Relocating from Long Island,need advice

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by Patmcpsu

The Lehigh Valley is a metro area, and like all metro areas, there is an urban core, suburban fringes, and countryside past that. This population density map of PA summarizes the gist of things: https://countywise.com/wp-content/up...lation_map.png

Crash course in areas of eastern PA (from south to north):

• Philadelphia is the dark red on the southeast corner of the state.
• The suburbs north of Philly extend far, and continue to grow.
• Lehigh Valley is the Red/Orange/Yellow mixture north of the Philly Metro, its suburban sprawl is also growing outward, and will eventually merge with Philly's (it already does, basically, along the 309 corridor).
• North of Lehigh Valley is the Poconos, which is too mountainous to become a metro-area but has lots of houses where they can fit. This is a popular tourism destination.
• North of the Poconos is Scranton Wilkes Barre (also known as Wyoming Valley). This is similar to Lehigh Valley, but less vibrant and more mountainous.

Based on what you've said, I think you should be aiming for anywhere shaded yellow or light green, which may be north, west, or south of Lehigh Valley. Dark green may sound tempting, but you would be far removed from things.

Excellent map and explanation of density of the region.

I'll just fuss a little bit about the word "suburb". When I think of a suburb, I think of a sprawl of houses, developments with no defined town and we do have that. That would pretty much be how I think of Parkland School District. However, there are actual towns surrounding all of the Lehigh Valley Cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. These towns are all hundreds of years old with their own elected officials, traditions, libraries, school districts and parks. To me, this made a big difference. It might not to the OP, but living in or on the outskirts of a small old town has really made me appreciate it. I love the Halloween parades, the Christmas tree lighting, Community day in September and the Easter Egg hunts in the Spring. I love the community run food bank. I could go on but just know that while the majority of the population in the Lehigh Valley live in the cities, there are a dozen towns that each have their own personality too.