Allentown, Bethlehem, or Easton? What's Your Favorite? (fit in, schools)

[DaSkorpion]

I have only been in the Lehigh Valley area for about a year now and before my move I personally drove to most sections of Allentown, Bethlehem & Easton but fell in love with Bethlehem more than any of the others.

West end Allentown is great but then the other sides leave much to be desired. I currently volunteer at the Easton boys and girls club and being that I moved to PA from NJ I get that NJ kind of feeling whenever am in Easton.

In my case I chose Bethlehem because I need to be as close to the airport as possible because of my job and being less than 10 minutes to the LVI airport was a big plus and less than 10 minutes to downtown Bethlehem made it more great for me.

It all pretty much comes down to where you are more comfortable calling your home..!!!

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Originally Posted by toobusytoday

I'm guessing here, but I think most of the regular posters simply live closer to Allentown and Bethlehem. We've lived here almost 11 years and I've only been in downtown Easton a handful of times but I can pretty much find my way around Allentown and Bethlehem without a map because both are within 15 minutes away. My church is in Allentown, I like to go out with my husband or girlfriends in Bethlehem. I think also the Morning Call is more slanted in this direction so I don't really think of things to do in Easton except for taking young children to the Crayola Factory or going to a live show at the State Theatre. I just know Easton that well.

[DaSkorpion]

I hope you got them allergies under control....the LV is treating me great and I am still loving every bit of it. Anxiously waiting for the Bethlehem restaurant week to kick off June 22 - 28 so stop by if you can - maybe some CD'ers can get together as well so we can all meet each other if possible.

Paul, get the Mazda 3 (with the 2.3 engine) - if you want the real zoom zoom I'd say get the Mazdaspeed 3 that lil devil is faassst.

There were tree branches that fell off during the storms last night and electricity was out in certain areas but wow - everything was cleaned up on and around my block by the time I woke up this morning around 4.30am - couldn't picture this happening in NJ -- more reasons why I am loving Bethlehem.

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Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Howdy! I'm doing just fine up here. I just saw a rather large fire on the way home from work, and I'm dying to find out what burned. I've been working a hell of a lot of hours at the salt mine as I save up for my new car (still trying to decide between a Corolla, Civic, Focus, or Mazda3), and I've been battling some rather severe seasonal allergies. I've just switched to Zyrtec this evening, so we'll see if I improve. If not it might be off to the allergist for me! How are things down in the Lehigh Valley?

[toobusytoday]

I too was looking forward to the Bethlehem restaurant week but I realized that we'll be in Colorado at that time.

DaSkorpion, if you could get a get-together off the ground, that would be great and the restaurant week would be a perfect excuse for it too! If that doesn't work we should try another summer day/evening. The music nights down by the Sun Inn are nice.

[Houssam2]

We chose West End of Allentown because of the Parkland School system. When we looked 4 years ago, it was one of the best public school systems in the area. We've been happy about our choice ever since -- except for the farther commuting distance to NJ.

[kinghaas]

I voted for Bethlehem. Allentown has nothing. Easton is a dumping ground for nyc gang misfits.

[loose cannon]

Allentown looks a little more interesting than before. Some new businesses and so forth. If you do not do drugs and mind your own business you will have no problems in Allentown.

[FloridaMigrant]

Help! moving to the area and need to find a nice small rental. I don't have small children so school district is not an issue for me. Any recommendations?

[sunshine18102]

I would move to bethlehem from allentown but finding a house seems hard. I go to there once a month or so on the bus and it is nice and the people are nice. I do not like allentown very much. I have lived here for 15 years, Now i am ready for a change. many crimes are being done in allentown and it is always dirty. it has been going down the tubes for years.

[CHIP72]

I love Play It Again records on the south side of Bethlehem (couple blocks down towards the river from the Lehigh campus - on 4th Street). Even though I grew up in the Lehigh Valley, I didn't learn about Play It Again until I think my senior year in college (which was not in the LV) in about 1994 or 1995. However, I spent a lot of time (and money) there the next few years. The guy who owns the place always amused me - he looked like a tough, pit bull-like, ex-pro wrestling manager, always seemed to be dating some cute, well-endowed female student at Lehigh who worked at the store and was 20-25 years younger than him (this was in the late 1990's), always was blasting some interesting music on the store's speakers, and was always smoking cigarettes (the smoke at the store is something I could have lived without). It is (or at least was) by far the best indie record store in the Lehigh Valley, especially after the also excellent Toones at 19th and Hamilton in Allentown went out of business back in 2000.

[CHIP72]

Incidentally, I think College Hill in Easton is pretty nice. Downtown Easton isn't bad, though IMO downtown Bethlehem is definitely nicer. Downtown Allentown may be still trying to recover from losing both Hess's (pronounced hesses) and Leh's in the mid-1990's and the sinkhole problems they had in the late 1990's (though I don't know that for sure because I haven't lived in the area for a number of years now).

FWIW, in terms of demographics I've long thought (since about 1996 when I had a job in the LV that in part involved driving kids in foster care to visits with their biological parent or parents) that the primary minority demographic in both Allentown and Bethlehem was Latino, while in Easton it was African-American (particularly on the south side south of the Lehigh River).