Do you hate us? (Philadelphia, Reading: apartments, crime, how much)

[maven2160]

This is a question for Lehigh Valley residents who are born and raised or at least spent a good portion of their life in the Lehigh Valley Area. How do you view the New Yorkers who have been moving to and settling in your cities, towns and villages over the few years? For example: Do you hate us for coming and driving up or bringing down the cost of houses in your area? Have you seen quality of life raising or dwindling ever since we have step foot in your town? Does our attitudes and views clash with yours? Would you prefer for us to stay in our tiny new york apartments and eat our hipster foods?

[julian17033]

Maven,

After listening to many residents here it really boils down to what type of person is moving or has moved into the Lehigh Valley from metro area's east.
You have productive, tax paying people that have moved here or are moving here and then you have the influx of poverty that overwhelmingly has come from the NYC/NJ metro area.

When the rates of the unproductive, uneducated far outweigh the quality transplant the result are cities like
Reading, PA.

People here including myself are extremely leary and tired of the population that has come here and is nothing more than a financial lead weight around the neck of this area.

Crime has quickly followed this type of transplant and has done nothing more than to wreak havoc on absolutely everything from the school districts and public assistance agencies to the safety and well being in large sections of the cities of the Lehigh Valley.


You are a professional that obviously works hard to provide for his family. You pay taxes and are a productive citizen of this area.

I for one have nothing but praise for you and others like yourself that have chosen the Lehigh Valley as their new home.

[loose cannon]

As I have said many times, this is a free country. If one wants to move to Iowa or Nebraska, that is his/her gosh darn right do so. I do not get involved in this small minded Lehizzle For Shizzle nonsense. NY is 2 hrs away. Philadelphia is 1.5 or so hrs away. If you want to move, fine move. I am tired of these people pounding their chest saying Yoccos is the best. It is nonsense! When NYer go to Yoccos and Barss Rail they laugh and they are right in doing so. Come on NYers, bring your quality dining, your musical tastes, and your fashion. You are welcome! You also welcome if you are from Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, ect. Come on in and enjoy! This territorial nonsense I abhor!

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by loose cannon

As I have said many times, this is a free country. If one wants to move to Iowa or Nebraska, that is his/her gosh darn right do so. I do not get involved in this small minded Lehizzle For Shizzle nonsense. NY is 2 hrs away. Philadelphia is 1.5 or so hrs away. If you want to move, fine move. I am tired of these people pounding their chest saying Yoccos is the best. It is nonsense! When NYer go to Yoccos and Barss Rail they laugh and they are right in doing so. Come on NYers, bring your quality dining, your musical tastes, and your fashion. You are welcome! You also welcome if you are from Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, ect. Come on in and enjoy! This territorial nonsense I abhor!

What's a Yocco?

[psurangers11]

Originally Posted by maven2160

This is a question for Lehigh Valley residents who are born and raised or at least spent a good portion of their life in the Lehigh Valley Area. How do you view the New Yorkers who have been moving to and settling in your cities, towns and villages over the few years? For example: Do you hate us for coming and driving up or bringing down the cost of houses in your area? Have you seen quality of life raising or dwindling ever since we have step foot in your town? Does our attitudes and views clash with yours? Would you prefer for us to stay in our tiny new york apartments and eat our hipster foods?

Maven.. I think the "New York/New Jersey Effect" has more affected areas north like Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, and up to Bushkill. My family moved from Staten Island, NY up to that area back in 1991 when it was still real quiet and didn't have much of anything. 20+ years later the population has exploded up there and there are so many new strip malls/restaurants/shopping centers... it's amazing how much has been built.

The thing i hated the most was weekend travelers.... you pretty much had to stay indoors or else get stuck in traffic the entire weekend because of the NY/NJ visitors. The even so-called "back roads" stopped being a secret and it made it impossible to get around.

Truth is though.. my parents re-located to this region simply because it was much cheaper living and still within driving distance for my father to continue working in Staten Island.

Anyway... I think any sort of "hate" or "negative attitude" may come from our friends just north of us in those areas since that's where the REAL boom in population of NY/NJers have occured. My parents still live up there and I currently live in Easton and it still amazes me anytime I go up to visit them how different things always look... everything changes up there all the time. However a once quiet area is no longer that... and I think many locals up that way may not enjoy the growth.

[pman]

according to city data crime in reading was 33% lower in 2011 than 1999 calling into question whether the migrants from ny actually did lead to more crime
//www.city-data.com/city/Reading-Pennsylvania.html

[loose cannon]

Originally Posted by blazerj

What's a Yocco?

A burnt hot dog.

[toobusytoday]

I don't hate anyone. I don't care where anyone moves from and am not from this area myself. However, I dislike it greatly when people move and than complain that it's lacking some service that they were used to of if something is plain different. Not everyone moves from a city to another city and as psurangers has said, not all areas of the LV have a huge influx of commuters to NY/North Jersey. I know many people that moved here from out of state for jobs (as did we), not especially the lower cost of housing. Really, the only people I know personally that commute out of state are pilots at EWR.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by maven2160

This is a question for Lehigh Valley residents who are born and raised or at least spent a good portion of their life in the Lehigh Valley Area. How do you view the New Yorkers who have been moving to and settling in your cities, towns and villages over the few years? For example: Do you hate us for coming and driving up or bringing down the cost of houses in your area? Have you seen quality of life raising or dwindling ever since we have step foot in your town? Does our attitudes and views clash with yours? Would you prefer for us to stay in our tiny new york apartments and eat our hipster foods?

The entire history of this area is one of immigration from Philadelphia or New York. The plans for an interstate to Easton were laid out in 1955 when the system was first designed.
Mod cut: graphic from wikimedia commons


Interstate 78 was completed around 1990, meaning that the commute was possible to do on a daily basis. Route 33 terminated at route 22 by 1972, the final three-mile (5 km) stretch to I78 opened in January 2002.

To do this commute on a daily basis is still very difficult, and only a few thousand people do it on a daily basis. As the CMSA has 820K people, there is not the daily impact that you might imagine.

Some people are very unhappy with the huge influx that has transformed the urban centers of the area, as the poor people from NYC come looking for inexpensive housing. But I see that as an inevitable consequence of the large scale abandonment in the 1960's and 1970's. If you leave a vacuum, then something will fill it.

[pman]

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

... If you leave a vacuum, then something will fill it.

have you visited Johnstown? maybe everyone should to see what happens when nobody does fill that vaccum. or gary, or flint, mi