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Well, I did not intend to make this into a White Haven -vs- WB/Scranton City debate, but since you brought up a few details to compare I will respond:
Fire Protection - I don't really care. I live 2 miles from the nearest hydrant. That is why I carry replacement value home owner's insurance.
You cannot be serious. You would rather your HOME burn to the ground and have to rebuild then pay a minimal amount of taxes to ensure quick response to a fire? You'd rather risk your life and your family's life so you dont' have to pay taxes? That is just NUTS.
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Police Protection - White Haven does not need a full time police force because our crime rate is near ZERO - no crack houses, gangs, nuisance bar shootouts, etc,etc,etc. Plus we have no need to fund a bloated public servants pension plan for the donut munchers that comprise the ranks of WB's finest. Furthermore, if some scumbag ever makes the mistake of breaking into my home when I am there, the last sound they will hear is a shell being racked into a 12ga shotgun.
WH does have a police force. So, um, yeah....
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Store - there is a grocery store in downtown White Haven, may not carry the best selection of fruits or veggies, but has most of what the typical household needs. If I need something special I will plan my shopping trips around my daily travels and make a stop at Ahearts' market at Blakelee Corners or Mr Z's in Mountain Top - a whopping ten miles in either direction.
I have a grocery store less than a mile from my house that is accessible by foot. I don't NEED a car. I have a pharmacies within a 20 block radius of my home.
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Parks?? - I live on the boundary line of Lehigh Gorge State Park and within 100 footsteps from my deck can be wading in the Lehigh River catching trout. Hickory Run State Park is a stone's throw away. There are 6 streams within a 5 mile radius of my home that supports native brook trout population and a myriad of other wildlife. I can jump on a mountain bike and ride the trail all the way to Jim Thorpe 24 miles away if I chose to, while enjoying the scenery of the Lehigh River.
And yet none of them have a playground.
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Sadly, there are no gangbangers carrying rap-blaring boomboxes on their wife-beater T-shirt clad shoulders to break the sound of Nature.
*shrug* That stuff doesn't bother me in the least. I have no issue with people being different than me or making some noise.
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Pizza - 2 local pizza joints. Six local restaurants - two offering the high-priced gourmet varieties you city slickers boast about.
Please do share these gourmet restaurants with this foodie.
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Movies - I don't spend time watching TV or movies. Matter of fact, I don't have cable or satelitte hookup in my home. Too many outdoor activities. The boob tube and the Hollywood crap entertainment does nothing but contribute to the dumbing down of America.
Keep telling yourself that.
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That $1,600 can buy alot of front-end alignments for my vehicles - if I needed them - but I don't since our roads do not resemble mine fields.
No thanks, I think I'll pass.
I don't need that $1600. I can walk. Or ride my bike. Or take the bus.
Last edited by Magritte25; 08-11-2010 at 07:25 PM..
you are NOT going to lure in the fresh blood and new talent that places lilke Wilkes-Barre need to thrive again.
Good paying jobs attract fresh talent and retain recent college grads - not low paying distribution center jobs that the local politicians promote along with their KOZ co-conspirators.
As Magritte told you this problem is not unique to Wilkes-Barre. Travel the roads in Scranton, Pittston, Allentown, Hazleton, Reading, Erie, Harrisburg, or any other aging city in the Commonwealth and then tell me that Wilkes-Barre's roads have more potholes than any other city in the state.
I travel a fair bit - I'm telling you - WB has the worse streets than any other city in the state.
The infrastructure is crumbling because everyone continues to move out of urbanized areas in our state (against the current national trend) to tear down trees in suburbia for their hideous vinyl-sided tract homes, leaving a blow to the tax base in their wake. Less residents = less taxpayers = less money to maintain infrastructure.
The inner city scum from NY and Phila has infiltrated Wilkes-Barre = less taxpayers = less money to maintain infrastructure.
