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On a national scale there are quite a few states that tend to evoke either positive or negative reactions from those who reside in other areas. For example, New Jersey has a fair number of detractors nationwide while it seems Colorado has a fair number of admirers nationwide. Although I live in PA whenever I've praised Massachusetts to others in the Mid-Atlantic I've been told on more than one occasion it's home to too many "Mass-holes". People wrongfully stereotype people from places like Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, or West Virginia as being backwater redneck hicks. People think of the stereotypical OR resident an underemployed naturalist hippy and the stereotypical ND resident to be like what you see in the movie Fargo.
Pennsylvania, on the other hand, seems to get a lot of shrugs. It seems to me that most people have neither a positive NOR negative opinion on our state. When Southerners lament being overrun by Yankee transplants it's normally NY and NJ that are faulted universally even though PA is a very high net exporter of residents to places like NC, TN, SC, FL, and AZ, too. Pittsburgh is a relatively unimportant metropolitan area on a national scale, and Philadelphia is often overshadowed nationally due to its very close proximity to NYC and DC. Do we really fly this far under the radar despite being such a large state?
It's a drive through state for me. I picture it as one big West Virginia because of all the blue collar jobs filled with highways, Amish people, farms, and large cities with a lot of history like Philadelphia. It's probably one of the most diverse states in the Northeast IMO.
It's a drive through state for me. I picture it as one big West Virginia because of all the blue collar jobs filled with highways, Amish people, farms, and large cities with a lot of history like Philadelphia. It's probably one of the most diverse states in the Northeast IMO.
Thank you for your feedback. I agree that it is a very diverse state in terms of geography and built environment---some incredibly rural areas (see the Allegheny National Forest); Philadelphia, which is the nation's fifth-largest city; the Amish country of Lancaster County; Civil and Revolutionary War Battlefields like Valley Forge and Gettysburg; lots of dairies and corn fields; a mixture of small towns, older industrial cities, and suburban sprawl; etc.
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Originally Posted by SportsFanaticist
Love PA, love Philly, like Pittsburgh, love the Poconos, love Gettysburg, love Lancaster, etc.
It doesn't get much attention, but I like what I've visited, including one real legit tourist trip each to Pittsburgh and Philly but not much beyond that.
Pittsburgh has some good urban neighborhoods and overcomes depopulation elsewhere by being hilly and gorgeous. There's something about wooded hillsides and valleys.
Philly has one of the best urban cores in the country and ought to be a bigger tourist draw for that. Narrow streets and great building stock make it pedestrian heaven. I also wandered north four or five miles, and despite the obvious poverty and depopulation it was still a functioning city up there.
The media covers the worst of your sports fans. Pittsburgh fans sound ok but there's a lot out there about Philly fans acting badly...a small minority presumably by that's the image.
Otherwise my impression is a lot of hilly wooded areas and good towns that are hopefully still intact.
It's a great state which I've greatly enjoyed over the years.
Wonderful people, especially in the western part of the state.
Apart from attractions already mentioned, I would include Erie, Presque Isle, Waldameer, and the Allegheny National Forest. For those willing to explore, the mountain towns southeast of Pittsburgh and north of Cumberland, MD, are real charmers.
Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in the Laurel Highlands is one of the best in the U.S.
very backwards state, unless you visit Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. ( i lived in Pittsburgh for 4 years, and loved it)
The flip side to this is that I'd stack PA's collection of main-street small towns up against any other state's in the nation. If you're into that sort of thing.
I do think our mid-sized, independent cities come up short compared to most other states. State College being a notable exception.
It's a drive through state for me. I picture it as one big West Virginia because of all the blue collar jobs filled with highways, Amish people, farms, and large cities with a lot of history like Philadelphia. It's probably one of the most diverse states in the Northeast IMO.
Interesting. Especially since Pennsylvania isn't a particularly highway-laden state for its size--in fact, many lament its vastly undersized highway network across the state considering it's so populous. Even New England, which isn't exactly known for its modern infrastructure, either, seems more highway-dependent to me.
Also, interesting that "big West Virginia" comes to mind for association with blue-collar jobs, since economically the two are extremely different. Despite media perceptions (especially the obsessive coverage of a couple of economically-depressed/post-industrial pockets in Western PA surrounding Election 2016) manufacturing/blue-collar jobs in PA don't represent a disproportionate share of the economy today and haven't for quite some time.
I think the problem is that outsiders, particularly those in NY, NJ, and New England, tend to focus on perceptions of the vast, rural, and relatively stagnant or declining hinterlands of the state and forget that its metro areas like Philly, Pittsburgh, the Lehigh Valley and the South-Central area (Reading, Harrisburg, Lancaster and York) constitute the vast majority of the state's population and power its post-industrial economy.
In Pennsylvania's case, it often seems that old perceptions die hard.
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