HELP!!! What areas of Wilkes Barre PA are good to move to with a family {NOT GHETTO } (Scranton: apartments, credit check)

[Searching To Move]

Hi Everyone!! I'm having a hard time finding recent posts 2012 about the Wilkes Barre ,PA Communties.I want to move there with my family but I am told of certain blocks that are REALLY GHETTO,drugs,bad schools,only black with no other races or cultures ,& just out right bad . Some people tell me streets and say stay away from the southside but other's say some of the southside are still good. I'm very confused and would really like for as many people who live there in Wilkes Barre to tell me the REAL DEAL of what areas to look into? Also I need the drug areas ,street names to stay the heck away from .BTW Is Carey Avenue ok and El Meyers High School or has that changed too ? Thank You !PLEASE HELP ASAP !

[2nd trick op]

Within the City of Wilkes-Barre proper, there is virtually nothing. Ditto for Pittston, Plymouth and Nanticoke, although Kingston has a small, apartment-centered upscale enclave (not suited for a family, however). Anyone with a future to protect has been focused on the higher ground in the suburbs since the low-lying areas were flooded out over forty years ago. I'd suggest the "Back Mountain" communities of Dallas, Shavertown, Trucksville, etc., although the hills on the east side of the Susquehanna are equally safe, and probably a bit more rural in character.

Wilkes-Barre has several fine colleges, and I think many would agree that the artisic and cultural opportunites are somewhat above average. The problem is that the area, particularly the older, low lying communities, are also home to a hard-core detritus of people who just don't understand how to function in a post-industrial economy, and nobody seems to know how to motivate them.

[new-era]

Why do you have to move just to Wilkes Barre? There's several better options in small towns within 10 to 15 minutes of Wilkes barre. There is no bad traffic issues in Nepa outside of the penn dot projects. I would be concerned with Wilkes barre because I think it will get worse and there's definitely issues there with violence drugs and just a thug mentality.

[papatriot7]

I'm a 20 year old that attends King's College and I really couldn't tell you where drugs houses are, not exactly my scene. I would say it seems there are safe places in SWB. Academy St especially the West end of it seems very nice to me. If I had to stay away from a section of WB it would be the hills section. GAR is not a very desirable high school and place just looks run down. You will be looking at weekend parties around South St and Franklin St with Wilkes U and North Main St for King's. If I you wanted to live out of Wilkes-Barre I would highly recommend Pittston the place seems to be on the upswing. Pittston Area is also a very respectable high school.

[auntieannie68]

i would recommend wyoming,west wyoming,forty fort,and the area behind the now closed st.theresa's church in wb---it is off river road towards the end of river road-----btw---this whole area has sections of ghettoness and it is NOT ALL MINORITY INHABITATED----this area has uniquely white "ghettos"

[Mr Yuk]

In the city of Wilkes-Barre, if you don't have kids and don't have to worry about W-B schools, I'd say Parsons and Miners Mills still seem like decent parts of the city. Otherwise like auntieanne mentioned, Wyoming, West Wyoming, Forty Fort are all nice enough towns. I'd add in Plains (but once again in W-B school district, which I would avoid with kids)....also Dupont, Duryea, and Avoca, but they might be getting a little far from Wilkes-Barre, you're halfway or more to Scranton in that area.

[sheena12]

Originally Posted by Searching To Move

Hi Everyone!! I'm having a hard time finding recent posts 2012 about the Wilkes Barre ,PA Communties.I want to move there with my family but I am told of certain blocks that are REALLY GHETTO,drugs,bad schools,only black with no other races or cultures ,& just out right bad . Some people tell me streets and say stay away from the southside but other's say some of the southside are still good. I'm very confused and would really like for as many people who live there in Wilkes Barre to tell me the REAL DEAL of what areas to look into? Also I need the drug areas ,street names to stay the heck away from .BTW Is Carey Avenue ok and El Meyers High School or has that changed too ? Thank You !PLEASE HELP ASAP !

Some areas, as in all cities are less desirable than others.

I am a transplant too, and I was told to "stay away from the South Side" by almost everyone. I wish I hadn't listened.