The mayor's own wife opened an upscale gift shop in Midtown Village called "The Bee Hive." Other newer venues include a womens' apparel store, Tilbury Knob (gifts), a hookah lounge, a busy bookstore, a thriving movie theater, and various restaurants that include Thai Thai, Cafe Toscana, Blue Chip Gourmet, Rodano's, Bart & Urby's, and Bottlenecks, amongst others.
Bunch of high paying jobs supported by those businesses.
p.s. - post this paragraph again in 1 year and let me know how many are still in business.
A hookah lounge !!! LMAO
High Priced Cookies courtesy of Dennis Bonvie - local hero!!! LMAO
The new intermodal transit center is the first step in cleaning up Public Square and getting the "trash", so to speak, to scatter.
And, where praytell, is the "trash" going to scatter to?
A few blocks in each direction, that's where....
The city still has a long ways to go, but at its current pace in another 5-10 years the entire downtown business district could be fully revitalized, especially if and when the recession ends in NEPA.
The only thing that fully revitalized the downtown business district in WB was the 1972 Agnes flood. Too bad it only took a couple of decades for WB proper to fall back into a state of stagnant decay.
Complete bull excrement. Sorry. I attended King's from 2005-2009 and very rarely was ever nearly the victim of crime, and I was frequently Downtown at night walking a good long distance.
I graduated Kings in 1981.
Define "very rarely".
Not as impressive as "never".
Wilkes-Barre has more professional services and amenities. More stuff = more $$$.
I've read recent articles of how the mayor has closed fire stations and curbed other support services. Did he lower the city earned income tax of 3%?
The last time I was in White Haven I seem to remember thinking to myself "look at all of the poverty." Pot calling the kettle black much?
Our poor folk don't stand on the street corners selling themselves or crack, or eyeing up parked cars for any personal property they can sell at the pawn shop... (oops - White Haven does not have a single pawn shop).
Reston - your arguments on this thread make as much sense as you trying to justify your need for speed and tailgating other drivers on the interstate in the 55mph speed limit thread.
It's a shame, King's College used to have a reputation as a solid institution of higher learning. Your lack of cognitive reasoning skills give the impression that it has turned into nothing more than a diploma mill.
[quote=Magritte25;15436187]You cannot be serious. You would rather your HOME burn to the ground and have to rebuild then pay a minimal amount of taxes to ensure quick response to a fire? You'd rather risk your life and your family's life so you dont' have to pay taxes? That is just NUTS.
I choose to live in the woods. It comes with it's risks. That is why I have full replacement value home owners insurance. Insurance = Risk Management. My homeowners insurance is a heck of alot cheaper than an extra 2% tax on my earned income. Besides, a responsible WB resident would carry insurance on top of the extra 2% earned income tax. Those that earn nothing - pay nothing....(maybe that's why your tax rate is so high.
My family members are not idiots - we know what to do in case of a house fire, had the drills, have the smoke alarms. Self sufficent, self protecting.
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Police Protection - White Haven does not need a full time police force because our crime rate is near ZERO - no crack houses, gangs, nuisance bar shootouts, etc,etc,etc. Plus we have no need to fund a bloated public servants pension plan for the donut munchers that comprise the ranks of WB's finest. Furthermore, if some scumbag ever makes the mistake of breaking into my home when I am there, the last sound they will hear is a shell being racked into a 12ga shotgun.[/quote[
WH does have a police force. So, um, yeah....
Part time force.
And yet none of them have a playground.
Two little league baseball parks complete with playground equipment.
*shrug* That stuff doesn't bother me in the least. I have no issue with people being different than me or making some noise.
We like it quiet in our neck of the woods. We also like to leave our doors and windows open at night to enjoy the fresh clean mountain air.
Please do share these gourmet restaurants with this foodie.
Feed Mill - Main Street White Haven,Pa. Tim, the owner is a great chef.
Power House Eatery - adjacent to I80 just south of the White Haven exit.
I don't need that $1600. I can walk. Or ride my bike. Or take the bus.
I don't need it either. But I see no need to fork it over to a greedy incompetent city government.
