Is PA depressing? (Allentown, Erie, Harrisburg: vouchers, design, to relocate)

[NYtoNJtoPA]

Originally Posted by rowhomecity

Pennsylvania is not depressing.

Southeast Pennsylvania is most definitely the top 3 most beautiful suburban regions in the nation. Between the large array of charming historic towns and old stone architecture with rolling hills that feel anything like typical suburbia make it extremely unique and just absolutely beautiful.

Pittsburgh and its countryside are also extremely beautiful. The topography of Pittsburgh is just breathtaking with large rolling hills and 3 rivers and green in all directions making the city and its suburbs unique and gorgeous with many suburbs tucked into these hillsides with lush greenery in all directions.

The Lehigh and Susquehanna Valley's.

Lancaster
Harrisburg
Bethlehem
Allentown
York

All are in the midst of a renaissance and as NYC, Philadelphia and DC continue to get pricey where you can't buy a decent home for less than 500k, you will only continue to see more investment in these regions with their charming historic architecture and urban footprint becoming highly desirable for investment.

State College is thriving and is in an absolutely beautiful part of the state.

The northern portion of the state and some of the western communities outside of the Pittsburgh metro definitely do have depressive vibes. But this is most certainly true for every state. There are some wide pockets of upstate New York for instance that emulate this. I would identify the communities of Altoona - Johnstown and Scranton - Wilkes Barre to currently be the two regions that on a large social scale feel the most depressed in the state.

With Altoona - Johnstown most likely suffering more over time. With the right plan in action I can slowly see a Scranton rival with its close proximity to NYC and Philadelphia and its anchor to the Pocono Mountains a popular tourist destination. If the Pocono's can upmarket itself like the Berkshires and start getting more NYC money flowing in, that region will take off.

Visiting California, I honestly found most of Southern California to be absolutely ugly, awful and depressing. And the cost of living to live in the desirable part within 15/20 minutes of the coast are extremely expensive and the housing stock is cookie cutter ugly with no green.

Economically parts of the state definitely are depressing. But the parts of the state doing well, are doing very well.

Pennsylvania is considered to also be one of the best public education states in the nation, consistently ranking in the Top 10, and more times than not in the Top 5 best performing in the nation.

Pennsylvania added the 6th most jobs in the nation the past few job quarters and outgrew illinois to be the 5th largest state. A sign that despite some depressive pockets overall the state is doing very well.

Would I be depressed living in a small old coal town with 1.5k people (mostly older living on pension/social security). YES. I would.

But the majority of the population lives in the growing regions I mentioned above.

Have a good day.

I for the most part agree on Philly and Pittsburgh. Philly is not without its problems though, and they are enough to put a significant strain on the city. Wouldn't say it is depressing here though.

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city, exactly like you write. And the day I visited it was wall to wall sunshine in April. One of the few places I have visited that seemed so urban and citylike and picturesque all at the same time. Kinda skeptical about winter there though, with more likelihood to go sliding down the hill on those windy little streets on ice.

My fiancee is from Erie - grew up in the suburbs - and while that general region seems to be in decline, it definitely has not slid as far as similar larger cities up that way like Buffalo, Rochester or Cleveland. There is a beautiful waterfront on the lake with some tourist attractions like Waldameer, and of course it has Presque Isle which is the probably the closest thing the entire state has to a beach.

I work often enough up in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and the Lehigh Valley. These areas are also picturesque, but WB particularly seems like a very rundown depressed area. As for Lehigh, well the influx of displaced Jersey residents priced out of NJ seems to be the only reason for its renaissance now. There are quite a few colleges around there, but beyond that most people commute.

And York just feels like Pennsyl-tucky.

[jtab4994]

Is PA depressing?

Gosh, what a silly open-ended question.

