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Yes, San Antonio and Scranton may be two completely different cities, but so are Scranton and Ithaca, which I often benchmark to one another. Dan has leaped down my throat in the past to remind me that Scranton is unique (I'm not saying that it isn't), but what I'm implying is that what has been successfully integrated into one city could likely more than easily be duplicated to bolster the revitalization of another. Wilkes-Barre, for example, has been given rave reviews for its beautiful new streetlights. Scranton could apply for a grant and likewise have its downtown streets lined with Victorian-era period lighting to complement its historic architecture. Binghamton has a downtown visitors' center. Why can't Scranton's be moved from the suburbs (Montage Mountain) to somwhere downtown with proper signage along I-81 directing people to it? I've often advocated that Ithaca's downtown pedestrian plaza should be replicated in Scranton, but I suppose the powers-that-be assumed that the Steamtown Mall (white elephant) was a better choice in the early-1990s when we could have had an atmosphere similar to the Shoppes at Montage right downtown.
There's no rule that says you can't borrow another city's ideas and adopt their strategies. What do you think happens at the annual PA Conference of Mayors? Different leaders from different cities bounce ideas off of one another.
Paul, I def. think that having a downtown plaza like The Shoppes at Montage would be a good idea. I never understood having an enclosed mall downtown when the Viewmont Mall, a few miles away, was there. I always thought that malls were placed in suburbs away from the city, not in the city itself. Then again there's the Manhattan Mall in midtown Manhattan near Madison Square Garden in NY. But I guess NYC is a far different animal than Scranton. You do have some good ideas though.
Yes the city is on an upswing, Blight issues are being addressed daily, vacant buildings are being torn down, lackawanna avenue is being revitalized, but I forgot you think we should just leave it alone, let the buildings crumble, and not do a thing about it. Yes, your attitude is really how the pride should be restored.Right?
There is no upswing when we have close to half of billion in long term debt. ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A UPSWING WHEN THE NATION IS IN A RECESSION AND WE ARE SO FAR IN DEBT THAT WE CAN'T SEE THE TOP OF THE HOLE ANYMORE.
I never said that we should leave it alone, what I have said is that we need a sound plan to do this. Whats being done right now is a joke, the mayor is throwing public funds around like cards on election day and we are getting nothing in return. Southside????????? The only reasons that Southside is getting anything are Judy Gatelli and Wayne Evans. They are getting their fair share from the public teet and in return the mayor gets a yes vote and the SHA voting blocks.
While other neighborhoods in the city are being allowed to go to down hill. Its that same old pay to play menatlity.
Why is it so hard to get a real PRIVATE DEVELOPER that can build these projects with private funds?
You know why, because these guys were not really developers till Doherty came into office. Look at Rinaldi and the Scranton life building. WE HAD TO MOVE OECD INTO HIS BUILDING THEY NEEDED MORE ROOM. Yet the majority of the 3rd and 4th floors of city hall are empty. Instead of using the space that we own, we'll move them over to my buddies place and we can pay him rent from the public teet. Typical
I wonder how many lawsuits have been filed against the city for illegal demos and condemnations? Lets face it there is not a qualified idiot anywhere in public safety or L&I and zoning. At least Kitlas and Fiorinni knew what the hell they were doing.
Your sheepish attitude is the joke here buddy not mine. You are willing to bury the taxpayers in debt so bad that it will take generations to dig out of it and for what? Southern Union and the 500 block.
How come we cannot get any real companies to move here and open up shop? Where are the family sustaining jobs that are needed to move a economy like Scranton along?
The downtown is nothing more then a facade that is hiding Doherty's mistakes and debt.
Lipstick and purfume are never enough to clean up a ugly duck like Scranton, we need a makeover and we need some real leadership that will move this city forward finacially and not backwards like we are doing right now. For every little pretty Doherty step you think we are making forward the mayor puts us millions and millions of steps behind every day.
It all looks good in the paper but the spread sheets tell a different story.
At least I have pride in my city and thats why I'm trying to save it. Where is your pride? In the flock? Thats why its easy for the sheep to be lead to the financial slaughter. Just keep pulling that straight democratic lever sooner or later it might pay off and I just hope you have a job and a house when it does.
