What would make Pennsylvania truly GREAT (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: real estate, crime, home)

[Duderino]

Let me start off by saying that I have a deep love and appreciation for Pennsylvania -- the people, the history, the culture. I will not be living here for the rest of my life, but I will always consider this my home state and will continue to ponder its future.

I often think about the history of PA and how it's pretty apparent that our state lost its economic prowess over the course of twentieth century. There was a clearly a time when Pennsylvania had an economy that was the envy of much of the world, let alone the US. We had countless thriving towns, an amazing amount wealth and formidable cultural institutions.


Obviously, we are still significant as the 6th largest state in the US and -- considering our post-industrial status -- aren't doing terribly shabby. We still have many amazing towns/cities, a very diversified economy and many formidable cultural institutions. But, we have also lost so much.

Still, I'm compelled to pose this question to other Pennsylvanians: What would truly bring Pennsylvania back to its full potential of greatness and back to the forefront of the US and the world? I've always thought that even as Pennsylvania's position declined, the conditions for re-emerging as one of America's most thriving states never did.

So, with that long-winded introduction said, what do you think? What would make Pennsylvania truly great again?

[pman]

natural gas is a good start, the state used to be a major source of energy (coal). if we can leverage that gas into cheaper energy for producers, we may be able to aid a revival of production as the dollar declines. it's already a fairly interesting mix of production and big cities, but it's always been a railroad state so a decline in federal investment in the highway system will probably benefit PA (home to the most shortline railroads in the country). with regards to factors within its control, the state needs to layoff the corp and capital taxes that drive companies south. sorry to hear you're leaving

[mancat100]

I also think Pennsylvania is a great state. However I believe that some of the things that make it great are slipping away. I'm talking landscapes and cityscapes. Our beautiful open farmland is being gobbled up to hideous development. Our historic cities are being practically abandoned to decay and crime. I would say that job number one is preserve what we've already got. It's special and worth keeping.

Beyond that, we need good, solid economic development - ideally on brownfield sites so as not to conflict too much with my first paragraph. There are so many beaten down towns with unused land and all those people need is the opportunity to prosper.

Finally we need inspired leadership to make people believe. I'm not a Republican, but one thing I'll say for Ronald Reagan was that he really made people believe in the country at that time. He helped take the country out of its doldrums. We need a Ronald Reagan type figure as governor. I'm not talking about the political ideology, but about the inspirational factor so please, loyal democrats, don't beat me up.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by Duderino

I often think about the history of PA and how it's pretty apparent that our state lost its economic prowess over the course of twentieth century. There was a clearly a time when Pennsylvania had an economy that was the envy of much of the world, let alone the US. We had countless thriving towns, an amazing amount wealth and formidable cultural institutions.

What would truly bring Pennsylvania back to its full potential of greatness and back to the forefront of the US and the world? I've always thought that even as Pennsylvania's position declined, the conditions for re-emerging as one of America's most thriving states never did.

Actually, Pennsylvania IS one of the most thriving states within the greater United States. It's not just Pennsylvania that has declined since the early 20th century. The whole nation has declined. Pennsylvania, I think, has followed the same pattern that the rest of the nation has followed: long, gradual decline.

What will bring Pennsylvania back? The same thing that will bring America back: less greed (aka job outsourcing), a culture that no longer favors the disposability of place and the things we make and build, and when America gains an appreciation for its history, integrity, and authenticity, Pennsylvania will return to glory. In short, when Americans develop some of the character, integrity, class, and pride that previous generations had.

[Pa Dutch]

It would make us a truly great commonwealth, if we were allowed to legally use marijuana medicinally and recreationally.
Plus they could tax the sh@t out of it, and use it to reduce my property taxes.

[Atheist Liberal]

As a native Pennsylvanian I can name you a few things that would make our state alot better:

* Marriage equality - Although Pennsylvania is one of a few other states without a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage we still don't have marriage equality in Pennsylvania.
* Marijuana - Marijuana should be completely decriminalized and taxed.
* Healthcare - Pennsylvania should adopt a single payer healthcare system.
* Prostitution - Prostitution should be legalized and regulated in PA.
* Drinking age - The drinking age should be lowered to 18 years old.
* Death penalty - Pennsylvania should abolish the death penalty completely

[cwa1984]

I'm not trying to bust on anyone's parade here but what Pennsylvania is actually capable of doing needs to be addressed.

Originally Posted by PA_Dutch_Love

It would make us a truly great commonwealth, if we were allowed to legally use marijuana medicinally and recreationally.
Plus they could tax the sh@t out of it, and use it to reduce my property taxes.

