Is there any chance of a rebound for Reading PA?

[Icy Tea]

Schools get blamed but its the students perform poorly. That goes straight to the parents not valuing education and not teaching their kids the social skills necessary to interact well with others. In other words, moron parents make for moron kids and they in turn make schools bad.
Montgomery County is the regions economic powerhouse and its right next door to Berks. So people DO commute there but then these people all live either in the suburbs or in more rural areas, at least they do once they start families.
Gentrification would turn the city around, but that's only going to happen if higher paying employers come back locally. And then the city's current residents might not be able to take advantage of it if language is a problem or education.

[Tulippsy]

No. Gentrifying is not going to happen. You need a downtown to gentrify around and it’s just not happening. The suburbs are where it’s at in Berks County. My friends and relatives all live in suburbs of Reading. My mother actually worked for a law firm in downtown Reading in the 50’s to 70’s. But now, they just don’t go downtown. For anything. I love the Goggle Works and go there every time I am home visiting. It’s a shame. I think it’s a lovely, quirky city.

[pman]

Originally Posted by Tulippsy

No. Gentrifying is not going to happen. You need a downtown to gentrify around and it’s just not happening. The suburbs are where it’s at in Berks County. My friends and relatives all live in suburbs of Reading. My mother actually worked for a law firm in downtown Reading in the 50’s to 70’s. But now, they just don’t go downtown. For anything. I love the Goggle Works and go there every time I am home visiting. It’s a shame. I think it’s a lovely, quirky city.

And this is one of the primary reasons its poor. People simply don't spend their money there. Poverty is also one of the schools bug issue. While blaming moron parents (read poor parents who lack education themselves) is a reflection of demographics, this state is among the worst when It comes to income segregation by district. Some if it is related to hold harmless which devastated districts that became poor but did not shrink. That said, reading is in much better shape than some other cities and is really a very attractive location. Is main problem is economic and the fact that its historic connection to philadelphia has been severed.