What is the WORST city or town in Pennsylvania? (Scranton: crime, house)

[Clark Park]

What is the WORST city or town in Pennsylvania?

You can interpret "worst" any way you like: ugly, dirty, poverty stricken, run down, crime problems, bad economy, no jobs, no youth services, corrupt leadership, polluted, poor infrastructure, lack of cultural or educational emenities, lacking in shopping or dining choices, rude or trashy neighbors, etc.

My vote goes to Hazleton.

Hazleton was once a thriving industrial small city and was in the very heart of NE PA's anthracite coal mining region. You can still see reminders of it's past with elegant bank buildings and fine churches and synagogues. There are some attractive residential blocks on the edge of town. I rather liked the shady streets of Lattimer (site of an infamous massacre).

Now ... Hazleton seems like a mess. I was there twice this summer. Many if not most of the shops and stores downtown are closed and empty. They're ripping up the streets. It appeared to me there were a few bodegas open and a good number of Mexican unemployed people milling about. I understand that many people drive to Wilkes-Barre to go shopping. Home prices are dirt cheap. With the average price of an American home at $240,000 (just read this in the paper the other day) - you can purchase a small house in good move in condition for $35,000!

My impression of the place is that it is dying a slow death. It's sad.

Someone please correct me if my impressions are wrong.

[ki0eh]

Actually Hazleton has been unusually successful at attracting jobs. http://www.hazletoncando.com/ The key to the recovery of the City itself (as it seems like you saw in part) would be the immigrants that some of the grandchildren of previous immigrants scorn. Those newer immigrants largely came there because there ARE now jobs for at least some of them, compared to much of the USA.

[DowntownHarrisburg]

My vote would be for Berwick. Beautiful location, but the town elders have aggressively resisted any chance at redemption over the past few decades. The good-paying factory jobs that used to power the town thinned out long ago, to the point where now you either work at the nuclear plant, the hospital, or the state police, or you hold down a minimum-wage position at the local convenience store. It's only 40 minutes or so to Wilkes-Barre / Scranton and all the opportunities up there, but that's a long drive for someone in a depressed economic condition.

The borough keeps waiting for the next big factory to roll into town and save them, without realizing that things don't work that way any more.

Sadly, I think Bloomsburg is starting to get tugged in that direction. Nowhere near as bad, but Bloomsburg definitely seems to have lost some of the luster and pride it had ten or so years ago.

[ElijahAstin]

My vote goes to Chester.

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

My vote goes to Chester.

I would vote Chester, but I like the soccer stadium too much so I will have to go with New Castle.

[speagles84]

I think I'm going to go with Duquesne. Its a smaller, even worse version of Chester.

*Note the graphic is inaccurate. Look at the tables.

[ki0eh]

C'mon now, from Berwick you could commute to jobs in Hazleton.

Floodplain location is starting to be a big factor in depressing a local economy. Jersey Shore, Renovo, Newport are some examples of smaller communities with big floodplain relative to their size and lack of investment compared to what seem to be similarly situated communities.

[DowntownHarrisburg]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

C'mon now, from Berwick you could commute to jobs in Hazleton.

When I lived in the area, most of the people who lived in Berwick (sorry, Burrk) did exactly that. It's been a while since I've been in tune with NEPA, so if Hazleton finally got its act together, more power to them. They've been languishing for a long, long, long time.

[Dawne]

Centralia

[Raena77]

Chester, Norristown, King of Prussia, Williamsburg,