressive, insecure breeding area. (For some reason, it's all about being tough here.)

I've lived all over including Philadelphia (I think New Hope might be a place to consider) and I've also lived outside of NYC in FFLD CO, CT, so I understand what you're coming from. I think that if you move to the Harrisburg area, you will laugh everytime you hear people call it "The City". I don't think you'll be happy there because it is boring.

Stick close to the 2 cities in PA. in the middle (from what i've witnessed), breeds close-mindedness and all that goes along with that. (of course not all places are like that, but those that aren't like that are pretty small small small towns with nothing really going on).

Good luck and let us know where you end up going!

[Alexia319]

Originally Posted by danwxman

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

Read this article carefully and you'll see what the problem really is. Two of my cousins are IT professionals, each with twenty years of solid experience. They'd love to return to Pennsylvania, but companies like this Mechanicsburg one won't hire them. They want young people just out of college (in other words, CHEAP) and they won't consider anyone with real experience - experience translates to a higher salary than that of someone who has none. I know many people in similar circumstances - that is, they would like to return to the place they came from and would gladly take a salary cut to do so. But a salary cut back to the level of their immediate post-college days is not a realistic expectation. These companies are looking for local college grads who still live above their parents' garage - because they won't pay enough to support the "IT professionals" they want. You can't really expect to get professionals for the price of a kid just out of college. If they paid an appropriate living wage for the level of expertise they're seeking, they could take their pick of professionals from all over the country who would be glad to move to Pennsylvania - but not for the amount of money they made babysitting in college. If you saw the salaries these companies expect to pay to "professionals" you'd wonder what planet they're living on.

[Alexia319]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

Don't listen to the rubes who hate where they live (because they're failures, I guess. Why else would you stay somewhere you hate?).

I know others will have pointed it out before me, but I think this bears repeating. Whenever anyone doesn't like the place they're living in, someone else always pipes up with some variation of "love it or leave it."

There are many, many very good reasons why a person might be unable to move away from a place where they're not happy. Among these are family ties, friends, a lease on a place that they can't sublet, a house they can't sell, a mate who is happy in that place, needs of their children, availability of employment, etc. I know plenty of people who have great jobs in places where they don't want to live, but they'd be foolish to give up a secure job in a place they dislike for a less secure one in a place they do like. Not everyone is completely free of family ties, obligations, and restrictions of one kind of another, so as to allow them to just pick up and move elsewhere on a whim. Most of us have other people to consider, as well as jobs and commitments that we can't (and don't want to) just walk away from, even when we don't like living in a particular place.

So my answer to your question of why someone would stay in a place they hate unless they're a failure, is this: awareness of your obligations, responsibilities, promises and needs of others is not an indication of failure. On the contrary, it's an indication of a responsible and thoughtful person who is more likely to be successful and happy than a person who just walks away from their obligations.

[IHATEPA!!!]

Originally Posted by Alexia319

I know others will have pointed it out before me, but I think this bears repeating. Whenever anyone doesn't like the place they're living in, someone else always pipes up with some variation of "love it or leave it."

There are many, many very good reasons why a person might be unable to move away from a place where they're not happy. Among these are family ties, friends, a lease on a place that they can't sublet, a house they can't sell, a mate who is happy in that place, needs of their children, availability of employment, etc. I know plenty of people who have great jobs in places where they don't want to live, but they'd be foolish to give up a secure job in a place they dislike for a less secure one in a place they do like. Not everyone is completely free of family ties, obligations, and restrictions of one kind of another, so as to allow them to just pick up and move elsewhere on a whim. Most of us have other people to consider, as well as jobs and commitments that we can't (and don't want to) just walk away from, even when we don't like living in a particular place.

So my answer to your question of why someone would stay in a place they hate unless they're a failure, is this: awareness of your obligations, responsibilities, promises and needs of others is not an indication of failure. On the contrary, it's an indication of a responsible and thoughtful person who is more likely to be successful and happy than a person who just walks away from their obligations.

Exactly! Thank you VERY much for pointing this out!

[Davros]

Originally Posted by pman

we like to complain here.

No kidding. I've been in PA for 3 years, moved here from Colorado. More complaining is one of the first things I noticed.

I like it in PA. I am in State College.

[IHATEPA!!!]

Originally Posted by IHATEPA!!!

Exactly! Thank you VERY much for pointing this out!

The concept of people being failures just because they stay in a place that they hate has already been tossed around in threads like this one. And it is VERY off-base, for reasons that Alexia319 pointed out.

There are plenty of people, like myself, that are "stuck" here in this cesspool that is PA for various reasons.

I think that a big reason why lots of people so aggressively defend PA is that plenty of them have lived there all their lives and remember the "old days" when the steel industry was thriving and vibrant and this state's economy was thriving as well. Unfortunately, these people tend to preserve the past by living in it, IMO. I constantly keep hearing about the "good ol' days" here. And they keep trying to bring those days back in spite of there being no chance whatsoever of that happening. And that, IMO, is a big reason why this state is so stagnant is so many ways and can't move forward. This obsession with the "good ol' days" where people are prisoners of their own memories.

But, they have to understand that not everyone currently living here shares their diehard enthusiasm for being PA residents. Not everyone wants to spend their entire life here. And, yes, these people are entitled to their opinion of PA also. If, for example, I want to refer to PA as a "cesspool", that is my right. Like Alexia pointed out, most of us are responsible, conscientious people who have personal and professional obligations that unfortunately keep us here. We can't just "love it or leave it", as much as I'm sure most of us would love to do the latter.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by IHATEPA!!!

The concept of people being failures just because they stay in a place that they hate has already been tossed around in threads like this one. And it is VERY off-base, for reasons that Alexia319 pointed out.

There are plenty of people, like myself, that are "stuck" here in this cesspool that is PA for various reasons.

I think that a big reason why lots of people so aggressively defend PA is that plenty of them have lived there all their lives and remember the "old days" when the steel industry was thriving and vibrant and this state's economy was thriving as well. Unfortunately, these people tend to preserve the past by living in it, IMO. I constantly keep hearing about the "good ol' days" here. And they keep trying to bring those days back in spite of there being no chance whatsoever of that happening. And that, IMO, is a big reason why this state is so stagnant is so many ways and can't move forward. This obsession with the "good ol' days" where people are prisoners of their own memories.

But, they have to understand that not everyone currently living here shares their diehard enthusiasm for being PA residents. Not everyone wants to spend their entire life here. And, yes, these people are entitled to their opinion of PA also. If, for example, I want to refer to PA as a "cesspool", that is my right. Like Alexia pointed out, most of us are responsible, conscientious people who have personal and professional obligations that unfortunately keep us here. We can't just "love it or leave it", as much as I'm sure most of us would love to do the latter.

Some of us spent our whole lives in other places (like SF and Seattle and Virginia) and choose to live in this "cesspool" because of the amazing and affordable quality of life.

[pcity]

I don't understand how anyone could hate "PA".

There's so much variety in the state, from the most urban parts of Philly to the most rural parts of Forest County, it would seem like there's something for everyone.

I can understand hating one part of PA, or hating PA's government, or hating PA's weather, but how can one just hate "PA"?