Wow, Pittston looks like hell. Nanticoke even looks better then that! Pittston could be a beautiful community. It's a shame it's been let go that long. Being that Pittston is mid-way between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton it should be a quaint little suburban town that should be it's biggest selling point. The Pittston Chamber should be selling the fact that Pittston is smack dab in the center of the two biggest population centers in the region. I'm sure someone has figured this out by now. I'm suprised it's in such bad shape.
Wow, Pittston looks like hell. Nanticoke even looks better then that! Pittston could be a beautiful community. It's a shame it's been let go that long. Being that Pittston is mid-way between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton it should be a quaint little suburban town that should be it's biggest selling point. The Pittston Chamber should be selling the fact that Pittston is smack dab in the center of the two biggest population centers in the region. I'm sure someone has figured this out by now. I'm suprised it's in such bad shape.
I don't know if anyone running this town is even a high school graduate to be quite honest with you. I'd stick around to help, but then I'd be the only one of my hometown peers that I'm aware of that wouldn't be moving away.
Pittston is probably my biggest disappointment in the entire metro area. As you said, W-B Proud, what I've now dubbed "Tomato Town" has an outstanding location midway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre that should make it a hot spot for commuters. Instead my adjacent hometown of Pittston Township and our neighbor of Jenkins Township are being overrun with cookie-cutter sprawl at the same time as the city proper falls into disrepair. "City" (even though I think with a population of 7,500 it's just a "borough" now) officials run re-election campaigns based upon "At least we didn't raise taxes too much!" The Riverfront Park that was supposed to revitalize the entire city was a waste. It now houses foul-mouthed pre-teen skateboarder punks in the warmer months along with a foul stench emanating from the river to complement the overflowing litter bins, flood damage, and vandalized sculptures.
Parts of Mill Street routinely sink into the mines. The Butler Mine Shaft has been the source of many pollutants into the Susquehanna River in Pittston. City residents think "progress" is tearing down three or four historic brick buildings to make way for a fast-food restaurant or a parking lot for a new drive-thru drug store (even though there's already a Rite-Aid just two miles uphill here in Pittston Township). Two churches in the city are about to close, which comes on the heels of the closure of the city's parochial elementary schools and Seton Catholic High School. Our "visionary" Mayor Keating said he hoped to see the old school become "housing for low-income seniors," even though Pittston already has THREE similar complexes for seniors! A historic building along Broad Street likely has to be razed due to flood damage caused by the city's failure to maintain an underground drainage ditch. There has been no news of any "progress" from Mr. Siniawa with his hollow promise to bring two new luxury condo/penthouse towers to the city's waterfront with 100+ units.
People in Pittston tend to be rather racist, intolerant, and HOMOPHOBIC. For the life of me I don't know what kind of pot I was smoking when I launched my short-lived "Pittston 2020" endeavor several years ago with a few hundred dollars of my own funds. This town is too far beyond salvation, but I see Scranton as being a community on the move. Dan, at least Scranton has some VISIBLE progress! Name me one nice thing that has happened to Pittston in recent years to make it look more beautiful---NOTHING! The city is 1/3 of its former size and continues to shrink. The last person out of Pittston can feel free to turn off the lights!
WELUVPA, I respectfully have to disagree with most of your points. Southside is getting much attention because it deserves it. Southside is now, what the Hill Section was in the early and mid 90's, drug and prostitution infested, severly blighted, and an eyesore. While the Hill section is not perfect, much of the problems have been corrected. Southside is heading in the same direction. The main problem lies with the out of state landlords who do not keep up their properties, create unsafe living environments for their tenants, and do nothing to serve this community.
You are right that Soutside is not the only area of the city with blight issues. Redevelopment needs to start somewhere, and Southside is a good choice. Property owners and neighbors need to start putting in their share. Citizens need to start taking pride in their homes, and communities, and this by no means relates to everyone. I feel everyone should maintain their properties from overgrown lawns, garbage, and dilapidated structures. This not only affects the property owners but the neighbors as well, as their property values are heavily based on the surrounding area. Restoring the Pride is a great slogan, one that every citizen of this city should take to heart, and put the pride back into their properties and their minds.
I'm not saying that Southside doesn't need the attention nor am I saying that it doesn't have problems.
Listen heres the deal. The problem lies not in the out of state landlords or the tenants themselves but its a much larger problem that lies in the economy of the city like I have been saying. If there were more jobs that paid better wages then I don't think that we would have the amount of blight issues we have.
