Move to Bloomsburg or Lewisburg, PA? (Wilkes-Barre, York: apartment, rentals, amusement park)

[Bike4Life]

Requesting feedback on relocating here.

My wife is being offered a new job at Bloomsburg University but I've never lived in a city with less than 5 million people. I'm used to being around city stimulation and traffic as a form of entertainment. At 45, I'm fairly comfortable where I am with convenience, challenging urban schools, and children's sports. Now, I may have to pull the stakes from Houston, TX and move up here.

Area of Interest: Bloomsburg and Lewisburg
Housing: rent a 3 or 4 bedroom condo or house for up to $1,500 a month. We think the current housing prices are not in sync with the long-term market value. For instance, I saw a house that I might like but when I looked up the price history, it was worth $75K less only a year ago and $115K less two years ago.
Demographics: White Christian, college educated professionals.
School Level of Interest: Grade 5th – 12th, swimming, football, baseball, and gymnastics.
Entertainment: road cycling, long-distant running, fishing, dining, reading books, movies, church youth group, teen activities, and open to new outdoor activities such as camping and kayaking.
Shopping: supports locally owned businesses, online, or Target. I never shop at Walmart.
More on Housing: I’m picky for an excellent floor plan, curb appeal, craftsman details, and coziness. We currently live in a mid-century home in the city. We are open to consider an old home that needs to be fixed up but move-in ready would be nice. However, we won’t buy a cookie-cutter flip-house with cheap Home Depot fixtures. We prefer to live on a lively, walkable urban street but a family-friendly street might be acceptable.

[Wells5]

If you like living in a large diverse metropolitan environment with "challenging urban schools," you won't like the central Susquehanna valley. The area is composed of many small towns and a demographic that is mostly white and of Germanic descent. It's also not clear if you have children or if you intend to find employment for yourself.

The cost of first class housing in Bloomsburg and especially in Lewisburg is driven by the highly paid professional staff at Geisinger Medical Center. See link below for market rate apartment or townhouse rentals in the area.

THE YODER GROUP

Both Bloomsburg and Lewisburg have walkable downtowns and residential streets. Bloomsburg and Southern Columbia schools are good while Lewisburg schools have a very high rating.

For urban excitement, sports and cultural happenings, Bloomsburg is less than 150 miles to New York City, so close in fact that people can make a day trip there and back.

There are a variety of local restaurants and nationally franchised restaurants in the area but no Luby's.

The offer that BU made to your wife must be awfully good to entice her to move to the area.

[Bike4Life]

Thank you Wells5 for the input. Good to know that this area is locally known as "central Susquehanna valley". And yes, that will be my temperament test to live in a small town versus a cosmopolitan city. I don't really have much choice as my wife is ready to go. Fortunately, I'm more mature now and night-life is not as important as it used to be and I generally have a positive outlook in life.

We have four children from 5th to 10th grade for next Fall. I'm semi-retired/self-employed as a CPA so employment is not an issue for me but I may be open to seek employment in the future. Our comfortable housing price range is between $175K - $300K but I prefer to stay within the average price range in the area.

[bobconan]

That's gonna be quite an adjustment. I live in Wilkes-Barre (POP 45,000 part of a 300,000 person metro area) and after about 4 days in Bloomsburg I start to go a little stir crazy. Lewisburg has a much more upscale downtown than Bloom and is the most affluent town of that area. You would be closer to stores that include things like Croft and Barrow In Lewisburg as well(I dont think there is a Khol's within 45 miles. Wal-Mart is kind of a way of life in this part of the state. The only positive is that there is no traffic and your aversion to driving will change. You can drive 40 miles in the time it might take to drive 10 in big city traffic.

Honestly the biggest hit I think would come to any interests or hobbies your children might have. There are essentially no creative venues or outlets in the area. Its probably worth mentioning that even though it seems like small town america there are no issues finding "substances" in either town due to the colleges. There is however Knobels, which is the best amusement park in America and has free admission.

[Wells5]

I should add that as to swimming, Bloomsburg, Central Columbia and nearby Berwick Area S.D. have indoor lap and diving pools and participate in regional and state swimming leagues. Lewisburg S.D. does not have a pool, which is surprising given the wealthy nature of the district. They do have a varsity swim team but must use pools at Bucknell U. and Susquehanna U. for practice and meets.

