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I actually have considered looking to moving downtown should I re-lo back to the great northeast. I think it will start as a trickle from people who are willing to start small. I am surprized that there isn't a grocery - down here, there's one every 1/4 mile (or so it seems). But I digress..... Anything exciting happening over Thanksgiving?
I actually agree the threads always slide down and I guess my responding to the nonsense of a young man quibbling about how he does not feel that the taxes are a burden don't help. We were on track with what samvit started but it gets pulled in attention seeking hell. I have said earlier in the posts if we want the city to be attractive to business's then we have to make the tax impact on the BUSINESS'S favorable for them. I think that incubators and KOZ's are great ways to get a business up and running in the city but when the benefits of those come to a end the city has nothing in place to encourage business's to stay. If we want the downtown to look appealling and actually be appealling to companies we better do more than throw money at it and open up more coffee shops and dog boutiques. The bottom line whether its a comapny or a residence is money, i.e. taxes. The wage, merchantile and other various real estate and business taxes that the city puts on those already here and those just starting here are weighing too heavy on their bottom lines. Maybe if the city started to lower some of the business related taxes, then maybe these business's would want to open here or stay here. The city is seeing a exodus of some serious proporations in regards to companies and residents. The mid-valley industrial park is loaded with companies that used to call Scranton home. KOZ's are a short term answer with no long term follow thru. I for one would like to keep this thread focused on how we can help companies thru initatives and lower taxes to want to stay here and or move here and right now we have nothing in place but a over taxing system that drives companies away. The answers are not parks and small shops, the answers lie in our tax impacts on companies. The bottom line.
Samvit if you read my earlier post it was directed at the companies and the tax impacts on them. I will take some responsiblity for a diversion but not all. I'm not here for rep points or attention. I'm involved in many aspects of the city and want nothing more than positive change thru economics for the residents and business's.
I actually agree the threads always slide down and I guess my responding to the nonsense of a young man quibbling about how he does not feel that the taxes are a burden don't help. We were on track with what samvit started but it gets pulled in attention seeking hell. I have said earlier in the posts if we want the city to be attractive to business's then we have to make the tax impact on the BUSINESS'S favorable for them. I think that incubators and KOZ's are great ways to get a business up and running in the city but when the benefits of those come to a end the city has nothing in place to encourage business's to stay. If we want the downtown to look appealling and actually be appealling to companies we better do more than throw money at it and open up more coffee shops and dog boutiques. The bottom line whether its a comapny or a residence is money, i.e. taxes. The wage, merchantile and other various real estate and business taxes that the city puts on those already here and those just starting here are weighing too heavy on their bottom lines. Maybe if the city started to lower some of the business related taxes, then maybe these business's would want to open here or stay here. The city is seeing a exodus of some serious proporations in regards to companies and residents. The mid-valley industrial park is loaded with companies that used to call Scranton home. KOZ's are a short term answer with no long term follow thru. I for one would like to keep this thread focused on how we can help companies thru initatives and lower taxes to want to stay here and or move here and right now we have nothing in place but a over taxing system that drives companies away. The answers are not parks and small shops, the answers lie in our tax impacts on companies. The bottom line.
Samvit if you read my earlier post it was directed at the companies and the tax impacts on them. I will take some responsiblity for a diversion but not all. I'm not here for rep points or attention. I'm involved in many aspects of the city and want nothing more than positive change thru economics for the residents and business's.
What is your problem, Dan? My reply was nothing but considerate, and you turned around with name-calling and belittling in YOUR reply just because you disagreed with my point of view. You know, Dan, not everyone who isn't as "enlightened" as you about how "awful" life is in Scranton is deserved of belittling and degrading. I don't agree with you on just about any issue, yet you don't see me going around belittling YOU and calling YOU names, do you? THIS is what causes just about every thread on this sub-forum to degenerate into trash all the time, as I refuse to just let you reduce me to nothing all the time because I'm a "know-nothing kid still suckling from the teat" or whatever you have me pictured as in your mind's eye. I'm truly getting tired of it. You and I are currently the two most hated people on this sub-forum, and I resent you for that. If you disagree with my point of view, then do so CONSTRUCTIVELY, and keep the rude comments about my age, maturity level, residency, etc. OUT OF IT. If you continue on with the nastiness, then we're both going to wind up getting banned.
By the way, if what I post is "attention-seeking nonsense," then why do I have the highest number of "reads" on the entire forum? Apparently not everyone would concur with you that I have nothing of value to say.
