University Corners Purchased; Rebranded as "City Centre"

[SteelCityRising]

Another comparison:

Altoona, PA had a population of 46,320 per the official 2010 U.S. Census. That increased to an estimate of 46,662, according to the 2011 American Community Survey. The median household income in Altoona in 2011 was estimated to be $35,052. 19.3% of the population (about 1 in 5) lived below the poverty line. 15.2% of the population had attained at least a Bachelor's Degree. Blair County's unemployment rate in November 2012 was 6.6%.

As you can see Altoona is just slightly larger than Wilkes-Barre and is about the same size as Binghamton but has a healthier economy than both with far fewer residents living in poverty, a more robust employment picture, and a more comfortable median household income. Altoona has 75 police officers (couldn't find how many of those were "patrol officers") as compared with 64 in Wilkes-Barre and 66 in Binghamton. Altoona's crime index of 214.0 is MUCH safer than the national average, Wilkes-Barre, and Binghamton.

Altoona is a good poster child of how a city should be focusing on crime reduction by instead targeting socioeconomic ills such as poverty and unemployment. Wilkes-Barre is currently being REACTIVE by dispatching police to respond to the aftermath of crime instead of being PROACTIVE by having an administration that would more aggressively combat poverty and unemployment, which in and of itself would reduce crime.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Another comparison:

Altoona, PA had a population of 46,320 per the official 2010 U.S. Census. That increased to an estimate of 46,662, according to the 2011 American Community Survey. The median household income in Altoona in 2011 was estimated to be $35,052. 19.3% of the population (about 1 in 5) lived below the poverty line. 15.2% of the population had attained at least a Bachelor's Degree. Blair County's unemployment rate in November 2012 was 6.6%.

As you can see Altoona is just slightly larger than Wilkes-Barre and is about the same size as Binghamton but has a healthier economy than both with far fewer residents living in poverty, a more robust employment picture, and a more comfortable median household income. Altoona has 75 police officers (couldn't find how many of those were "patrol officers") as compared with 64 in Wilkes-Barre and 66 in Binghamton. Altoona's crime index of 214.0 is MUCH safer than the national average, Wilkes-Barre, and Binghamton.

Altoona is a good poster child of how a city should be focusing on crime reduction by instead targeting socioeconomic ills such as poverty and unemployment. Wilkes-Barre is currently being REACTIVE by dispatching police to respond to the aftermath of crime instead of being PROACTIVE by having an administration that would more aggressively combat poverty and unemployment, which in and of itself would reduce crime.

But none of that answers why the majority of WBPD patrol officers don't, I don't know, PATROL the city. Nor does it answer why it takes so long to have a cop dispatched to the scene of a crime.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

But none of that answers why the majority of WBPD patrol officers don't, I don't know, PATROL the city. Nor does it answer why it takes so long to have a cop dispatched to the scene of a crime.

Fair enough. Other than being short-staffed when you've called I don't know what else the excuse may be. I've had to call 911 in Pittsburgh three times since moving here---once when two people across the street were fist-fighting on the sidewalk, once when my landlady/neighbor had been the victim of domestic violence, and once when my car was totaled in an accident while on a delivery. Each time the police here responded very rapidly, and the police were always very professional, conscientious, and upstanding. Perhaps Pittsburgh's police officers were hired mostly based upon merit whereas many officers in Wilkes-Barre received their jobs politically over the years? While I do agree with the principle of unions in general I hope Wilkes-Barre's police union isn't just letting lazy or ineffective officers retain their employment for being in a union and nothing else.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Wilkes-Barre is currently being REACTIVE by dispatching police to respond to the aftermath of crime instead of being PROACTIVE by having an administration that would more aggressively combat poverty and unemployment, which in and of itself would reduce crime.

If I were fortunate enough to be elected mayor I'd admittedly be outside the city quite frequently on economic missions, banging on the doors of reputable corporations and enthusiastically recommending they consider establishing a site in Wilkes-Barre by extolling its virtues. We have a lot of great institutions of higher learning in NEPA, and while they may not be on the same keel as Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, or even Carnegie Mellon here in Pittsburgh they DO produce thousands of bright young graduates annually with the majority of them moving away for work. If I could convince companies in NYC it would be cheaper for them to have back-offices in a place like Downtown Wilkes-Barre from a real estate and general overhead perspective and then convince them they could pay lower salaries than are offered in NYC (while still being good for Wilkes-Barre, which has a much lower cost-of-living than NYC) to attract fresh talent from local universities, then there's a great chance Wilkes-Barre could see a great economic revival.

Never underestimate the "pull" a good college program can have for a city. Here in Pittsburgh the popularity and repute of certain programs at Carnegie Mellon University has now made the city a leader in robotics development and research and has attracted firms like Google and Apple, which actually has an office right on CMU's campus. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) works in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh to attract a lot of brilliant medical and scientific researchers and scholars and opportunities for new graduates to stay here in the city. This has resulted in the city's population GROWING again, and we've successfully reinvented our economy in a very short period of time. Then again our mayor has also been on those same sorts of economic trips I mentioned above whereas I can't remember the last time Mayor Leighton went on a mission to court high-quality employers to site themselves in the Diamond City.

The more and more I keep posting about this subject the more and more I want to come back and run for office.

[Magritte25]

I don't know what Leighton does to pull in companies here, if anything. We have a lot of very good schools here - Wilkes, Kings, Miseri, Marywood, Penn State and LCCC. It's a real shame that all of those graduating students are almost forced to leave the area because of lack of good opportunities here.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

I don't know what Leighton does to pull in companies here, if anything. We have a lot of very good schools here - Wilkes, Kings, Miseri, Marywood, Penn State and LCCC. It's a real shame that all of those graduating students are almost forced to leave the area because of lack of good opportunities here.

What the area needs is to assemble a team, perhaps called the "NEPA Economic Advisory Board", where a representative from each of the institutions of higher learning, the mayors of the primary cities in the metro area, chamber of commerce officials, and local business leaders meet on a monthly basis to brainstorm ways they can leverage ALL of their assets to help attract better employment opportunities to the region. Perhaps they can then make semi-annual envoys to NYC, NJ, Philadelphia, and other areas where it's expensive to do business and convince some business leaders to shift operations here or to at least off-load some of the work that CAN be done here.

If a company has to pay a salary of $75,000 to attract top talent in NYC when factoring in cost-of-living but can pay that same employee $50,000 in Wilkes-Barre, then the company saves $25,000 annually in labor right off the bat, and the employee in Wilkes-Barre is happy to be making $50,000, which is a very comfortable salary by local standards. The city reaps a higher dollar figure in terms of earned income tax from someone making $50,000 vs. someone making $25,000. It's a win-win for everyone.