ScrantonWikesBarre-I have a question for you (Wilkes-Barre, York: middle-class, Valentine's day, lofts)

[marmi]

Hi, I have been reading your postings for a few days now and you seem very knowledgeable. Please help! My husband accepted a job offer where we will be relocating to NEPA. The cities in his area include: Scranton, WilkesBarre, Williamsport, Hazelton and Bloomsburg, and everything in between. I was born and raised in the Philly suburbs but over the last 5 years we have been residing in downtown Orlando,FL. We know nothing about this area except in college I dated a boy from Pittston and visited there a few times (Tomatoe festival was one of those times) Anyway we love Orlando and I realize it is a completely different area but I was hoping for maybe a similar feel for the area we were living in- we live in the historic district of Orlando (cobblestone streets, lanterns lighting the streets, we could walk to our little downtown area which was somewhat trendy with cute shops, restaurants, coffee shops). We are in our mid 30's with a 13 month old, so we still like to go out and do things and even though schools aren't quite important now, in a few years they will be. From the research I have done these are the areas that interest me: Lewisburg,Bloomsburg,Dallas,Clarks Summit,Scranton and the towns surronding Scranton. My other question and then I'll leave you alone, (I promise) is how much overall "sun-shiny" days to you get up there. I have never been up there when the sun is shining and I happened to notice that all the areas I reasearched on were way below the US average for sunny days - is Lewisburg and Bloomsburg better than the other areas I mentoined or are they all basically the same? We are looking forward to getting back our 4 seasons again as well as having our daughter experience snow and eventually skiing too. I know this is a lot of info but I appreciate any help on this...also if there are areas I failed to mentoin that may interest us please let me know as we will check those out too!!! I cannot thank you enough for your help!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by marmi

Hi, I have been reading your postings for a few days now and you seem very knowledgeable. Please help! My husband accepted a job offer where we will be relocating to NEPA. The cities in his area include: Scranton, WilkesBarre, Williamsport, Hazelton and Bloomsburg, and everything in between. I was born and raised in the Philly suburbs but over the last 5 years we have been residing in downtown Orlando,FL. We know nothing about this area except in college I dated a boy from Pittston and visited there a few times (Tomatoe festival was one of those times) Anyway we love Orlando and I realize it is a completely different area but I was hoping for maybe a similar feel for the area we were living in- we live in the historic district of Orlando (cobblestone streets, lanterns lighting the streets, we could walk to our little downtown area which was somewhat trendy with cute shops, restaurants, coffee shops). We are in our mid 30's with a 13 month old, so we still like to go out and do things and even though schools aren't quite important now, in a few years they will be. From the research I have done these are the areas that interest me: Lewisburg,Bloomsburg,Dallas,Clarks Summit,Scranton and the towns surronding Scranton. My other question and then I'll leave you alone, (I promise) is how much overall "sun-shiny" days to you get up there. I have never been up there when the sun is shining and I happened to notice that all the areas I reasearched on were way below the US average for sunny days - is Lewisburg and Bloomsburg better than the other areas I mentoined or are they all basically the same? We are looking forward to getting back our 4 seasons again as well as having our daughter experience snow and eventually skiing too. I know this is a lot of info but I appreciate any help on this...also if there are areas I failed to mentoin that may interest us please let me know as we will check those out too!!! I cannot thank you enough for your help!

Wow! Let me first thank you for choosing me in particular to address your inquiry! I feel so honored! Then again, I'm sure others will pitch in to help out as well; we have a friendly bunch of folks on this forum from the NEPA and Central PA areas.

Your husband's territory is rather massive, to say the least. Williamsport is a bit far-flung from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and is about an hour-and-a-half west of this area via I-80 (I happen to prefer taking Route 118 though between our area and Williamsport because it's more of a "scenic route.")

It's funny you should mention Pittston. I was born and raised in-town and currently live in a development on the fringes of town right along I-81 in the Dupont area. We make annual pilgrimages to the Tomato Festival (the whole town shuts down for that thing), so we've probably crossed paths before without even knowing it! Poor old Pittston---it had (has?) so much potential to be a charming, beautiful Victorian town along the river, but it's been neglected for so many years. Over 100 new condos are coming to town though next year, so perhaps they'll serve as a catalyst to get people interested in downtown revitalization again? I actually started my own web site concerning the city called Pittston 2020: http://www.pittston.org