There is an area of the South Side that I don't like but most of my friends live in South Side. Actually almost all with a few on the East Side.
Most of Old River Rd and Riverside Drive are beautiful and are the streets around that area. West Academy is nice, New Alexander, New Elizabeth, Charles, Edison, Birch, Amherst are all solidly middle to upper middle class. There are many others but I know people who live on each of these streets who are middle class, normal family people. One family is black. He is an X-Ray technician and she is an RN. They have three nice kids, one at Bloosburg U studying to be a teacher. If you want to avoid people like that, I can't help you there.

I don't particularly care what race someone is. I do care if they are trashy, have a huge number of multiple "boy friends" and unruly children and if there is a lot of hanging out on the front porch and coming and going of cars for quick visits.

If that's what you want to avoid, avoiding ALL OF THE SOUTH SIDE will rule out some very nice blocks and beautiful homes and good people.

I however was steered to the North End. It's not great here. At least on my block we have an abandoned 17 room house and a multi "family" - and I use the term loosely.

In South W-B I'd avoid Samborne, Wood,parts of Academy (not West Academy) parts Carey, Walnut and others. I think Sanbourne has everything you are not looking for.

I would drive around, If you see a shabby frame multi family with lots of people hanging out, adults home in the day - it's not going to be good.


A brick apartment building with security is not a sign of a bad neighborhood. They are well maintained with quiet older residents, students and single professionals. A friend of mine moved here from NY and lives in one. She's a professor and she had to pass a background and credit check to live there.

Also, avoid streets with many duplex homes or "double blocks" as they are called here. There will be more transient, just as the people in muli-family shabby homes are.

As far as schools with in the city of Wilkes-Barre and high schools, I don't use them. I have little knowledge of elementary schools.

I don't really think Meyer's is any worse than the other two failing schools.
If you have very, dedicated and socially selective and discriminating honors students, who do not make friends easily and are very focused. I mean VERY FOCUSED.
I also know some people who used the inner city schools who had average students who ended up getting pregnant in high school.

I'm from the suburbs and this does not happen there. If it does it's taken care of privately one way or another.

I send my children to Holy Redeemer HS which is a Catholic School. We are not Catholic but we chose it because the Academics are good and it's very safe.

Since homes in the area are so inexpensive, and taxes so low, we thought it was a wortwhile investment.

There are areas of Wilkes Barre that are just as pretty and tree-lined as Kingston and Forty Fort but are 10 to 50K less.

Hope that this was of some help.

[Chefkey]

Originally Posted by papatriot7

I'm a 20 year old that attends King's College and I really couldn't tell you where drugs houses are, not exactly my scene. I would say it seems there are safe places in SWB. Academy St especially the West end of it seems very nice to me. If I had to stay away from a section of WB it would be the hills section. GAR is not a very desirable high school and place just looks run down. You will be looking at weekend parties around South St and Franklin St with Wilkes U and North Main St for King's. If I you wanted to live out of Wilkes-Barre I would highly recommend Pittston the place seems to be on the upswing. Pittston Area is also a very respectable high school.

I live in the hills and think it is the nicest area of the town so I suppose it is what you see and are told. I live on a wide street lined with trees, the houses all look nice and it is quiet. No riff raff here.

The area that Sheena mentioned in the South is nice, I walk my dogs along the river there. I'm not sure about the prices there though, it is possible many of the houses there are higher.

I did check a price for a house near the river and it was around $200,000 but it was a really nice house. Maybe a few blocks in around there and you can get below $100,000. But up in the hills you can get a house like I saw near the river for $100,000.

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by Chefkey

I live in the hills and think it is the nicest area of the town so I suppose it is what you see and are told. I live on a wide street lined with trees, the houses all look nice and it is quiet. No riff raff here.

The area that Sheena mentioned in the South is nice, I walk my dogs along the river there. I'm not sure about the prices there though, it is possible many of the houses there are higher.

I did check a price for a house near the river and it was around $200,000 but it was a really nice house. Maybe a few blocks in around there and you can get below $100,000. But up in the hills you can get a house like I saw near the river for $100,000.

The heights just gets a bad rap because of Sherman Hills. If you took Sherman Hills out of there, I see nothing really wrong with the heights.

[Gerania]

Didn't they rename those? My husband's grandmother used to live there. New management came in and renovated all of the apartments.

My mother has lived in the heights for, oh, 50 years. Once, in the '70s, a few things were stolen from her car. It's not Disney, but it's a pretty solid area.