Is Uniontown a bad area? (Scranton, Dickson City: job market, to buy, college)

[monicapies]

I happened to drive through it a few months ago and I noticed a lot of eyesores. There was a mostly abandoned shopping center with an ugly abandoned Walmart, and a creepy abandoned Pizza Hut was at the other end of town. Is this area known for being rough?

[PreservationPioneer]

Fayette County has high unemployment and poverty, however it's not necessarily a "bad" area outside of those factors. Uniontown is a nice little city.

[escilade18]

The Wal Mart moved from the Cherry Tree shopping plaza to the Fayette Shopping plaza to become a Super Wal Mart, and ironically the Pizza Hut moved close to where Wal Mart used to be. I have been hearing rumors of a Sams Club going in where Wal Mart used to be, but with how long it has been vacant I am not exactly sure whether or not it is going to happen. Uniontown is more poverty stricken than dangerous

[rockthecasbah121]

I heard the old walmart building is structurally unsound and the floor is sinking, so no Sam's Club. Can't remember who told me though, so it might not be very reliable.

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

The Walmart in Dickson City PA (near Scranton) opened in 1995 but was shut down in 1997 because of rocks falling from the mountain behind the store, hitting the back wall and endangering the occupants. Today it still sits empty. It was nice though that the replacement for this store got to be the first Supercenter in the area though, but on the other hand, this is probably the most old and tired looking Supercenter in the state at this point. A Wegmans was built across the parking lot from the condemned old store, and I guess it attracts the richer people when they buy groceries, while the poorer half goes to Walmart. It makes no sense though that the Walmart Supercenter was built a half mile from the original Walmart, yet Wegmans ended up with such a prime location next to the old Walmart.

[wardwhirlboromarlpool1955]

Was there a McDonalds at the Walmart in Uniontown? Or was there a Radio Grill? That was a 50s diner concept exclusive to Walmart stores in the 90s. It seems like they phased it out at most older, smaller Walmart stores as they were expanded into Supercenters, or moved to brand new Supercenters as happened in Uniontown. But the newer non-Supercenter stores (mostly opened in the early 2000s) often had Radio Grill, and this batch of stores was usually in areas new to Walmart at that time, which often were areas with no room for Supercenters, and where Walmart had to reuse empty buildings instead of building new stores from the ground up.

[rockthecasbah121]

Originally Posted by wardwhirlboromarlpool1955

Was there a McDonalds at the Walmart in Uniontown? Or was there a Radio Grill? That was a 50s diner concept exclusive to Walmart stores in the 90s. It seems like they phased it out at most older, smaller Walmart stores as they were expanded into Supercenters, or moved to brand new Supercenters as happened in Uniontown. But the newer non-Supercenter stores (mostly opened in the early 2000s) often had Radio Grill, and this batch of stores was usually in areas new to Walmart at that time, which often were areas with no room for Supercenters, and where Walmart had to reuse empty buildings instead of building new stores from the ground up.

From what I remember, Uniontown's Walmart always had a McDonalds, but the Mt. Pleasant one opened with a Radio Grill until it was replaced by a Subway.

[convextech]

I've had to do business there, for PTC. It's small but not dangerous. The drive to/from the airport is gorgeous. Only problem I had was not being able to buy beer at a store.

[Lg1198]

I grew up in Uniontown and now live in the mountains of Fayette County. The Unemployment here is terrible, and there are a LOT of people living on the system. There is a bit of a drug problem here as well. It's not a bad place to live, but there is pretty much zero upward mobility and the job market is shrinking instead of growing. They are finally tearing down the old walmart, (I too have heard that the ground is structurally unsound) and they did tear down the old pizza hut. It's really not a bad area, there are new stores and resturants being added (Olive Garden and TJ Max last year, Michaels and 5 Below are being built now) I moved back here after graduating college, but we are looking to move out of the area because I can't find a decent job.

[Uptown kid]

The only bad parts are the housing projects & the surrounding areas...