As far as being able to walk to a cute, trendy, touristy type of downtown area that would still be within your hubby's commuting range, I'd say Bloomsburg would probably be your best bet. It's nearly centrally-located between Williamsport and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (about 50 minutes from each) and has a wonderful downtown with surrounding walkable neighborhoods. Clarks Summit is a nice town as well and is convenient to Scranton, but the downtown is simply too small to afford you much of what you might desire; it's truly only about two blocks in length. I'd scratch Lewisburg off of your list. It's truly a gorgeous Victorian community and has a liberal, progressive, intellectual vibe from Bucknell University, but your husband's commmute to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (which he'd probably frequent moreso than Williamsport due to our much larger population), would be about an hour and twenty minutes. Dallas is a nice area as well, but there isn't any sort of "downtown" area. Dallas proper has a Main Street with perhaps a half-dozen businesses, but the rest of the surrounding suburban area (known as the Back Mountain) is nothing but endless subdivisions tucked along windy two-lane roads. The population near Dallas has swelled to nearly 30,000, and that massive growth has made itself visible in terms of congested traffic along Highway 309, one of the only ways in and out of the Back Mountain. I'd steer clear of Dallas for this reason, even though the school district is highly-acclaimed (unless being near a walkable downtown area isn't really that big of a priority). Scranton itself has some very liveable neighborhoods, and the downtown is currently undergoing a cultural renaissance with new restaurants, nightlife, art galleries, etc. The school district is surprisingly good for a larger city (pop. 70,000), and violent crime is minimal. Some drawbacks to the city include the dreadful 3.4% city wage tax, a 25% increase in city property taxes, and an increase in the sewer fees all combining to add a financial whammy in the hundreds of dollars in the upcoming years. Other than the tax burden, Scranton's a very liveable city in my opinion.

I'd suggest you give me just a few more questions so I can help to narrow down your search a bit more. Here's a recap:

DALLAS:

Pros: Near Route 118, which would take you to Williamsport in about an hour. Near Route 309, which would take you to Wilkes-Barre in 10 minutes and eventually onto I-81, which would take you to Scranton in 30 minutes. A lot of thirty-something professional couples with young children live in the Dallas (Back Mountain) area, so you'd have plenty of potential new friends in your prospective new neighborhood. The Dallas School District is consistently ranked quite well in the area. The area has a higher percentage of college graduates than the national average, and there is definitely an intellectual vibe here as a result.

Cons: There is no real "downtown" area of the Back Mountain. All of the businesses are mostly free-standing or are in strip malls that line busy, four-lane Route 309, and there isn't much charm in the Back Mountain's architecture. There's a very tiny downtown area in Dallas that stretches for one block, but it's by no means a window-shopper's dream. Traffic along Route 309 is sometimes congested, especially during rush-hours in and out of Wilkes-Barre. Housing prices here, overall, are among the most expensive in the region. Some (not all) of the residents of the Back Mountain have an air of snobbiness to them. Population growth is expected to continue here, which will only worsen the rush-hour traffic headaches and the loss of open space for new housing.

CLARKS SUMMIT:

Pros: Located 10 minutes from Scranton via Routes
6 & 11 (Northern Boulevard) or Route 307 (Morgan Highway). The Abington Heights School District consistently receives very good reports. Much like Dallas, the area is home to a large concentration of upper-middle-class professional couples in their 30s-40s with young children. There's a strong intellectual vibe here in "The Abingtons," the area that includes Clarks Summit and is home to about 25,000 residents, many of whom are among the most affluent in the region.

Cons: The drive to Williamsport would be dreadful. The downtown area in Clarks Summit is cute and charming, but it's also small and doesn't really meet a lot of your day-to-day needs. Much like Dallas with Wilkes-Barre, Clarks Summit is linked to Scranton via one primary four-lane artery that becomes very congested during rush-hours in and out of the city. Housing prices here are by far the most expensive in the region, with every property selling in the six-figures. Population growth is beginning to slow here a bit more evidently than it has in the Back Mountain, yet sprawl is still a major concern. Northern Boulevard in the village of Chinchilla between the town proper of Clarks Summit and the Scranton city limits is unattractive with strip malls, gas stations, chain restaurants, banks, drive-thru pharmacies, etc.

SCRANTON:

Pros: The city is rebounding after decades of post-Industrial, Rust-Belt decline. The downtown area has a strong cultural scene with the University of Scranton, Lackawanna College, Scranton Cultural Center, Everhart Museum, Electric City Trolley Museum, Albright Library, art galleries, Starbucks, an upcoming medical school, etc. The town's image is improving in large part due to the cult-following of NBC's "The Office," which is based in the city and features Scranton in its opening credits, as well as our new film office, which should be churning out its first film soon. The city's crime rate is the lowest out of all of the largest cities in PA, and the public school district is above-average for inner cities. Architecture throughout the city is varied, but some neighborhoods are replete with Victorians, Tudors, etc. on tree-lined streets.

