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Hello! So, I am planning a visit to my boyfriend's extended family this summer. They live in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area and I should be there for about two months. I have never been there personally so I am wondering about what it's like! I'm a gay, eco-minded person with left wing socialist politics, and while I understand that isn't the norm there, I am interested in checking out any groups or organizations that may be holding rallies or meetings on ecological sustainability, 15Now, maybe LGBTQ groups while I am there. I am a student at UW focusing on climate science and social justice, so I am quite interested in east coast equivalents to the organizations we have here in Seattle.
What is the LGBTQ population like? Where do they go to hang out? What do they do for fun?
What are the fun things to do in the summer?
Can anyone recommend any good coffee houses (if any, God I hope so) where I would be able to deliver out a standard Seattle coffee order and have it done properly? (Comparable to a Caffe Vita or a Victrola. NO Starbucks, please)
I will be spending a good portion of the trip in the following cities: WilkesBarre, Pittston, Back Mountain, Hazleton and Larksville. What can I expect in these places? Is the public transport system reliable enough to get from one place to the next in a timely fashion? Or is walking/biking recommended?
I also enjoy marijuana a great deal, and although I understand it is still considered illegal there, my question is HOW illegal? Do people truly hassle you for it or do they leave you alone if you aren't being obnoxious about it?
Is it an expensive place to visit?
What are some of the local museums? I am looking for art, history, etc.
What can you tell me about the local cuisine? I am very eager to try some Forge Pizza!) Are there any local specialties that I should not miss?
Where are the best organic markets for groceries? I am a pescatarian, primarily fish and vegetables with some cheese, eggs and dairy being alright.
Most importantly, tell me about the people!! Immersing myself in a new culture has been something I've been wanting to do my entire life.
And tell me what you like about this area! I have never been outside of the Pacific Northwest (WA, BC, OR), and while I love it here, I am thrilled for the chance to get to explore another culture and see what it's like!!!
Hope you will have a great visit. I've been to your area (had a cousin in Marysville), and really enjoyed my time there.
You certainly won't find here all that you have in Seattle. We love our coffee, but you will find it mainly in donut shops like Curry Donuts. The population here has a high elderly ratio with their history steeply based in anthracite coal mining. A museum and tour really worth visiting is Coal Mine « Lackawanna County You ride down into an actual mine and the tour guides are often retired coal miners.
Old Forge does have plenty of restaurants, many of them Italian, so it's a haven for pizza and pasta. I grew up in Pittston and the downtown there is revitalizing and has really come a long way. The Tomato Bistro is a unique place wonderfully transformed from a former dive bar.
Luzerne County's bus transportation is good. www.lctabus.com
Lackawanna County (Scranton area) has the COLTS bus system. www.coltsbus.com
We have the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (Yankees AAA team) if you like baseball. And there are plenty of outdoor recreation activities with the Susquehanna River and some state parks around, as well as some decent hiking trails in the Lackawanna State Forest.
The cost of living isn't bad here, so you should find things less costly than Seattle.
This is only a bit of information and I'm sorry I don't have enough knowledge about all your questions. But ask away, and I'm sure others will chime in.
Odessa - A real coal mine sounds awesome! That's exactly what I'm looking for! Local history, especially hands-on stuff like that. It sounds delightful!!
I have only seen east coast style diners in film and on television, so a Curry Donuts sounds like fun! (I was worried for a second that they baked donuts made with curry, but Google corrected me! )
The state parks and hiking trails are something that interests me very much, I'm an avid outdoor explorer (either urban or in the mountains) and I am very happy to hear that there are fun outdoor adventures to be had!
I hope you enjoyed Marysville. Despite the recent tragedy, it is a fine community and they represent the resilient spirit and very best of Washington State.
Thank you so much for your great suggestions! I look forward to hearing more!! I am sure I will love my time in your area!
My apologies for the previous show of manners; for the record, I hold to strong social libertarian, but economic conservative beliefs. I believe in "live and let live" but there has been a lot of tacky behavior of late .... on both sides of the divide.
There is a stronger-than-expected fine arts scene in the area, and you can get some feel of it via WVIA-FM, which broadcasts over the 'Net.
This is a predominately older region, and not a particularly wealthy one; politics were still stuck in the New Deal era until about a decade ago. The old "heavy industry" jobs are gone, and too many of the locals want to live in the past.
Of the five communities you mentioned, only the "Back Mountain" area (Dallas, Shavertown, Trucksville) resembles an upscale suburb. The Poconos took in a lot of "odd cases" when the economy in New York melted down a few years ago. Hazleton attracts a lot of Latinos in the way Allentown used to, but Wilkes-Barre and Pittston cater to the retirees and burn-outs. There is a small "urbanite" community centered near downtown Kingston.
We probably have as many LGBT residents as anywhere else; it just isn't advertised -- the lawsuits against bakeries and the like run by people with strong religious beliefs have likely intensified the polarization. I'm sure LGBT's have their own "scene", but I'm not the one to ask where. Some years back, Wilkes-Barre had "The Coming Out", a greeting-card and party-supply store catering to a G & L market; it didn't draw much hostility, but it eventually went out of business. We do have "alternative grocers" and the like, and a fair share of local coffee shops as well.
Public transit is poor; the local bus services funnel everything into, and out of downtown, and close when they roll up the sidewalks. No Amtrak; plenty of bus service to New York, and connections to Philly, but not too much else. We have one very good amusement park (Knoebel's, near Shamokin) and a water park at CamelBeach, near Stroudsburg. Plenty of hiking, camping and fishing as well.
Pizza is the local "diet staple"; you don't have to go to Old Forge to get the good stuff.
