What Has Lead to Scranton's Negative Image to Outsiders? (Philadelphia: houses, buy)

[SteelCityRising]

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! I was just curious to hear some feedback on as to why so many people out there seem to "have it out" for the Electric City? I was born and raised here and have visited a number of other parts of the Tri-State Area and still can't fathom why people avoid our city like the plague. I just saw a recent demographics estimate that pegs the city's current population as 67,000, down from 74,000 in
2000. Why exactly are so many people leaving the city and/or avoiding it as a potential spot for relocation? What are your opinions? I'd appreciate it if you'd not only vote for an option or two but also post a brief reply stating your opinion. As a future city resident who is nothing but excited for its future, I can't help but get depressed to think that I'm the only one who doesn't think it's a dump!

Is there merit in me remaining in the city after graduate school to rehabilitate an older home in the Lower Hill, establish my own downtown business, raise a family, and pursue a seat on city council, or am I just being delirious? I'm by no means an unitelligent person, but now that I've recently said good-bye to even more of my peers who have left the area for larger cities, I'm feeling quite socially-isolated and as if the only remnants of my age group left will be the uneducated, "redneck" types that I do NOT want to associate with. "Rediscover Scranton" provided promise to me at first, but now I even see that web site hasn't really been updated in months either.

Is Scranton on an upswing from rock bottom or is it still waiting to hit it?

[MsV]

Hey, my daughter graduated from U of S about 10 years ago and it was such a dump...sorry if that hurts...so much so, that it would be difficult for someone to use that city's backdrop in their future dreams. I always hear people say that that campus is so beautiful...I could never consider living in that depressed area, believing that the University was the nicest part. Good luck, you might just be the one to bring some life and creativity to the area.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by MsV

Hey, my daughter graduated from U of S about 10 years ago and it was such a dump...sorry if that hurts...so much so, that it would be difficult for someone to use that city's backdrop in their future dreams. I always hear people say that that campus is so beautiful...I could never consider living in that depressed area, believing that the University was the nicest part. Good luck, you might just be the one to bring some life and creativity to the area.

Thanks for the words of encouragement (I think?). The campus of the University of Scranton is beautiful, as is the campus of Marywood University. Hopefully the upcoming Scranton Medical School will likewise be a scenic addition to the downtown landscape (even though it may now end up in the suburbs after all, much to the chagrin of most locals who were hoping it would serve as a "catalyst" to help the city to bounce back).

Then again, also realize that the Scranton of 1997 is much different than the Scranton of 2007. The downtown still has a long ways to go, but it's certainly on the right path to recovery with a nice mix of restaurants, pubs, niche retailers, and upcoming housing options. I personally did not vote in this poll, but my vote would most certainly go for the "negativity" as being the city's largest hurdle to overcome. How can a city undergo a revival if all its own residents do is ***** about it?

[carperry]

South east PA is prosperous and growing, Lehigh County is growing, the Poconos are growing, Scranton is losing population. Is this a bad development? Hardly, do you want Hazelton's influx of Hispanics? Small is not necessarily bad. Have you visited Monroe County and counted the license plates from NJ and NY? Do you want that kind of growth for Scranton? Throughout history cities have vanished when business patterns changed, it is inevitable. Allentown has its warehouses jammed along Route 22. I say let Lehigh have them. Look at the statistics for school violence in Allentown schools, do we need that in Scranton? SE PA has grown because business and residents have fled Philadelphia, obviously no one can "flee" to Scranton, we are too far from a major metro. York and Franklin counties are similar, house farms springing up in farmer's fields as people flee Maryland. Luzerne was once the third most populated county in the state and Lackawanna was number four. Monroe, I believe, will soon be more heavily populated than Lackawanna, the coal mines aren't coming back and our location is not suitable for distribution centers. PA lost 24% of its manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2005, those jobs aren't coming back. As we continue to support the Japanese Empire with auto purchases and buy everything else from China we are mortgaging the country beyond repair. Recently I read that the boomer generation does not buy American because of a simmering resentment of our government, be it one party or the other. Germany and Japan have huge trade surpluses, how quickly we forget.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by carperry