Cons: As I alluded to earlier, the city is deep in red ink and trying desperately to get itself back into a surplus any way it can. The city's wage tax of 3.4% is among the highest in the nation. City property taxes are rising 25%. Sewer rates are rising sharply. These rises in taxes will help to make Scranton an expensive city to call home. Municipal services are also lagging at times---some city streets were still unplowed a week after the Valentine's Day Blizzard this year. Corrupt politics rule supreme in Scranton with a recent brou-ha-ha that forced a weekly city council meeting to be canceled due to perceived death threats against the council president. There's a rapidly-increasing "divide" in the city between the fast-growing "yuppie" class of young latte-sipping professoinals and the traditional blue-collar families that helped to fuel the city's economy for generations. The latter of the two feel they are being squeezed out by an elitist mayor who cares more about turning Scranton into New York City's sixth borough any way he can with his support of lofts, galleries, coffee houses, etc. throughout the city while the hard-working blue collars are left to bite the bullet of an expected accompanying rise in cost-of-living associated with the Manhattanization of Scranton. To a large extent, they're right. We can't turn our backs on our city's working poor "in the name of progress."

LEWISBURG: Already ruled out due to the dastardly-long distance to where your husband will likely be spending much of his workdays in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

BLOOMSBURG:

Pros: Nearly equidistant to Williamsport and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to be in a strategic location for your husband's travels. The university in town helps to attract interesting lecturers, seminars, etc., and the accompanying Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble is quite talented. The Main Street in town has an awesome historic vibe. It is replete with multi-story brick buildings that now house a variety of small retailers and cafes. Urban sprawl is evident near town, but it has been kept to a mininum and is mostly a few miles away near the Columbia Mall, which has helped to keep the downtown vibrant. Obviously, there's a strong intellectual vibe in this town as well due to all of the professors and graduate students living here. The town hosts the annual Bloomsburg Fair, which is the largest agricultural fair in all of Pennsylvania.

Cons: The Susquehanna River regularly floods a large chunk of the town, including the airport, the fairgrounds and surrounding neighborhoods. There is no levee system in place to protect the town, so be sure to inquire with your realtor about the flood zone (I'm not quite sure where the floodwaters usually stop). The campus crowd can get a bit rowdy at times with drinking parties, public urination and intoxication, etc. Bloomsburg is located along a construction-prone section of I-80, which often causes traffic delays along Route 11 through town from motorists trying to detour around the construction zone.


I'm a bit tired for tonight, but I have plenty more information I'd love to share with you if you have more questions. As far as the weather is concerned, it's mostly homogeneous in nature across all of these communities. Clarks Summit would be the snowiest because it lies at a relatively-high elevation. Bloomsburg or Lewisburg are foggy at certain times because of their valley and riverside locations, but their lower elevations also help to cut down on their snowfall amounts (I think they each average around 32 inches per year while Scranton averages nearer to 50 inches, and Clarks Summit is even higher). Sunshine-wise, that's a tough cookie for me to answer. In general, we're a cloudy area. However, we're rarely dealing with overcast skies for more than just three days in a row. We usually have a day or two of gorgeous weather in between to help keep spirits up. (We're not like the Pacific Northwest).

Good night, and I look forward to helping you out some more on Friday!

[Dawne]

I agree with Paul (SWB) that Bloomsburg would be a wonderful fit for what you're looking for, both in location and downtown walkability. It's a small-town community but has many amenities for shopping, dining, recreation (they have a beautiful town park near the river) and even medical needs as Danville, home to Geisinger Health Center, is just down the road.

Just beware of flooding areas and college student housing areas. How old is your daughter? Both Bloomsburg and nearby Central Columbia schools are very good, but if schools are an issue for you then I believe CC is just a bit better. It's located just east of Bloomsburg and serves the areas lying just outside of Bloomsburg proper. A local realtor can help you out with that.

Good luck to you!

[marmi]

Paul (SWB) and Dawne - Thank you so much for your help. You are a wealth of knowledge. Right now, I do not have anymore questions, but I am sure I will in the future. We are heading up there this weekend to check out the area and your suggestions, so I am sure we will have more questions then. Thanks Again