Honest opinion: Lehigh Valley or Harrisburg?

[MatildaLoo]

Kind of OT but this post makes me miss Restaurant Row

[DowntownHarrisburg]

Originally Posted by jjayp

No, the manager told me the position is for Harrisburg but he would let me live in Allentown if I chose to. So he gave me the two options. More of the clients are in Harrisburg, but Allentown is closer to some of the clients in NY, NJ. Thanks for all the info.

With either city, you're going to have a significant drive to see clients in NY and NJ. How frequently will you be in NJ / NY? If you live in Allentown, you're going to drive a little over an hour each way to Harrisburg -- and that's a big deal if you're doing this every day. Regardless of cost, that's a lot of time spent on the road.

From this perspective, your two choices are:

1) Live in Harrisburg. On most days, you'll spend about 15-60 minutes driving around for your Harrisburg customers. When you have to make those trips to NY / NJ, you'll be adding an extra 70 minutes each way.

2) Live in Allentown. On most days, you'll spend about 2.5 hours just driving to and from Harrisburg, plus time driving from customer to customer once you're here. When you have to make those trips to NY / NJ, you'll be saving about 70 minutes each way.

Both regions really have a lot to offer, as you've seen here. Although the drive between Allentown and Harrisburg is easy (just a straight shot across I-78), those hours can really add up. And if you're providing your own vehicle, those miles will rack up pretty fast too -- about 3200 miles per month just for that part of the commute, in addition to the time spent driving from client to client.

I can't stress enough that you should really try to come check out both regions before making a decision. Neither one is a bad choice, but they've each got their own personality that deserves to be considered.

[PacoMartin]

Here are the violent crime rates for Harrisburg and the three biggest cities in PA and the smaller cities & boroughs in the Lehigh Valley


Per 100K City | Population | Violent crime , Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter , Forcible rape , Robbery , Aggravated assault
164.2 Harrisburg |47,509| 780 , 14 , 63 , 446 , 257
118.9 Philadelphia | 1,558,378 | 18,535 , 306 , 945 , 8,363 , 8,921
89.9 Pittsburgh | 312,737 | 2,810 , 55 , 66 , 1,190 , 1,499
67.5 Allentown | 108,473 | 732 , 9 , 67 , 460 , 196

47.9 Easton | 26,506 | 127 , 3 , 9 , 63 , 52
34.6 Fountain Hill | 4,622 | 16 , 0 , 2 , 5 , 9
31.8 Bethlehem | 73,634 | 234 , 0 , 18 , 110 , 106
31.1 Hellertown | 5,781 | 18 , 0 , 1 , 5 , 12
26.2 Nazareth Area | 6,118 | 16 , 0 , 1 , 1 , 14
22.2 Bushkill Township | 8,546 | 19 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 18
17.2 Lower Saucon Township | 11,625 | 20 , 0 , 0 , 1 , 19
17.1 North Catasauqua | 2,919 | 5 , 0 , 0 , 1 , 4
15.5 Coopersburg | 2,586 | 4 , 0 , 1 , 0 , 3
15.1 Catasauqua | 6,628 | 10 , 0 , 0 , 3 , 7
13.5 Pen Argyl | 3,693 | 5 , 0 , 1 , 0 , 4
13.2 Bethlehem Township | 24,220 | 32 , 0 , 3 , 9 , 20
12.8 Whitehall Township | 27,352 | 35 , 1 , 4 , 21 , 9
12.8 East Bethlehem Township | 2,351 | 3 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 3
12.6 Macungie | 3,165 | 4 , 0 , 0 , 1 , 3
11.6 Lehigh Township, Northampton County | 11,215 | 13 , 2 , 0 , 0 , 11
11.3 Emmaus | 11,485 | 13 , 1 , 1 , 8 , 3
10.9 Northampton | 10,064 | 11 , 4 , 1 , 2 , 4
9.6 Freemansburg | 2,091 | 2 , 0 , 0 , 1 , 1
7.6 Palmer Township | 21,029 | 16 , 0 , 1 , 6 , 9
7.1 Wind Gap | 2,833 | 2 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 2
3.2 Upper Saucon Township | 15,514 | 5 , 0 , 2 , 1 , 2
0.0 Alburtis | 2,449 | 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0
0.0 East Bangor | 1,222 | 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0
0.0 Tatamy | 1,112 | 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0

FBI — Table 8

The most violent towns in Pennsylvania (over 40,000)
164 Harrisburg | 47,509
119 Philadelphia | 1,558,378
104 York | 40,553

The most violent towns in Pennsylvania (under 40,000)
414 Darby | 9,980
258 East Pittsburgh | 1,937
244 Chester | 37,308
236 Selinsgrove | 5,465
201 Upland | 2,889
176 Sharpsville | 4,040
148 Mount Oliver | 3,644
141 Duquesne | 6,678
136 McKees Rocks | 6,038
133 McKeesport | 22,009
130 Wilkinsburg | 17,047
129 Homestead | 3,638
127 South Coatesville | 1,185
125 Swissvale | 8,721
122 Norristown | 32,217
117 Coatesville | 11,920
115 Collingdale | 8,436
113 New Castle | 23,968
107 Chester Township | 4,495
107 Marcus Hook | 2,249
106 Point Marion | 1,225
103 Pottstown | 21,491
103 Jermyn | 2,227
101 Hastings | 1,285

[JessePA]

Lehigh Valley is better and nice towns inbetween like Sellersville, Quakertown, Coopersburg, Lansdale, Souderton, Telford, Harleysville all very nice places there, Harrisburg I wouldn't want to live directly in and not some parts of Allentown to but surrounding towns are very nice.