[Bike4Life]

During my tour at one of the schools in Bloomsburg, I was intrigue when a candid lady commented, "If I were you, I would stay in Texas." I didn't have a chance to inquire why she said that as I got distracted to meet someone else. Obviously, I appreciated the satire as that kind of talk fits perfectly with my personality.

Can anyone tell me why she said that? From what I read elsewhere, I'm getting a negative vibe about out-of-state residents, especially city-slickers. Perhaps this is out of frustration with a lack of jobs and now we would be another clout in the employment system. I was told that the winters are mild, but I'm not so sure as they must be comparing to Rochester, NY instead of Texas. I also wonder if our children would be accepted when making new friends. Will there be teenage jobs available when they turn 16? One wants to become a lifeguard and I prefer that they avoid the fast food industry. When the children graduate from high school, do they tend to move away from NEPA?

So far, I'm not feeling confident about this move and it's a long way from our relatives.

And Wells5, it's more of a lateral move to BU with more benefits and teaching focus.

[Gerania]

We can only guess why she said that. Was she from the area, or did she miss her home town? Had she lived in a different state and prefer it? Maybe she liked the big city, too.

[2nd trick op]

Neither town is a "Hillbilly Heaven", but Bloomsburg does have a more-visible farm-and-factory element to its culture due to its former status as a textile mill town. Wages are somewhat below the national average (but not much different from any other part of rural, upstate Pennsylvania), and that has been traced all the way back to the area's status as a "Copperhead" county during the Civil War (google "Fishing Creek Confederacy").

The character of the two universities is quite different; Bucknell is often considered part of a "second tier" of private colleges only one notch removed from the Ivy League, while Bloomsburg was part of a network of "teacher's colleges" formed from smaller often-private efforts in the mid-Nineteenth Century. It has grown rapidly in recent years, and is probably second in prominence (after Indiana University of Pennsylvania) within that group.

And you might want to add Danville, which is home to a large hospital complex (Geisinger), to your list of areas under consideration; the ambience is very similar to the other two communities.

[bobconan]

Originally Posted by Bike4Life

Can anyone tell me why she said that?

Well, quite simply, a lot of people spend their whole lives trying to leave the area and when someone moves here it challenges that deeply held dream.

Staying at home making quilts is a pretty common activity.

If I had to boil it down to any one thing it would probably be that nothing changes. There's not a lot of visible progress in the area and there is even less opportunity. The excitement that in 5 years your life will be further along is missing from a lot of the population.

If I decided I wanted to be an engineer I would have very little chance of being able to put that degree to use if I stayed local. It's the same with most all non medical professions. People wait for 2 or 3 years to get a job at one of the State prisons.

In the traveling I've done, I always noticed that people talk about life plans and ambitions everywhere but here. The ambitions here tend to be more interpersonal, we talk about meeting with friends or summer fairs,festivals, generally any activity that puts you in proximity with others. I always felt like out of a lack of opportunity we focus on each other instead.

So ya, it never really seems like the future has much to offer over what is currently available now, people see its different other places and romanticize leaving.

Your theory on the origin of out of towner hate is spot on.

[Eascoaswing]

When I was 19 or 20 I lived right next to the old fire house in Bloomsburg and I loved it. I didn't even drive back then. Close to everything but not too close. College town with friendly people. Great summer weather and beautiful snowy winters but not so snowy that you can't leave the house for a week(except that one time in 1994). I am considering it as a possible back up option if Oregon and Washington don't pan out for a job soon. Another thing, everything out here is spread out but everything in the East is really close. Instead of driving 10 hours to get anywhere you can be in NYC, D.C., Cleveland, Canada, or at the beach in just a few hours so you have literally anything in at all available to you.

I still can not find a Mexican style blouse in El Paso but I love the schools compared to the one in Maryland before we moved. Texas did not adopt Common Core if that's of any interest to you.

I've only been in Texas for a few months but it's very different from anything on the East Coast. The weather especially. I can't say I would really enjoy moving back East but if I have to, the Bloomsburg area of Pennsylvania is probably my ideal location.