You cannot be serious. You would rather your HOME burn to the ground and have to rebuild then pay a minimal amount of taxes to ensure quick response to a fire? You'd rather risk your life and your family's life so you dont' have to pay taxes? That is just NUTS.
I choose to live in the woods. It comes with it's risks. That is why I have full replacement value home owners insurance. Insurance = Risk Management. My homeowners insurance is a heck of alot cheaper than an extra 2% tax on my earned income. Besides, a responsible WB resident would carry insurance on top of the extra 2% earned income tax. Those that earn nothing - pay nothing....(maybe that's why your tax rate is so high.
My family members are not idiots - we know what to do in case of a house fire, had the drills, have the smoke alarms. Self sufficent, self protecting.
I don't think my tax rate is high. *shrug* I can have homeowner's insurance (or in my case renter's insurance) and still want and need a fire dept to save my home and our lives.
I don't think my tax rate is high. *shrug* I can have homeowner's insurance (or in my case renter's insurance) and still want and need a fire dept to save my home and our lives.
You assume that they will save your home & life.
Rule#1 for me and my family - get out of the house, call 911.
Fully operational smoke alarms in each room will give ample warning.
I saw White Haven featured on Newswatch 16 tonight....some redneck intentionally burned down his trailer! Must have known he was 2 miles from the nearest hydrant. I'll bet there was a big insurance check to be claimed on that beauty.
And for how crime ridden the cities supposedly are, I saw separate stories on muders and attempted murders.....in rural Poconos townships.
I saw White Haven featured on Newswatch 16 tonight....some redneck intentionally burned down his trailer! Must have known he was 2 miles from the nearest hydrant. I'll bet there was a big insurance check to be claimed on that beauty.
That house fire occurred in Hickory Hills located off Rte 940 between White Haven and Freeland. Not a redneck, but a NYC transplant, Hickory Hills is full of them.
And for how crime ridden the cities supposedly are, I saw separate stories on muders and attempted murders.....in rural Poconos townships.
Pocono Country Place (PCP), just outside Tobyhanna, about 25 miles east of White Haven - full of bona-fide NYC gang-banging drug dealing hoodlum trash. I saw a news episode on Ch 16 last week where they showed an open house at PCP proclaiming that they cleaned up their act and is now a good safe place to raise a family... LMAO
I thank my lucky stars that White Haven is located on the far western edge of the Poconos, and is surrounded by State Game lands, State Parks, and Army Corp of Engineer Land - FEW Resovoir which prevents any further development to attract the big city trash and the problems they bring with them.
Check back again Phillie - when you get your facts straight.. Don't rely on Ch 16, they never get it right...
p.s. - ask Don Jacobs, host of the Ch 16 Outdoor Life show which airs each Sunday evening how he got off scott free when the PGC nailed him for illegally hunting Bear over a Bait Pile in Moscow,Pa...
Don is not welcome in our woods, we are anti-poacher.
When my husband worked in the borough of Queens and we lived in the suburbs, he also paid a wage tax.
This is not unique to Scranton or to Wilkes Barre - although to listen to some of the residennts and non residents one would think that some sort of horrible persecution of the workers of those cities was going on. it is normative for cities to have such a tax.
Here is an idea! Take a civics class and find out why!
Sheena- with all due respect - you lived in NY and your hubby worked in NYC. The highest per capita tax, biggest Nanny Welfare State and Nanny Welfare City in the entire country.
And spare me the Civics lessons, NYC was the only place I ever saw rolex clad folks step over an unconscious homeless person laying on a sewer grate as they climbed into a waiting limo. The Big Apple is full of Greedy Worms..many are called Bernie.
I have no problem paying a fair tax. As I stated previously, my local earned income tax is 1% and the leaders of my community spend it it a responsible manner. The majority of NEPA municipalities also impose the same 1% tax rate.
WB is 3%. That extra 2% amounts to some serious coin - especially when basic services are neglected. A prime reason why folks resent living in WB or refuse to live there.
Last edited by varmintblaster; 08-11-2010 at 10:14 PM..
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