Your residency is a clear issue in regards to Scranton. If you do not live here and you are not paying taxes then you have no standing on how the issues in the city of Scranton play out for the residents. You have no right to tell anyone that you feel that a 93.4% tax increase is not a burden. If you don't want to get banned them stop proclaiming that you know how a financial impact on a family is or is not a burden. It is what it is Paul, your 20 years old and you live at home in Pittston. Facts: You do not live in Scranton nor do you contribute to our tax base thru employment or property ownership. You cannot vote on Scranton issues, there for you have no standing on them. If you want to suggest what we should and should not do then fine go ahead, but do not sit here and tell people that you would have no problem paying the wage tax when your not, do not tell people that you feel that the 93.4% tax increase is not that bad or a burden when you don't pay any taxes at all. I really do not get involved in W/B issues or any other issue involing taxes on any other thread outside of Scranton because I DO NOT HAVE STANDING. See what I am saying here? I will not start another go around with you and your not pushing me into it either. I don't care if I'm hated(thats your opinion) and I don't care that by calling you out on this stuff has gotten you disliked either. As far as the reads you post in 5 times as many forums as I do and I do not spend my time and money on the photo tours like you do. If they're not a cry for attention then what is. Paul I'm done. I have posted very good points on how we can retain business here in Scranton only to have you come in and start this crap again and again, you just cannot leave it alone. I don't think that I said anything nasty, just realistic.
The whole point of this thread was viable strategies for progress in Scranton. And Dan makes some good points in his threads. The wage tax is killing the residents of Scranton which isn't viable. Bringing in specialty shoppes and boutiques doesn't help either because they are not wage sustaining and most of the residents don't care or can't afford these places. They will not bring this city back. Getting rid of Doherty and his fiscal mis-management is the first step for progress in Scranton. Never before has a mayor spend so much and the residents have gotten so little. I can say this because I actually live in the city and feel the burdens of wasteful spending and high taxes.
<<The whole point of this thread was viable strategies for progress in Scranton. And Dan makes some good points in his threads. The wage tax is killing the residents of Scranton which isn't viable.>>
Yep, I agree. A good general strategy to rejuvenate the city would involve making it more attractive to businesses from a tax standpoint, so that is very helpful feedback from Dan.
<<Never before has a mayor spend so much and the residents have gotten so little.>>
I've always wondered where all that money went. Has there ever been a breakdown on how much was spent on various initiatives? It's always mentioned that he spent a lot of money on the parks, but where else was the money spent? There's no way most of the $100 million (or is it 200 million?) was spent on Nay Aug Park. I can't believe it would take that much to clean it up. I would love to see a pie chart that shows where the money was spent.
The point of my photo tours isn't to be an attention ***** for myself, Dan, it's to attract attention to our area for those who might see it in a better light afterwards and add it onto their short list for places to consider relocating to. I don't know if you people have your heads stuck in the sand or what, but everywhere I turn around here I bump into people with a pi$$-poor attitude about life in general, and it truly does get on my nerves after a while. Instead of blaming some of their problems on themselves for making mistakes in life such as not going to college (hence earning those low salaries you quote) or for deciding to have a child out of wedlock that they couldn't afford, they'd rather deflect the blame towards the city, county, and region in which they reside to make matters even more miserable for everyone else who thinks the area is on the right track towards recovery.
Dan, you feel as if you're in a position of power because you're in the majority around here that sees the glass half-empty all the time, and you've become a bully. As for me, I'm continually driving myself into fits to try to garner more optimists onto my side of these Internet battles (not only on this message board, but on many others as well in which the pro-NEPA crowd is outnumber 99 to 1). I've said it before, and I'll say it again---NOBODY will want to invest in an area where its own residents have no faith in its recovery. Visit cities that ARE turning around and randomly poll their residents---I'm sure you'll find many people with abounding civic pride. The two traits go hand-in-hand. Scranton will continue to sit and decay as long as the majority of its own residents see no worth in promoting its image to new residents.
Just look at this recent "The Office" Convention that brought thousands of first-time tourists to the city. There are already dozens of blogs, YouTube videos, media articles, etc. out and about praising the city and the convention, yet all people in the city can do is b*tch that it shouldn't have happened if the city had to kick in $15,000 towards its budget. Too many in Scranton have this sort of short-sighted mentality. If that $15,000 chipped in towards the convention lured people here who will want to make repeat visits to the city or even ponder relocating here, then it's money well spent. I've already talked to a couple on another forum who said that they would love to come back to Scranton to explore it during better weather conditions, and I've made them well aware that I'd love to be their unofficial tour guide.
Why must everyone have such a sour grapes attitude on life. If you're not happy with where you are in life, then why not stop begrudging others who "have it better" and grab life by the horns to improve yourself?
P.S. If those of you in Scranton don't want "outsiders" giving their insight about the city, then let me know for sure as I'll be sure to go around telling prospective investors that their money is no good there since Scrantonians can band together and save the city on their own with no outside help.
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