Wilkes-Barre: #4 Best Place To Retire!!! (Pittsburgh, Columbia: costs, law, store)

[Vinny536]

Originally Posted by bicoastal10

To be fair, I don't think anyone would actually choose to retire in Wilkes-Barre. The people who live there, live there because they don't have many/any other options (because of family, lack of funds, etc).

To also be fair many who leave also return, or desire to return. I think those grumpy old people just know they have it good.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Chefkey

Be Careful wanting Pittsburgh as I went there once for a food show. I had rocks thrown at my car by unruly teens and there were alot of not so nice looking areas. Come back here Paul, the door is always open.

How long ago was this? A lot of Pittsburgh does indeed look weathered and worn, but in the past few years in particular the city is making a comeback. Where else in the country can you find a nice historic rowhome in the city for under $100,000. Hell, a comparable place in the District of Columbia costs $1,100,000.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by 61scout80

To also be fair many who leave also return, or desire to return. I think those grumpy old people just know they have it good.

I know tons of people who want to move back but can't due to the horrible employment scene. My only in-road to stay in the region was Parente-Randolph, and that failed me.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by 61scout80

no kidding! It's amazing how expensive the world looks as soon as you leave there. I doubled my salary by moving out, but i have less jingle in my pocket.

One of the things i always notice when i go home are the people with "their" seat at the bar, 2 or 3 packs of smokes in front of them and name brand clothes complaining about how broke they are. While the wages may be less so is everything else. Looking back i could have had a pretty nice house if i wasn't so irresponsible with my cash by sitting next to these people at the bar...


When i was in W-B looking out i couldn't see anything good about it, now that I'm on the outside looking in i see how good i really had it. not that i have it bad here, I just never realized W-B offered almost everything i wanted. Growing up is kinda fun

I would say this is not uniquely NEPA. ALL of us in this country (save for the truly poverty stricken in the South) could have more jingle in our pockets if we spent more wisely.

And this goes for me as well. I really don't think I need cable, internet, an ENV3 cell phone and iPod.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by bicoastal10

To be fair, I don't think anyone would actually choose to retire in Wilkes-Barre. The people who live there, live there because they don't have many/any other options (because of family, lack of funds, etc).

This is patently false. Many of us *choose* to live here because :::gasp::: we LIKE it here.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

How long ago was this? A lot of Pittsburgh does indeed look weathered and worn, but in the past few years in particular the city is making a comeback. Where else in the country can you find a nice historic rowhome in the city for under $100,000. Hell, a comparable place in the District of Columbia costs $1,100,000.

I don't know Paul. My cousin graduated from Pitt in 08 and he told me some not-so-nice stories about the local crime doings there.

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by bicoastal10

To be fair, I don't think anyone would actually choose to retire in Wilkes-Barre. The people who live there, live there because they don't have many/any other options (because of family, lack of funds, etc).

I haven't seen this statistic in a while, but Wilkes-Barre was once in the list of the top ten towns/cities in the US for 'average length of home occupancy'.

If you take the average length of time, measured in years, for how long people live in the same home, and compared all cities and towns across the US, Wilkes Barre was in the top ten. With an average of something like 43 years. That's on average, people live in the same house for 43 years.

The other thing I remember from that list is something like seven of the other towns/cities in the top ten were all in the Wyoming Valley of PA. That tells a lot, including that people stay where they are for a long, long time.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

I don't know Paul. My cousin graduated from Pitt in 08 and he told me some not-so-nice stories about the local crime doings there.

Reston, Virginia (pop. 65,000) has had 1 murder in 2009 (domestic). Wilkes-Barre (pop. 40,000) has had HOW MANY? Wilkes-Barre has a rather high homicide rate for a city of its small stature and yet I would still feel very safe living there. I could say the same about Pittsburgh.

[W-B proud]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Reston, Virginia (pop. 65,000) has had 1 murder in 2009 (domestic). Wilkes-Barre (pop. 40,000) has had HOW MANY? Wilkes-Barre has a rather high homicide rate for a city of its small stature and yet I would still feel very safe living there. I could say the same about Pittsburgh.

Yeah, but I am willing to bet that Reston is a rather subarban area, with many working class, white collar residents (who less face it, are much less likely to commit homicide then the inner city thugs that infest Wilkes-Barre to a degree). And I'm not defending W-B's homicide rate for this year, but truth be told, we had a very violent homicide wave in the first two-three months of this year but it has completely died off (bad choice of words) the last four-five months have seen zero homicides. I still and have always felt safe in his city though. The crime is not random (for the most part) and seems to revolve around the city's drug, thug, bad people coulture. If you don't run with these types of people, then you really don't have much to worry about, just like you wouldn't in any other city or town in NEPA. In other words, if you have no intention of ripping off a neighborhood crack dealer, or encroaching on his drug turf then chances are your life will not end by bullet or stabwound, and I think that applies to 99.9% of city residents.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by W-B proud

Yeah, but I am willing to bet that Reston is a rather subarban area, with many working class, white collar residents (who less face it, are much less likely to commit homicide then the inner city thugs that infest Wilkes-Barre to a degree). And I'm not defending W-B's homicide rate for this year, but truth be told, we had a very violent homicide wave in the first two-three months of this year but it has completely died off (bad choice of words) the last four-five months have seen zero homicides. I still and have always felt safe in his city though. The crime is not random (for the most part) and seems to revolve around the city's drug, thug, bad people coulture. If you don't run with these types of people, then you really don't have much to worry about, just like you wouldn't in any other city or town in NEPA. In other words, if you have no intention of ripping off a neighborhood crack dealer, or encroaching on his drug turf then chances are your life will not end by bullet or stabwound, and I think that applies to 99.9% of city residents.

I agree that if you stay on the right side of the law your odds of being a "statistic" are slim in most cities. The District may actually be the exception here as I've already seen newscasts reporting numerous innocent people being killed (even though DC is having a very "safe" year for homicides). Recently a woman who owned a liquor store was gunned down after she complied with the robbers' demands and handed over cash, a 17-year-old girl was shot dead in crossfire between thugs and a security guard, and another teenage boy was gunned down as an innocent bystander caught in crossfire. DC is an anomaly though. In Wilkes-Barre I doubt one of the bazillion murders this year was random in nature.