Originally Posted by Atheist Liberal

As a native Pennsylvanian I can name you a few things that would make our state alot better:
* Marijuana - Marijuana should be completely decriminalized and taxed.

That's interstate not intrastate commerce and falls under the federal government. It doesn't matter what California thinks about the matter Congress is the one that would have to pass the legislation to make drugs legal for purchase. The only way the states could do this on their own is to a call a constitutional convention and amend the United States Constitution to legalize Marijuana...the odds of that happening are far less then the moon becoming the 51st state.

[1timbo1]

Here are a few ideas, more feasible ones:

1- Regulate the gas industry. Control the growth, allow it to develop sustainably to control the tearing up roads, traffic congestion, infrastructure overloading, housing shortages, and potential environmental impacts. If we allow it to develop slow and steady, we can stretch the life of this industry out for many generations, and create great reinvestments in some of the older industrial towns that could use the new life.

2- Invest in innovative transportation and infrastructure improvements. We have a great "high speed" rail corridor connecting Harrisburg to Philadelphia, and on several occasions I've personally experienced sold out trains. This could easily be stretched to Pittsburgh (that train is a joke). Invest in rail freight in the shale regions to take the heavy trucks off the road. Corbett really needs to stop "beating around the bush" with transportation investment. If he doesn't get anything passed his competitor at election time will campaign on all the things "corbett didn't do" and win by a landslide.

3- Urban revitalization. We have great cities, and almost all of them have seen better days. Either the government reforms local jurisdictional laws, or they need to provide more benefits to cities. It's obvious that city schools, infrastructure, and public safety are suffering because the tax base isn't there. The businesses in cities are mostly there because of tax incentives, which doesn't help the budget. Consolidating school districts, boroughs, cities, and townships will help equal the burden. Real estate is trending towards denser, more convenient multi-use zoned neighborhoods and towns, which Pennsylvania has tons of. We need to build upon this.

4- Civic pride. Pennsylvania was built on a system of Quaker values, everyone is welcome and everyone is equal. It's an incredibly diverse state, both socially and in our available natural resources. It'd be neat to see stores pop up like the "Made in Oregon" ones that Portland has, buy Pennsylvanian! Sitting on the porch one night drinking Yuenglings with some friends, a guy passed by and complimented us for "keeping the money here." That's always sort of stuck with me.

I really don't think I'm on the same page with anything our governor currently thinks, but then again I'm really not sure what's going through his head 99% of the time. Echoing mancat, we need a leader who's going to face the pressing issues, and quit playing politics about idiotic abortion laws and declaring this the year of the bible. We don't have the luxury to spend days upon days of legislators time dealing with these petty things. Corbett start being a leader!

[pman]

I think legalizing marijuana might be more feasible than consolidating school districts.

Originally Posted by mancat100

I also think Pennsylvania is a great state. However I believe that some of the things that make it great are slipping away. I'm talking landscapes and cityscapes. Our beautiful open farmland is being gobbled up to hideous development. Our historic cities are being practically abandoned to decay and crime.

with regards to farmland, I agree 100%. the housing is not only hideous, but more importantly, it's taking productive assets out of use. Pennsylvania has great natural farmland where, unlike western states, there isn't a water shortage. we need to keep that farmland in farming, housing adds much less in the way of value and I'd think that with pink slime in the news, maybe people will start paying attention to the food distribution system based solely on the lowest cost provider. with regards to cities though, it's more complicated. cities, on the whole, are probably better off today than 20 years ago. Philadelphia was emptying out, that's no longer the case. Pittsburgh seems to have stemmed or slowed decades of population loss and returned to job growth. lancaster has seen a decade of crime reduction, bethlehem somehow survived the steel bust in relatively good shape. even harrisburg is far better, at least downtown, than it was in the 80's when what people remembered most about their visit to the capitol was abandoned buildings. still, much work is left to be done, crime and schools are definitely a problem and if the cities aren't at potential, the state will never be. in pennsylvania's heyday, pittsburgh and philadelphia were monsters in terms of jobs and wealth.
2-well, high speed rail to pittsburgh would take a lot, but a reasonably fast train might not.

[Duderino]

Many excellent points being made, particularly about the current development of our state and it must shift dramatically to re-incorporate and re-invigorate our urban centers. It personally is just backwards to me to develop tract housing, isolated office complexes and characterless strip malls on perfectly good and productive open space/farmland while many of our already developed urban centers, chock full well-built housing and character, fester with blight and disinvestment. We need to embrace our cities/towns again.

You're spot on right here:

Originally Posted by pman

still, much work is left to be done, crime and schools are definitely a problem and if the cities aren't at potential, the state will never be.