Of all the questions, the one on marijuana is the most difficult. I saw my share of it back in the Seventies, but most of the grass aficionados I knew back then changed their attitudes when they settled down. There is zero chance of relaxation of the marijuana laws in Pennsylvania anytime soon; if it can't be bought at a beer distributor or a "state store" (we still have a state liquor monopoly as well) the locals are agin' it. So if you're going to indulge, be very discrete and very careful. A substantial portion of the "hard drug" scene has migrated here from the Coastal cities, and it has provoked a strong backlash.
That about sums things up. As I said before, you can get a good feel for the more "open" parts of the area via our local PBS -- a very eclectic mix, including local artists, on weekday evenings. You're highly unlikely to encounter any open hostility here, but you will find out "how the other half lives".
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 07-06-2015 at 11:47 PM..
I'm a liberal gay 20-something male who moved out of Luzerne County in 2009 because it wasn't progressive or forward-thinking enough. I'm not flamboyant, yet I still faced hostility for being "different" in a very parochial area. As has already been noted Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is very much stuck in the past on many levels. While some consider that to be "cute" or "folksy" I just consider it to be very detrimental to the region's chances of securing better career opportunities than warehousing jobs, call centers, or big-box retail. Few people in the region see the value in higher education (most just complain that the colleges don't pay taxes, actually), and many of those that do see the value relocate for greener economic pastures. Up until a couple of months ago Scranton/Wilkes-Barre led the state in unemployment for years and is now only marginally better than the worst-off metropolitan area of Johnstown. It's the classic "chicken or the egg" phenomenon in that region---college graduates don't want to stay and be underemployed yet better-paying employers won't come to an area with a low level of educational attainment.
I hail from Pittston, which, as of late, may just be the epicenter of LGBT life in NEPA. The NEPA Rainbow Alliance recently moved their headquarters to South Main Street; the town was the first jurisdiction in the region to enact legislation prohibiting discrimination against the LGBT community; and it is now experiencing some modicum of success in urban revitalization via catering to the artistic community. When I was growing up there I knew of VERY few LGBT people in Greater Pittston and felt lonesome; however, that was the early-2000s, and in the past decade it seems like either the LGBT population there has grown OR the inherent LGBT population has become more "open" since we're starting to become more tolerated and/or accepted on a national scale.
Clarks Summit, and the surrounding area known as "The Abingtons", is by far the region's epicenter of affluence and intellect. There is a great organic foods store right on State Street in Downtown Clarks Summit called Everything Natural that I used to love patronizing. The nearby State Street Grille had great sweet potato fries. That part of the area is the biggest magnet for educated out-of-state transplants, and there is a decent LGBT population there. I also found that Kingston/Forty Fort had a relatively high LGBT population.
As far as places with good coffee are concerned I'm a Starbucks loyalist (ducks flying stilettos), but I've heard great things about the coffee at The Bake House in Kingston; Northern Light Espresso Bar in Downtown Scranton; Zummo's in Scranton's Green Ridge neighborhood; and Callahan's in Downtown Pittston.
The weed culture is indeed very underground in NEPA. When living there it seemed like ~50% of the population had either a cigarette smoking or alcohol problem (heralding back to the fact that the locals still can't accept the mines shut down in 1959), but I never smelled the distinctive odor of marijuana, nor did I know of anyone who partook. You're talking about a state that just barely legalized same-sex marriage before being forced to, like Ohio did, and you're also talking about a state that still has many businesses closed on Sundays so people can go to church. I wouldn't bet on recreational marijuana usage being legalized here anytime soon, despite the potentially lucrative results of taxation.
If you're going to be here without a car, then, to be quite frank, you're going to be miserable. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is a very sprawling car-dominated area. The fact that I-81 is a stop-and-go parking lot during the evening rush while the cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are both as small as they are (populations of ~76,000 and ~41,000, respectively) should tell you a lot about the region's poor land usage policies. While most of the country has shifted towards the trend of urban living so one can live within walking distance of restaurants, markets, workplaces, parks, houses of worship, culture, shopping, etc. in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre both core cities are continuing to bleed residents while the newer suburban areas continue to grow, leading to more traffic congestion on the highways in the long run. Years ago I predicted that the Shoppes at Montage "lifestyle center" built in Moosic, just south of Scranton, would destroy the Mall at Steamtown in Downtown Scranton. I was correct. If you don't know how to drive I'd suggest learning how to now and then renting a car---at least on some days---when you're in the region to get on out and explore.
Some of my favorite places in the region?
-Ricketts Glen State Park (hike the Falls Trail with a sturdy pair of shoes, as the trail can be slippery)!
-Wegman's (sort of like Whole Foods).
-Hillside Farms Dairy and the surrounding preserve (in the Back Mountain)
-Harvey's Lake (nice place to bike)
-Lake Scranton (great place to run and be chased by mooching squirrels)!
-Boscov's in Downtown Wilkes-Barre (ridiculously "dated" yet it also ushers in a sense of nostalgia).
-Agolino's, West Pittston (good breakfast)
-Wyoming Valley Levee System (nice paved trail atop the levee overlooking the river).
-Luzerne County Courthouse (gorgeous architecture).
-F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Wilkes-Barre
-Everhart Museum, Scranton
-Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour, Scranton
-Nay Aug Park, Scranton
-Sabatini's Pizza, Exeter (also just opened up a specialty craft beer bar across the parking lot).
-Knoebel's (about an hour away in Northumberland County, but great and cheap if you like rides)!
-Scranton Cultural Center
-Minooka Pastry Shop, Scranton
I actually have a gay 20-something uber-liberal, weed-loving Facebook friend from the Back Mountain who now lives on Capitol Hill in Seattle, and your post immediately made me think of him.
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