Think about it. The problems of the Hill never went away, they just moved. The city cut the trees down on N. Irving because the drug dealers were using the shade at night to hide in and work from. Yet now they are planting trees in what is now the drug neighborhood. The city past and present has done nothing to help decrease or eliminate the problems, what they have done is push it around the city from one neighborhood to the next. The problems of the Hill migrated across the Harrison ave bridge but in reality they did not go away.
Sure Southsidse is a good place to start but they already started in the Hill years ago and did nothing for any other neighborhoods in the process. They basically aloud the mess to roll over the bridge because as long as it wasn't in the Hill they didn't care where it went. They are constantly putting bandaids on compound fractures and thinking everything is fine.
The current admin. has done nothing to increase the economy of the city and the one before didn't either. This is not a Doherty specific issue but he has done nothing but put lipstick on the pig and tried to sell it has a beauty queen. Thats why I don't really have any faith in downtown housing in condos and apartments that are not cheap because if there are no jobs that pay good family sustaining wages then there is no reason to move to a tax oppressive city is there?
Instead of building these projects that really don't help and pissing public funds away on stupid bridges and treehouses, use the money to stimulate our local economy and help to bring jobs to the city. Instead we get a 25% property tax increase and the wage tax is still at 3.4% after we were all told that it was going to be lowered.
The last 7 years have been nothing but a series of broken promises that have lead the city nowhere but under a mountain of debt with nothing to show for it. We are supposed to a depressed city yet we have millions of dollars to waste away on the mayors projects and not the taxpayers. Our money, the public monies are being used for private profit and they should being used to stimulate the economy. Lower the spending, tighten up and save and in turn the business taxes could be lowered and the wage tax as well. This would be a incentive for a business to locate here..........
Spending monies that they really do not have has put us under a huge pile of debt. Instead of trying to lower our debt and cut spending they do the opposite and the end result is scrambling to find more money to cover that increasing debt. This cycle will not end until someone says enough is enough and cuts back.
Come on. We get a 25% tax increase and the city management all gets raises the same year. The increase was because we were distressed and we didn't have money, but they got raises. As a taxpayer that doesn't really sit well with me. We have all had to tighten our belts here and there to adjust to the increasing costs of living but yet Scranton is spending our money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Its not helping and its not right, no matter which way you slice it.
You can't fault Scranton for pumping dollars into small-scale projects like this, and say, the revitalization of Nay Aug Park. No, it doesn't change anything drastically for the city, but at least it's cleaning up its derelict parts. Scranton as a city with promise, however, is a nonstarter. It's been bleeding population for years and there's nothing it can do to attract the high-paying jobs that bring in the kind of downtown city environment (shops, restaurants, etc) everyone wants. Its only hope to remove itself from "mediocre city" status is to massively build up its educational chops. The NEPA Medical School is a good start.
WELUVPA, I respectfully have to disagree with most of your points. Southside is getting much attention because it deserves it. Southside is now, what the Hill Section was in the early and mid 90's, drug and prostitution infested, severly blighted, and an eyesore. While the Hill section is not perfect, much of the problems have been corrected. Southside is heading in the same direction. The main problem lies with the out of state landlords who do not keep up their properties, create unsafe living environments for their tenants, and do nothing to serve this community.
You are right that Soutside is not the only area of the city with blight issues. Redevelopment needs to start somewhere, and Southside is a good choice. Property owners and neighbors need to start putting in their share. Citizens need to start taking pride in their homes, and communities, and this by no means relates to everyone. I feel everyone should maintain their properties from overgrown lawns, garbage, and dilapidated structures. This not only affects the property owners but the neighbors as well, as their property values are heavily based on the surrounding area. Restoring the Pride is a great slogan, one that every citizen of this city should take to heart, and put the pride back into their properties and their minds.
The main problem is the current administration and it's total lack of helping further Scranton's economy. The debt is huge and the spending is out of control. There's nothing here to make a business want to come here unless it's a KOZ and that does nothing for the economy of the city. That is part of the reason there are no really good paying jobs here. The tax increase is one reason. The wage tax is another. These are some of the main reasons why I'm unhappy with this city. As I have said before, we need new blood in city government if we want to have any hope of Scranton moving forward. Get some new people in there with some fresh ideas and I may even stay.
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A historic building along Broad Street likely has to be razed due to flood damage caused by the city's failure to maintain an underground drainage ditch. There has been no news of any "progress" from Mr. Siniawa with his hollow promise to bring two new luxury condo/penthouse towers to the city's waterfront with 100+ units. 
