Is Scranton/Wilkes-Barre That Bad? (Kingston, Honesdale: crime, living, dangerous)

[Cchandler]

Are there as many problems with crime, illegals, and undesirables moving in as I hear? Because I live in Wilkes-Barre and it does not seem as bad as some people on here make it out to be. I don't see the gang wars that some of my neighbors have warned me about.

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by Cchandler

Are there as many problems with crime, illegals, and undesirables moving in as I hear? Because I live in Wilkes-Barre and it does not seem as bad as some people on here make it out to be. I don't see the gang wars that some of my neighbors have warned me about.

it is not as bad as larger cities,but it does have CORRECTABLE problems---that won't be addressed cause of the need to line one's pockets with monies that should go to community issues imo

[Chefkey]

A minor urbanization that will continue unabated until it starts to take on a more Hazelton feel. Is this good or bad? You be the judge, I don't plan to. There will be many trolls that lurk here on this board that will now pounce on their chance to bash.

Sad in their dens, looking for any and every opportunity to spread their vitriol. It is them that are far more dangerous than a few harmless immigrants looking to better themselves for their family because they care.

All jokes aside, there are some bad elements coming in with the good but I don't think we are at any kind of danger level of the area becoming inherently unsafe. For now I will just keep a watchful eye but I don't outwardly see anything to be concerned by.

Just a natural progression of urbanization brought on by city sprawl from the larger metropolis around us.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by auntieannie68

it is not as bad as larger cities,but it does have CORRECTABLE problems---that won't be addressed cause of the need to line one's pockets with monies that should go to community issues imo

Many residents of the city are taking a proactive approach to these problems.

[Alloverpa]

The reputation of Wilkes-Barre is overstated. Blind Fear.

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by Alloverpa

The reputation of Wilkes-Barre is overstated. Blind Fear.

Absolutely.

I have fallen into that myself. But once you get the facts, you see most of it is indeed blind fear.

[jetgraphics]

Back in the 1970s, the major industries were Welfare, Medicine, and Banking.
Has much changed?

[Magritte25]

This is all I could find:

https://www.city-data.com/business/ec...nsylvania.html

[Wells5]

Originally Posted by jetgraphics

Back in the 1970s, the major industries were Welfare, Medicine, and Banking.
Has much changed?

The major industries in the Wyoming Valley in the 1970s were garment manufacturing (ladies dresses, pants, etc.- literally hundreds of small operations), shoe manufacturing (Rex Industries, Carter Rubber), semiconductors (RCA Crestwood), toy manufacturing, cigars (General Cigar, American Cigar), wire products and metal stamping (Diamond Mfg., Metropolitan Industries. Kingston Metal Specialties), textiles (Atwater Throwing, The Duplan, Native Textiles), heavy machined products ( Vulcan Iron Works, Royer Foundry Products), aerospace and defense products (Kannar Corp.) pencils (Eberhard Faber), Perfumes (Dana Corp.) and of course commerce and services. Anyone with a long memory, please add to this list.

[Mike_by_Cedar]

Crime is present in both areas, but it's really not that bad at all. Some people tend to over-emphasize on that for whatever reason. I can compare other cities of the same size or smaller with more crime but I won't do that.

Illegals? I'm sure there are a quite a few roaming about somewhere in both cities. Hell, I'm sure there are a couple living somewhere like Honesdale as well. They're everywhere at this point, but I think the majority of the Spanish community are legal and are looking to make a better life for their families.

Gangs present? I guess? To me it just seems like a handful of wanna-be's and the rest are unorganized stragglers who couldn't hack it in a bigger city. Last time I heard about a "large" gang was a group of white kids wearing clown makeup (juggalos) and jumping random people, but this was back in 2005/2006 I think and was short lived. Other than that, I brush the gang talk over my shoulder. Putting my head in the sand? Nope, just that I live in what would maybe(?) be considered a high gang area, and I haven't seen anything like it yet.