The old mason lodge is now gone (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre: city hall, for rent)

[memoriesbre]

Well the building is finally down in Tunkhannock. They are planning on making a parking lot and a park. Parking is needed in Tunkhannock. A few people were upset about losing the historic building, I too think it is sad to see such an old building being destroyed but we do need parking. The building was said to be unrepairable. I dunno.

[SteelCityRising]

In a cute historic town like Tunkhannock the BEST place for public parking lots is at the REAR of buildings along the main drag, not right along the street for all to see. Ideally this building could have been restored, and any property behind it (perhaps leading all the way up to the bypass), could have been utilized as a joint parking lot for it, the Dietrich, the bank, Greenwood's, etc. You don't want a historic downtown to be filled with all of these "gap teeth" as it makes it more and more unattractive for pedestrians. Now that Tunkhannock is trying to capitalize upon day-trip tourism opportunities from people in the "big city" of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (chuckle, chuckle), it would BEHOOVE them to PRESERVE whenever possible.

My hometown of Pittston is a poster child for this. The downtown used to be thriving, nostalgic, and downright "cute," similar to that of Lewisburg or Jim Thorpe. Now it is a wasteland with many empty, weed-replete lots and parking lots along the main drag, suburban-style drive-thru banks, chain drug stores, and fast-food places littering town, etc. The allure of spending a few hours strolling the street as you window shop, grab a bite to eat, run errands, etc. is gone forever in Pittston. Now only 7,000 of the 48,000 folks in Greater Pittston (just 14.6%) actually LIVE in the city proper. The rest live in subdivisions and enjoy driving their SUVs in an Applebee's/Wal-Mart/McDonald's lifestyle. That's SAD to me considering if you were to eat at Savo's Restaurant in Pittston Twp. you'd see a large mural on the dining room wall of Pittston looking like BEDFORD FALLS from "It's a Wonderful Life" at one point (ironically this very same restaurant moved OUT of downtown as well). Now it's an armpit with no chance of a future because the townspeople don't care about long-range urban planning issues (or just aren't intelligent enough to comprehend them), and the politicians only care about getting their faces in our weekly paper for stupid reasons.

[ki0eh]

The town nearest where I grew up, Cortland NY, managed to avoid the "gap teeth" syndrome in the core of the downtown area, and despite the usual Upstate NY economic malaise keeps the first floors mostly filled with retail (as opposed to offices, or "for rent"). Probably more from happenstance of the edge of core buildings burning first than by design, but still fortunate. (Also fortunate that the urban renewal folks didn't have resources there to uglify things in the 50's and 60's.)

Look at Wellsboro, same thing. Or even Towanda.

I remember driving around (probably when I was ScranBarre's age, before the web) into Newark, NY, east of Rochester. I remember being shocked at maybe two bank buildings downtown where everything around had been demolished for empty parking spaces.

Small town hospitals (Cortland again being an example) seem to have an amoebic demolition effect, as it's cheaper to buy the surrounding houses than to put up a parking garage. Of course many have (see Carlisle for an example) just moved to the edge of town taking all the doctors' offices with them. I'm not sure which is better.

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

In a cute historic town like Tunkhannock the BEST place for public parking lots is at the REAR of buildings along the main drag, not right along the street for all to see. .

That's exactly what they should have done with the Jay's Commons building in West Side. That building would have looked much better without all that blacktop in front of it.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by go phillies

That's exactly what they should have done with the Jay's Commons building in West Side. That building would have looked much better without all that blacktop in front of it.

West Side has much potential to become one of Scranton's premier commercial gateways. I know funding is tight even on a national scale right now, but perhaps when things start to rebound when the recession ebbs someone at City Hall can apply for a grant for a new street scape system along Main Avenue? Hyde Park would feel like Bedford Falls if its main drag had nice period-era lighting, benches, trash cans, shade trees, underground wiring, brick crosswalks, etc. The new street scape under way in Pittston is absolutely GORGEOUS, and during the Holiday season the wreaths looked beautiful hanging from the Victorian-era street lights. West Side could very easily do the same. Pittston used casino money for that project. I'm sure Scranton could designate Main Avenue in West Side as an official "Main Street" program and find some way to raise funds to do the same.