South east PA is prosperous and growing, Lehigh County is growing, the Poconos are growing, Scranton is losing population. Is this a bad development? Hardly, do you want Hazelton's influx of Hispanics? Small is not necessarily bad. Have you visited Monroe County and counted the license plates from NJ and NY? Do you want that kind of growth for Scranton? Throughout history cities have vanished when business patterns changed, it is inevitable. Allentown has its warehouses jammed along Route 22. I say let Lehigh have them. Look at the statistics for school violence in Allentown schools, do we need that in Scranton? SE PA has grown because business and residents have fled Philadelphia, obviously no one can "flee" to Scranton, we are too far from a major metro. York and Franklin counties are similar, house farms springing up in farmer's fields as people flee Maryland. Luzerne was once the third most populated county in the state and Lackawanna was number four. Monroe, I believe, will soon be more heavily populated than Lackawanna, the coal mines aren't coming back and our location is not suitable for distribution centers. PA lost 24% of its manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2005, those jobs aren't coming back. As we continue to support the Japanese Empire with auto purchases and buy everything else from China we are mortgaging the country beyond repair. Recently I read that the boomer generation does not buy American because of a simmering resentment of our government, be it one party or the other. Germany and Japan have huge trade surpluses, how quickly we forget.

Great insight! I suppose I never saw Scranton's rapidly-shrinking population as possibly being a positive before. All I could ever envision was a shrinking tax base leading to higher taxes to pay for deteriorating municipal services which would lead to a poorer quality-of-life in the long-run. With that said we also can't stereotype all the newcomers from NYC/NJ as being bad apples. Forum members "MemoriesBre", "ScrantonVideoProductions", and
"HomeAgainInWestPittston", are all ex-New Yorkers who have moved to Tunkhannock, Scranton, and West Pittston respectively, yet all seem to be morally-upstanding, great people.

What you must also realize is that Lackawanna County grew in 2006, and Luzerne County has grown for the past two years. Both are expected to continue growing into the foreseeable future, as the region begins to transition from hitting what I think was "rock bottom" around the year 2000. I already notice this at work, where it seems like every other customer I assist "just moved here" and the cars in the parking lot contain a healthy number of NY and NJ license plates. I had to chuckle last week when a new family to the area asked me at work where the nearest IKEA was! What's next? Wondering where Scranton's Hard Rock Cafe is? Like it or not, the perceived reputation of Monroe County to newcomers is changing from positive to neutral ("gangs", "drugs", "crime", etc), and the reputation of Lackawanna/Luzerne Counties is changing from neutral to positive ("low cost-of-living", "great schools", "low taxes", "laid-back"). Ironically, those last qualities are exactly the way Monroe County was perceived as before the city-dwellers took over, and I fear that we may suffer a similar fate as we grow in the upcoming years as well.

[fromlitopa]

My first thought when my husband said we could possibly move to the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area was "depressing." Most of that probably derives from the often cloudy skies though - the 4 or 5 times I've been in the area it's been cloudy or raining. This past Memorial Day weekend changed that though and I saw the city with new eyes.
Is the weather really dreary most of the year?

[I LOVE PA!]

There is a thread about the weather in the regular pa forum that discusses our cloudy days. I have lived here for 13 years, moving fdrom L.I. and aside from a lot more snow, I really don't think the weather is much different than L.I> The winters might get about 10 degrees cooler, but I think it's because I'm in the mountains. Scranton could be 10 degrees warmer than where I am! The winter is a little longer, starts a little earlier and end a little later. There are lots of winter sports though right in the area to keep you entertained.

[bmurphy]

Originally Posted by fromlitopa

My first thought when my husband said we could possibly move to the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area was "depressing." Most of that probably derives from the often cloudy skies though - the 4 or 5 times I've been in the area it's been cloudy or raining. This past Memorial Day weekend changed that though and I saw the city with new eyes.
Is the weather really dreary most of the year?

Well that area of PA does have fairly low % of sunshine relative to other cities. It's not ridiculously low, but it's significantly cloudy.

[I LOVE PA!]

bmurphy is BACK!!
Yesh, I guess it's cloudy some of the time, but since I stay here all the time, I have nothing to compare it too on a regular basis....
I still love it here!
Did I say that already??

[tasmtairy]

Oh!! I thought the poll was about you SWB. LOL!!! Sorry no vote, haven't been there.