[rowhomecity]

Originally Posted by Gerania

I found this in the Las Vegas forum. The thread is: does anyone else who moved away miss living in Vegas?

https://www.city-data.com/forum/newre...ply&p=54328390

Haha clearly this person is miserable and should stay with other like-minded people in Vegas. You could not pay me to live in that suburban town. ha

[NYtoNJtoPA]

Originally Posted by rowhomecity

Haha clearly this person is miserable and should stay with other like-minded people in Vegas. You could not pay me to live in that suburban town. ha

People don't like change. The way that person describes his/her hometown transforming into McMansion-laid hell is the way I would describe a lot of places in Jersey that you could never pay me to live. You start to see some of that creeping up in places like Newtown and the upper reaches of Bucks County, but it is sparse compared to NJ. I am sure in some areas it is worse than others.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by NYtoNJtoPA

People don't like change. The way that person describes his/her hometown transforming into McMansion-laid hell is the way I would describe a lot of places in Jersey that you could never pay me to live. You start to see some of that creeping up in places like Newtown and the upper reaches of Bucks County, but it is sparse compared to NJ. I am sure in some areas it is worse than others.

Mcmansion hell is PA would still be considered beautiful by Vegas standards. Outside of Vegas you could drive miles and miles and see thousands of the same exact stucco houses on each side of the road.

At least most of the mcmansion communities in the Philly burbs are limited in size and scale, stucco is no longer widely used (thank goodness)

[NYtoNJtoPA]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Mcmansion hell is PA would still be considered beautiful by Vegas standards. Outside of Vegas you could drive miles and miles and see thousands of the same exact stucco houses on each side of the road.

At least most of the mcmansion communities in the Philly burbs are limited in size and scale, stucco is no longer widely used (thank goodness)

I agree stucco is one of those bad passe things that I am glad is no longer used. We had it in the house I grew up in, and I cut myself on it more than once!

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by NYtoNJtoPA

I agree stucco is one of those bad passe things that I am glad is no longer used. We had it in the house I grew up in, and I cut myself on it more than once!

I remember seeing stucco homes in the 1960s. The houses weren't new and neither was the siding.

Apparently, stucco has been used in the US for a long time. https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-prese.../22-stucco.htm

Don't forget that we're also guilty of having lawns and owning Golden Retrievers. The horror.

[rowhomecity]

Originally Posted by NYtoNJtoPA

People don't like change. The way that person describes his/her hometown transforming into McMansion-laid hell is the way I would describe a lot of places in Jersey that you could never pay me to live. You start to see some of that creeping up in places like Newtown and the upper reaches of Bucks County, but it is sparse compared to NJ. I am sure in some areas it is worse than others.

I agree. This is why I dislike NJ. It is so auto oriented. And suburban orietned to the 9th degree. It is the California of the East Coast and I do not reflect that as a positive. Maryland comes close as a 2nd. But they have much better design standards in terms of road design to make it attractive.

[NYtoNJtoPA]

Originally Posted by rowhomecity

I agree. This is why I dislike NJ. It is so auto oriented. And suburban orietned to the 9th degree. It is the California of the East Coast and I do not reflect that as a positive. Maryland comes close as a 2nd. But they have much better design standards in terms of road design to make it attractive.

NJ intentionally designs its road system badly to make traffic worse I think, their way of "traffic control" with the idea to slow development. That and too many selfish towns with their NIMBY types that do not want roads built or expanded to run through their towns, completely disregarding on how it impacts the flow of traffic for commuters. There is a whole history on why the proposed 95 had to keep being realigned.

I would not disagree on MD's road system having better designs, but why are the drivers down there so goddamn slow!?!

As for California, at least they built the road system the right way out there.

[Jeanie Beanie]

As for California, at least they built the road system the right way out there.
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As I had to explain to my California cousins when they complained about the lame Pennsylvania freeways: California built freeways where there were vast fields and deserts and the towns/developments grew up around the exits. Pennsylvania had 300 years of infrastructure when the superhighways came in and every mile was created by eminent domain impacting dozens of homes, businesses and farms.

Totally different. I remember when the Vine Street expressway went in - yikes, what a project - and that's how many miles long? Dealing with settled infrastructure is HARD.