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Old 04-15-2008, 10:56 PM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,274,241 times
Reputation: 19071

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Quote:
Originally Posted by alleghenyman View Post
Second that.

Also, Scranton is hardly glamorous - ten years ago when I went there it was probably the most depressing place I'd ever seen in my life, and when I drive by now it doesn't look that different except for some shiny new big box stores.

I lived in NYC for the first half of this decade and trust me, the people moving to Scranton and commuting into NYC are either: planning to retire in a few years, on welfare, or they work in the NJ suburbs.

It's good to see that area rebounding off of rock bottom but hardly anything to gloat about in comparison to the strides made in Pittsburgh or other similar cities in the same time span.

As a young hip Scrantonian myself I must take major issue with your comments. You were there in 1998. Have you been there since? We've been making great strides towards recovery since then. Yes, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area IS growing again in terms of population as the influx of NY/NJ/SEPA transplants continues as these folks commute further and further in their incessant quest for inexpensive housing.

Since 1998:

We've welcomed a new medical school, which will be opening next year.
We've lured in the AAA franchise of the NY Yankees from Columbus.
We've attracted a 60+ store lifestyle center with upscale stores.
We've become the hometown for "The Office."
We've landed a new film office, which is churning out two films.
We've largely expanded our international airport.
We've continued to redevelop and reinvest in our downtown cores.
We've begun to land Wall Street West financial firms.
...shall I continue?

I'm sorry that you feel that Scranton is a dump, but many, many others disagree with you wholeheartedly.
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Old 04-16-2008, 10:55 AM
 
85 posts, read 285,723 times
Reputation: 32
That is genuinely impressive in comparison to how it was ten years ago. I don't mean to insult your civic pride but it's fatuous to compare a city that is repeatedly named one of America's best places to live with a place that couldn't get any worse ten years ago.

It sounds like Scranton is now an OK place to live, and I like any city that is proud of itself, but frankly what you're writing about isn't that impressive in comparison to where I live. International airport? Check. Major league baseball? Check. Investment firms? Check. Medical school? Check. Film production? Check. Upscale stores? Check. A TV show satirizing the tedious lives of people who hate their existences? Err.....

As for Philly's growth via sprawl, they can have it along with all of their urban problems. I'd like to see the Pittsburgh area grow in population but this article made it seem like everybody is rushing to get out, when that's not true.
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Old 04-16-2008, 11:21 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,871,363 times
Reputation: 2910
This strikes me as an apples-and-oranges comparison. Scranton is apparently reinventing itself as a bedroom community, which seems like it could be a good idea. Pittsburgh is reinventing itself as a regional service center and high-tech manufacturing city, which also seems like a good idea. And since neither city could adopt the other city's model with much likelihood of success, I don't see much point in making a lot of comparisons.
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Old 04-16-2008, 07:41 PM
 
2,039 posts, read 6,305,605 times
Reputation: 581
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeP View Post
Pittsburgh is not losing more people than other regions. It lacks in gaining more people..
Ain't that the truth.............
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Old 04-16-2008, 11:44 PM
 
353 posts, read 822,335 times
Reputation: 79
Quote:
Originally Posted by veejayy View Post
I live in Philly now. If I am from Western PA I am loving this article. Less congestion, less crime, less BS and less traffic. Look, I live on the east coast but lived in Pgh. for 5 years. I still go back 2x a year to walk up Mt. Wash and around Shadyside and sail at Lake Moraine. You don't want to go in the direction of the east coast. I like it here but you've got something special out there in western PA (except for the weather).
Unfortunately, less crime, less congestion, less BS also means less tax revenue.

I would gladly take 200,000 more people in this city if it meant that we could pay for the aging infrastructure and have enough revenue left to launch initiatives to attract new businesses.

That being said... Philly looks down on the rest of the state... what's new about that. They think they are the state.
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Old 04-17-2008, 12:00 AM
 
353 posts, read 822,335 times
Reputation: 79
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScranBarre View Post
We've lured in the AAA franchise of the NY Yankees from Columbus.
Yes, this is nit-picking, but that's not really much of an achievement. You had the Red Barons before that and they were Triple-A. And its not like the Clippers went away, they simply reaffiliated with the Nationals. This happen all the time in minor league baseball.
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Old 04-17-2008, 11:03 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,871,363 times
Reputation: 2910
Quote:
Originally Posted by supersoulty View Post
I would gladly take 200,000 more people in this city if it meant that we could pay for the aging infrastructure and have enough revenue left to launch initiatives to attract new businesses.
I think the key is to try to get the right 200,000 people--not necessarily all people with high income jobs, but productive people who are likely to invest in the long term development of their local communities. And in fact I would be fine with getting well less than 200,000, and/or for it to take a longer time to get those new people, if that was the price of ending up with more of such people.
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