Moving from Orlando, FL to the Harrisburg, PA area (Lebanon: rent, high crime)

[cms7c5]

We are a hispanic family with 2 boys (12) and (3) moving from Orlando, Fl to Harrisburg, PA due to a recent job promotion my husband received. We are hoping to find a good community that embrasses diversity and family values, with GREATschools, were we can rent a townhouse or sigle family home. I will become a fulltime student pursuing a nursing career, so I hope to be near a good college also. Any suggestions??

[ki0eh]

The southwest area of Derry Township (part of the area with a Hummelstown address) has highly rated schools and not as lily-white as the rest of the Harrisburg suburbs, many families here have one or more members employed at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Susquehanna Township (areas bordering Harrisburg city to the north and east) is more diverse than other relatively safe suburbs. Carlisle area may be worth looking at too, with better than average schools and the Army War College (for colonels on the way up) providing more positive ethnic diversity than elsewhere. I don't think there are many professional-level Hispanic enclaves yet in the Harrisburg area.

[cms7c5]

Thank you much!! We have a business trip scheduled this upcoming weekend 1/8-1/9 and will be out to these area to check things out. Good Schools is our priority, could you recommend a local dinner or restaurant that serves great food?

[ki0eh]

The Soda Jerk on east end of Hummelstown is a passable diner-y place. Cafe Campbelltown on US 322 at the Dauphin/Lebanon county line is good eating, a little pricey but somewhat kid-friendly. Houlihan's in downtown Hershey (the one building of downtown Hershey, that is) is a little pricey but good for a dinner out with kids, it's a higher-end type chain.

I'm not up on local places in Carlisle any more, our friends with kids over there only do chain eating regardless of where we go with them. Of the diners near the "Miracle Mile" of US 11 by where I-81 and I-76/PA Turnpike don't quite intersect, I hear the best about the Middlesex Diner which is on US 11 north of both highway interchanges. That end of town is not where one would get the best opinion of Carlisle, there are trucks, trucks, and many more trucks thereabouts with many truck stops and terminals in the vicinity. The middle of town around the old courthouse that still sports Confederate cannonball dents, is much nicer with several local places but again I don't have current experience with them.

[jfod]

Inner city Harrisburg is a predominately African American area with sizable Mexican and peurto rican populations. Unfortunately the area has high crime and murder rates. Your best bet is live in Hershey or middletown.