Where Exactly in this forum does Carbon County Fit

[Poncho_NM]

Carbon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2000, the population was 58,802.

Carbon County marks the northern border of the Lehigh Valley region of the state and is considered part of the state's Coal Region, though the eastern and northeastern section is considered part of the Pocono Mountains region. Most consider lower Carbon County, including Palmerton and Lehighton areas, as part of the Lehigh Valley in spite of being north of Blue Mountain.

ref: Carbon County, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rich

[CHIP72]

It looks like the original question has been answered, but to throw in my 2 cents, Carbon County is in northeastern PA, but because most of the county is much closer to the Allentown/Bethlehem area than the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, it associates itself with the Lehigh Valley, even if it technically is not part of the Lehigh Valley. Also, I'd say only the eastern part of Carbon County is part of the Poconos, but again, it is close enough to the Poconos that it associates itself with that area.

Monroe County (which is clearly the Poconos) is another area that aligns itself more strongly with the Lehigh Valley (though moreso with Northampton County/Easton) than Scranton/Wilkes-Barre IMO, though that alignment isn't quite as strong in Monroe County as it is in Carbon County.

(Disclosure - I grew up about 5 miles south of the Blue Mountain, about 20-25 miles from Lehighton and 20-25 miles from Stroudsburg, so my perception of Carbon and Monroe Counties, both of which I considered "local but not local" when I was growing up, is colored by that. I definitely associated most of both Carbon and Monroe Counties more with "us", i.e. the Lehigh Valley, than with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, even if neither county was in the Lehigh Valley. Part of that was due to the fact that most Carbon and Monroe County high schools periodically play Lehigh Valley schools in high school sports - in fact when I was young all of the Monroe County and the two southernmost Carbon County schools - Palmerton and Lehighton - were in a league with a few schools in northern Lehigh County. Also, both Carbon and Monroe Counties are in PIAA District 11, which also includes Lehigh and Northampton Counties, and that means schools from all of those counties play one another in the District playoffs.)

[Jim Hagger]

To fix this problem, you would have the Lehigh Valley become part of the Poconos. The Poconos would be a region and then be divided into sub regions, the Lehigh Valley would be a sub region of the Poconos. Easton does look like a Pocono town!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Jim Hagger

To fix this problem, you would have the Lehigh Valley become part of the Poconos. The Poconos would be a region and then be divided into sub regions, the Lehigh Valley would be a sub region of the Poconos. Easton does look like a Pocono town!

No. Lehigh Valley is definitely not part of the Poconos. To me Jim Thorpe is NEPA. Lehighton/Palmerton are Lehigh Valley. To me the county is split.

[John F S]

The school is named Lehigh-Carbon Community College (LCCC).
So I would consider Carbon County to belong to this forum.

[toobusytoday]

We're really not voting here and posts regarding places in Carbon county will continue to be directed to the NEPA forum. The posters there consider Carbon County to be part of NEPA and the Poconos and that's where they post and where someone asking about Carbon County will most likely to get relevant answers.

And a note - this thread was started in 2008. Hopefully the poster that started this thread found a place to live

[Jim Hagger]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

No. Lehigh Valley is definitely not part of the Poconos. To me Jim Thorpe is NEPA. Lehighton/Palmerton are Lehigh Valley. To me the county is split.

No, no, no. That’s not what I said. I didn’t say the Lehigh Valley is part of the Poconos. I said the Lehigh Valley should become part of the Poconos. The Lehigh Valley will then use its own identity and the Poconos identity at the same time. The Lehigh Valley would become a sub region of the Poconos, the current form of the Poconos will assume a new name, Lackawaxen Valley would be a good name. So you would have 3 sub regions of the Poconos: Lehigh Valley, Lackawaxen Valley which is Pocono proper, Wyoming Valley. Maybe you can do a fourth sub region. I also think Northwest New Jersey should be part of the Poconos cause it shares the same geological features with the Poconos. To me, the Poconos should not be defined where the Pocono Mountains are, but rather also be defined by other similar geographic features besides the mountains. The culture in Northwest New Jersey and in the Lehigh Valley is similar to the culture of the Poconos too.

[wharton]

Jim, I couldn't disagree more. I'm a young retiree. I grew up in the Lehigh Valley, moved to western Monroe county in "the Poconos" as a young adult, and later ran a business in, and relocated to Carbon County. The Lehigh Valley has little in common with the regions to the north. Within the last twelve years, I popped more than a few bubbles of hope, after the great recession struck and the Pocono real estate market tanked. I had several realtors and others express the theory that everything from the new turnpike exchange in Carbon county, to the drastic price differential from the LV, were going to cause a new migration, even mass migration, as folks see the wisdom of leaving the LV and heading north. I knew that it was never going to happen, since folks from the LV have very little interest in heading north, and the ones in Carbon and the coal regions in general, aren't going anywhere either. I spent decades working in a high paying field in the Lehigh valley. I had eight hundred co-workers who could live wherever the wanted. I watched them pay ever increasing costs to live in the valley, and in the end less than a dozen actually lived "north of the blue". Bottom line is that it just isn't a pair of regions with a lot of cross connectivity with the exception of shopping, and good jobs.

Carbon is another interesting place. "Up on the mountain" east of Jim Thorpe, there are close ties to the Poconos, with thousands of vacations homes, planned mountain and lake communities, ski resorts, etc. North and west of Jim Thorpe is old hard coal country, which is in perpetual decline, but full of tough folks that stick together. The low country surrounding Lehighton is classic rural PA, and Palmerton seems to be a Lehigh Valley town that got stuck on the wrong side of the Blue Mountain. As a resident, I always got the feeling that any claims to Carbon being part of the Poconos were pretty thin, and largely a figment of the Pocono mountain Vacation Bureau, who help pump up the railroad, and other activities centered in Jim Thorpe. Seemed to me that the Carbon locals I know have little interest in anything Pocono.

Many would be offended that you claim that both regions of PA are so culturally similar to any part of Jersey. Native and long term Pocono residents saw a great change in their quality of life over the last thirty years. Many (most?) believe that it's not been an improvement, and many blame it on the caliber of those migrating from NJ and NYC. Finally, until you spend a lot of time with folks from all the sub-regions of the area, it's hard to imagine how loyal folks are to their communities and regions, and how little interest they have in other areas, or being associated with them. This loyalty is admirable strong in coal country and the WB/Scranton area. Tell those folks that "you should be lumped in with the Poconos, since it's all the same" then jump back and watch the fireworks.